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?



Many are calling the Paul Heyman/Renee Young interview the WWE promo of the year, and it is not too hard to see why.

Heyman presented himself as a man who had been worried sick all week. His eyes were red and puffy, his sparse hair unkempt, and his normally clean shaven face was stubbly.

Aside from the physical nuances, there was plenty of little factors that made this so much more than a standard WWE promo. The distracted talking to production crew off-screen, Renee conducting the interview more like a piece of investigative journalism, and the inclusion of irrelevant insights such as how Heyman and Lesnar's kids are friends. Pointless on the surface, but throwing that in there really helped to explain why Heyman would have assumed that he and Lesnar were proper friends.

Is he upset enough to cost him the match? It would seem that Heyman is still very loyal despite the lack of reciprocation, but who can be sure? It was impossible to think that he could ever be emotionally vulnerable just two weeks ago.

This segment has Paul Heyman's influence all over it, and it bodes well for the future of WWE if rumors are to too believed that he may be returning to the creative team some point soon. Plus, I cannot wait for Reigns vs. Lesnar IV (editor's note: actually the sixth time they've faced each other if we count Fastlane 2016 and SummerSlam 2017) to get to the bottom of this saga.

Who would have ever thought that?



As described above, the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reign title match at SummerSlam has quite the story going into it. However, the same cannot be said about the more (historically) prestige WWE championship. On one hand, the idea of AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe is enough for some based upon their history outside of the company, but this should not be an excuse to eschew adding any additional layers.

It started off strong enough with Samoa Joe forcing his way into the title picture, but I have not felt that too much has been done to make me care since.

Joe cut a good promo the previous week, calling AJ a let-down to his family for never being there for them, but AJ Styles' response message was not exactly memorable. He did not seem as fired up as I would have imagined, and he even seemed to partially agree that Samoa Joe had a point! What happened to over emotional hot-headed AJ?

On a technical basis this match is going to rock, but I cannot help but feel that more could have been done to build the story up or play off their history more.


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!