The Great American Bash (2005)

The 2005 Great American Bash was the second annual Great American Bash professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and 16th Great American Bash event overall. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown! brand division. The event took place on July 24, 2005, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York.

The main event was Batista defending the World Heavyweight Championship against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). JBL won the match after Batista was disqualified, but did not win the title because a championship can only be won via pinfall or submission. One of the featured matches on the undercard was Rey Mysterio versus Eddie Guerrero, which Mysterio won by pinfall. The other was Orlando Jordan versus Chris Benoit for the WWE United States Championship, which Jordan won, also by pinfall. The event was also notable for the final WWE appearance of Muhammad Hassan, who was involved in a controversial angle on an SmackDown! episode that aired on the same day of the London bombing attacks earlier that month.

The event grossed over US$375,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of 8,000, and received about 233,000 pay-per-view buys, the same amount as the

Production

Background

The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event established in 1985. Following World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) acquisition of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001,[2] WWE revived The Great American Bash to be held in June 2004 as a SmackDown!-branded event.[3] The 2005 event was the second annual Great American Bash pay-per-view (PPV) produced by WWE, thus establishing the event as an annual PPV for the promotion, and was the 16th Great American Bash event overall. It took place on July 24, 2005, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. Like the previous year, it featured wrestlers exclusively from the SmackDown! brand. The event was available free of charge for Armed Forces members and their families.[4]

Storylines

The Great American Bash event featured a card, which contained matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed either a villainous or fan favorite gimmick as they followed a series of events which generally built tension, leading to a wrestling match. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the SmackDown! brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show, SmackDown!.

The main event at The Great American Bash was a standard wrestling match for the World Heavyweight Championship, in which Batista defended the championship against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). The buildup to the match began when WWE Champion John Cena was drafted to the Raw brand, taking the title with him and leaving SmackDown! without a top-tier championship. General Manager Theodore Long announced a match between six wrestlers for a new top-tier SmackDown! championship. On the June 30 episode of SmackDown!, the match took place between JBL, Chris Benoit, Christian, Booker T, Muhammad Hassan, and The Undertaker. JBL was victorious in the match, but Long announced that he was still not the champion. Instead he had won the right to a match against the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, who was SmackDown!'s final 2005 draft pick, making the World Heavyweight Championship exclusive to SmackDown!.

Event

Before the pay-per-view went live, a match took place on the Sunday Night Heat pre-show between Paul London and Nunzio for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, which London won to retain the title.[19]

Preliminary matches

The first match on the card was between MNM (Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury, managed by Melina) and The Legion of Doom (Heidenreich and Road Warrior Animal) for the WWE Tag Team Championship. During the match, Nitro hit Animal with one of the championship belts, but Animal retaliated by powerslamming him. Animal and Heidenreich then performed the doomsday device on Nitro and scored the pin to win the match and the titles.[20][21]

The next match was between Booker T (managed by Sharmell) and Christian. Booker T won the match after performing a scissors kick.[20]

In the next match, Orlando Jordan faced Chris Benoit for the United States Championship. During the match, Jordan removed the top turnbuckle pad. Benoit attempted to slam Jordan but Jordan avoided the attack and instead forced Benoit to run into the exposed turnbuckle. Jordan scored the pin to win the match and retain the title.[20]

The fourth match was between The Undertaker and Muhammad Hassan (managed by Daivari) to determine the #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship. During Hassan's entrance, he was accompanied by the same masked men who attacked The Undertaker on SmackDown! weeks prior. The masked men proceeded to interfere in the match, but The Undertaker retaliated and removed all of the masked men from the ring. Midway through the match, The Undertaker attempted to use a Tombstone piledriver on Hassan, but Hassan escaped the move and attempted a Clothesline. The Undertaker countered by chokeslamming Hassan and scored the pinfall on Hassan to win the match and become the #1 contender. Following this, The Undertaker executed a Last Ride through the stage floor on Hassan, writing him out of storylines.[20][22]

The next match was between The Mexicools and The Blue World Order in a six-man tag team match. At the match's end, Super Crazy executed a moonsault onto Big Stevie Cool from the top ring rope, and Psicosis performed a leg drop. Psicosis proceeded to pin Big Stevie and win the match for his team.[20][22]

Main event matches

The following match was between Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, where the stipulation was that if Guerrero won the match, he would reveal the secret he has been hiding from the public that neither Mysterio's nor Guerrero's families wanted revealed. If Mysterio won, however, Guerrero would not reveal the secret. Guerrero executed the Three Amigos on Mysterio and performed a frog splash. Guerrero then tried to score the pinfall, but Mysterio countered by pinning Guerrero to win the match. As a result, Guerrero was not able to reveal the secret.[20][22]

The seventh match was between Melina and Torrie Wilson with Candice Michelle, as the guest referee, in a Bra and Panties match. At the start of the match, Wilson pulled off Melina's shirt to reveal her bra, but Melina retaliated and pulled off Wilson's shirt. Wilson then lifted Melina to her shoulders and dropped her to the mat, while she attempted to pull off her pants, but Melina countered the attack by pulling Wilson's pants off to win the match. Afterward, Michelle stripped Melina and then removed her own clothes, as well.[20][22]

The Great American Bash (2005)

Production

Background

Storylines

Event

Preliminary matches

Main event matches

Reception

Aftermath

Results

External links

References

promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
brand	SmackDown!
date	July 24, 2005
venue	HSBC Arena
city	Buffalo, New York
attendance	8,000‡R1R‡
buyrate	233,000
lastevent	Vengeance
nextevent	SummerSlam
event	The Great American Bash
nextevent2	2006
lastevent2	2004