Cheap Heat on Grantland Sports
Hosts: Peter Rosenberg & David Shoemaker
Release Date: December 21, 2015
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Corey Freedman
Top Newsworthy Items
– The hosts have the annual Majie Awards.
– Shoemaker and Greg didn’t have a problem with the NXT London crowd, and they thoroughly enjoyed the show. Shoemaker specifically praised the pacing and special feel of the special.
– Match of the Centch goes to Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn
Subjects Covered (w/timestamps)
0:00 – Introduction
1:40 – NXT Takeover: London
10:14 – Football discussion/Rosenberg’s visit with Mike Tyson
17:10 – Holiday plans
22:35 – Majie Awards
58:40 – Greg reviews the show/conclusion
Show Highlights
Introduction: The hosts joke about this being one of the first times the show is posted on a Monday.
NXT London: Rosenberg didn’t see the show but wonders if he missed anything as it didn’t seem that way based on what he read. Shoemaker follows that the pacing of NXT, that they don’t have a PPV every month, makes each PPV feel really special. He praises the way they hype matches and show video packages. He says they can make things seem big without literally saying that. Shoemaker says compared to some of the other specials, this wasn’t the best. He says, in a general sense, it’s hard not to watch NXT special and not think they are better than whatever the last WWE PPV was. He says it wasn’t the most earth-shattering show but it was really good overall.
Shoemaker especially praises the two main events and their old-school storytelling ability. They talk about how Raw doesn’t allow for the ability to tell stories like the format of NXT does. Shoemaker really enjoyed the fans in London. Greg follows that chanting like that is part of the culture in Europe so it did not bother him at all. Shoemaker praises Asuka and thinks Emma should get an award for best-repackaging. Greg says that Baron Corbin’s ring work has improved noticeably. Shoemaker thought having Corbin win was the right decision as Apollo is still on the way up and will have plenty of big wins. He enjoyed the Bayley vs. Nia Jax match but felt the story they were telling was a bit see-through, but that is nitpicking. He also says that he loves seeing Joe and Balor in the ring together.
Football/Tyson: They talk a bit about the NFC East. They also talk about Rosenberg’s encounter with Mike Tyson. They also talk about watching football in a Vegas Sportsbook.
Holiday plans: They talk about their respective plans for the Holidays. They talk a decent amount about the island of Curacao. The hosts joke about some of the places wrestlers have been billed from.
Majie Awards: The awards were decided by fan votes determining the top three in each category, and then the hosts voted on the final three to determine a winner.
The first category is “Most Maj Performer.” The top three are Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and the New Day. There is a derailment in the conversation to talk about Greg’s dancing from high school which they talked about last week. Shoemaker brings up some people that could have been in the final three, such as Roman Reigns. They talk about how great Kevin Owens has been this year, especially with his debut against John Cena. Shoemaker talks about how strong the feeling of “what are they going to do” was when Seth Rollins got hurt. The winner of “Most Maj Performer” is Seth Rollins.
The second category is “Most Adjace Gimmick,” and the finalists are Corporate Kane, Axelmania, and Adam Rose. Shoemaker says that Axelmania is clearly the most adjace thing that happened this year in wrestling, as it is almost literally the definition of adjace. Rosenberg disagrees and says that it should have been the Ascension. They call Axelmania more of a rip-off than adjace. They derail into a discussion about Hulk Hogan and racism. The winner of “Most Adjace Gimmick” is Axelmania.
Next is “Repug storyline.” The finalists are the Rusev/Lana/Ziggler/Summer Rae love quadrangle, MexAmerica, and the Divas Revolution. They feel people voted for the Divas Revolution mostly out of protest. The hosts talk about how awful the MexAmerica story was. They then discuss how awful the love quadrangle storyline was and that it was an even worse ending given that it ended because Lana posted a picture on Instagram. Rosenberg makes specific mention of how bad the MexAmerica gimmick was considering nobody can even explain what that gimmick was about. The winner is the love quadrangle.
The next award is “Rookie of the centch.” The finalists are Kevin Owens, Finn Balor (they recap his year), and Bayley. The winner is Kevin Owens. Shoemaker asks if anyone has had a better rookie year in wrestling. Lesnar and Angle are brought up at options, but Shoemaker believes that people would still be talking about his first year unlike most other people. Ultimate Warrior is also discussed as someone who had a great rookie year.
The final category is “Match of the centch.” The finalists are Rollins/Lesnar/Cena at the Rumble, Bayley/Sasha Banks in Brooklyn, and Lesnar/Reigns at WM 31. Shoemaker went back and watched all these matches before recording the show. He believes it is between the Rumble match and the NXT Women’s Championship match. He says that the WM 31 main event was a great match, but wasn’t quite as good as the other two. Greg agrees. They talk a bit about their experience watching Rollins cash in live. Rosenberg wonders if the Rumble match is best match of John Cena’s career. Shoemaker talks about how a triple threat makes it easier for the match to be above average, but harder for it to be excellent. He feels this Rumble match was an exception as the booking of this match was excellent. He talks about believing Lesnar was really hurt during this match while he was laying outside. Shoemaker thinks the tie is broken by the fact that a year from now people will still be talking about Sasha/Bayley and they won’t still be talking about the Rumble Title match. The winner of “Match of the Centch” is Sasha Banks vs Bayley for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. Shoemaker talked about how that match earned the crazy reaction it got from the Brooklyn crowd.
Greg review/conclusion: Greg wonders how Sasha Banks wasn’t a finalist for Rookie of the Centch or “Most Maj Performer.” He also talks about Chad Gable being an option. Shoemaker notes that he can’t watch Gable without thinking that he simply won’t ever be on Raw with his size. He doesn’t say that in a derogatory way, more just from a realistic perspective. Shoemaker notes that the love quadrangle storyline was pretty unanimously chosen.
Score and Review
Score (7.5): This was a pretty entertaining show overall. There were some major derailments mid-conversation, which is never great, but the Majie discussion was entertaining and I was happy to hear them discuss NXT Takeover a little bit. Nothing you can’t miss in this episode, but this is a good listen for a quick hour of entertainment.
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