Background The Great American Bash is a
professional wrestling event established in 1985. Following
WWE's acquisition of
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, the promotion revived the event as their own annual
pay-per-view (PPV) event in
2004, which continued until
2009. Following this 2009 event, The Great American Bash was discontinued as a PPV. In
2012, WWE revived the event to be held as a
special episode of
SmackDown but was again discontinued. In
2020, WWE again revived the event, this time for the
developmental brand NXT as an annual
television special of the
NXT program until the
2023 event, which aired via WWE's
livestreaming platforms. On July 7, 2024, during
Heatwave, the 12th Great American Bash under the WWE banner, the fifth annual for NXT, and the 26th overall, was officially announced to return, but as a television special of
NXT like the events from 2020 to 2022. It was originally scheduled for just August 6, but was expanded to a two-part event on July 30 and August 6 at the
WWE Performance Center in
Orlando, Florida. The
special episodes of
NXT aired in the United States on
Syfy due to
coverage of the
2024 Summer Olympics airing on
NXTs regular channel, the
USA Network. This was also the first two-part Great American Bash since 2020, as the events from 2021 to 2023 were only one-night events.
Storylines The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program,
NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show,
Level Up. On the July 9 episode of
NXT,
Chase University's
Ridge Holland told fellow stablemate
Thea Hail she was ready for another shot at the
NXT Women's Championship, held by
Roxanne Perez. The following week, Perez expressed frustration at the lack of respect towards her and said Hail did not deserve a title match. Hail interrupted and said Perez was not owed anything and vowed to take the title from her. The two brawled before Holland appeared and restrained Hail. On the July 23 episode, it was announced that Perez would defend her title against Hail on Night 1 of The Great American Bash. On the July 9 episode of
NXT,
Wren Sinclair witnessed
No Quarter Catch Crew (
Charlie Dempsey,
Myles Borne, and
Tavion Heights) presumably murdering (
kayfabe) fellow stablemate
Damon Kemp—this was done to write Kemp off television following his release from WWE. On the July 16 episode of
NXT, Mensah attacked Page after the latter's successful title defense and pinned him. On the July 16 episode of
NXT,
Tatum Paxley asked
NXT Women's North American Champion Kelani Jordan if she wanted to play dolls with her, which Jordan declined, saying they are too old to play with dolls. After Jordan walked away, Paxley unveiled another doll reminiscent of Jordan. Two weeks later, Paxley again asked Jordan if she wanted to play with her, but Jordan declined. Paxley then proposed to play with Jordan's title instead. It was later announced that Jordan would defend her title against Paxley on Night 2 of The Great American Bash. After losing the NXT Championship at Heatwave,
Trick Williams approached Raw's
Pete Dunne for advice, only for Dunne to tell Williams to "figure it out." One week later, Williams defeated
Cedric Alexander, but Dunne attacked him after the match. On the next episode, Williams challenged Dunne to a match on Night 2 of The Great American Bash, which was made official. On the July 9 episode of
NXT,
Wes Lee addressed failing to regain the NXT North American Championship at Heatwave, seemingly announcing that he would be stepping away from NXT, but was interrupted by his former
Rascalz stablemates
Trey Miguel and
Zachary Wentz from TNA. Miguel and Wentz, formerly known as Nash Carter in NXT, convinced Lee to reunite with them. Two weeks later, The Rascalz defeated
Je'Von Evans and
NXT Tag Team Champions Axiom and
Nathan Frazer in a
six-man tag team match after Wentz pinned Axiom. On the next episode, the Rascalz recounted how Lee and Wentz, once again using their former tag team name, MSK, never lost the titles in the first place and set their sights on reclaiming them. It was later announced that MSK would challenge Axiom and Frazer for the titles on Night 2 of The Great American Bash. ==Aftermath==