
WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who is also All Elite Wrestlingโs Director of Business Development, took to an episode of his โMy World with Jeff Jarrettโ podcast, where he talked about a number of topics including the Great American Bashโs place in wrestling history.
Jarrett said, โThe first kind of big show that was touring in my mind โ and of course โMania, or Rumble came later. But I guess โMania maybe would be one. But right at the same time, and just because the WCW talent, the NWA talent was, weโll call, a part of the territory. The Great American Bash always kind of had a sentimental value to it.โ
On the state of WCW around Great American Bash 2000:
โWe 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, โOkay, how are we going to make the best of this situation?’โ
On Hulk Hoganโs feud with Billy Kidman in 2000:
โWell at the time, I was mildly amused that Iโm like, โOkay, Hulkโs doing this. What an opportunity for Billy; Billy will sell his ass off.โ Billy Kidman, man, heโs 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, โOh man, this is as potential.โ And then you could just kind of see that the air being led out of it, and โWow, I donโt really think this is going to do either guy any good.โโ
โAnd obviously now as we look back on it, it was because it was kind of a part of everything else that weโve 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 heโs 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 โ 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.โ
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)