Review of WWE: Great American Bash

Introduction

In it`s early years, the Great American Bash was an event held by the National Wrestling Alliance, to capitalise on America`s Independence Day celebrations. There was even a Great American Bash tour in 1986 that ran for the entire month of July. These events in particular were good-against-evil affairs. Fan favourites of the day, such as Dusty Rhodes and the Road Warriors, regularly tussled with perennial heels such as the Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and Nikita Koloff.

In recent years, however, the annual tradition that was the `Bash has faded somewhat, its meaning eroded by today`s frantically-paced pro wrestling soap opera. Still, whilst there are no "evil Communist Russians" for the American wrestlers to banish, pro wrestling wouldn`t be the same without an evil foreigner around, so this time we have Mohammed Hassan.

Interestingly, word on the grapevine before the `Bash (held on July 24th 2005 in Buffalo, New York) suggested that this would be Hassan`s last match for the WWE, which was a great shame because he was clearly the WWE`s most effective heel at the time. In reality an American of Jordanian origin, Hassan (real name Mark Copani) had been playing the role of a terrorist sympathiser with a hatred for America (The WWE deny this accusation but the implication is crystal clear). A couple of weeks prior to the `Bash, Hassan was involved in a storyline with The Undertaker, which saw the latter attacked by mask-wearing disciples of Hassan. UPN (the television company that aired the program) received hundreds of complaints about the character`s anti-American allegiance, and told the WWE in no uncertain terms that they would edit any broadcast that involved Hassan. But I`ll won`t spoil the rest of the story for you...

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 non-anamorphic PAL & is taken from the television broadcast. It looks just as good as one would expect from a digital satellite broadcast.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 & is very good considering it is from the TV master. Everything is clear and distinct, and there are no audio-sync problems. Also available are German, Spanish and Italian commentaries (also English with Dutch subtitles).

Features

Extras on this disc are limited because the main feature itself lasts over 2.5 hours. Taken from Smackdown! several weeks prior to the `Bash, Eddy Guerrero gives a disturbing interview in which he claims he is the biological father of his opponent`s son. Also, the Blue World Order (a parody of the immensely popular New World Order, of WCW fame) conduct a backstage skit which made me wonder whether or not I was still watching a wrestling DVD.

But just as the extras on this disc looked to be receiving a "0" from me, the WWE have gone back into their archives to present a classic match from 1990`s Great American Bash, the WCW World Title defence from Ric Flair against Sting. This is an excellent 1980s-style match which new fans may consider a little slow, but will have those of us who watched American wrestling in the early 1990s complaining that "wrestling was better back then"!

Conclusion

As I mentioned in my introduction, there was some intrigue going into the `Bash about the future of Mohammed Hassan, but the rest of the card - in terms of potentially good contests - looked far from great. Normally this would not the be case for a bout involving Rey Mysterio Jr. & Eddy Guerrero, however they were saddled with that atrocious storyline where Guerrero claimed to be the father of the child that Mysterio raised.

And so it came to pass. None of the bouts here came close to equalling the top-drawer affairs witnessed at Vengeance. Booker T`s match with Christian was laboured and shows how heavily T has fallen from his WCW hay-day. Chris Benoit could not summon more than an average match from Orlando Jordan. Mysterio`s bout with Guerrero was slow, as if both men felt as much derision for their storyline as the fans did. And the main event featuring JBL & Batista - which could have been an excellent brawl - was marred by a conclusion that wasn`t worthy of free television, never mind pay-per-view.

It was reported that Vince McMahon was unhappy at the quality of this year`s Great American Bash. And rightly so, as this was very much a below-average offering - yet another for the Smackdown! division. But McMahon should be equally concerned with tarnishing the fantastic history of the `Bash. Only Wrestlemania has a greater legacy.