Heat professional wrestling: Encyclopedia II - Heat professional wrestling - Cheap heat

Heat professional wrestling - Cheap heat

Cheap heat is drawn by heels who blatantly insult the fans and insult the city/town they are in, so that the crowd will boo them. This is an easy way for heels to receive heat. Faces will sometimes do the equivalent — showing knowledge of the town, and promising to "win one for them" etc.

Mick Foley would notably incorporate cheap heat into his stint as WWF Commissioner. After Triple H called attention to the fact that Foley would go after cheap pops, the Commissioner began exaggeratedly and comically reminding hometown fans that he was about to book a match "right here in (the home city)!!" He would then pause to give the fans a thumbs-up and soak in the applause. This became such a trademark line that at the DVD of Foley's career highlights from that era was titled "Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops."

The Rock was also known for implementing cheap heat during his attitude persona. One of his more famous lines, "Finally, The Rock, has come back," would end with the name of the city he was currently in. This would often get the crowd pumped.

Heel wrestlers can also draw cheap heat by referring to a mainstream news event as part of his promo, especially if the event has strongly emotional or political ramifications (e.g., a natural disaster), although they sometimes do not mention it by name. For instance, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H drew upon heavy media coverage of Terri Schiavo in a promo for his WrestleMania 21 World Heavyweight Championship match against Batista, when he contended that "no judge or jury" would be able to save Batista from an embarassing pinfall loss in their title match. Even though Triple H never mentioned Schiavo's name, many fans knew he was referring to the brain-damaged woman who was at the center of a bitter legal battle (over whether her feeding tube — which had been removed days earlier via court order — should be replaced or if she should be allowed to die), and as a result he was roundly booed (Batista went on to take the championship).

During the Gulf War (and Operation: Desert Shield immediately before it), Sgt. Slaughter often drew cheap heat as part of his Iraqi sympathizer traitor heel gimmick. At Survivor Series 1990, Slaughter thoroughly insulted servicemen stationed in Iraq for Thanksgiving, at one point suggesting the soldiers were served "hot turkey sandwich" as their Thanksgiving meal).

Cheap heat can also be gained by insulting the local city or local sports team. A good example of this is in 2000 with Edge, Christian, and Kurt Angle's "5-second poses" that usually insulted the local sports team or area itself. These included the three lampooning former Indiana University head coach Bobby Knight choking a player, insulting the state of Kentucky with a "jug band", and poking fun at Buffalo by re-enacting former Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood's missed field goal in their Super Bowl XXV loss to the New York Giants.

Other methods of drawing cheap heat include blatantly breaking the rules, e.g. using the ropes to gain leverage on a pin, and running away from an opponent in a show of cowardice.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cheap heat", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki