Posted byB-Show Stories2 years ago
Directed by Kevin Dunn. With Steve Austin, Dave Bautista, Antonio Burke Jr., Mark Calaway. John Cena vs. Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship, John Morrison vs. CM Punk for the ECW Championship, Randy Orton vs. Dusty Rhodes in a Texas Bull Rope Match, Candice Michelle vs. Melina for the WWE World Women's Championship, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) vs. Matt Hardy for the WWE United States. The Great American Bash 2007 Breakdown. Cruiserweight Title, Cruiserweight Open: Chavo Guerrero vs. Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Shannon Moore vs. Jamie Noble vs. Everyone is in the ring at the same time, and whoever scores the first fall wins. Before the match, Hornswoggle runs through the ring and hides.
Archived
The Great American Bash
July 22, 2007
San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion
Theme song: 'The Church of Hot Addiction' by Cobra Starship
![Bash Bash](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9c/The_Great_American_Bash_%282007%29_film_poster.jpg/220px-The_Great_American_Bash_%282007%29_film_poster.jpg)
This was the first pay-per-view following the Benoit murders, and featured a hard reset of the biggest story on Raw which was supposed to be finding out the circumstances of Mr. McMahon's supposed on-screen death. I was at the Raw/SD/ECW taping in Dallas which essentially started angles anew. On Raw, a beat-the-clock challenge to determine the new number one contender for the WWE Championship was held, with Bobby Lashley defeating Shelton Benjamin in the fastest time to earn the opportunity against John Cena.
Cena and Lashley one-on-one is a match I imagined WWE would try to hold at a future WrestleMania should things work out here, and it was a good match. Cena would end up with the victory, and this would be Lashley's final pay-per-view with WWE. An injury angle with Mr. Kennedy played out a couple of weeks later on Raw as Lashley had shoulder surgery, and he would be released from his contract the following February. I'm not sure if anyone other than Lashley really knows why he left WWE. There are rumors of tension with the office for getting his surgery in the midst of a push, as well as tension with Michael Hayes which is reportedly why he demanded to be taken off SmackDown. Nevertheless, the Lashley experiment was over and this really soured WWE on pushing guys to the moon for a long time. For years afterward, WWE talent were subjected to the 'break you down to build you up' booking as they would subject talent to loss after loss after loss to test their commitment before they would start pushing them.
SmackDown's main feud was originally Edge defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Kane, but Edge suffered a torn pectoral which forced him to relinquish the title. A battle royal was held with The Great Khali last eliminating Kane and Batista to win the title. Here, a triple threat was held among the three for the championship. It is a surprisingly entertaining monster match. Khali in short spurts and around good enough workers can be really effective. Batista was in position to win the title until Khali pulled him out of the ring to execute his version of a choke slam on Kane to retain.
The newly-minded John Morrison defended the ECW Championship against CM Punk. In a way, rebranding Johnny Nitro into John Morrison was smart. Johnny Nitro was a former tag team champion in MNM, and the intention was to get people to forget about that guy in order to elevate this new star. Morrison and Punk had horrible pay-per-view matches against one another, in which Punk admitted they tried to stuff as much as they could into their short time. Punk losing clean every single time probably didn't help his image either.
After weeks of targeting superstars and taking them out with punt kicks, Randy Orton met the legendary Dusty Rhodes in a Texas bull-rope match in Rhodes' attempt to teach Orton respect. This is not a touch-the-corners style match, but a pinfall or submission style match in which the two participants are connected by a bull-rope. Knowing his limitations due to his age, Rhodes lobbied for an extended squash to put Orton over, though Cody Rhodes (who had recently debuted on Raw) made the save before Orton could do anymore damage.
MVP successfully defended the United States Championship against Matt Hardy in what would become one of the most entertaining feuds of 2007 as Hardy and MVP would both end up on the disabled list in some form or fashion, so they had to work around with in-ring segments that really created a chemistry between the two.
This is a decent show; less than the sum of its parts as there is nothing outwardly great on it. Felt like an extended Raw at the time.
Other matches on this show:
- Intercontinental Champion Umaga vs. Jeff Hardy
- Women's Champion Candice Michelle vs. Melina
- Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero vs. Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Shannon Moore vs. Funaki vs. Jamie Noble vs. Hornswoggle
- Carlito vs. Sandman in a Singapore Cane on a Pole match
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Friday's A-Show Stories will feature Survivor Series 1994.
Here are upcoming write-ups:
December 17: In Your House: International Incident
December 18: In Your House: It's Time
December 24: WCW Starrcade 1998
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