The 2020 NXT The Great American Bash was the eighth

Great American Bash 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 ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

event produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

, and 22nd Great American Bash event overall. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. The event aired as a two-part special episode of WWE's weekly television series '' NXT'', broadcast on the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

. The event was taped on July 1, 2020, at the

Full Sail University Full Sail University is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center f ...

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 29,795 according to the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Orlando, Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was foun ...

. The first part aired that night on July 1 while the second part aired on tape delay on July 8. It was the first Great American Bash event held since

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

as well as the first to air as an annual

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

of ''NXT''.

Production

Background

The Great American Bash 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 Dus ...

is a

event established in 1985. Following

's acquisition of

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of National W ...

(WCW) in March 2001, the promotion revived the event as their own annual

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

(PPV) in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. The event continued until

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. Following this 2009 event, The Great American Bash was discontinued as a PPV. In

, WWE revived the event to be held as a special episode of ''

SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE. It airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on USA Network in the United ...

'', but was again discontinued. On June 24, 2020, however, WWE announced that the eighth Great American Bash under the WWE banner, and 22nd overall, would take place as a special two-week event during the July 1 and July 8 episodes of '' NXT'' on the

. Both episodes were taped on July 1.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a

behind closed doors Behind Closed Doors may refer to: Film, television and radio Film * ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1929 film), an early talkie starring Virginia Valli * Behind Closed Doors (1961 film), ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1961 film), an Italian comedy film by Dino ...

set. Broadcasts of ''NXT'' were subsequently held at NXT's home base of

Storylines

The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed

heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...

villains A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show, ''NXT''. One scheduled match for the July 8 broadcast was a champion vs. champion winner takes all match between NXT Champion

Adam Cole Austin Kirk Jenkins (born July 5, 1989), known by the ring name Adam Cole, is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of The Paragon (professional wrestling), ...

and

NXT North American Champion The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is defended as the secondary men's championship of NXT, the promotion's developmental brand. The current champio ...

Keith Lee. The two-night event went head-to-head against

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

's Fyter Fest, which was held on the same nights. Due to the

, both nights of the 2020 event were held

at NXT's home base of

Results

Notes

References

External links

* {{WWEPPV, The Great American Bash The Great American Bash 2020 in professional wrestling in Florida 2020 in professional wrestling July 2020 in the United States Professional wrestling shows in Winter Park, Florida WWE NXT