NXT announced at the end of this week’s episode that the Black and Gold Brand will be reviving the Great American Bash branding for the next two weeks of television. Created by Dusty Rhodes, the event previously ran as a staple of Jim Crockett Promotions, the NWA and WCW’s annual schedule from 1985-92 and again from 1995-2000. After WWE acquired WCW in 2001 the pay-per-view was revived starting in 2004 and ran annually until 2008. The last time the branding was used in any capacity was at a SuperSmackDown Live house show back in July 2012.
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AEW executive vice president Cody Rhodes has stated publicly in the past that he wants the rights back to the Great American Bash since his father created it. Many fans saw NXT‘s announcement as a shot at AEW, given that it will run directly against AEW’s Fyter Fest (announced weeks ago) on the next two episodes of Dynamite. Upon hearing NXT’s announcement, Dusty’s daughter Teil called out the company.
Cut my mom a check https://t.co/2h6OcmU8bR
— Teil (@TeilMargaret) June 25, 2020
Over the past year Cody has been fighting to acquire some of the other trademarks of matches and event names his father created that WWE has been sitting on for years. He’s managed to acquire a few such as Bash at the Beach (which AEW revived earlier this year), Bunkhouse Stampede and Slamboree.
“Starrcade and Great American Bash are Dusty’s,” Cody said in an interview on AEW Unrestricted back in February. “I would rather have those than a 100 Slamborees.”
So far the only match NXT has confirmed for its two-night event is a Winner Take All match on July 8 between NXT Champion Adam Cole and NXT North American Champion Keith Lee.
Meanwhile AEW has confirmed two full cards for Fyter Fest. Check out the lineups below:
Night 1
- AEW TNT Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Jake Hager
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. The Best Friends
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Hikaru Shida vs. Penelope Ford
- Jurassic Express vs. MJF and Wardlow
- Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz
Night 2
- AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Brian Cage
- Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy
- FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher & The Blade and The Lucha Bros.
- Brodie Lee, Stu Grayson and Colt Cabana vs. SCU
- Lance Archer vs. Joey Janela
- Nyla Rose vs. TBD
