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?


This past week on Raw saw Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan appointed the Raw and SmackDown General Managers.

Popular choices indeed, but what makes the dynamic even more interesting is their bosses are a heel and a face respectively. Will Stephanie be able to bend Mick to do her bidding? There is a huge amount of history between the pair, so it should make for a very interesting relationship there.

Meanwhile, on SmackDown, we will have two faces running the show. Maybe this will be a reverse Authority story with the heels trying to screw the good guys running the show for a change.

At least that is the way I am hoping it will play out as SmackDown will need something different going for it….



So, the draft has come and gone, and I think it is fair to say that most aren't feeling overwhelmingly impressed.

Firstly, the splitting of the women's division. Why? The division is too thin to accommodate this, and just what are the SmackDown women fighting for? They have no championship to contend for unless they reintroduce the Divas title or create a new championship altogether. Of course, titles are not everything, but rare is the time WWE has built good stories in the women's division that do not at least partly revolve around the championship.

Ditto to the tag team titles. We now have tag teams on both sides, but unless a second set of belts is introduced, this is another pointless prospect. Even if they do go the split belt route, then the division will still suffer by having watered down titles.

Next, we come to the newly introduced cruiserweight division. Why is this on Raw? This had SmackDown exclusive written all over it. If Raw is the drama show, SmackDown was promised as "the wrestling show". The cruiserweight division is what would set it apart from Raw and give people a reason to tune in.

There are many questions about how pay-per-views and titles will work, and not everyone is confident that WWE knows the answers. Either way, the brief elation of having Foley and Bryan as GMs has somewhat diminished under the underwhelming events on Tuesday Night SmackDown.

Also, what happened to "talks with Rey Mysterio and Kurt Angle"? I think that we all expected at least one superstar of the past to show up in the draft, but the biggest surprise that we got was that Eva Marie was wanted back on the main roster.


EXTRA HEAT: ALL ALONE BRAUN

I think it was a mistake to move Braun Strown from The Wyatt Family. We all know Braun has potential to be a big scary dominating heel, but he was still finding his way around the ring. His role as Bray's enforcer, and being in The Wyatt family, fit his skill set, look, and development prospects. Does WWE know what they intend to do with him solo? I look forward to the inevitable Dancing Braun Strowman gimmick in the coming months…

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!