WWE - The Great American Bash 2008 (DVD)

Event Review:

WWE Great American Bash 2008 (July 20th 2008) was the fifth annual pay per view event produced under its title name by World Wrestling Entertainment. Having formerly been a historic event for Jim Crockett promotions and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the event's home now lies with the WWE promotion. The show was hosted by all three brand shows in the WWE; RAW, ECW, and Smackdown. Live from the Nassau Veterans Memorial ...
...Bang.

Six WWE championship belts were defended in the pay-per-view, including for the first time, the WWE Diva's championship, a new belt introduced by Smackdown's general manager Vickie Guerrero a few weeks before the PPV for the female wrestlers on the brand. The main fueds going into the Great American Bash consisted of Triple H and Edge (Smackdown), and Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels (RAW). The PPV was very intense due to the ... more

Event Review:

WWE Great American Bash 2008 (July 20th 2008) was the fifth annual pay per view event produced under its title name by World Wrestling Entertainment. Having formerly been a historic event for Jim Crockett promotions and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the event's home now lies with the WWE promotion. The show was hosted by all three brand shows in the WWE; RAW, ECW, and Smackdown. Live from the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, the PPV boasted 14,126 spectators to witness a historical evening in wrestling. The music theme song of the evening was "Move to the Music" by American Bang.

Six WWE championship belts were defended in the pay-per-view, including for the first time, the WWE Diva's championship, a new belt introduced by Smackdown's general manager Vickie Guerrero a few weeks before the PPV for the female wrestlers on the brand. The main fueds going into the Great American Bash consisted of Triple H and Edge (Smackdown), and Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels (RAW). The PPV was very intense due to the numerous rivalries building up in the weekly programming.

"The Match Schedule": (In order of importance)

Fatal Four Way Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship:(ECW/Smackdown)
John Morrison & The Miz vs. Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder vs. Jesse & Festus

Added Info: Not much hype was given to the match before the event. Miz and Morrison (ECW) went into the PPV hoping to continue their long reign as WWE Tag Team Champions. Only two people are allowed to be inside the ring for this match at the same time with people allowing to tag themsleves in throughout the match. With 8 men in a small ring there is always going to be some action. The match did not dissapoint. The athleticism of some of the younger wrestlers gave promise to a lively and energetic first bout in the event. Did the fighting Irishman Finaly and his midget son Hornswaggle get the gold, or did Festus dominate the squared circle as he has done in tag team action in prior weeks. All in all, surely the odds are against Miz and Morrison succesfully defending the title.

United States Championship Match: (ECW/Smackdown)
Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin

Added Info: Now Matt Hardy has been drafted to ECW, new challenges like the 'Gold Standard' Shelton Benjamin are getting in his way, hoping to get a title shot. Matt Hardy has succesfully defended his belt in the past PPV's but Shelton is a much more athletic and versatile competitor. The potential for the match was huge but unfortunately did not reach a high standard in quality. It was perhaps one of the poorest bouts between the two wrestlers. Both men were grounded for the majority of the match. However, I did not predict the ending. Will Shelton finally earn the nickname 'Gold Standard' on this evening??

ECW Championship Match: (ECW)
Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer
Added Info: This match had one of the most interesting build ups prior to the event. ECW focused tiself around this match for many weeks. In the weeks prior, Tommy Dreamer was told by Mark Henry that he could only get a title shot if his protege Colin Delaney could beat Mark Henry. After Henry quashed Delaney, Dreamer was promised a title shot if he himself could beat Mark Henry. Tony Atlas (hall of famer), friend of Dreamer was the special guest ring announcer. In the match he turned on Dreamer and Delaney and sided with Mark Henry. The match ended in a no contest as Mark Henry left the ring to beat on Delaney. At the bash, Dreamer put in a great performance against the worlds strongest champion but was it enough?? Even more twist and tales occur in this event, and funnily enough it wasn't Tony Atlas that helped the final result.

WWE Divas Championship Match (Smackdown)
Natalya vs. Michelle McCool

Added Info: Both divas won watches prior to the event to be given the chance to be the first ever WWE Diva's champion. Natalya Neidhart weeks before had been expressing how she will make Michelle tap out to her sharpshooter. In response, Michelle Mccool configured a new move of her own. This match was very technical and a good standard for a womens championship match. Technical and submission moves were dominantly used and resulted in the occuirng result. Did Natlaya make Michelle Tap or was it the other way around??

