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?
CHEAP POP OF THE WEEK:
WARRIOR AWARD WINNERS
From Kane's touching speech to Harry Smith bringing an actual bulldog, there were many lovely little moments from the 2020/2021 Hall of Fame ceremony, but the one that I would particularly like to highlight is the Warrior Award.
Now, the award name itself is a bit of a hot button topic thanks to its name sake having some, shall we say, questionable personal views, but let us try to take him out of the equation for a minute. The award was originally devised for those that exhibited unwavering strength and perseverance, and who live life with the courage and compassion, with the wishes of the Ultimate Warrior being that it was primarily used to honor the backstage and office staff that help keep the gears of the company turning. WWE have been a little slow to adopt the latter part of the concept, with them mostly using it to honor those outside the WWE bubble, who, the cynical might say, would garner them better PR in mainstream media.
However, the latest recipients were very much in the WWE bubble, and it was nice to see a little internal recognition for a change.Titus O'Neil is a hugely worthy recipient, with his tireless community and charity work taking up a large part of his time, and his general reputation as an incredibly selfless man. It is baffling that such an athlete and force of good has largely remained on the lower-card, so something like this has been a long time coming.
Meanwhile, the other winner, Rich Hering, is the WWE’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Risk Management. With over 50 years experience in the industry, he is cited by many as a problem solver for all things backstage.
I think that WWE should absolutely continue to celebrate and involve people outside the wrestling world for being amazing human beings, but, for this particular award, it was nice to see it cast in-house for a change.
CHEAP HEAT OF THE WEEK:
LAST RAW DOES NOT DELIVER
Raw after WrestleMania is arguably the most important of the weekly shows on the wrestling calendar. It is the start of a whole new cycle, introduces new talent, stories, feuds, and there is nearly always a title change too. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Raw before WrestleMania.
While the offering this year was not exactly bad, neither was it great. That is fine for a run up to a B-show Pay-Per-View, but was this not the time to ramp up the stakes and excitement factor? Do they not want to convince fans that WrestleMania is going to be unmissable?
The card itself is very good! But there was little to nothing here that would have changed the mind of someone sitting on the proverbial wrestling fence. Some lead ups to WrestleMania have had me so hyped, I liken it to the feeling of anticipation that I had on Christmas Eve as a child. This year? Not so much.
Of course, I will be watching and enjoying regardless, but it would have been nice to have felt a little more excited going into it.
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!
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