I Listen So You Don't Have To: Cheap Heat July 6

This week's Cheap Heat is only slightly SAWFT thanks to Enzo Amore 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: Repug Deletion (July 6, 2016)
Run Time: 1:05:42
Guest: Enzo Amore (31:50)

Summary: After spending a few minutes rehashing last week’s episode and looking into the short-term future of the show, Peter Rosenberg and a returning Stat Guy Greg talk about Tuesday night’s TNA Final Deletion. That eventually bleeds into the RAW-opening food fight and speculation about Brock Lesnar’s SummerSlam opponent. While further discussing RAW, Rosenberg rings Enzo Amore to discuss his presidential mic work this week. Then they get back to RAW, which is interrupted again when Rosenberg begins getting notifications for his earlier radio rant about the Baton Rouge police killing. He plays a clip, and Greg adds his insight. Again they go back to RAW and wrap up the show.

Quote of the week: Amore: “I’m having the time of my life, man. It’s just — I mean, I can’t even begin to explain it to you. Not even real life. It’s not real life! … It’s not real, man, so I just kinda wait to wake up, you know what I mean? It all seems like a dream. As a kid, I always wanted to do this, and now I’m doin’ it. You know, NXT was, you know, a helluva a ride, but I couldn’t have prepared myself for this if I wanted to.”

Why you should listen: Have you been dying for Cheap Heat to expend any more than a few passing syllables on TNA? Turns out wacky Hardy brothers exploits are your ticket to glory. Amore is great in a too-brief appearance, especially since it’s quite clear he’s being totally real outside the real of a PR supervisor. And when the episode was fresh, the Lesnar SummerSlam news was still unofficial, which makes the speculation appropriate and somewhat interesting.

Why you should skip it: If the phrase “Black Lives Matter” gets your blood boiling, you’ll want to delete this one without a second thought. Even if you’re sympathetic to the cause, you might prefer a line between wrestling and the real world. Aside from that glaring issue, this is a fairly disjointed episode once the TNA segment ends as the RAW review keeps giving way to other topics. That’s not exactly a bad thing when it’s intentional, but it’s clear Rosenberg remains easily distracted and unable (or unwilling) to do even a bare bones sketch of how he wants his hour of talking to flow.

Final thoughts: I’m torn here, because I pretty much fully agree with the rant Rosenberg aired, but in the context of a wrestling podcast it’s easy to pass it off as another instance of the guy getting distracted by phone notifications. I support people who have a platform using the pulpit to make a difference, but that has far more impact when done with intent instead of backing into it. Beyond all that is the matter of trying to cover WWE as topical in a window where the company is trying to be anything but, laying low on account the holiday and clinging to the holding pattern in light of looming plot development later in the month. If you really want to go deep on Final Deletion, search out the Old School Wrestling Podcast as presented by Second Period Industries. Nothing else I’ve heard does nearly as good a job making me wish I’d watched the show. Other than that, there’s not much reason to listen to anyone talk about wrestling this week.