I Listen So You Don't Have To: Cheap Heat March 9

Zayn and Owens were a topic of conversation on Cheap Heat this week Photo Credit: WWE.com

If you’re new, here’s the rundown. We 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 many wrestling podcasts out there, of course, but this feature largely hews to the regular rotation we feel best fit the category of hit or miss. If we can save other folks some time, we’re happy to do so.

Show: Cheap Heat
Episode:“Bolleawood Hogana” (March 9, 2016)
Run Time: 1:11:26
Guest: None

Summary: It’s another studio show for David Shoemaker, Peter Rosenberg and Stat Guy Greg. They open by getting ready for Roadblock by reliving an above average RAW, including the “rise” of Byron Saxton, the re-ignited Sami Zayn-Kevin Owens feud and the tag team title match. Then they decide to discuss WrestleMania travel plans. Somehow discussion of the New Day’s alignment leads into a lengthy look at the most recent UFC card. Then there’s another big chunk dedicated to updates on the Hulk Hogan-Gawker trial. There’s scattered talk about Stat Guy Greg has corrections, and the inability of anyone to come to a decent conclusion leads to extended, aimless rambling at the end.

Quote of the week: Shoemaker: “Charlotte was great on RAW. And I don’t know how, like — I’m guessing she might have learned something from her dad. But the Divas need to wear street clothes more often. Charlotte just looked so much — she even looked tougher and more beautiful at the same time just wearing black jeans and a black tank top. … I guess dudes are out there in their underwear, so the Divas aren’t any sillier than that, but yeah, it’s like they go so far to try to give them different personalities by changing their hair color or putting one of them goggles, when I think we’d probably figure out a lot more of them as people if we just saw them in clothes.”

Why you should listen: The RAW/Roadblock segment is fairly on point, if not a bit concise. If you need to get caught up on the Hogan trial, by all means the guys do a great job rehashing and analyzing the details — it was a wise choice to let the professional attorney guide this segment. And, well, if you like UFC and have been dying to hear the crew wade into those waters, you got your wish.

Why you should skip it: The thing about both UFC and the Hogan trial is that I generally ignore the former and have been ardently avoiding the latter, so there’s a solid half hour in here that I’d have preferred to spend doing quite a few other things. And the last ten minutes are so should have been dropped in post production.

Final thoughts: This one boils down to the topics. As Cheap Heat episode goes, it’s pretty solid — which mostly means Rosenberg behaves himself and is invested in the conversation — but if the topics are a turnoff for you then you can rest easy in skipping this week. Some podcasts do a good job of segmenting the conversation better and putting time codes in the episode description, but as Cheap Heat can’t quite record with that degree of focus, it’d be difficult to present each episode with that kind of clarity.