The Great American Bash (1988)

The Great American Bash
VHS cover featuring Nikita Koloff and Tully Blanchard
Promotion	National Wrestling Alliance: Jim Crockett Promotions
Date	July 10, 1988
City	Baltimore, Maryland
Venue	Baltimore Arena
Attendance	14,000[1]
Tagline(s)	The Price for Freedom[2]
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous The Bunkhouse Stampede Finals Next → Starrcade
The Great American Bash chronology
← Previous 1987 Next → 1989

The 1988 Great American Bash was the fourth annual Great American Bash professional wrestling event produced by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). It was the first Great American Bash event to air on pay-per-view (PPV), as the previous events aired on closed-circuit television. The event took place on July 10, 1988, at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This was the final NWA event produced by JCP and the third and final NWA event to be produced as a pay-per-view, as JCP was purchased by Turner Broadcasting System in November 1988 and was rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW). This was also the first Pay Per View produced under the Turner Home Entertainment banner as the other two events (Starrcade '87 and the Bunkhouse Stampede Finals in January 1988) were produced by The Wrestling Network.

The main event was a standard wrestling match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Ric Flair defeated Lex Luger to retain the title when the match was stopped due to Luger's excessive bleeding. Featured matches on the undercard saw Barry Windham versus Dusty Rhodes for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal), Steve Williams, Jimmy Garvin, and Ron Garvin versus Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Russian Assassin, and Ivan Koloff in a Tower of Doom match, The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) versus The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, and Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard versus Sting and Nikita Koloff for the NWA World Tag Team Championship.