World Wrestling Federation presents Heat
Date: 9/16/2001
From: Houston, TX
With the tragic events taking place on September 11th, Vince McMahon opened Smackdown to acknowledge the victims and their families. Interestingly, 9/11 was not mentioned on Metal, at all. Also, due to the tragedy, Kevin Kelly and Al Snow are doing commentary, but they are not at WWF New York. Simply voiceover work.
MATCH #1: CRASH HOLLY VS. TAZZ
FINISH: Tazz forces Crash to submit to the Tazz Mission.
Bob’s Take: Crash gains control early on with a crossbody and a few dropkicks before being sent to the floor. Tazz tosses Crash overhead with a suplex to keep the advantage of the match. Tazz avoids Crash coming out of the corner with a quick submission victory. This felt a bit clunky and out of sorts. Not very good.
Match Rating: 1/2*
Prior to the next match, Kaientai cut a promo insulting Raven and Justin Credible.
MATCH #2: KAIENTAI VS. JUSTIN CREDIBLE & RAVEN
FINISH: Michinoku pins Credible following the Michinoku Driver.
Bob’s Take: Raven and Funaki kicked off the tag match with Funaki getting control hitting a head scissors on Raven. Raven bulldogs Funaki out of the corner to stop the offense. Credible powerbombs Funaki out of the corner. Raven locked in a cobra clutch before clotheslining Funaki, and all of that looked vicious. Credible gets insulted by Snow and Kelly on commentary for looking like a rabbit. I’m sure this helps Credible look good for the fans. Taka gets the tag and cleans house hitting a spinning heel kick on Raven. Credible gets met with a seated dropkick. The closing sequence was pretty good, as I was not expecting Kaientai to win this one, but I should have known better with Credible being in the match. A decent tag match overall.
Match Rating: **
MAIN EVENT: KANYON VS. PERRY SATURN
FINISH: Saturn counters the Flatliner with his swinging fisherman suplex neckbreaker for the win.
Bob’s Take: Saturn decks Kanyon with a dropkick early on to get the advantage. Kanyon does a frontward electric chair slam on Saturn to gain control. Kanyon continued with a neckbreaker, but can’t put Saturn away. Kanyon delivers a modified version of the F5. Saturn tosses Kanyon with a few suplexs and a springboard dropkick. Kanyon counters a blockbuster with a bridging suplex, but Saturn quickly recovers with a superkick and soon thereafter hit the finish for the win. These two worked well in WCW and this short match was a decent encounter, too.
Match Rating: **
Final Thoughts:
Not a great week of Heat. Coming off the tragedy of 9/11 this was a piece of going back to normal as best as you can. Nothing outwardly awful, but obviously nothing memorable.
Thanks for reading.