| The Bash | ||||
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/00/Great_American_Bash_%282009%29_-_inDemand.jpg/200px-Great_American_Bash_%282009%29_-_inDemand.jpg Promotion poster featuring Jesse Dern | ||||
| Theme song(s) | "Whyyawannabringmedown" by Aranda | |||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | International Wrestling Entertainment | |||
| Date | June 28, 2009 | |||
| Attendance | 11,000 | |||
| Venue | ARCO Arena | |||
| City | Sacramento, California | |||
| Pay-per-view chronology | ||||
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| The Great American Bash chronology | ||||
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The Bash was a professional wrestling pay per view (PPV) event produced by International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE), which took place on June 28, 2009 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. This was the sixth and final show in IWE's production lineage for The Great American Bash event (twentieth overall) and the only one to be referred to as The Bash. It featured talent from the Meltdown, Fusion and XCW. There were eight matches on for the event's card.
Background[]
Pre-show[]
Preliminary matches[]
Main Event matches[]
Aftermath[]
On the edition of Meltdown following The Bash, it was announced that the general manager position for the Meltdown brand would be eradicated and replaced with a new weekly special guest host role. Batista was then announced as the first person to be special guest host. In his position, Jesse Dern announced the IWE Championship would be defended at the July event, Night of Champions; the competitor who would face Kevin McAlmond would be determined by the winner of the tournament that commenced that night. The semi-finals saw Triple K defeat Mikhail Schmalzried and Dustin Simpson defeat Joe Smith to advance to the finals of the tournament to be held on the July 6 edition of Meltdown.
Following his match, on the July 2 episode of Superstars, Justin Eldridge revealed he suffered a (storyline) eye injury at The Bash; after a match with Edge that caused him to forfeit due to extra damage inflicted in the match. Eldridge claimed the reason he struck the referee because he was unable to see who his target was. Hooper continued after Eldridge, leading to the announcement the two would meet at Night of Champions for the title.
Reception[]
The show was rated as merely average by wrestling journalists. Canadian Online Explorer had analyst, Brian Elliott, review the show; he would comment that the show "failed to live up to expectations, largely due to bad booking." This criticism was built around what he had felt to be the inability of the company's creative writers to showcase effective segments and matches. Dave Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, wrote a real-time commentary during the event; he was disappointed by a few moments in the show, but still saw the wrestling as a positive, particularly the main event, but said it was "nothing compared to their match (Triple K and Kevin McAlmond had) on Monday and this was the one you were paying for."
A seemingly-universal praise for the event from critics came in their commentary of the IWE Intercontinental Championship match between Scott Wright and Kris McGowan. Elliott dubbed this the "Match of the Night", giving it a rating of 8/10. James Caldwell, an editor for the Pro Wrestling Torch, commended the effort of both men for the overall quality of their rivalry over the past few months leading up to this encounter, saying to the two had "great chemistry". Meltzer called it "one of the better IWE matches this year."
The most noteworthy criticism of the show came from Dustin Simpson's match with Joe Smith. Wade Keller, editor of the Torch, who also wrote a report for the show, said the encounter "was pretty much the worst finish possible" with the logic of his criticism being that it was not helping to elevate the status of Joe Smith as a viable competitor. Despite the favorable reviews of 3 Stages of Hell, Keller would refer to it as "stale" due to how many times prior to the show these two wrestled.
The Bash (2009) Results[]
| # | Matches | Stipulations |
|---|---|---|
| Dark | Blake Wheeler defeated Junior Remeriz | Singles match |
| 1 | Tommy Brown (c) defeated Jared Hunt, Charlie Wilson, Steven Larson and Danlay | Championship Scramble for the XCW Championship |
| 2 | Scott Wright defeated Kris McGowan (c) | Mask vs. Title Match for the IWE Intercontinental Championship |
| 3 | Nick Kessler defeated Reg Hageman | No countout, no disqualification match |
| 4 | Edge and Kris McGowan defeated The Ferrys (Michael Ferry and David Ferry) (c) and The Legacy (Kyle Johnson and Mark Semmler) | Triple threat tag team match for the Unified Tag Team Championship |
| 5 | Amanda Johnson (with Kassi Austin) defeated Denise Lynn (c) | Singles match for the IWE Women's Championship |
| 6 | Josh Hooper defeated Justin Eldridge (c) by disqualification | Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship |
| 7 | Dustin Simpson defeated Joe Smith | Singles match |
| 8 | Kevin McAlmond (c) defeated Triple K | 3 Stages of Hell Match for the IWE Championship |