WRestling’s 3R’s PPV Edition 07.31.06: WWE’s Great American Bash 2006
Posted by Larry Csonka on 07.31.2006
Did the Punjabi Prison Match live up to the hype? Did Wellness reign supreme and kill the card? Who stole the show? Click to find out my thoughts on the show kids!
Introduction!
Through cable outages and computer crashes and whatever else comes my way, I SHALL PREVAIL! Most of you should know by now that the last 2-weeks haven't been the greatest for yours truly. I lost cable and couldn't recap the TNA PPV, I lost cable and missed an episode of ECW. I had to get a replay of the TNA show, thunderstorm knocked that out so I had to go for a 3rd showing. I missed the TNA house shows here by me in NC due to car issues, and then I almost didn't have a Great American Bash recap due to the cable company, but at 7:59pm the feed cam through and I was here! Monday night after Raw, my PC crashes. Motherboard, processor and power supply all dead. After all of this, and some creative PC building with a ton of spare parts, which I was told to throw away by my mother in law so piss on her, I have rebuilt the machine with my hard drive and am at about 90% operating efficiency!
What does all of this mean? You get a special PPV edition of the 3R's, and this time it is of WWE's latest offering the Great American Bash! Since WWE has "Rehashed the Bash" it has been a less than stellar PPV offering. This year's looked solid on paper, but Mark Henry went down with a major injury and the Wellness Policy attacked, and three of the matches were altered. Could the WWE pull out a solid PPV offering in spite of these events or would it just add to the WWE legacy of the Bash and suck an ass? Let's find out kids!
WWE Great American Bash!:
WWE Great American Bash: 07.23.06:
The Matches:
WWE Tag Title Match: Kendrick and London defeated The Pitbulls @ 13:40 via pin ***¼ Match of the Night!
WWE US Title Match: Finlay defeated Regal @ 14:00 via pin **½
Gregory Helms defeated Matt Hardy @ 11:45 via pin **¾
Punjabi Prison Match: Undertaker defeated The Big Show @ 21:47 via Escape *¼
Bra and Panties Match: Ashley defeated Jillian, Krystal and McCool @ 5:25 via stripping * (For JBL's commentary, which ruled. The match blew.) Trash of the Night!
Mr. Kennedy defeated Batista @ 8:45 via DQ *½
World Title Match: KING BOOKER defeated Rey Mysterio to become the NEW World Champion @ 16:57 via pin ***
The Right:
The Tag Title Match - This right here was your match of the night kids. For once the guys that can go were almost totally unhand cuffed and allowed to do their thing, almost, but it was a lot more than they are usually allowed to do, and that was a treat. They also actually got time, almost 14-minutes, and when that happens, you get to build a match and have a chance to connect with the fans, which they were able to do by the end of the match. The crowd got hot and after a little bit of quiet, lured then in and got them where they wanted them. This was really a treat and a great way to kick off the show in a hot way. They worked well together, and I hope that after the wellness and discipline issues, that they get to feud some more.
I do need to say that while Smackdown has a promising tag division, it has quickly gone to jack shit with in a matter of months due to breaking up teams, ECW, attitude, injury and wellness; which is a shame because they had the talent to have a good division, now they have nothing but a set of tag champs who are talented, but no one to face. They'll probably get blamed for the division sucking because they are small. I almost put this in puRgatoRy, but decided just to add the end there as something that had to be said.
