Review of WWE: The Great American Bash 2006

Introduction

A tradition that dates back some 21 years, 2006`s Great American Bash was an event unlike any other in the history of professional wrestling. Not for anything that happened in the ring, but more for the wrestlers who were not allowed to enter it.

Thanks to the new WWE "Wellness Program", which aims to rid the company of substance abuse, both Bobby Lashley (scheduled for a three-way bout with Finlay and William Regal) and The Great Khali (scheduled for a match with The Undertaker) were pulled from competing at the event. Both had failed recent medicals, which bizarrely showed them to be suffering from elevated liver enzymes. That may sound ridiculous, but such symptoms can be caused by anything from alcoholism to viral hepatitis. It may have taken the death of Eddie Guerrero to push through these measures, but credit is due here to the WWE, who put the health of its employees ahead of pay-per-view numbers.

Unfortunately, whilst the company did indeed look after its employees, they were less concerned about their fans, as The Great Khali`s absence (known to wrestling insiders for several days) was not made public, meaning that those who laid down their money to watch Khali battle The Undertaker, were sorely disappointed come bell-time.

Still, despite the problems the `Bash endured, the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana drew in just shy of 10,000 fans. The remainder of the card saw the return of Batista, and a Rey Mysterio World Heavyweight title defence, against King Booker.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. This is another high-end production from the WWE, and if we ever got anything less, it would be a major surprise. Colours are vibrant, and the production values are very good indeed. This also looks much, much better than the pixellated live TV feed.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. Everything from commentary, to music, to in-ring sounds are always clear. At the announce table is Michael Cole and JBL, the latter full of ridiculous sporting references, but always colourful.

There are also Italian, German, French, and Spanish 2.0 tracks, as well as subtitles in Portuguese and Dutch.

Features

There are only two extras on this disc, which as I have noted previously, is fine with me since this helps to preserve the excellent image on the main feature.

The first is a locker-room segment with Paul Heyman and The Big Show. That is nothing special, but there is also a segment from the 28th July Smackdown show, with King Booker cutting a promo in the ring, before having a match with Rey Mysterio (a repeat of the Bash`s main event). The match itself is good, although not up to Mysterio`s high standards.

Conclusion

The first match of the night was the tag team title defence by Paul London and Brian Kendrick, who by now must be absolutely sick of having great matches, yet moving no further up the card. This was an extremely fast-paced match, and an entertaining one, which saw some great teamwork on behalf of the champions.

The United States Championship was on the line in the second bout, as Finlay took on William Regal in a revised singles match. This match was a real throwback - taking away, of course, the shenanigans of Finlay`s "leprechaun" - to hard-hitting British wrestling, which unfortunately was not to the palette of the crowd, who chanted "Boring!" throughout. It wasn`t boring, but these two are capable of so much better.

Things took a step up in the next match, as Gregory Helms and Matt Hardy (who grew up virtually next door to each other in North Carolina) squared off in a contest every bit as good as the opener, before The Big Show (replacing The Great Khali) faced The Undertaker in a Punjabi Prison match.

Since the Punjabi Prison match is WWE first, no-one had any idea what to expect from this one. As it turned out, it was a kind of double cage match, where the idea was to escape both cages - one which surrounded the ring, and another which surrounded that. In any case, since The Great Khali was unable to compete due to health issues (although this was never announced, and they covered it up with a terrible storyline), it was The Big Show who stepped into the cage.

This match was very bad as it was, but had it not been for the efforts of The Undertaker, it would have been one of the biggest promotional disasters in quite some time.

I didn`t think that anything could be quite as bad as the Punjabi Prison match, but the Smackdown Divas managed it with a truly awful Bra & Panties match. Yes, they are nice to look at (especially Kristal!) but they have absolutely no place on a pay-per-view.

Adding to the disappointments, Mr Kennedy`s bout with the returning Batista was another one. In an interesting note, Kennedy`s head was split unintentionally after he collided with the ring steps. The match was okay only, but the real disappointment was in the poor finish. Again, that`s fine for free television, but not pay-per-view.

Thankfully, the main event saved a little face, as World Heavyweight champion Rey Mysterio Jr defended against Booker T. This match had a surprise (well it was, depending on how long you`ve been a wrestling fan) ending, and a brutal one at that.

The Great American Bash was another mixed bag from the WWE. It featured at least one worst match of the year candidate (The Undertaker vs Big Show or the Divas match), and none of the three good matches (the Tag Team Title match, Matt Hardy vs Gregory Helms, and the main event) were as good, as those were bad.

Of all the WWE titles that I have reviewed this year, this is probably the weakest. Perhaps this is one to leave off the Christmas wish list.