“Cheap Heat” Podcast on Grantland Sports
Hosts: David Shoemaker & Peter Rosenberg
Release Date: March 24, 2016
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Recap by Corey Freedman
Top Items
– Shoemaker points out the amount of promo time devoted to Undertaker vs. Shane McMahon on Raw and says it’s clear they have chosen that as the main match to promote.
– The hosts all loved the New Day acting like babyfaces on Raw this week, and are pleased to see that they will be the ones inducting the Fabulous Freebirds.
– Shoemaker argues that Luke Harper is the best in-ring worker in the Wyatt Family.
– The hosts all seem pleased with the IC Title ladder match. Rosenberg says it is a good way to get more talent involved in the show and create excitement early on.
– The host discuss the Hogan vs Gawker verdict and have a very passionate debate on the merits of Gawker as a media source.
Subjects Covered (w/timestamps)
0:00 – Sponsor Ad
0:15 – Introduction
2:25 – RAW thoughts
6:55 – New Day inducting the Freebirds
8:30 – More Raw thoughts
22:20 – Daniel Bryan appearances cancelled
25:00 – New Day on Raw
30:58 – Kurt Angle
32:30 – Wyatt Family
40:10 – Lucha Underground
41:30 – Sponsor Ad
41:46 – Return for ads
42:10 – WM32 Cheap Heat content
48:05 – Hogan vs. Gawker
1:04:40 – Conclusion
1:05:55 – Show ends
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Introduction: Shoemaker and Greg are podcasting via phone today, not sure the reason. Rosenberg says the gang is still deciding on some WrestleMania Weekend events, but they will keep fans updated.
Raw thoughts: The first thing that comes to mind for Shoemaker is how much promotion time they gave to the Shane-Taker match. He says it’s clear they are making that the main attraction for the event. Shoemaker also enjoyed that they showed Shane working out in his martial arts gym as it made him look intimidating. Rosenberg announces that he got tickets for the trio to “NXT: Takeover,” which is met by applause from Greg and Shoemaker. They discuss whether or not they should attend the Hall of Fame ceremony.
New Day/Freebirds: Greg brings up that the New Day will be inducting the Fabulous Freebirds into the WWE Hall of Fame. Rosenberg appreciates the move to cover up the Freebirds known racism. He says, however, that it makes sense for the New Day to induct them given their current role as a three-man tag team. Rosenberg jokes that they should have had Hulk Hogan induct the Freebirds.
More Raw: Shoemaker says there is not a lot left that needs to be tied up. He says one of the biggest problems they have is that a lot of hardcore fans expect crazy things to happen all the time because they grew up in the Attitude Era, but that isn’t the way the WWE works now. Shoemaker talks about how Dean is seemingly in the position of the biggest babyface. He argues that fighting Brock Lesnar in a No DQ match might be the bigger opportunity than fighting Triple H for the WWE World Title. He talks about how the Reigns beat down segments are a little too transparent at this point as they don’t seem to have another way to build that match. Shoemaker also notes that WrestleMania is not for the smarks. He is happy to have Ambrose-Lesnar and Taker-Shane. He suggests allowing the WWE to finish their story with Roman and hope that WWE Creative will move on from him as the WWE champion soon after WM32. Rosenberg brings up some graffiti someone saw in NYC that says “here comes the money.” They talk about how people should attend whatever events they can WM32 weekend and not worry about missing out on certain things because the weekend is so packed with events. Shoemaker talks about the participants in the IC Title ladder match (Sami Zayn, Zack Ryder, Stardust, Sin Cara, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, and defending champion Kevin Owens). Rosenberg calls it Money in the Bank adjace. Rosenberg says he generally enjoys these big matches. He says it is a great way to get all these guys on the card and create excitement early in the show.
Daniel Bryan: Shoemaker brings up that upcoming Daniel Bryan WWE appearances have all been canceled according to Dave Meltzer. Shoemaker says there will be a lot of speculation about what this means, but as of right now we do not know the whole story. They discuss the possibility of him going to another promotion because he wants to wrestle again. Shoemaker jokes that he could appear in another company under a mask. Whether or not it happens, the hosts talk about how that could potentially steal the WM weekend spotlight from the WWE.
