WWE The Bash

"The Bash" redirects here. For the WWE event series, see WWE The Great American Bash. For other meanings, see Bash.

{{Infobox Wrestling event |name = The Bash |image = Great American Bash (2009) - inDemand.jpg |alt = |caption = Promotion poster featuring Batista |theme = "Whyyawannabringmedown" by Aranda |promotion = World Wrestling Entertainment |sponsor = Gilette |date = June 28, 2009 |attendance = 11,946 |venue = ARCO Arena |city = Sacramento, California TIREM O TÍTULO AO CENA, SANDOW! DÁ-LHE!incumbent champion Tommy Dreamer and Mark Henry entered the match, Henry became the interim title holder by pinning Dreamer, only to have Swagger regain the distinction by pinning Henry following a body press from the corner. As the time limit was set to expire, Dreamer grabbed Christian with a facelock, and executed a DDT before pinning his opponent. As the final minute of the match progressed, Dreamer spent the time preventing the four other men from scoring a decision before winning the match and retaining the title.

Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho for his second WWE Intercontinental Championship; he also retained his right to wear his mask.

Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio's match for the Intercontinental title 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 dive onto him from the top turnbuckle with a body block called the seated senton. As the move also damaged Mysterio, Jericho gained control, whipping the challenger into the guardrail surrounding the ring before returning the action to the ring; Mysterio regained his momentum to take down Jericho with a backflip press following two bounces off the top rope. 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 his signature kick that has him swing through the ropes, the 619; once connected, Jericho quicklt regained composure, stopping the challenger's momentum, applying his signature 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 made an attempt to remove his opponent's mask, only to see another one in its place, leading to Mysterio taking advantage of the confusion by executing the 619 again before jumping off the rope, performing a body press 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 stemming from weeks of inconclusive finishes in their matches together; this stipulation would guarantee a winner without any dispute, as all paraphernalia was legal to use. 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 following 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, but due to Edge tagging Rhodes, the match continued for Edge to connect with a tackle referred to as a spear to Carlito, pinning him, and winning the titles.

Melina would next defend 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 wrap her legs around the challenger's torso, McCool positioned her adversary between her legs and drove her upper body into the mat with her finishing maneuver dubbed the Faith Breaker, to garner the pinfall victory, winning the title.

Main event matches

The Miz would wrestle John Cena in the first official match between the two.

The first of three matches billed as the main event was the World Heavyweight Championship match between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. The match was wrestled at a fast pace as the two exchanged a series of holds and kicks. As Punk was about to deliver a knee to the face in the form of a finishing move called the Go To Sleep (GTS), Hardy maneuvered his way down from the position to grab Punk with a facelock. Hardy then twisted his arm around to perform his own move called the Twist of Fate, dropping Punk to the mat on his face; the challenger followed up on his attack by ascending the top turnbuckle where he dove off and connected with a flipping body block called the Swanton bomb; Hardy then covered his opponent and got the pin. Though it appeared initially that he won the title, the referee soon discovered Punk's foot was under the bottom rope (the ropes neutralize any offense and null any pin attempts), causing the match to continue. As the competitors continued to fight, Punk performed a roundhouse kick on the referee, causing him to get disqualified, thus retaining the title. Following the match, a frustrated Hardy assaulted the champion, leading to the two being pulled apart by the referee and other officials.

John Cena and The Miz had their first official match together next. Cena was able to beat down on his opponent quickly before using the Attitude Adjustment before using the STF to make the Miz submit.

The main event of the evening was the 3 Stages of Hell match. In the first match, a Singles match, Triple H was disqualified after hitting Orton with a chair, giving Orton a victory, therefore leading the series. The next fall was Falls Count Anywhere, which allows a wrestler to score a victory over their opponent anywhere in the arena. Triple H won this decision with little effort after attacking Orton with the chair he was previously disqualified for using, followed by a pin on the floor of the arena after a Pedigree on the outside, tying the series, leading to the Stretcher match. Triple H tried to end the match early by wheeling the champion over the yellow line on the stage that signified the end of the match only to have Orton slide off, leading to a brawl between the two on the stage. The momentum shifted to Orton's favor as he caught the challenger on the stretcher before performing a DDT from the structure onto the entrance ramp. The fight went back up to the stage with Triple H driving Orton's face into the structure whilst holding the arms with a move called the Pedigree, followed by loading the stretcher with Orton until Orton's two protégés, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, interfered, preventing Triple H from winning by distracting him to have Orton attack him, put him on the stretcher, and carried him across the finishing line to win the match. After the match, when Orton was celebrating his victory, Triple H attacked Randy with his signature sledgehammer.

Aftermath

On the edition of Raw following The Bash, it was announced that the general manager position for the Raw 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, Batista announced the WWE Championship would be defended at the July event, Night of Champions; the competitor who would face Orton would be determined by the winner of the tournament that commenced that night. The semi-finals saw Triple H defeat Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) and John Cena defeat The Miz to advance to the finals of the tournament to be held on the July 6 edition of Raw.

Following his match, on the July 2 episode of Superstars, CM Punk 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. Punk claimed the reason he struck the referee because he was unable to see who his target was. Hardy continued after Punk, leading to the announcement the two would meet at Night of Champions for the title.

Reception

Randy Orton before his match

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 H and Orton 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 WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho. 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 WWE matches this year."

The most noteworthy criticism of the show came from John Cena's match with The Miz. 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 The Miz 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.

Results

No.	Results	Stipulations	Times
Dark	R-Truth defeated Shelton Benjamin	Singles match	Unknown
1	Tommy Dreamer (c) defeated Jack Swagger, Christian, Mark Henry (with Tony Atlas) and Finlay	Championship Scramble for the ECW Championship	14:46
2	Rey Mysterio defeated Chris Jericho (c)	Mask vs. Title match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship	15:42
3	Dolph Ziggler defeated The Great Khali (with Ranjin Singh)	No Countout, No Disqualification match	04:59
4	Edge and Chris Jericho defeated The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) (c) and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase)	Triple threat tag team match for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship	09:37
5	Michelle McCool (with Alicia Fox) defeated Melina (c)	Singles match for the WWE Women's Championship	06:34
6	Jeff Hardy defeated CM Punk (c) by disqualification	Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship	14:36
7	John Cena defeated The Miz	Singles match	05:39
8	Randy Orton (c) defeated Triple H 2 falls to 1	Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE Championship Stage 1 - Singles match (won by Orton via DQ) Stage 2 - Falls Count Anywhere match (won by Triple H) Stage 3 - Stretcher match (won by Orton)	21:23
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

ECW Championship Scramble Interim Champions

Number	Wrestler	Entered	Pinned	Method
1	Jack Swagger	2	Finlay	Schoolboy
2	Finlay	3	Jack Swagger	Celtic Cross
3	Mark Henry	5	Tommy Dreamer	World's Strongest Slam
4	Jack Swagger	2	Mark Henry	Swagger Bomb
Winner	Tommy Dreamer	4	Christian	DDT

See also

• WWE The Great American Bash
• List of WWE pay-per-view events

External links

• The official Bash website