Storylines
The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. [4]
Flair, Savage, and the United States Championship tournament
Entering 1995, Vader was the reigning United States Champion; he won the championship at Starrcade by defeating Hacksaw Jim Duggan In March of 1995, as Vader was in the midst of challenging Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, he was stripped of the United States Championship for repeatedly attacking and injuring his fellow competitors, the last of which was Evad Sullivan. [5] To settle the vacant championship, sixteen wrestlers were chosen to participate in a single-elimination tournament. The tournament commenced on the April 22, 1995 installment of WCW Saturday Night and was to conclude at The Great American Bash. [6] Among the sixteen competitors were Ric Flair, a five-time former United States Champion, and Randy Savage, contending for his first championship since joining WCW at the end of 1994. Their participation in the tournament was coinciding with a continuation of the feud that had carried over from their days in the World Wrestling Federation. Flair, who had been forced to retire from WCW in October 1994 after suffering a defeat to Hogan at Halloween Havoc, attacked Savage during his match with Avalanche at Uncensored in March. Two months later, at May's Slamboree, a reinstated Flair teamed with Vader to take on Hogan and Savage in a tag team match; while Flair and Vader were defeated, a brawl after the match saw him attack Angelo Poffo, Savage's father, and place him in the figure four leglock.
Savage and Flair reached the semifinals of the tournament along with Sting and Meng. Savage defeated The Butcher and "Stunning" Steve Austin in his two tournament matches to that point, while Flair's first match was a victory over The Patriot. [7] In his second contest, Flair faced Alex Wright in a match where Savage caused a disqualification by attacking the multiple-time former world champion. [8]
Sting, meanwhile, had defeated Arn Anderson in his opening match and then took out Paul Orndorff to advance to the other semifinal match. Meng earned his chance by defeating Marcus Alexander Bagwell and Flyin' Brian. Both semifinal matches were scheduled for June 3, 1995, on Saturday Night, with Flair and Savage scheduled first. Before Flair could enter the ring, Savage ran backstage and began assaulting him, with the ensuing brawl resulting in the match being called off. Since the two had signed to face each other at The Great American Bash, it was decided that they would both be removed from the tournament and that the other semifinal contest, which had yet to take place, would now be pushed back to the pay-per-view with either Sting or Meng becoming the new United States Champion. [9]
Other storylines
In March 1995, Hulk Hogan began hyping his "ultimate surprise" which he would reveal at Uncensored in March to combat the alliance of Vader, Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. It was rumored that the surprise would be The Ultimate Warrior but it was the debut of The Renegade. Renegade would aid Hogan and Randy Savage in their feud with Flair, Vader and Anderson. Renegade then challenged Anderson to a match for the World Television Championship at The Great American Bash, which was later made official.
On the May 21 episode of Main Event during Slamboree pre-show, The Blue Bloods (Earl Robert Eaton and Lord Steven Regal) attacked The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) backstage. Later that night at Slamboree, Nasty Boys defeated Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray) to win the World Tag Team Championship and Blue Bloods showed up at the aisle to confront Nasty Boys. On the May 27 episode of Saturday Night, Nasty Boys expressed their desire to face Blue Bloods for the titles. On the June 3 episode of Saturday Night, a match between the two teams was made official for the title at The Great American Bash.
Sgt. Craig Pittman began an undefeated streak following his WCW debut in February. On the June 3 episode of Saturday Night, it was announced that Pittman would face Marcus Alexander Bagwell in a match at The Great American Bash.
On the February 18 episode of Pro , Dave Sullivan was scheduled to compete in an arm wrestling contest against Diamond Dallas Page but DDP faked an arm injury and brought in Max Muscle as his replacement, who defeated Sullivan after Sullivan was distracted by The Diamond Doll's beauty. Due to the pre-match stipulation, Sullivan had to hand over his childhood piggy back to DDP, who threw it to break it down. Soon after, Diamond Doll would develop an affection for Sullivan as she visited him in hospital on the April 15 episode of Saturday Night while he was recovering from an attack by Vader in March. The affection between Sullivan and Doll grew to the point leading DDP to challenge Sullivan to an arm wrestling contest at The Great American Bash. A stipulation was added to the match that if Sullivan won then he would get a date with Doll and if DDP won then he would get Sullivan's pet rabbit Ralph.
