Friday, December 28, 2007

Cheap Heat- 12/28/07 by Gene Jackson

CHEAP HEAT RADIO AWARDS SPECIAL

First off I wanna say thanks to Brian and Derrick for doing today's show when I wasn't able due to the tornados/storms in the area knocking my power for a few hours. Also thanks to everyone that called in, I got a chance to listen to the show around 2pm and I thought it was a good show. I looked at the numbers and even with all the confusion with moving forward an hour and everything there were still a lot of live listeners and a bunch of downloads already. The show is doing really well and I'm glad the listeners and the workers alike have taken to it and it's being used the way I had hoped. I look forward to a lot of great shows this coming year. However having mainly focused on the radio show the past couple of months I haven't done much writing so let's get to it so I still qualify for 'columnist of the year.' Speaking of that I'm very honored to be nominated again this year for his award and hope I win it this year, but if not it's cool that enough people read my stuff and like it enough to nominate me. Sal does a great job on his columns and he would be deserving of winning the award. I enjoy Trent's board and I read a lot of his postings but I've never really considered him a "columnist" so much as a guy who posts news stories and results, and comments on them. Not intended as a knock on him at all, that's just how I've always seen it. Good luck to both. (Who am I kidding, f*** them, vote for me!!)


THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF WORLD CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

I picked this new WWE dvd up when I was in Wal-Mart the other day and I have to say another first class production from WWE home video. No matter how many times I hear the tragic Von Erich story on these documentaries it's still hard to believe. Poor Kevin, the guy handles it as well as anyone possibly could. How you could live through all that loss and still be able to put a positive spin on things and not be bitter is pretty amazing. On the wrestling side of things it's always great to go back and relive some of the great action from the WCCW days. While Michael Hayes comes off a bit arrogant here, you can't deny that the Freebirds were the Original groundbreaking heel "group" in wrestling and their feud with the Von Erichs was legendary. The Freebirds were the perfect combination. Gordy was the bad ass, Hayes was the talker, and Roberts took the bumps and the pinfalls. They were so damn good and while they were great in Mid South for Watts as well, they were never as good anywhere else as they were in Texas. So many great stars came out of that area and so many are gone now due to the drugs and fast lifestyles that they lived and this documentary was very open and honest about that. If you get the chance to check this out be sure and do so cause it's a really great dvd.

THE OUTSIDERS SHOOT

I've seen the Kevin Nash and Scott Hall shoots that RF Video did this year but the other night I watched one they filmed together. Even though it's not popular thing to say I've always been a HUGE mark for these guys. While I'm as old school as anyone and grew up on Memphis and Continental and so on. When I got trained and broke into wrestling in '97 was at the height of the Monday Night Wars and my heroes were the Outsiders. First off I loved the whole angle of guys coming in from New York to invade WCW, it was brilliant. The main thing that stuck out to me about the though was you could watch them and tell they were out there having fun. It was two guys who were buddies out there having fun and doing and saying things they weren't always supposed to. So as much as I was old school work wise in the ring I patterned myself after those two cause that's what I wanted to do, I wanted to do what I wanted and have fun. Of course that attitude hurt me WAY more than it ever helped but that's another story for another day. So anyway I enjoyed this shoot cause listening to them confirmed most of the things I always thought, they came off that way cause that's what they were doing. Listening to them was funny causeI would imagine if anyone ever did an interview with Neil Taylor and I together there would be a lot of simularities (except they were making millions of dollars and we were getting five bucks to "split" from Rodney Grimes) but as the attitude and the do things the way we wanted mentality. It was a good shoot, nothing really groundbreaking or anything you haven't heard in some form before but entertaining none the less. These guys get a lot of heat but you can't argue with the fact they drew a shitload of money in their day and the nWo angle would have never taken off without them. Unfortunately this was taped well before the recent TNA no show and the backstage blowup with Nash/Samoa Joe. I'd love to hear Nash's take on that whole situation.


PRAY FOR THE BRAIN!

Speaking of my heroes another of my favorites Bobby "the Brain" Heenan is the hospital having undergone a 2nd reconstructive surgery on his jaw after the first surgery was not successful. Hopefully this procedure will take, Bobby is in a medically induced coma and will be brought out of it slowly this week and will remain hospitalized for a another 2 to 3 weeks. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for a true legend in the biz.

Well that's all for now, be sure and tune in to the next Cheap Heat Radio on Jan 7th at 10am when our guest will be Ali Stevens. Also, make sure starting on Jan. 1rst you vote for the RRO Year End Awards!

GENE