JBL - I would really like to take the time to sing the praises of one John Bradshaw Layfeild, better known as Smackdown's greatest announcer JBL. Now most of you should know by now that I do not get UPN, so the Smackdown PPV's are about the only times I can see stuff from the brand. I download the occasional match and have seen Saturday Night's Main Event; but that is such a small part of the product, and it is hard to judge things. So I was really looking forward to this show so that I could check out some things and one of those things was the commentary of JBL, which I have enjoyed in the small doses I have heard. JBL worked overtime to get anything and everything over on this show, and he did a damn fine job. The opening tag match was a great example of this, as he referenced that the guys studied a lot of lucha, he brought up Zero One again, the history of the Rock and Roll Express at the Great American Bash and that they trained Kash (I know for certain Ricky Morton did) and the hard work that they were bringing to the table. WWE fans have been so conditioned to not care for the small guys, but commentary like this from a "big man wrestler" like JBL could sway Joe Q. Casual fan to actually care about them, and THAT is a very important thing. The US Title match he put over the brutality and history the two men shared, adding to the match greatly. The Helms vs. Hardy match he was also on big time, singing the praises Helms as a dominant Cruiserweight Champion (debatable due to the booking of the division and booking of Helms) and making a thrown together match seem like it meant something. As bad as the Punjabi Prison match was, JBL put over the mystique and brutality of a match that had never been seen before. During the Kennedy blood bath, he related experiences of his own from a wrestler's standpoint, once again adding to the match itself. Heading into the main event, JBL was just JBL as King Booker made his entrance. King Booker was making his way out, blowing kisses and JBL was standing with his hat over his heart and proclaimed, "Try and catch a kiss Michael Cole…and feel the majesty that is King Booker!" He was just on all night putting over the matches and guys in the matches. A great job and as far a I am concerned, he can stay on commentary forever.
The King of the World! - So it is written and so it shall come to pass, there is a new KING of the world and his name is King Booker! The time was right to take the title off of Rey, and in my opinion King Booker was the perfect choice. King Booker can still go in the ring, he can work with about anyone well and he is very entertaining, which you have to be to be a champion for Vince. King Booker has been one of the highlights of Smackdown for a while now, even before he was King, if you can imagine him NOT being King, I mean come on! They had a good match, nothing special, but it was a good match and an acceptable main event with no doubt.
In the end, the rather pitiful run of Rey Mysterio as champion is over. King Booker finally wins a championship under the WWE umbrella after a great career resurgence, and is primed for a very entertaining run. The attack by Chavo Guerrero also kicks off the Chavo vs. Rey feud, which will be Chavo's highest-level feud of his career. Whether he can live up to expectations or not is another question, but the reign of King Booker has begun and we have this feud in place, so all went according to plan.
puRgatoRy:
Finlay vs. Regal - I was hyped for the prospects of the three-way match when it was announced. The use of Finlay and Regal to teach Lashley is something that I have been a proponent of since the beginning and had even been writing about to show my support for this plan. And then Lashley lost the US title suddenly going into the match, I said that there may be a wellness issue, which there was, and that he may job in the match. What happened was that he was pulled from the match, but all was not lost since we were left with Regal vs. Finlay; which is greatness waiting to happen.
The match was what you would expect. Regal and Finlay hit each other very hard, they basically stayed to the mat, very little rope running, and just the solid basics. They integrated the leprechaun into the match as well. The spots were hilarious with him tormenting Regal, Regal running from him and the leprechaun biting his hand, only for Finlay to follow up on that and work the hand of Regal. They even made all of this work towards the finish as the leprechaun stole Regal's boot, and Finlay used it to beat Regal. Sounds lovely doesn't it?
Well it all wasn't daisy's and sugarplums my friends. You see, the crowd basically SHAT on the match. They were bored, they chanted boring and only popped for the leprechaun, and why is that? Because they were either all cheered out, or just didn't care. And why is that? Because WWE made the BONEHEAD decision of bringing out Lashley before the match. See, they thought that they were making Lashley a tough guy hero by demanding to fight. What happened was the crowd got into something they weren't going to get. They chanted "LET HIM FIGHT" and "LASHLEY" repeatedly, and then they made him leave, and when he left the enthusiasm of the crowd left with him. Regal and Finlay already had an uphill battle as they were both heels in King Booker's Court, but if they went out there and were tough guys and stiffed each other and used a little comedy with the leprechaun, I think they would have been fine. But they teased the crowd with Lashley, took him away and the reactions that we got was the result of that. Extremely poor planning by the E here.
