10 Things You Didn't Know About WCW's The Great American Bash PPV

For over 30 years, The Great American Bash has been a name synonymous with the world of professional wrestling. On the Fourth of July, people in the United States celebrate their independence. This holiday takes place during the summer and is a great time for friends and families to get together, enjoy food, and maybe even enjoy some fireworks. In the 80s, wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes came up with the idea to hold a special event around this time, and thus, The Great American Bash was born.

Throughout the past three decades, different promotions have hosted their own Great American Bash events. Regardless of the company, the events are filled with wrestling action featuring some of the biggest names to ever step foot in the squared circle. Overall, there are many things all wrestling fans should know about this historic event.

10 The Event Didn’t Start In WCW

The Great American Bash is most known for being a summer pay-per-view held by World Championship Wrestling. However, WCW was not the first promotion to host the event.

Dating back to 1985, the National Wrestling Alliance and Jim Crockett Promotions hosted several Great American Bash events through 1990. The original event was aired on closed-circuit television. The original shows featured wrestling legends like Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, the Road Warriors, Lex Luger, and Sting.

9 Steve Austin Opened The First Show

The first WCW Great American Bash show took place in 1991. The pay-per-view event was opened with a match featuring one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, Steve Austin.

The first Great American Bash show under the WCW banner opened with a unique capture-the-flag scaffold match. Austin, along with Terrance Taylor, was on the losing side against P.N News and Bobby Eaton. The WCW pay-per-view featured many other future legends such as Scott Hall, Diamond Dallas Page, Ron Simmons, and Sting.

8 First Main Event

The main event for the first WCW Great American Bash featured a unique steel cage handicap match that featured two wrestlers who are primarily known for being tag team wrestling.

In the final match of the night, Rick Steiner, who is most known for being a part of the Steiner Brothers, wrestled Arn Anderson, who is most known for being a part of the Four Horseman stable, in a steel cage match. Anderson’s partner was Paul E. Dangerously, who is known today as Paul Heyman. In the end, Steiner was able to earn the victory.

7 1992 Event Was A Tag Tournament

The 1992 Great American Bash event featured a one-night tag team tournament that featured seven tag teams. The only other match to take place at the event was a WCW title match between Vader and Sting.

The tournament featured notable names such as Ricky Steamboat, Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, Jushin “Thunder” Liger, and Brian Pillman. The team of Terry Gordan and Steve Williams was given a first-round bye. The duo made it to the finals against Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windam. In the end, Gordon and Williams won the tournament and became tag team champions.

6 1995 Event Headlined By WrestleMania Rematch

The next Great American Bash event would not take place until 1995. This event was headlined by a WrestleMania title match that took place three years earlier.

In the main event, Ric Flair wrestled Randy Savage. Unlike their historic match at WrestleMania 8, Flair was able to pick up the victory. This match was a rematch following a tournament match to determine the next WCW champion. Both Flair and Savage were eliminated when their match ended in a no-contest. In the end, Sting won the tournament and became WCW champion at this event.

5 Madusa Lost A Career-Ending Match

For one year, WCW had a women’s championship. The title made its only appearance at a Great American Bash event in 1997 when Madusa put her career on the line in a match against Akira Hokuto.

Hokuto became the inaugural champion after defeating Madusa in the finals of a tournament in 1996. In the end, Madusa was never able to defeat Hokuto for the title and was forced to retire. Hokuto would never lose the title and would be stripped when she left the United States.

4 Tag Titles Defended In Singles Match

The 1998 Great American Bash event was headlined by a singles match for the WCW tag team titles. In the main event, Sting wrestled The Giant for the tag titles.

The match was made due to a convoluted storyline featuring former tag champion The Outsiders, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. In 1998, the nWo faction broke up into two factions, which led to Hall and Nash breaking up. At the time, Sting and The Giant were the top contenders for the tag titles, but both men would later join a different nWo faction. As a result, this singles match was made, and Sting left the event as tag team champion.

3 Hogan’s Great American Bash Debut

One of the biggest names in WCW history is Hollywood Hogan. However, Hogan would not wrestle at a Great American Bash event until 1998.

At the 1998 Great American Bash, Hogan teamed with fellow wrestling icon Bret Hart to face another team of wrestling legends, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. Hogan and Hart would go on to win the match. Hogan would go on to only wrestle at one other WCW Great American Bash. In 2000, he defeated Billy Kidman.

2 Rick Steiner’s Single Success

This year, Rick Steiner was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Steiner Brothers, a tag team that also features Scott Steiner. While the majority of Rick Steiner's success has been as a part of a tag team, he has found quite a bit of success as a singles wrestler at the Great American Bash.

As previously mentioned, the first WCW Great American Bash was headlined by a handicap cage match featuring Rick Steiner against Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously. At the 1999 Great American Bash, Steiner defeated one of the biggest names in WCW history, Sting, in a falls count anywhere match. The only time Steiner was not successful at the Great American Bash was when he had a tag partner.

1 Final WCW Great American Bash

In 2000, WCW hosted its last Great American Bash pay-per-view event. The card was filled with unique, and questionable matches, which was a regular occurrence during the last year of WCW.

The event was headlined by a WCW title match featuring Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Nash. The card also featured a “Human Torch” match between Sting and Vampiro. Ric Flair wrestled his own son, David, at the event. Hollywood Hogan defeated a young Billy Kidman. The show also featured Booker T wrestling a “G.I Bro.” Overall, the final WCW Great American Bash is a classic example of final year WCW.

In 2004, WWE began hosting their own Great American Bash pay-per-views and did so through 2009. Recently, NXT has begun hosting its own Great American Bash specials.