WWE The Great American Bash 2006 Review

In wake of the WWE bringing back the Punjabi Prison match, let's take a look back at the show that held the very first one in the 2006 installment of The Great American Bash! The Undertaker took on The Big Show inside the prison while Rey Mysterio faced another hurdle as World Heavyweight Champion against King Booker!

Match 1: WWE Tag Team Championships - Paul London & Brian Kendrick (c) vs. The Pitbulls
Anyone remember The Pitbulls? They were comprised of Jamie Noble and Kid Kash as they made their way to the ring with chains wrapped around their neck. Goodness. JBL did a great job in the booth of hyping up both teams and breaking down the analysis of the match to the tee. Fun action from the two teams as the fast style of Paul London & Brian Kendrick clashed nicely against the harder style of The Pitbulls. Nice opening match here with the champions retaining their belts in a very competitive match. Good start to get the crowd going.
Winners: Paul London & Brian Kendrick
Rating: **3/4

Match 2: United States Championship - Finlay (c) vs. William Regal
Prior to the match, general manager Teddy Long came out and announced that due to elevated enzymes in his liver, Bobby Lashley had been removed from the match. Finlay and William Regal then both come out before Teddy makes a match between the two for Finlay's United States Championship. You have to question the booking decision here to have two heels fight each other after a fairly hot start to the show. The crowd certainly was taken out of the show, despite the quality inside the ring. Finlay used leverage from the ropes along with some help from Hornwoggle to score the win over his friend and partner in Regal to retain the gold.
Winner: Finlay
Rating: ***

Match 3: Matt Hardy vs. Gregory Helms
Love how JBL hypes up Gregory Helms to the moon, this was during his reign as the Cruiserweight Champion and was basically cleaning house. Matt Hardy was his opponent here but since Hardy exceeded the maximum weight for the division, the title was not at stake. Another decent match between the two here with Helms scoring the win after a handful of tights. Hardy's career was seemingly going down at this point while his arch nemesis in Edge was reaching his peak. The match was fine but nothing that screamed PPV quality to me.
Winner: Gregory Helms
Rating: **3/4

Match 4: Punjabi Prison - The Big Show vs. The Undertaker
Although this match was billed as The Great Khali's specialty match, he was replaced by The Big Show because of a backstage ambush by Show from the orders of Teddy Long. This was likely because the WWE just didn't have enough faith in Khali to execute a new match like this against The Undertaker. For all the flack this match gets, I like the uniqueness it brought to the table and in my opinion, it's always cool to see interesting ideas like this brought to the table in the WWE. No matter how confusing it may be the first time around. Unfortunately, even switching Khali's role with The Big Show wasn't enough to save this match. The crowd had trouble getting into it and that's likely because it was pretty damn hard to see what was actually happening with the bamboo structure obstructing our vision. Also, it just didn't seem like the crowd was completely understanding of the rules. However, once they escaped the first structure, the action definitely picked up a bit. Loved the spot where The Undertaker had to scale the first structure and step over onto the second one before swinging and kicking Show off it with a rope. Khali makes an appearance but is too late as Undertaker slams himself off the first structure onto The Big Show which breaks through the second structure. The Undertaker was declared the winner. This was a mess, no bones about it. They experimented one more time with the match a year later and while that one was definitely better than this one, it still wasn't enough for the WWE to warrant a comeback for it until 2017! Then again, this was the first time the WWE tried this out and the second one did feature The Great Khali in it so maybe with smaller guys in the cages, things might go better the third time around.
Winner: The Undertaker
Rating: *3/4

Match 5: Bra & Panties - Krystal vs. Michelle McCool vs. Jillian Hall vs. Ashley Massaro
So after the serious and brutal match in the Punjabi Prison, we get this. I forget how bad some of these matches were back in the day, it's crazy how far we have come with women's wrestling. Ashley Massaro picks up the win after stripping Krystal. She then celebrates with Jillian Hall afterwards as they both undress each other. That was tough to watch.
Winner: Ashley Massaro
Rating: 1/4*

Match 6: Batista vs. Mr. Kennedy
I remember the heat Batista had with Mark Henry in their feud leading up to their match at this event. It was electric and the buzz for both guys was so high. Unfortunately, Henry got injured and we never got to witness the hot match between the two at this show. Batista had a few interesting things to say about their feud in his book and in his DVD. Mr. Kennedy steps in for Henry and ends up taking the beating of a lifetime. The amount of blood that Kennedy shed for this match was brutal. But it all made sense and the sight of Batista crushing Kennedy in the corner with kicks told the story. Batista gets disqualified but does not leave before hitting a Batista Bomb on Kennedy. Great booking move here. Please the fans with Batista beating down Kennedy to his teeth and giving Kennedy the out with the disqualification win.
Winner: Mr. Kennedy
Rating: **1/4

Match 7: World Heavyweight Championship - Rey Mysterio (c) vs. King Booker
Remarkable to think that two WCW guys would be main eventing a WWE PPV for the World Heavyweight Championship at the time. Also very cool to see Booker T finally rise to the occasion and become the face of SmackDown. Kudos to him for taking his new gimmick to another level. Hard to say that I could have seen that coming in 2006. Booker seems confident in the start but after Mysterio becomes too much to handle, Booker resorts to having Queen Sharmell help him out. However, the referee tosses her out and the match is finally going to be called without any distractions. But after a referee bump and a low blow from Booker, Chavo Guerrero comes out and looks to help out his best friend! But Guerrero strikes Mysterio with one of the nastiest and swiftest chair shots I have ever seen! Booker covers Mysterio and completes his promise, King Booker is a World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE! It looked pretty predictable that Chavo was going to turn on Mysterio but the execution was so perfectly done by Chavo. Much credit to him on that and much credit to Mysterio for selling it like a champ. No pun intended. The show closes with Sharmell cheering on her husband.
Winner: King Booker
Rating: ***3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another poor PPV display from the WWE as we are reminded once more why the company decided to ditch these brand-exclusive PPVs a year later. The debut Punjabi Prison was a flop, Mark Henry getting injured was a disappointed and the main event wasn't enough to save the show. But if you were to remember this show for one thing, it will be for the coronation of King Booker.
Rating: 5.5/10