Helms vs. Hardy - Now this ended up being an unexpected surprise. When they announced Matt Hardy, I was like, "What the hell is Matt Hardy doing on this PPV, let alone any PPV?" The reason I ask is because the don't use him at all and that he wasn't scheduled. I was thinking that they were going to add a match with him and Sylvain or something to add some time to the show because of all the stuff that went down, but it ended up that he was Gregory Helms opponent. That is all well and good because I figured that they would have a good match and they did. I commend them for having a good match and adding to the card, but I was left just feeling odd about the match.
First of all, I know that Crazy got pulled due to the Liver Enzyme fairy, but they still should have made this a Cruiserweight title match. See my issue is that they went out of their way to say that Hardy was a former Cruiserweight champion, but then said that he was above the weight limit. Here is the thing, you offered up that there would be a Cruiserweight title match and should have delivered on it. Wrestling is a worked business and they lie about weight and height all the time. No one would have been like, "I think Matt Hardy should have been weighted in before the match" because if you just say it is a Cruiserweight title match, people will just be ok with it and go on. In the end, Helms didn't defend the title and while he has a "long reign" with the belt, it is meaningless. This will sound repetitive, but Smackdown has a promising cruiserweight division, it has quickly gone to jack shit with in a matter of months due to breaking up teams, ECW, attitude, injury and wellness; which is a shame because they had the talent to have a good division, now they have nothing but a solid champion with almost no one to feud against. All that is left is Psicosis, Funaki and Scotty II Hotty. Rey and Chavo are higher up the card, London, Kendrick, Kash and Noble are in the tag ranks, but Kash and Noble are off the road along with Crazy for now. Davari is wasted as far as being an in ring talent and they don't give 2-shits about Matt Hardy, which if anything could be used there.
Batista vs. Kennedy - There are a few reasons that this one didn't find the right or wrong category this time. The first thing is that I wanted to give a break since the match was not what was planned. Kennedy is still learning in the ring and Batista is no ring general in anyway, so this could have been a disaster. Thankfully the match was not what I imagined it would be. I expected Kennedy to take an ass whooping, get little offense and job clean to Batista, but again thankfully I was wrong. Kennedy looked good in there with Batista, and while the match wasn't that great, it was fine for the last minute replacement. Also, Kennedy got busted the hard way on the steps and ended up bleeding a ton. With him still being inexperienced in the big match environment, he could have panicked out there and froe, but he didn't. He gutted it out and did his best to put on an entertaining match, so I give credit where credit is due.
Onto what I didn't like. First of all, they cut Kennedy's ring intro gimmick again! That is the 3rd time that this has been done, Crazy and Hardy on Smackdown and now Batista on PPV. While Batista the character is believable doing it, the others weren't and it kills a huge part of the "Mr. Kennedy" gimmick in my opinion. Secondly, while I was all for the DQ ending in this case due to me not wanting to see Kennedy buried, this wasn't "protecting" him. I won't say that they buried him here, as he bled a ton and looked believable in there with Batista, but the after match beat down did nothing but make Batista look good and Kennedy a bitch. Sure you could argue that Kennedy was beat down and bleeding a ton, but it didn't protect him. All I could think is that he was made weak out there in the end. We will have to see where this is going, but the match wasn't horrible and on such short notice and the huge blood loss and guts shown by the still inexperienced Kennedy; I won't punish the effort too much and will put it here this time.
The wRong:
The worst bra and panties match ever~! - My lord this was horrible! I mean, sure, I am all for chicks getting stripped and looking hot, but they looked so lost out there that this was painful to watch. I mean, their hotness couldn't even save it. If there were naked chicks, I would have ignored it, but no, this was bad. The only thing that saved this was JBL being awesome on commentary as noted above. When he yelled at Michael Cole for trying to call this as a wrestling match by saying, "Hey Gordon Solie, quit calling the action and pay attention to the ladies" I about pissed myself. Thanks JBL, but this was still so bad.
