The Bash was a 2009 professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was WWE's sixth annual Great American Bash—truncated as The Bash—and 20th overall. The event took place on June 28, 2009, at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, and was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions.
There were eight matches on the event's card. The card for the event was a supercard due to it having three main attraction bouts. This included: Randy Orton defeating Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match to retain Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk getting disqualified against Jeff Hardy, and John Cena defeating The Miz in the first official encounter between the two. The undercard for the show featured five matches: ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer defending his title against Christian, Jack Swagger, Finlay, and Mark Henry in a Championship Scramble match, Chris Jericho wagering SmackDown's Intercontinental Championship against Rey Mysterio's mask, Dolph Ziggler versus The Great Khali in a No Disqualification match, The Colóns defending the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship against The Legacy and Edge and Chris Jericho, and Michelle McCool challenging Melina for SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship.
The event had 178,000 pay-per-view buys, down on The Great American Bash 2008 figure of 196,000 buys. The was the final event in The Great American Bash series to be held as a PPV event, as it was replaced by Fatal 4-Way in 2010. It was also the only Great American Bash to be truncated as "The Bash", as in 2012, the event was revived as a special episode of SmackDown, which returned to using the full name of "The Great American Bash". Eight years later in 2020, the event was again revived, becoming an annual event for WWE's developmental brand, NXT; since its revival for NXT, it has been held as a television special of NXT as well as a livestreaming event.
Production Background
The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event established in 1985, held during the summer. Following World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) acquisition of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, WWE revived The Great American Bash as its own annual pay-per-view (PPV) event in 2004. WWE's sixth annual Great American Bash, and 20th overall, was truncated as The Bash. It took place on June 28, 2009, at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, which was the original date and venue for Night of Champions (which was moved to July 26), and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.
Storylines The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, ECW, and WWE Superstars.
Three weeks after Extreme Rules, CM Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and defeated Jeff Hardy to win the World Heavyweight Championship, after Hardy had already defeated Edge in a ladder match to win the title. On the following episode of SmackDown, both Hardy and Edge demanded rematches, but SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long then announced a number one contender's match between the two to determine who would face Punk for the championship. The match ended in a no-contest after Punk interfered, resulting in Long making a triple threat match between the three men for the World Heavyweight Championship on the June 15 episode of Raw, where Punk would retain the title by pinning Edge after Hardy had performed a Swanton Bomb on him. Punk and Hardy had tense confrontations in the coming weeks, leading to Theodore Long making a championship match between the two for the Bash.
After winning the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules, Batista was assaulted the next night on Raw by former champion, Randy Orton, and Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase Jr.) incapacitating Batista and leading to him vacating his title due to a legitimate tear in his Biceps brachii muscle. The next week on Raw, a fatal four-way match was held to determine the new champion, which featured Orton, Triple H, John Cena, and The Big Show. Orton won the match, and it was later announced by WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon, that the next man to face Orton for the title would be the winner of a 10-man battle royal; Triple H won the match, and became the number one contender. It was also announced on this episode of Raw by storyline owner, Donald Trump, that the title would be defended the next week on Raw between the two in a Last Man Standing match, where the winner would go into The Bash with the title, defending against the other. The match ended in a draw when neither man was able to answer the referee's ten-count; Orton retained the championship as a result. Later in the show, Mr. McMahon acquired Raw back from Trump with his first act back in control being to change the match between Orton and Triple H at The Bash to a Three Stages of Hell match, consisting of a singles match, Falls Count Anywhere, and a stretcher match for the first, second, and third falls respectively.
For the two months before the event, Christian, Tommy Dreamer, and Jack Swagger had been in constant conflict with each other over the ECW Championship with Christian defeating Swagger at Backlash and Judgment Day, and Dreamer defeating both at Extreme Rules. In the wake of their conflict, Finlay inserted himself into the rivalry on the June 16 episode of ECW by attacking all three men. It was announced following the program that the four wrestlers, along with Mark Henry, would participate in a Championship Scramble match at The Bash.