New York City Parking Lot Brawl
John Cena vs. JBL

Added info: This rivalry built up quite awkardly. In prior weeks and PPV's, Cena and JBL have considered themsleves as the number one contenders for a championship opportunity. Hatred for each other blossomed. The week before the event, JBL attacked Cena after a match in the car park and attempted to run Cena down with a car. Did Cena turn up for the fight? Yes. This brawl took place in a car park but ended up in front of the audience next to the titantron. Windshields were broken, forklifts were manouvered and gasoline was used. There were several times in the match I thought it would be over but wasn't. Will JBL beat Cena at his own game??

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (RAW)

Added Info: This feud has been seen before in the past few years. It has been ignited for the second time and has become one of the most intense rivalries experienced for the past few years. Chris Jericho lost respect for Michaels and believed he was a liar and manipulator. Jericho threw Shawn Michaels into a television screen head first causing damage to the sight of Michaels. Since Night of Champions when Michaels' interference caused Jericho to lose his intercontinental title, the two were brawling it out for weeks. Shawn Michaels went into this match with the eye injury against Jericho. The result happened to be a bloody mess in this epic bout. Both men tortured each other throughout. The ending was a bit soft but adds to the heated rivalry for the future.

World Heavyweight Championship Match (RAW)
CM Punk vs. Batista

Added info: CM punk cashed in his money in the bank briefcase a few weeks ago for his World Heavyweight title match against Edge while he was on RAW. Edge had been beaten to the floor by Batista during a talk segment. Punk came out and made the pinfall to get the title. Batista believed that his assist earned him a title shot. Batista got his chance on RAW a few weeks later but the big red machine Kane kept interrupting and beating on Punk. This match was not the greatest looked a big miss-match. Overall the match was disappointing. Can the straight-edged superstar step up to the plate against the animal Batista, or will an interference yet again cost Batista's chance of winning gold?

WWE Championship Match (Smackdown)
Triple H vs. Edge

Added Info: Before Edge lost his title, Triple H was drafted to smackdown with his WWE Title. The smackdown general manager, Vickie Guerrero made the match between the two. The week before the match, HHH interrupted the wedding reception of Edge and Vickie and displayed a video of Edge cheating on her with their wedding planner. In a good match, Edge threw all his rage at HHH. Without the help of 'La familia' Edge could only battle alone against the game. Could Edge win the belt without the help of interference?

"DVD Extras"

'Edge is gonna pay' - This extra footage is of the next few days where Vickie Guerrero states that she is reinstating the Undertaker and putting the two together in a Hell in the Cell match at Summerslam.

'Kane needs to know' - In the past few weeks Kane had been carrying around a burlap bag asking "is he dead or alive?". He has beaten up camera-men and wrestlers and asking the same question. What was originally thought to be his mask in that bag turns out to be something completely different. This feature is about the first few times he asks the question.

Available on Silvervision.co.uk
Price: £10.99
Languages: English, Italian, German, Spanish, French
Subtitles: English, Dutch, Portuguese, Greek
Approx running time 2 hrs 46 mins

Opinion:

This show although memorable has not stood out in my opinion over other Pay-per views in the prior months. The wrestling standard was solid but was not exhilarating as normal. The fact that the World Heavyweight Title match with CM Punk and Batista was lower down the card than close to the main event was an indication that the match was not going to be great. Most of the matches were slow to start with some exceptions. The event felt mostly about revenge than technical wrestling, resulting in matches full of punches and submissions. The Parking lot brawl match is very memorable and with the WWE Title match stands out far above the rest. This event had to follow One Night Stand and Night of Champions which were two events with great matches. In comparison this event seemed average, being more about the result of the match than the quality of the match. I enjoyed the event as I do most of them, but I believe it had the potential to be a lot bigger and better than it was.

"Conclusion"

I would not recommend people to purchase unless you collect all the PPV's. It is an event that should be watched as it represents a slightly chaotic time in the WWE, where in RAW does not have a General manager to run the show. If you can watch it on TV it is more worthwhile. I would give the event a rating of 2.5-3/5. The best match was perhaps the Jericho/Michaels match or the HHH/Edge match which both get ratings of 3.5 out of 5. A lot less patriotic than usual, the Great American Bash in 2008 contains some hard hitting action where revenge is on the mind of most.

Jelboy

N.B. Umaga defeated MR Kennedy in a dark match before the show went live on TV. This footage is neither shown on the DVD. Umaga won the match by pinning Kennedy after delivering the Samoan Spike.

Preceded by: WWE Night of Champions 2008
Next Event: WWE Summerslam 2008 

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