New Day: Shoemaker brings up that maybe this was the first time we saw the New Day as full fledged babyfaces and it was awesome. He thoroughly enjoyed their promo on the League of Nations and their use of visual aids. Shoemaker says the New Day knew how to book themselves before the WWE did, and this week’s Raw was a great example of them working through something (potentially turning face) that is a difficult move to navigate. They talk more about their WM32 weekend plans.
Kurt Angle: Shoemaker brings up Angle’s recent match with Rey Mysterio on the “UR Fight” Internet PPV. Rosenberg talks about Angle being an upcoming guest on his radio show.
Wyatt Family: Shoemaker brings up news that Luke Harper is reportedly injured. He also mentions that Bray hurt his back recently, though the hosts don’t seem to know the extent of either injury. Shoemaker says Harper is the best worker in the Wyatt Family. Rosenberg asks if he thinks Harper is better than Bray. Shoemaker says he is better bell to bell. Rosenberg argues for Bray being the best of the bunch mostly because he isn’t intrigued by the characters of the other members. Shoemaker does mention that Bray has the best in-ring presence. He still favors Harper and he talks about how he can work multiple styles, types of wrestlers, and tell a great story just with his in-ring work.
LU: The host’s friend Dipperstein attended a LU taping. They debate what his thoughts would be because (1) he is very pro kayfabe but (2) he is very pro WWE. The hosts hope that he thought it was maj.
WM32 content: Rosenberg jokes about the terrible audio quality this week (it’s really not bad, Greg and Shoemaker are just talking via phone) and how they will make it up to fans with WM32 content next week. Greg is extremely excited to participate in the WM 32 media coverage. Rosenberg wonders if Greg will have a mark-out breakdown next week and if he should be worried. Greg jokes that he owes Xavier Woods an apology. Greg tells the story. He noticed Xavier by a bar at a party. He saw the Prime Time Players walking in, walked up to Xavier, and told him he had his back if anything went down. Xavier did not find the joke funny.
Hogan vs. Gawker: Greg brings us up-to-date on the trial. Hogan won and was awarded $140 million dollars. The hosts get into a rather spirited argument over the merit of Gawker as a media source. Rosenberg and Shoemaker are not fans and call a lot of what they do bad for the world. Shoemaker argues that they have a lot of great writers and do a lot of great things as well. Rosenberg says they do some truly putrid journalism and this trial is a great example of that. He says a stolen sex tape is not a news piece. Shoemaker would not have published the tape himself, but he argues that it was not filmed against Hogan’s will and he doesn’t think Gawker deserved the outcome of this trial. Rosenberg sums it up that Gawker does good things, but they do repulsive things that drag down their entire name. He says he didn’t want to read Shoemaker’s work originally because he was associated with sites like this. Shoemaker would just like to argue that while they post a lot of bad content, they do have a lot of talented writers that shouldn’t be dragged down because of decisions made by the sites editor. Rosenberg and Shoemaker really don’t seem to see eye to eye here. Rosenberg believes that what Gawker does lowers the level of journalism as a whole, regardless of whether some of their content has merit. Greg jumps in to talk about the big differences between the Gawker situation and the one with Erin Andrews. He talks about how the Erin Andrews situation was a totally warranted lawsuit but he thinks the Hogan trial is definitely not in the same ballpark as far as the level of wrongdoing.
Conclusion: Shoemaker jokes that, much like the Taker stipulation at WM32, if they do not produce a better show than this one in the next couple weeks he will ban himself from the show.
Score and Review
Score (8.5): A really solid episode of Cheap Heat. The sound quality, as the host admit throughout, is not great because Greg and Shoemaker are recording via phone. I also docked a half-point because Rosenberg played music over Greg trying to tell his Xavier Woods story (which drives me crazy). Otherwise, this was an entertaining episode content wise. The hosts discuss a couple necessary points from a lackluster Raw, discuss their WM32 plans, and their discussion of the Hogan-Gawker situations was very passionate and interesting to listen to. Cheap Heat always puts out great content during WM week, so look for them to have some great stuff next week.
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