WWE Heat

Infobox Television
show_name = WWE Heat


creator = Vince McMahon
caption = "Heat" logo
format = Sports Entertainment
runtime = 46 minutes (television), 36 minutes (webcast)
starring = Raw Brand
country = United States
network = USA Network (1998-2000)
MTV (2000-2003)
TNN/Spike TV (2003-2005)
Webcast on WWE.com (2005-2008)
first_aired = August 2 1998
last_aired = May 30 2008
num_episodes = 513
website = http://www.wwe.com/broadband/heat/
imdb_id = 0257324
tv_com_id = 17006

"WWE Heat" (formerly known as "WWE Sunday Night Heat" and capitalized as "WWE HEAT") was a professional wrestling show for World Wrestling Entertainment.

It was aired on USA Network, MTV and Spike TV in the United States, Channel 4 and Sky One in the United Kingdom and CTV Sportsnet in Canada.

It was most recently streamed on WWE.com on Friday afternoons for North American viewers. However, the show was still televised internationally and showed in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports 3, Australia on FOX8, India on Ten Sports, Germany on Premiere Sport Portal, Spain on Sportmania and C+ Deportes -both channels from Digital +, the Middle East on ShowSports4, the Philippines on Jack TV, and Japan on J SPORTS. The final episode was uploaded to WWE.com on May 30 2008. [ [http://fans.wwe.com/joshmathews/blog/2008/05/28/hey_everyone Josh Mathews blog confirming final episode of Heat] ] The show was replaced internationally with "WWE Vintage Collection", a program featuring classic WWE matches. [ [http://www.wwe.com/schedules/television/?country=United%20Kingdom WWE.com UK television schedule] ]

History

Early years

The show was originally introduced as "WWF Sunday Night HEAT" on the USA Network in 1998. The one hour show would be broadcasted live on Sunday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern. It was the second most important show in the WWF line-up serving as a supplement to the "Monday Night RAW" program. "HEAT" would feature promos, vignettes and in-ring action just like "RAW", and in many ways, it was what "SmackDown!" was to "RAW" from 1999 to 2002. Upper mid-card and main event wrestlers were no strangers to "HEAT", appearing each week. Storylines from the previous week would progress during the show, and the next day's "RAW" would be heavily promoted. The show itself was a big ratings draw for the USA Network trailing not too far behind the big numbers of "RAW".

1999-2002

With the advent of "SmackDown!" in 1999, "HEAT" significantly decreased in importance as well as ratings. The debut of "SmackDown!" also led to "HEAT" being taped before "SmackDown!" with matches for WWF syndication programs like "Jakked/Metal" to be taped before "RAW" broadcasts. When "SmackDown!" premiered in August 1999, "HEAT" briefly became a complete recap show, with exclusive interviews and feuds recapped as music videos. This only lasted a few weeks, and the show began airing exclusive matches again, this time taping before "SmackDown!". Near the peak of WWE's popularity and as part of WWE's television deal with Viacom, the show was moved to MTV.

WWF has also aired two special editions of "Halftime HEAT" which aired during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII on USA Network. These specials ended following the movement of "HEAT" to MTV. In 2000, the current logo and theme song was adopted.

When the show started airing on MTV in late 2000, it was broadcast live from WWF New York. WWF Superstars would appear at the restaurant as special guests while Michael Cole & Tazz would call pre-taped matches live.

2002-2005

This practice ended in 2002 and the show reverted to its original format of taping the matches, again before "RAW", and have the commentators call the action and have it burned to the matches. It was at this time that (in the U.K.), Channel 4 ended their syndication of the program, which was later picked up by BSkyB, to compliment their existing coverage.

Since the brand extension in 2002, "HEAT" has been broadcast with only "RAW" superstars and reverted back to being before "RAW". The exception to this was on pay-per-view nights, which were broadcast live from the pay-per-view venue and could involve "SmackDown!" wrestlers. In May 2002, "SmackDown!" branched off its own sister show, "Velocity", which replaced "JAKKED/METAL", and mirrored the same characteristics as "HEAT".

Steven Richards, who at one time was the most regular competitor on "Sunday Night HEAT", dubbed himself "General Manager of "HEAT" (though he carried out no GM duties) and began calling the show "Stevie Night HEAT".

2005-2008

"HEAT" and "Velocity" were not picked up by the USA Network when WWE moved its programming over to that network in October 2005, leaving Americans no way to watch WWE weekend shows on television. To solve this problem, WWE decided to stream the shows on their website exclusively for the U.S. audience, with new editions posted every Friday afternoon. "Sunday Night HEAT" was soon renamed to "WWE HEAT", as it no longer aired on Sundays.

