By Jeremy Maes, Torch Team Contributor

WWE Heat review
April 11, 2003
Taped 4/4/04 in Houston, TX
Aired on Spike TV
Report by J.R.Maes, Torch Team Contributor

Happy Easter everyone and welcome to Sunday Night Heat, “The Review.” Since it is the Easter holiday the review is going to be short and sweet. All this family and church and driving and horrid singers have worn me down. I promise to do better next week.


1) Stevie Richards defeated Hurricane Hurricane is sporting a new look! He has dumped the body suit and has gone strictly with tights only. Stevie on the other hand has on black trunks and an evil look. Both men look much better. Coach even mentioned the outfit change for Shane Helms. The contest starts off slow with an arm bar take down by Hurricane but Stevie wiggles his way out. Hurricane then slaps on a headlock and both men stand there. Stevie does not try to break the hold nor does Hurricane make any motions to get over the fact the hold is supposed to hurt. Stevie has enough of that and chokes Hurricane down to the mat. Stevie finally takes control after he dumps Hurricane outside the ring. After he crawls back in the ring, Steven picks him up and punches away in the corner. Steven then applies a back breaker and pins Hurricane for a two count. After the pin attempt, Steven puts a knee into the back of Hurricane attempting to wear him down. Hurricane breaks out and rolls into a corner. Steven tries a splash but misses and the Hurricane clamps on a neckbreaker. Hurricane goes to town with his clothesline assortment and goes for a cover. After a two count, Stevie backs into the corner and Hurricane climbs up and gives him ten punches. Steven though, pushes him off and gives him a facebuster. Stevie goes for the Stevie T but Hurricane blocks it and gives Stevie a northern lights suplex. Hurricane gets only a two count and Stevie pokes him in the eye. Hurricane staggers but maneuvers around Stevie and climbs the rope. Hurricane jumps off the top rope and gives him the blockbuster. Stevie kicks out after a two count. Hurricane, exasperated, gets up and tries to Irish whip Stevie into the corner. Stevie reverses it and sends Hurricane into the corner. But, the referee gets in the way and Hurricane stops his momentum. This allows Stevie to roll up Hurricane, grab the bottom rope and get the deuce.

Match Satisfaction: This was not a bad way to start off Sunday Night Heat. Hurricane looks much improved with the shirtless look. His physique could use some tweaking but overall it makes him look much larger than his old outfit. This should help him when he moves up the ladder and feuds with larger opponents. Wait, nevermind. The big news coming out of this match though is the fact they are blaming Stevie’s new attitude on Victoria going her own way. It was a subtle line but it actually matters. Amazing!

Back from break they run down the Shelton Benjamin/ Triple H angle from Raw. Instead of going over the actual angle they start off with the mid-point of their match Monday. Triple H falls out of the ring and eventually gets counted out. Worst part about this part of the show is they had to go and show the horrible slingshot by Benjamin on Triple H. The move has always looked terribly fake and after seeing Triple H jump two feet in the air so he can hit his head on the ringpost it looks even worse. After the match Shelton gets the beatdown by Triple H and the rest of Evolution. Then after five minutes or so Chris Benoit and Shawn Michaels decided they should help the kid. How’s that saying go? “With friends like these who needs enemies?”

2) Rosey defeated Slam Shaddy Al Snow has a good point to start the match. “How much training does it take to become a superhero?” Slam Shady is a big guy but not terribly interesting to look at. He starts off the match by flexing for Rosey. Once the action starts Rosey picks up Slam, places him on the top rope and poses for him. Slam is upset and tries body slamming Rosey to no avail. Rosey, in turn, picks up Slam and um, slams him to the mat. This is not good so far. Slam gets the upper hand and kicks down Rosey in the corner. He then grabs Roseys leg and works it over. Slam makes the mistake of trying to whip Rosey across the ring. Rosey counters and clotheslines him all over the ring. Rosey polishes off the guy with a very sloppy, and I mean very sloppy, spinning neckbreaker.