The Ridiculous:
Punjabi Prison Match - First of all, I know that we are all aware of the old rule, "Card subject to change," but this was such blatant false advertising that it wasn't even funny. Khali is there all night and saying he will take out Taker, he and Show attack and then we get the lamest excuse for a match change ever. Teddy Long uses his "power" and pulls Khali and books Show into the match, who isn't even a Smackdown talent. That was all, no "I called Vince to make sure" or anything even remotely creative, just, "You're here and I say you have to wrestle." At least they admitted before the show that Lashley wouldn't be wrestling, although they messed that up as well. Lame!
Now I will say that that match was worlds better than it would have been if Khali was in there, but that being said it wasn't good. The overall gimmick is actually a cool one, with the double cages and overall look of the match. If Taker was in there with a more athletic opponent, or if two very athletic guys worked the match, this could actually be a cool gimmick to use down the line and be a cool Smackdown only gimmick match. But in this case it was way too long and way too slow. 20-minutes of Show vs. Taker was not what the doctor ordered in my opinion and overall really drug things down for me.
Closing Thoughts: This could have been a disaster. History said this would be a bad PPV, Henry was half of a money match they had planned and was out. Lashley was over big and was a huge part of the US title match and was ousted. Love him or hate him, they were banking on taker fans shelling out for Khali and Taker, and that didn't happen. But despite all of that, they avoided disaster and put on a pretty decent show. I will go 5.5 out of 10 for the show, not a recommendation but not too bad considering the situation and history of this particular show. They definitely avoided a disaster here all things considered, and for the most part it was rather enjoyable; but I can't tell you to spend $40 for it.
Reader Feedback on the Great American Bash 2006:
From DWAYNE~! -
It sounds as if the PPV was great. But what was the
point of Super Crazy going over Psicosis on Friday other than blowing off their feud? That should have warranted a title shot for Super Crazy. Instead Matt Hardy turned out to be the "Mystery opponent". Why? I mean it sounds as if they worked a decent match and everything, but shouldn't Crazy have received this title shot?
You would have thought so, because after I watched it back, they made sure to say that Hardy wasn't a cruiserweight since he "gained weight back" so this was just a throw away match to give Helms a PPV win. In the end it was due to Crazy having "liver" issues as well(ness.)
From Kenney -
Well, it was an OK show. The only thing that really ticked me off (other than Khali not being in the PP match) was Batista being introduced before Kennedy. It just didn't seem right. He should have been announced about three seconds after Kennedy to get the maximum pop.
Oh, and the DQ finish may have been protective, but I thought this was a No. 1 contenders match?
It wasn't announced on the show as a #1 contender's match, it may have been though.
From Pierrre -
I am so shocked to say this, but this year's GAB wasn't as bad as the first two!
I was so glad to hear King Booker as the NEW World Heavyweight Champion!!! I was not a fan of Rey's title run. It was not good for SmackDown! to have an underdog champion. What was really annoying was that there was a match booked before the PPV. It was stupid booking to have Rey vs. Booker before the Bash. Since the King lost on SD!, he had to win, or suffer being buried again! Bless the fact that The Royal T wasn't given a cold shoulder. ALL HAIL KING BOOKER!!!! I just hope to God that the Rey/Chavo feud won't center on Eddie. PLEASE don't involve Eddie!
As for the Punjabi Prison, unique concept. The match itself... eh. So MISTER KENNEDY..........................KENNEDY got his ass kicked. I think he should take advantage of saying that he won against the Animal. However, I feel sorry for Mark Henry for his injury and hope he gets well; but I won't miss him (sorry if that makes me an ass, but he wasn't worth anyone's ten minutes). The rest of the night wasn't bad.
Overall (mainly due to KING BOOKER!, and the fact that there was some booking changes), I'll give this mild thumbs up! Now, that's a compliment!
From Glen -
Hi Larry, My name is Glen and normally I don't send feedbacks but I just got home from Buffalo Wild Wings and I had to get my thoughts out to someone. So here goes.