"HEAT" was still shown overseas to fulfill international programming commitments. For a while, a special 30-minute live edition of "HEAT" began airing in place of the traditional pre-taped Free For All PPV preshow. When WWE went high definition, "HEAT" began using the same HD set as "Raw", "SmackDown", and "ECW".

The final episode was uploaded to WWE.com on May 30, 2008. The show was replaced internationally with a new show featuring classic matches, called "WWE Vintage Collection".

Title changes

Though the majority of title changes would take place on "RAW", "SmackDown!", or pay-per-view events, the WWF Championship changed hands on a special "Halftime HEAT" that aired during the half-time of Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31, 1999 when Mankind defeated The Rock in an empty arena match to win the title. [ [http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/wwechampionship/30445414021 Title history details] ]

Additionally, the Light Heavyweight Championship changed hands on "HEAT" on three occasions. [ [http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling/cawthon777/00.htm 2000 WWF results] ] [ [http://www.angelfire.com/wrestling/cawthon777/01.htm 2001 WWF results] ] The first took place on the February 10, 2000 airing when Essa Rios (in his first appearance under that name and with the debuting Lita) defeated Gillberg. The second change saw Crash Holly defeat Dean Malenko on the March 15, 2001 episode. In the final change, the debuting Jerry Lynn defeated Crash Holly on a live edition before the "Backlash" pay-per-view on April 29, 2001.

Commentators and hosts

There have been many commentators in the history of "HEAT". Industry veterans and "RAW" broadcasters Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler have done commentary on the show. The show was also the launchpad for Shane McMahon's on-camera career in WWE, originally placed in the role of a commentator for the program. In October 2000, the show was hosted by Rebecca Budig and MTV VJ/Rapper DJ Skribble when it moved from USA Network to MTV.

During pay-per-view events and often outside the venue, hosts introduce segments of the show, recently the hosts of "The WWE Experience" (Ivory and Todd Grisham) perform these duties. If a "SmackDown" brand pay-per-view takes place, "Velocity's"' announcers host the in-ring commentary for the show.

Often wrestlers would take the role of color commentators on the show with Al Snow, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and D'Lo Brown all holding this position mostly as a replacement for an announcer who was unavailable. During the show's run on MTV, diva Lita also served as a commentator following her major neck injury.

Before the WWE-produced, Extreme Championship Wrestling reunion pay-per-view, One Night Stand 2005 took place, a special "Extreme HEAT" episode was broadcast and hosted by Jonathan Coachman and Michael Cole.

During one episode when Jonathan Coachman was unavailable, former ECW announcer (and then-lead "RAW" announcer) Joey Styles took part in the show. However, Styles then quit (kayfabe) on the following Monday's' "RAW", meaning Grisham ran the show alone.

United Kingdom

In January 2000 WWF Sunday Night HEAT was shown Sundays at 4.00PM, and then moved to a Mid-Night slot and was then taken of the air in December 2001. A separate commentary was edited together for the UK syndicated version, which included references to the UK audience, and the show's broadcaster, Channel 4, but did not include the WWF New York segments that appeared in the U.S. version. In place, highlights from the past weeks "RAW" and "SmackDown!" were shown, as well as other content and interviews with current WWF superstars. A unique quirk in the commentary for the UK version of "HEAT" was that, while the programme was being broadcast on Channel 4, the announcers referred to "Raw" and "SmackDown!" as happening on Friday and Saturday, respectively. This is unique in two ways: it is the only time WWE has done such a thing (usually they just refer to the U.S. airdates), and it is one of the only occurrences of two rival channels referencing one another ("RAW" and "SmackDown!" aired on Sky Sports at that time). The 2-person commentary team was done by a mix of individuals, which included Michael Cole, Michael Hayes, Jonathan Coachman and Kevin Kelly.In January 2003, WWE HEAT replaced WWE Superstars and was shown 11.00AM. On the Nights of PPVs, theUS Version, Live Pre Show was shown before the Pay Per View on Sky Sports 1. In the January 2005,WWE HEAT, was moved to Sky Sports, and shown at 10.00AM, until finally being replaced by a new show, WWE Vintage Collection.

Commentator history

References

ee also

* WWE Raw
* WWE Velocity

External links

* [http://www.wwe.com/broadband/heat/ "WWE Heat"'s website]
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