NXT The Great American Bash (2025)

The 2025 Great American Bash, also promoted as The Great American Bash: Atlanta, is an upcoming professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by WWE. It will be the 13th Great American Bash under the WWE banner, the sixth annual produced specifically for its developmental brand NXT, and the 27th Great American Bash event overall. The event will take place on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia the last time that Great American Bash was in the Georgia area was the 1992 Event. It will have a special start time of 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time

The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event established in 1985. Following WWE's acquisition of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001,^[1] the promotion revived the event as their own annual pay-per-view (PPV) event in 2004,^[2] 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.^[3] It was then again a television special of NXT in 2024.^[4]

On May 27, 2025, it was announced that the 13th Great American Bash under the WWE banner, the sixth annual for NXT, and the 27th overall, would be held as a livestreaming event on Saturday, July 12, 2025, at Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia.^[5] In addition to Peacock in the United States, the event will be available livestream on Netflix in most international markets and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that have not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marks the first Great American Bash to livestream on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January in those areas.^[6] The event will have a special start time of 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, putting it head-to-head against All In, the biggest annual PPV event produced by All Elite Wrestling.^[5]

The event will include matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT.^[7][8]

On the May 20 episode of NXT, Jasper Troy attacked NXT Champion Oba Femi,^[9] which would lead to a title match between both men on the June 10 episode, where Femi retained the championship.^[10] The following week, Yoshiki Inamura stated he would be coming after Femi's championship, and on the June 24 episode, Femi said he wanted more competition and demanded an opponent. Inamura answered the challenge and set his sights on the title. After the confrontation, Troy attacked Inamura, before staring down Femi, making it clear that he would go after his championship once again. Later that night, a match between Inamura and Troy was scheduled for the July 1 episode, where the winner would challenge Femi for the title at The Great American Bash.^[11] The match was won by Inamura.^[12]

On the May 27 episode of NXT, Jacy Jayne won the NXT Women's Championship.^[13] One week later, several women interrupted Jayne's celebration, each discussing why they deserved a title match, which included the debuting Blake Monroe (formerly known as Mariah May in All Elite Wrestling).^[14] On the June 17 episode, Monroe officially signed her NXT contract, only to be interrupted by Jayne and her Fatal Influence stablemates, Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx. They took issue with not having a celebration for Jayne's victory. After some exchange of words, Monroe slapped Jayne, leading to a brawl, which ended with Henley and Jayne slamming Monroe trough a table.^[15] A week later, Jordynne Grace won a match to become the number one contender for the title at Evolution, which would take place the day after The Great American Bash,^[11] and on the following episode, Grace spoke about her victory and vowed to walk out of Evolution as the champion, only to be interrupted by Fatal Influence, who mocked Grace and Monroe. After some exchange of words, Jayne tried to attack Grace, who fights back, but was outnumbered by Fatal Influence. Monroe then came in to save Grace. Afterwards, NXT General Manager Ava announced that a tag team match between Monroe and Grace against Henley and Jayne would take place at The Great American Bash, which would mark Monroe's televised debut match in WWE.^[12]

At NXT Battleground, Trick Williams defeated Joe Hendry to win the TNA World Championship, becoming the first WWE-contracted wrestler to hold any TNA title.^[16] On the June 3 episode of NXT, Williams successfully defended the championship against TNA's Mike Santana.^[14] On the June 26 episode of TNA Impact!, TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella announced that Hendry would have his rematch for the TNA World Championship at TNA's Slammiversary, however, later that night, Santana demanded to be added to the match, as the event would take place in his home state of New York, which was subsequently made official.^[17] On the July 1 episode of NXT, it was announced that the contract signing for the match would take place at The Great American Bash.^[12]

Since May, Tatum Paxley became depressed after losing her friends, Gigi Dolin and Shotzi. During this time, NXT Women's North American Champion Sol Ruca and her partner Zaria tried to approach Paxley, while The Culling's Izzi Dame also tried to become close to Paxley. On the June 17 episode of NXT, Paxley accidentaly costed Zaria her qualifying match against Dame at the Evolution Eliminator Tournament for an NXT Women's Championship match at Evolution, which infuriated Zaria.^[15] The following week, Paxley was in Dame's corner during the finals of the tournament, and after she interfered, Zaria and Ruca came out, leaving Paxley with them.^[11] The following week, Dame and Paxley defeated Ruca and Zaria in a tag team match, with Dame pinning Ruca. Later that night, NXT General Manager Ava announced that Ruca would defend her championship against Dame at The Great American Bash.^[12]

At Stand & Deliver , Ricky Saints successfully defended the NXT North American Championship against Ethan Page. Their rivalry continued, and on the May 27 episode of NXT, Page defeated Saints to win the championship after Page injuried Saints.^[13] Two weeks later, Saints returned attacking Page,^[10] and on the July 1 episode, Page proposed for Saints to face Evolve's The Vanity Project (Brad Baylor, Ricky Smokes, and Jackson Drake), whom Page made an alliance, in a Vanity Project gauntlet match, where if Saints wins, he would earn a shot for the NXT North American Championship, with Saints proposing that if he wins, he could choose the stipulation of the match. NXT General Manager Ava subsequently agreed.^[12] The match took place the following week, where Saints won, scheduling a match between Saints and Page for the title at The Great American Bash. Saints subsequently choose a Falls Count Anywhere stipulation for the match.

• WWE NXT Official Website