Match Satisfaction: Ugh, Rosey really looked bad out there. Slam Shady was on equal footing in this department. So, mix those two together and you get, one bad match. That’s all.

After the commercial break they run down line-up for Backlash. The card looks solid but I may not be in town to order, but more on that later. Now, we are treated to the end of Raw beatdown by Evolution on Chris Benoit, Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels. The segment was pretty effective but wouldn’t it have been better served happening this week on Raw instead of last week?

3) Garrison Cade defeated Val Venis Val got some mic time and blabbered on ending his speech with the line Tea-Bag. They cut immediately to a shot of some poor clueless girl asking what tea-bagging meant. Poor, naïve thing. Cade starts off the match by clapping his hands to wake up the front row. He then got on the mic and yelled really loud to wake up the rest of the arena. Okay, he didn’t do that but you would have thought the audience was asleep when he came to ringside.

The match finally starts and Val backs Cade into a corner with a headlock. Cade tells the referee Val was pulling his hair so, like any good referee would do, he chastises Val. Val yells, “Are you serious?” Val works over Cade’s shoulder for the majority of the opening minutes. Al Snow sells this fact by saying it is a good maneuver if the match goes a little longer. Cade wiggles free and smacks Val right in the face, he really cracked him good. Val goes bonkers and elbows, clotheslines and punches Garrison all over the ring. Val finally ends the assault with a big punch to the face sending Garrison out of the ring. Back in the ring Val performs the running knee lifts on the ropes maneuver, which really needs a name since he does it every single match. Val goes for a cover and gets nothing for his effort. Val charges Cade but Garrison side steps him and sends him over the top rope. With this, time for the obligatory commercial break.

Back from break Cade is in complete control and struts around the ring. Cade actually showed a facial expression here much to my surprise. Cade sends Val to the mat and pulls Val’s hands behind his head in a chokehold like maneuver. Val fights to his feet but Garrison bends his knees and sends him back to the mat. Val finally escapes by flipping Cade over his head. Both men are down now and this means the end is upon us. Cade rushes Val in the corner and runs into a knee. Cade is sent across the ring afterwards and Val rushes him. They bump heads and fall to the mat for a five count from referee Mike Chioda. Val is up first and punches away at Garrison, Cade fights back but Val is able to perform his spinning powerbomb. After some wrangling, Garrison plants Val with a nice DDT. He climbs the top rope and jumps with a flying elbow. Cade then does the easy work and pins Val for the victory.

Match Satisfaction: Okay kids, hold on to your hats. I actually enjoyed this contest. Both men have similar styles and really seemed to be working their tails off. It was no four star contest but as it went on you started to see shades of why WWE is high on Garrison Cade. Watching someone his size seemingly float through the air with an elbow drop is a sight to behold. Then, his post match celebration was short, and subdued but he looked like he belonged. Val was treated as an after thought and that gives a decent indication of his standing with the company.

End Points: So what did we learn from tonight’s episode of Heat? Well, Hurricane looks much larger without the shirt. Stevie Richards is upset after being dumped by Victoria. Rosey has been training for an obscene amount of time. Val is kept happy by being allowed to throw out thinly veiled sexual innuendo. Finally, Garrison Cade finally seems comfortable in his own skin. In a nutshell, a whole lot of information with no real consequences! Yee Haw!

As for next Sunday, I have tickets for Game 6 of the Red Wings/ Predators game on Saturday. I am not sure if I will be back in time for the review so this may be posted sometime Monday. Now, I am hoping the Wings win it in five games, since they blew it today, so keep your eyes peeled for their results and GO WINGS!!

J.R. Maes welcomes any comments, oversights and opinions you have to share. Drop me a line at jeremymaes@yahoo.com or if you are a VIP Member, as you should be by now, I can be reached at Jmaes through the messenger service! If you send me an e-mail please include something in the title of the e-mail saying what you are writing about. With so many viruses and worms floating around I delete anything I do not recognize. Also, my Lounge articles are posted sometime every Wednesday. Make sure and check it out. Until this Wednesday, have fun!

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