After Rey Mysterio retained the Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho at Judgment Day, Jericho had begun a moral crusade, accusing Mysterio of being dishonest to the fans for wearing his mask, not showing his true face; he assaulted him after posing as a fan in the crowd wearing one of Mysterio's masks. This led to another match between the two at Extreme Rules, in which Jericho won the title in a No Holds Barred match by removing Mysterio's mask. On the June 15 episode of Raw, Mysterio received his rematch against Jericho, but failed to win. On the June 19 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that the Intercontinental title would be defended at The Bash in a match where if Mysterio were to lose, he would remove his mask.
Since being drafted to Raw in April, The Miz had been making challenges to John Cena. These were generally made after Cena either had been injured or was already in a match, leading to The Miz claiming victory by forfeit. This would continue until The Miz accumulated a record of 7–0. After some confrontations, as well as an ambush by The Miz with a steel chair as a weapon, on the June 22 episode of Raw, it was announced Cena and The Miz would officially meet in a match at The Bash.
Event +Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Jerry Lawler Jim Ross Todd Grisham Matt Striker Josh Mathews Spanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraHugo SavinovichInterviewerJosh MathewsRing announcerLilian Garcia Justin Roberts Tony Chimel RefereesCharles RobinsonMike ChiodaScott ArmstrongJack DoanMarty EliasChad Patton Dark match Prior to the show airing live on pay-per-view, the crowd in attendance was shown an untelevised match pitting R-Truth against Shelton Benjamin, which saw the former defeat the latter by pinfall.
Preliminary matches The event began with the ECW Championship Scramble match. The match began with two wrestlers competing for three minutes with another wrestler entering every three minutes thereafter; when a wrestler scored a decision over another, they were declared the interim champion, and only lost the distinction if another wrestler scored a decision after them. Whoever was the interim champion as the time limit expired would be named the official champion. The first two competitors were Christian and Jack Swagger before the entrance of Finlay. Swagger became the first interim champion by pinning Finlay with a roll-up; Finlay retaliated with a Celtic Cross to Swagger. When incumbent champion Tommy Dreamer and Mark Henry entered the match, Henry became the interim title holder by pinning Dreamer after a World's Strongest Slam, only to have Swagger become interim champion by pinning Henry following a Swagger Bomb. As the time limit was set to expire, Dreamer executed a DDT on Christian to remain champion. As the final minute of the match progressed, Dreamer spent the time preventing the four other men from scoring a decision to win the match and retain the title.
Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio's match for the Intercontinental Championship followed; the contest was kept at a fast pace, leading to Jericho going to the floor of the arena surrounding the ring to have his opponent deliver a seated senton. As the move also damaged Mysterio, Jericho gained control, whipping the challenger into the barricade before returning the action to the ring; Mysterio regained his momentum to take down Jericho with an Arabian press. The match continued with both men countering each other's signature maneuvers in attempts to score a pin. Mysterio gained the upper hand by dropkicking the champion onto the bottom rope in an attempt to execute the 619; once connected, Jericho quickly applied his submission hold, the Walls of Jericho; Mysterio struggled out of the position, leading to an exchange of surprise pin attempts. The match came to an end when Jericho attempted to remove his opponent's mask, only to see another one in its place, leading to Mysterio taking advantage of the confusion by executing 619 again before performing a springboard splash to pin his opponent, winning the title and retaining his mask.
Third on the card was the No Disqualification match between Dolph Ziggler and The Great Khali. The match quickly went to the arena floor with both men trying to gain control of a steel chair to use as a weapon. Kane made his return in this match by assaulting Khali with the chair before Ziggler made a pin to win the match.
The next match was between The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase) for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship. As the match was about to proceed, after being pressured by Vince McMahon to improve the quality of SmackDown, Theodore Long announced another team would be inserted into the match, making it a triple threat match; the team would be Chris Jericho and Edge. The match centered around The Colóns and The Legacy isolating themselves for the most part before Edge managed to tag himself into the match as Carlito went to pin Rhodes after the Backstabber, but due to Edge tagging in, the match continued for Edge to deliver a spear to Carlito, pinning him to win the titles.
Melina next defended the WWE Women's Championship against Michelle McCool. The match focused around McCool attacking her opponent's leg with her associate, Alicia Fox, inhibiting Melina. As the champion went to attempt a body scissors, McCool delivered a Faith Breaker for the pinfall victory, winning the title.
Main event matches