WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is also All Elite Wrestling’s Director of Business Development, took to an episode of his “My World with Jeff Jarrett” podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the Great American Bash’s place in wrestling history.
Jarrett said, “The first kind of big show that was touring in my mind — and of course ‘Mania, or Rumble came later. But I guess ‘Mania maybe would be one. But right at the same time, and just because the WCW talent, the NWA talent was, we’ll call, a part of the territory. The Great American Bash always kind of had a sentimental value to it.”
On the state of WCW around Great American Bash 2000:
“We had Stockholm syndrome. It was the culture and environment we were in that, we got paid. We showed up on Nitro and Thunder and pay-per-view, and the house shows were cut back at this point. And we just kind of, ‘Okay, how are we going to make the best of this situation?’”
On Hulk Hogan’s feud with Billy Kidman in 2000:
“Well at the time, I was mildly amused that I’m like, ‘Okay, Hulk’s doing this. What an opportunity for Billy; Billy will sell his ass off.’ Billy Kidman, man, he’s a hell of a worker. He could fly all around. But the story getting into it, and you could just kind of see real-time that, ‘Oh man, this is as potential.’ And then you could just kind of see that the air being led out of it, and ‘Wow, I don’t really think this is going to do either guy any good.’”
“And obviously now as we look back on it, it was because it was kind of a part of everything else that we’ve talked about. The silly title switches, the Booker T is GI Bro, and that that just jumped off the page at me. Kanyon in a halo one month, next month he’s back. Mike Awesome in the bus. Just kind of the overall vibe of the entire product was in reverse of what it had been. Like. I mean, it was just brutal that it was never — the Hogan/Kidman thing, like so many other things during this timeframe, man, it had some potential. Some folks had high hopes for it. But the reality is it laid an egg like so many others.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