First of all I supposed to be working from 3-9, but after hearing that Lashley was injured and that Finlay and Regal would go one-on-one, I just had to see that match. Two of my all-time favorites finally colliding again and the WWE didn't even mean for it to happen.
Luckily I got off work early and rode over to the restaurant right when Regal and Finlay had started, (boy just in time, this was the only match I wanted to see). But let's start the feedback
Tag Team Match- Didn't get there in time to watch the match, but I heard it was good and all four competitors have impressed me. Jamie Noble especially. And am I the only one who thinks Kid Kash looks a lot like Owen Hart? Wrestles almost like him too. Weird?
Regal/Finlay- Didn't hear any "boring" chants because I was in restaurant but to those fans in Indy, SCREW YOU! WWE has poisoned the people's minds by thinking wrestlers that are cool like Cena, Taker, DX are what wrestling is all about now, and sadly in the WWE its true. But this is why I love wrestling, guys like these two who go out there and put on a wrestling match and not a entertainment show. With Regal and Finlay I knew anything was possible with these two and that we'd see some really good stuff that the fans of this generation has never seen. Wrestling is as big as it is because Benoit, Finlay and Regal all do it right. I swear this was the only reason I watched the GAB! More Finlay vs. Regal, please WWE! Just for the hell of it! Let these guys have a feud and get the fans into it. The only reason the fans chanted boring was because they wanted to see big Lashley. You already got Batista anyway! Seesh, and from watching Smackdown, Finlay's whooped Lashley's ass more than once. My only quirk is that I'm tired of seeing Regal job. I understood this time, but had it been a three way, who knows. And every time he wrestles Benoit he loses. Give the guy a win for once. It won't hurt Benoit, it won't hurt Finlay, but it will help Regal. I get tired of having to defend him from a fan that says Regal sucks. Yeah, and he made Goldberg look like a pansy!
Big Show vs. Undertaker- Now this whole match is BORING! It reminds me of Al Snow and Bossman's Kettle from Hell match with all the dogs. Hopefully this will be the first and last. Show was better than Khali though. Man, Khali would of sucked big time. Props to Taker because I know he tries, but he's getting too old for this stuff too and as awesome as it is seeing him chokeslam Big Show or Tombstone Mark Henry, he needs to call it a career in my opinion. Don't be a Hulk Hogan, Taker. Match was terrible still though. Show and Taker just don't click. Also, if I were Big Show knowing I was the tallest man in the business, I would be way more aggressive! And angry. And pissed off. I like pissed of Big Show, not mild mannered Big Show. He is the ECW champion right? So how come he didn't get extreme?
Girls- Waste of time
Batista vs.. Kennedy- I felt bad for Kennedy. If they wanted Batista to just kill someone they should of handed him Funaki, or Simon Dean. But this could help in the long run though, but if WWE not careful this could be Hart/Austin WM 13 all over again, with Batista getting boos and Kennedy getting cheers.
Helms vs. Matt- Okay? Matt gets a win over Kennedy then loses to Helms? I thought for sure Hardy would of gone over on this one. It wouldn't of hurt Helms any. And give Hardy something to do. Bring back Version 1 or something. I mean, Hardy could be a huge main eventer, just listen to the crowd response he gets, but the WWE just doesn't want him to be one! Poor Matt, he should have gone to TNA.
Rey vs. Booker- Really didn't care. I figured Chavo would interfere. This is somewhat good though because it means more screen time for Regal, who does the "All hail King Booker" way better than Sharmell. Her chant was just torturous. Like Melina's scream! Glad the title is off Rey too. Rey's a great wrestler but he needs to stay in Finlay, Regal, and Benoit range from now on too. He's just not a believable World Champion. Sorry, Rey. I know its because your short but hey it's wrestling really, not entertainment. US title sure, Cruiserweight title definitely so you can do all your cool moves but no more World titles. It's unfair to Regal and Finlay anyway!
Thanks for joining me for this special edition of the 3R's, and don't forget to check out the regular edition complete with all of the other shows from the week!
