I Listen So You Don't Have To: Cheap Heat Sept. 10

The gang addresses a Corbin-centric booking rumor this past week Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you're new, here's the rundown: I listen to a handful of wrestling podcasts each week. Too many, probably, though certainly not all of them. In the interest of saving you time — in case you have the restraint to skip certain episodes — the plan is to give the bare bones of a given show and let you decide if it’s worth investing the time to hear the whole thing. There are better wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but these are the ones in my regular rotation that I feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If I can save other folks some time, I'm happy to do so.

Show: Cheap Heat
Episode: Sept. 10, 2015
Run Time: 1:06:31
Guest: None

Summary: David Shoemaker, Peter Rosenberg and Stat Guy Greg are recording in the Hot 97 studios this week. They talk about bleeding, the Jimmy Snuka trial and touch on Shoemaker’s Grantland piece on mainstream attention for WWE. Turning to RAW and looking ahead to Night Of Champions, they opine on fans trying to make themselves part of the show and think about the future of Sting and Charlotte. After a spoiler alert, Shoemaker brings up a meaty booking rumor. After a few diversions regarding the TNA Knockouts and search-engine optimization, there’s some chatter about Gary Hart, since Rosenberg has been reading up on the legendary manager.

Quote of the week: Shoemaker: “The problem with Baron Corbin is that if you watch NXT, you’re not necessarily a big fan of his, he’s just sort of meh. And if you’ve never watched NXT, then you don’t know who he is. … WWE has to be sitting there, I mean, they have to consider the fact that he might just get booed. ’Cause the only people with an opinion are gonna be the smarky jerkoffs like me who don’t like him that much.”

Why you should listen: If you’ve never heard Jay Lethal’s Ric Flair impression, the clip played here is fairly amusing in the context of the discussion. Also along the lines of context, the guys do a good job explaining why Snuka remains such a prominent name in certain media markets. The best segment is the Gary Hart bit. Not just because WWE has slowed down a bit post-SummerSlam, but because it allows the guys to play to their individual strengths and will remain interesting for a much longer time than the lion’s share of this episode.

Why you should skip it: Well, spoiler alert, duh. Aside from that, while it’s right to say this is one of the less annoying Cheap Heat installments (largely because Rosenberg is somewhat dialed down), it’s also one of the least essential. The timing of the Snuka news has them about a week late to that party, it’s too soon to get too hyped for Night Of Champions, and ruminating about what Jake Roberts and Steve Austin discussed about blading isn’t as close to as worthwhile as simply going to the source.

Final thoughts: This week’s show very much had the air of obligation, as in the guys knew they had to record something because they do so every week. But given how much it felt like going through the motions, they (and the audience) would have been much better served by staying as far away from the current WWE plots as possible.