WWE announces the return of ‘Halftime Heat’
In the recent WWE news, the WWE has decided to reboot the Halftime Heat show for the first time in 20 years. The Halftime Heat is an alternative Super Bowl halftime show by the WWE where the fans can switch in to watch a fast-paced, thrilling wrestling match while the NFL Super Bowl goes into a halftime break. The first Halftime Heat show was aired on 31st January 1999, when the WWE got millions of viewers to switch over from the NFL Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and the Atlanta Falcons, to see a WWE Championship match featuring two of the company’s biggest stars – the ‘Mankind’ (Mick Foley) and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
With Vince McMahon himself speaking on the mic as the commentator, the two wrestlers brawled in an empty arena – from the concourses to the kitchen. The match’s winner was decided when Mankind used a forklift to pin The Rock to the ground and stood on top of a pallet to ensure his victory via pinfall and thereby securing the title. This Sunday, we again got to see the rapid, dizzy action of the Halftime Heat during the break between the NFL Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams.
The Halftime Heat was available on the WWE network but was also streamed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and on the WWE app, completely free of cost.
The revival of the show was announced by WWE Hall of Famer and NXT Trainer Shawn Michaels at the pre-show of the Royal Rumble on 28th January. The revised edition of Halftime Heat showcased a six-man tag team match with Velveteen Dream, Ricochet and Aleister Black on one side while Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, and Adam Cole on the other. The former recorded a victory over the latter in the bout, where action came in fast and furious.
Black kept the heels at bay, while Ricochet hit a springboard 450, and the Dream nailed the Purple Rainmaker Elbow on Cole to win the bout.
The match was exciting with all the wrestlers delivering their most exquisite moves, to compound a match that was well choreographed but found itself lacking in story. A few mistakes were noticeable during the bout but can be excused with the fast-paced nature of the match. Apart from those minor flaws, it was a good matchup all-in-all and delivered the action it promised to.
The victory capped a tremendous week for Velveteen Dream who not only won the Worlds Collide tournament involving wrestlers from NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live but also captured the NXT North American Championship from Gargano at an NXT taping. The rising star who delighted fans by turning up in an NFL-inspired outfit looks set to move on to the next stage of his career which could involve moving to Smackdown or RAW, has also expressed his interest in wrestling with WWE legend John Cena which made rounds of the WWE news. Furthermore, Cena has been speculated to have assumed a role where he pushes young talents to stardom which only makes the WWE fans’ mouths water at the prospect.
