WWE: The Great American Bash
July 23, 2006
Indianapolis, IN
Conseco Fieldhouse

The current Smackdown champions are as follows:
World Heavyweight Champion: Rey Mysterio (4/2/2006)
WWE United States Champion: Finlay (7/14/2006)
WWE Tag Team Champions: Paul London & Brian Kendrick (5/21/2006)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Gregory Helms (1/29/2006)

WEIRD NIGHT FOR WRESTLING: So FOUR matches on this PPV have been forced to be changed by no fault in WWE’s booking. First, we’ll talk about the US title rematch between the new champ Finlay and the man he beat for the title Bobby Lashley who happens to be the up and coming guy that Vince has gotten behind and wants to push all the way over the moon. At least that’s how it appeared in 2006. It was announced the day before the PPV that Bobby Lashley was being taken off the PPV because a test revealed he had “elevated liver enzymes” showing up in his blood. This can be caused by a variety of different things namely medications like antibiotics, it can come about through drinking too much alcohol, scary things like hepatitis, even by just taking something innocuous like herbal supplements. Oh, I almost forgot, you can have elevated liver enzymes from STEROID USE as well. Now of course since he’s being pushed over the moon and well into outer space, Lashley has never failed a test for steroids in WWE. Too bad I can’t find any images of how Bobby Lashley looked before he signed a WWE contract.

If that wasn’t bad for the Smackdown brand, Mark Henry was injured with a torn patella tendon on Saturday Night’s Main Event just a week before the Bash. He was scheduled to wrestle a returning Batista tonight in a big revenge match since Henry was the man who put Batista out of action in the first place six months earlier.

The Great Khali was set to debut his own gimmick match on this show – the Punjabi Prison match – with the Undertaker after pinning him WITH ONE FOOT ON HIS CHEST two months ago at Judgment Day when it was announced that Khali was being pulled from the show for having a liver problem.

And to top it all off, Super Crazy was originally planned to face Gregory Helms over the Cruiserweight title in a rematch from Judgment Day and gets pulled from the show for also having “elevated liver enzymes”. I didn’t know elevated liver enzymes was contagious.

Let’s see how this puppy turns out though with all these last minute changes.

Your hosts are Michael Cole & JBL. They still talk like the Great Khali is going to wrestle tonight. They stress that the Undertaker has no idea what the Punjabi Prison match is all about and neither do we at this point.
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