Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Cheap Pop and Cheap Heat from Smark Out Moment!

Each week, we break down the world of professional wrestling and examine two of the polar opposite ends of the spectrum: one thing that was by far the worst thing (Cheap Heat) and the best thing (Cheap Pop) to happen over the past 7 days in sports entertainment. So, what went down this week that we loved and hated about the business?

The Monday Night Raw following a PPV is normally always an exciting affair, and the post HIAC show was no exception.

I had a lot to choose from for this POP section, but I am going to have to go with the building of the Team Authority vs Team Cena story, and of course, the heels vs face brawl that erupted within the last two minutes of the show. It seemed the entire locker room emptied into the ring to fight, and it was almost hard to tell who was fighting who, but the mêlée made for exciting viewing.

This all reminded me a bit of the Team Nexus Vs Team WWE build up of 2010, a story that was brilliant, but sadly killed in its prime resulting in Nexus's reign as a super faction grinding to a halt.

We can partly guess who will be part of Team Authority; Rollins and Kane are a given, but who else? Will Triple H be heading it up? Will Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury go in for one more match? Noble is meant to be retired through injury, but Mercury is able-bodied (Great idea having these two have a more extensive on-screen role by the way).

Then what of Team Cena? We know Ziggler has joined up, but who else dares to face the wrath of The Authority? It shall be fun to see who Cena tries to recruit in the coming weeks, and what becomes of them as a result. My guess is The Usos, Ambrose or Sheamus, but I am hoping we might have someone a little more surprising thrown in there.

There are occasions I think we watch Raw out of habit instead of genuine anticipation to find out what happens next, but I am happy to say these events have me very much looking forward to next week's episode. So, they must have been doing something right.




A few months ago, I wrote about how great it was that The Big Show and Mark Henry had teamed up. It made perfect sense, the world's strongest athlete and the world's strongest man — what was not to like?

They had good buddy chemistry, both veterans of the attitude era and both are in the autumn of their careers, so a tag-team allowed the men a slightly less exhausting pace of match, and they brought something a bit different to the hallowed doubles division.

They were fan-favourites, over with the crowd. Mark was getting "let's go sexual" chants, (a reference to his 1999/2000 "Sexual" gimmick).

So, of course on Monday Night Raw, the WWE split them up, and had Henry turn on Big Show.

Question. Why?

The reason was flimsy. Henry took exception to Show tagging himself in with a smack to Henry's back. This seemingly innocent movement riled Henry for the entire match, and resulted in him blasting Show with the world's strongest slam, then dragging Stardust over for the win.

Henry began barking off that nobody hits him, and that Big Show was jealous of him. We have seen no evidence to suggest this, and this came with little warning or true reasoning. Maybe, if one or the other had beaten Rusev, there would have been a reason for a rivalry. One man doing what the other could not, but this didn't happen, so we now have a not very inciting clash of Titans on our hands.

Maybe I am wrong, and this will be great, but I am not the biggest fan of big man vs big man matches. I think they were better off together.

But in other news, Rusev is still invisible.



So there you have it, my two choices for the week. What do YOU think are the Cheap Pop and Cheap Heat this week in professional wrestling? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!