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?


A few months ago, I wrote about how great it would be to have Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho as the Universal and United States champions respectively, and a few weeks ago, I also wrote about how the United States Championship needed to come off of Roman Reigns.

This past week on Raw saw two birds killed with one stone as Chris Jericho finally lay claim to the WWE United States Championship after defeating Roman Reigns. While the victory is not without its repercussions, we will be addressing these in the heat portion of my column. But for now, let us focus on the positive and give Jericho the never ending praise he so deserves.

The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla has not held gold since he and The Big Show lost the Unified Tag Team titles to Degeneration X at TLC 2009. He does not need championships, but the difference is that we want him to have championships. He deserves it for being the highlight of a brand split Raw alongside bestie Kevin Owens, and he deserves if for his years of service to wrestling, podcasting, music.

Put it on maaaaaaan!


Bonus Pop: The Best of British.

By the time this column comes out, the finals will not have started, but it would be an injustice not to mention the first night of the WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament. What a fantastic show that was! Great matches, amazing crowd, and some real good contenders with main roster potential. Plus, it was a real treat for us UK viewers to not have to get up at 1 a.m. to watch an event for a change!


With the good must come the bad, and Y2J's United States title win is no exception. Firstly, it does not bode well for Kevin Owens and the Universal Championship. The general feeling among fans is that Roman's dropping of the midcard title is only paving the way for an imminent Universal title win at the Royal Rumble. This year's annual "the floor is made of lava" extravaganza will mark two years on since Project Roman Reigns really kicked off, and he is still nowhere near the level of over WWE would like him to be despite three WWE World Championship wins, a Royal Rumble victory, and United States title reign.

WWE has tried everything (bar the heel turn that people actually want) and even aligned him with popular figures such as The Rock, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins. Each and every one doing little to strengthen his solo popularity. So, I am not sure what winning the Universal title will do to change this. If anything, as poor as Owens has been booked as a champion, taking the title from him may only serve to alienate fans from Roman Reigns further.

In addition, Chris Jericho's win did come with the somewhat repetitive memo that Roman Reigns is a demigod, beatable only through shenanigans and stipulations.


Extra Heat: Burchsmurched

Boo. Danny Burch being eliminated from the first round in favor of Baby Balor. A very impressive showing from Mr. Burch that I sincerely hope means will not be the last we see of him in some capacity in WWE once again.

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!