The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. Created by Dusty Rhodes, the event was established in 1985 and was originally produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). In 1988, it began broadcasting on pay-per-view (PPV), and later that same year, JCP was rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which seceded from the NWA in January 1991.
In March 2001, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased WCW. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the promotion revived The Great American Bash as their own annual PPV in 2004. It was held exclusively for WWE's SmackDown brand from 2004 to 2006 before brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued in April 2007. In 2009, WWE renamed the event as The Bash, which was also the final Great American Bash broadcast on PPV, as it was replaced by Fatal 4-Way in 2010.
The Great American Bash returned in July 2012 under its original full name and was held as a special episode of SmackDown. In July 2020, the event name was again revived and became an annual event for WWE's developmental brand, NXT; from 2020 to 2022, it aired as special episodes of NXT, but became a livestreaming event in 2023, marking the first Great American Bash to air on WWE's livestreaming platforms.
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