I Listen So You Don't Have To: Cheap Heat June 1

Styles/Cena was a talking point 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: Wrong Turn (June 1, 2016)
Run Time: 1:08:38
Guest: Bryan Diperstein (10:38)

Summary: It’s a basic studio show for Stat Guy Greg, Peters Rosenberg and, unfortunately, his soundboard. There’s a bit of chatter about Ricochet-Ospreay, Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, which prompts Rosenberg to place a FaceTime call to Diperstein to ask about his kayfabe-only views squaring with Rollins’ return and WWE 24 episode. Then they spend the bulk of the episode revisiting RAW and do a bit of looking ahead to the looming brand extension, though there is time to ponder if Chris Jericho’s recent tweet about hack podcasts was a shot fired at Cheap Heat.

Quote of the week: Rosenberg, on the John Cena-AJ Styles story: “Listen, what do we know? Greg, I’m going to tell you what you know: nothing. OK? And me too. … We’re guessing, OK? Obviously there are people involved, mainly the heads of the company, who have a better idea of things than we do, but I’m just telling you from our little perch right here, in Cheap Heatville, USA, OK? Parts Unknown. We’re here hanging out, and for me, I thought it — from character-wise it didn’t make sense, from a moneymaking standpoint it didn’t make sense, from an impact standpoint it doesn’t make sense. It is not the time.”

Why you should listen: In order to draw a straight-line contrast between Cheap Heat and David Shoemaker’s show on The Ringer.

Why you should skip it: You’ve already determined Shoemaker’s show is the superior product.

Final thoughts: Just when I thought it was unfair to compare the two podcasts, along comes this week, where both shows have almost the exact same talking points — right down to the callback to the March 2002 brand split — and Rosenberg drives it home by calling direct attention to the “competition.” In listening to both, the disparity in terms of analytical insight and focus between Shoemaker and Rosenberg is stark. The format of Cheap Heat has generally devolved to “Greg reads the news of the week to Peter, who has neither seen, heard nor considered almost anything, and elicits instant reaction.” If Rosenberg can’t bother to come to the table prepared, then at the very least he shouldn’t call to his listeners’ attention the output of Shoemaker, who is a sponge for information and far more invested in wrestling criticism as a career component.