| The Great American Bash | |
|---|---|
 NXT The Great American Bash logo used as of 2024 | |
| Created by | Dusty Rhodes |
| Promotions | National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions (1985–1988) World Championship Wrestling (1989–1992, 1995–2000) WWE (2004–2009, 2012, 2020–present) |
| Brands | Raw (2007–2009) SmackDown (2004–2009) ECW (2007–2009) NXT (2020–present) |
| Other names | The Bash (2009) |
| First event | 1985 |
The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event held during the summer and has been produced by the American promotion WWE since 2004; since 2020, it has been held as an annual event for WWE's developmental brand, NXT. Created by Dusty Rhodes, the event was originally established in 1985 and was produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). It originally aired on closed-circuit television until 1988 when it began broadcasting on pay-per-view (PPV), and later that same year, JCP was rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which seceded from the NWA in January 1991.
In March 2001, the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased WCW. In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and the promotion revived The Great American Bash as their own annual PPV event in 2004. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from WWE's SmackDown brand from 2004 to 2006 before brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued in April 2007. In 2009, WWE renamed the event as The Bash, which was also the final Great American Bash broadcast on PPV, as it was replaced by Fatal 4-Way in 2010.
The event returned once in July 2012 under its original full name and was held as a television special, airing as a special episode of SmackDown. In July 2020, the event was again revived and became an annual event for WWE's developmental brand, NXT; from 2020 to 2022, it aired as special episodes of NXT, but was held as a livestreaming event in 2023, marking the first Great American Bash to air on WWE's livestreaming platforms before returning to being a television special in 2024.