Backstage News, Spoilers, & Matches For The Great American Bash
WWE's Great American Bash is little under a month away and is coming from Indianapolis, Indiana on July 23, 2006 at the Conseco Fieldhouse. This is the first WWE event in Indianapolis in nearly a decade and the first to be held in the Conseco Fieldhouse. The last WWE PPV in Indianapolis was In Your House: Buried Alive which was headlined by the first-ever Buried Alive match between Undertaker and Mankind.
Two PPV posters have already been released for the annual summer event. The first features Mark Henry, Rey Mysterio, Undertaker, Great Khali, Batista, John Bradshaw Layfield, & Kurt Angle. Like many others, this PPV poster was made months ago hence why Kurt Angle and JBL both appear on it as Angle's new spot in ECW and JBL's announcing position were both very recent changes brought on by ECW's return. The second one that is replacing the first one features Batista prominently surrounded by an American flag.
The past two Great American Bash PPVs have been some of the weaker WWE PPVs in recent memory and while the company mindset is to get over that stigma, few believe that it can. In the locker room apparently, the consensus is that at the end of spring every year, SmackDown! is either robbed of talent by RAW (and ECW this year) leaving the brand void of credible main eventers, or many established stars are injured and/or forced to go on hiatus (like Kurt Angle in 2004 and JBL this year).
As revealed at the SmackDown! tapings, Great Khali will face Undertaker in a "Punjabi Prison" match, for which the rules have not yet been announced. As has been reported also, a promo video has leaked on-line for the PPV mentioning Batista going up against Mark Henry. So far, these are the only two matches set in stone.
While it could still change, it looks like Booker T will take on Rey Mysterio, and the feeling there is that Booker T might win the championship and be a transitional champion to Batista by dropping it to him at Summerslam and playing off their heavily publcizied fight from a few weeks ago.
Other matches rumored right now are Brian Kendrick & Paul London defending their WWE Tag Team Championship against Kid Kash & Jamie Noble, Finlay or William Regal taking on Bobby Lashley, & either Super Crazy versus Psicosis or a triple threat for the Cruiserweight Championship involving the former Mexicools and champion Gregory Helms. Naturally, as we get closer to the PPV, more spoilers, plans, and rumors will be revealed.