The Top 5 Great American Bash Matches Ever
The Great American Bash was created by one of the best minds in the history of professional wrestling, Dusty Rhodes. While working for Jim Crockett Promotions in 1985, Dusty developed the idea as an event that could become pro wrestling's standard for summer pay-per-view.
The first Great American Bash was July 6th, 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina. That night featured future Hall of Fame inductees Arn and Ole Anderson, Superstar Billy Graham, The Road Warriors, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and of course, Dusty Rhodes. The first Great American Bash included a "dog collar match", six-man tag team match, World Championship match, and a steel cage match for the NWA Television Championship.
Since 1985, the Great American Bash has grown, been placed on hold, been resurrected, and taken on new forms. The brand started as an NWA property, then moved to WCW, and eventually became part of the WWE when they acquired WCW. Under the WWE umbrella, it has been under both the Smackdown and NXT brands. This year is the first year that NXT has taken the Great American Bash banner.
Perhaps one of this year's NXT Great American Bash matches might make a future list of "best matches", but for this year, no NXT matches make the list.