Cheap Heat Podcast on Grantland.com
Hosts: Peter Rosenberg & David Shoemaker
Release Date: November 25, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Corey Freedman
Top Newsworthy Items
– The hosts’s major gripe with Survivor Series was that it all felt very predictable and was poorly executed at some times. They felt too much time was obviously left at the end of the Reigns-Ambrose main event that it removed the element of surprise.
– The hosts agreed that the Brothers of Destruction vs. Wyatts match was underwhelming and that Taker and Kane did a poor job of coordinating their big spots.
– The trio talked a bit about Roman Reigns being poorly positioned by the company. They believe he is not responsible for the negative reactions he gets.
Subjects Covered (w/ timestamps)
0:00 – Introduction
1:40 – Survivor Series thoughts
18:05 – Raw thoughts
27:35 – More Survivor Series thoughts
30:50 – Cesaro injury
31:45 – Ways to improve star power
35:10 – Brother’s of Destruction vs Wyatt Family
37:15 – Traditional Survivor Series match
38:45 – Stardust
39:45 – MVP of the week (mostly a Roman Reigns discussion)
50:20 – More Raw thoughts
54:30 – Kristaps Porzingis nickname discussion
55:30- WCCW Star Wars
58:00 – Concluding thoughts
1:02:00 – Audio from the Gobbledy Gooker debut
Show Highlights
Survivor Series thoughts: Rosenberg starts by saying that he was not excited by the PPV, and he hopes that Shoemaker can put a positive spin on it. Shoemaker notes that he enjoyed watching the show, but found the pacing of the event a bit off. He thought the quarterfinal matches on Raw were better than the semi-final matches on Sunday. He continues that heel Sheamus as champion is not inherently a bad thing, as Sheamus is a good wrestler and can be entertaining if booked correctly. He and Rosenberg talk about the predictably about the PPV ending given that the Ambrose-Reigns match ended with 20 minutes left and that the Ambrose-Reigns match wasn’t particularly exciting/long. They also agreed that the confetti celebration felt a bit overboard even without knowing what would come after. The two joke about how each time Sheamus tries to cash in the MITB briefcase, the referee and ringside crew seem to act like they have never heard of the briefcase before.
Shoemaker would rather have started a reign for Roman and just be done with it. He feels like they are going to keep trying to find different ways to talk the crowd into getting behind Reigns over and over again. He doesn’t dislike Reigns, but he is ready for this narrative to be over for the moment. Stat Guy Greg joins the show. He thought the show was boring and too predictable. Shoemaker brings up that Sid Vicious has been tweeting about wrestling in a smart way. The three hosts talk about how silly the MITB briefcase has become. Rosenberg says that he wishes something that created a “wow” moment had finished the PPV (e.g. Reigns or Ambrose turning heel, surprise run-in, etc). They joke about how WWE talks non-stop about how Reigns and Ambrose are brothers, but when Reigns was getting beat down by Sheamus, Ambrose was nowhere to be found.
Raw thoughts: The hosts all joke about how they either watch Raw while heavily fast forwarding or they watch a shorter version on Hulu. Shoemaker wonders why they tried to sell Wade Barrett as a surprise run-in at the end of the show, but he has been teaming with Sheamus for a while now. The hosts try to come up with a nickname for the Rusev/Barrett/Sheamus trio. Rosenberg brings up the idea of Barrett and Rusev serving as the muscle for Sheamus while he is the champion. Shoemaker talks about how he thought New Day were enjoyable on Raw this week. The hosts talk a bit about the odd names for the original WWE Network shows like Ride Along or Table for 3.
More Survivor Series thoughts: The hosts talk about how the crowd is not ready for Tyler Breeze as they haven’t really been reacting to him at all.
Cesaro injury: Shoemaker brings up his injury and asks how badly the timing was for his career. The hosts agree that this injury sucks for everyone involved.
Improving star power: Rosenberg asks who the WWE can look at in order to add more star power to the show given the recent bout of injuries/stars taking time off. Shoemaker notes that the Finn Balor rise should start at some point as he seems ready for big things. Rosenberg wants to look outside the company. Shoemaker brings up MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Carlito as names that have circulated. Rosenberg asks whether it is time to bring Batista back. Shoemaker notes that the WWE isn’t low on talent, but they have too many people in the mid-card area.
Kane & Taker vs. The Wyatts: Rosenberg starts by saying that this was not a good match. He continues by saying that Taker and Kane did a really poor job of coordinating the only interesting spots in the match (he mentions them not sitting up at the same time, not coordinating the dual chokeslam at the same time, and not really doing the raised fist at the same time). They talk about how poor the raised fist spot looked with Kane staring at Taker to make sure it was timed all right. Greg makes the point that since Kane is wearing a mask, he should be coordinating those spots since we can’t see his whole face. The hosts talk about how much time was spent on Survivor Series showing the same Undertaker video.
Traditional Survivor Series match: The hosts talk about how random this grouping of wrestlers was and how disappointing it was for the traditional match of this PPV to be on the pre-show. The match was so random/unimportant that Shoemaker has trouble even remembering who was involved.
Stardust: Shoemaker wants to take a second to appreciate how great Stardust has been. He notes that he is someone who has made the most out of being given so little.
MVP of the week: The hosts introduce a new segment (maybe) where they each decide who was the MVP of the last week in wrestling. Greg’s MVP is Roman Reigns. He chose Reigns because he realized that his hatred towards Reigns was unwarranted and that he feels he is one of the best wrestlers on the roster. He also talks about how crowds cheered for Reigns when he was in The Shield and now people have turned on him. Shoemaker notes that the hatred toward Roman is mostly WWE’s fault, not Roman himself. Rosenberg chooses himself as the MVP of the week. He feels he deserves it because he skipped Raw which makes him the smartest fan. In seriousness, he chose Alberto Del Rio because he enjoyed his matches this week. Shoemaker also chooses Roman Reigns. Shoemaker also brings up Jack Swagger doing a nice job in the middle of a really poor storyline. Rosenberg brings up how good a talker Alberto Del Rio is and how weird it is that Zeb Colter does all his talking for him. They talk a bit about looking forward to a potential Dean Ambrose-Kevin Owens match at TLC.
More Raw thoughts: The hosts mention that Sasha Banks finally had a match on Raw. Rosenberg talks a bit about his Twitter timeline blowing up because Mark Henry was jobbing on Raw to Neville. Greg talks about the frustration that appeared to be building up with Mark Henry during his match with Neville and perhaps that could lead to something for him in the future. The hosts try to figure out a Twitter campaign to let WWE know they should use Mark Henry more effectively.
WCCW Star Wars: Rosenberg looks at some old WCCW cards.
Concluding thoughts: The hosts talk a bit about Thanksgiving football and their holiday plans. They also call Rosenberg’s wife to leave her a message wishing her a happy birthday.
Score and Review
Score (9.0): I thought this was a great episode of Cheap Heat. If you like hosts/style of this show, I think this is almost a perfect episode. From the minute this show started the hosts get into Survivor Series thoughts/aftermath with almost no diversions. I think there are a lot of topics/issues to cover in the current landscape of the WWE and the trio wasted no time discussing them. There is not a full-scale break down of everything that occurred during the PPV, but there is instead a non-stop discussion focusing on some of the more important talking points.
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