''Halftime Heat'' was a series of

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

broadcasts produced by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

used as Super Bowl counterprogramming. They aired during their respective year's

halftime In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

of the Super Bowl.

History

Originally produced under the World Wrestling Federation banner (WWF), ''Halftime Heat'' aired during a 20-minute block on

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Mad ...

during

Super Bowl XXXIII Super Bowl XXXIII was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos (who were also defending their Super Bowl XXXII championship) and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion At ...

in 1999, as a special episode of ''

Sunday Night Heat ''WWE Heat'' (formerly known as ''Sunday Night Heat'' and also known as ''Heat'') is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and aired from August 2, 1998 to May 30, 2008. Ori ...

''. The inaugural ''Halftime Heat'' featured an

Empty arena match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

between The Rock and

Mankind Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...

. The match was also accompanied by a Super Bowl ad purchased by the WWF, tying into their

Attitude Era The Attitude Era was a term used by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE) to describe the company's programming from November 9, 1997 to May 6, 2002. It started during the Monday Night Wars, a ...

branding. During the match, Mankind won his second

WWF Championship The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, alongside SmackDow ...

. ''Halftime Heat'' returned the following year, featuring highlights from

The Hardy Boyz The Hardys, also known as The Hardy Boyz, are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of real-life brothers Matt and Jeff Hardy, who are currently appearing in All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The team is currently inactive due to Jef ...

taking on

The Dudley Boyz The Dudley Boyz (also known as Team 3D) are an American professional wrestling tag team that consisted of kayfabe half-brothers Bubba Ray Dudley (Mark LoMonaco) and D-Von Dudley (Devon Hughes). The team was also joined by various Dudley family ...

as well as the bikini contest, both from that year's

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle r ...

. It concluded with an Interview with

Jim Ross James William Ross (born January 3, 1952) is an American professional wrestling commentator currently signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a commentator, analyst, and senior advisor. Ross is best known for a long and distinguished career a ...

and

Stone Cold Steve Austin Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, and retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most ...

, which discussed an injury update and his engagement to Debra McMichael. It was announced in January 2019 that it would be brought back as a special event on the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American entertainment company WWE. It primarily distributes original professional wrestling events, films, television an ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. During the pre-show of the

footage was shown of what happened after NXT TakeOver: Phoenix went off the air, which led to the announcement of

Aleister Black Tom Budgen (born 19 May 1985) is a Dutch professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Malakai Black. He is also known for his time in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Aleister Black from 2017 ...

Ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

, and Velveteen Dream taking on

Adam Cole Austin Kirk Jenkins (born July 5, 1989) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Adam Cole. He is also known for his tenures with WWE and Ring of Honor (ROH). Co ...

Johnny Gargano John Anthony Nicholas Gargano (born August 14, 1987) is an American professional wrestler best known under the ring name Johnny Gargano. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is best known for his time in NXT, ...

, and

Tommaso Ciampa Tommaso Whitney (born May 8, 1985) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Tommaso Ciampa. Whitney began his career in 2005, working on several independent p ...

, during the returning ''Halftime Heat''.

Shawn Michaels Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (born July 22, 1965), better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE as Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative. Widely regarded as one ...

was also announced as part of the announce team, and was joined by Vic Joseph. During the match, the team of Black, Ricochet and Dream were victorious. WWE personnel later announced that the match had 3 million viewers, making it the most watched NXT match in history.

Events

The events included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers.

1999

Halftime Heat was a

show produced by

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

(WWF). The event was pre-recorded and aired on January 31, 1999, the night of

, at the

Tucson Convention Center The Tucson Convention Center (previously named the Tucson Community Center) is a large multi-purpose convention center located in downtown Tucson, Arizona. Built in 1971, the location includes an 8,962-seat indoor arena, two performing arts venue ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

. On January 26, 1999 WWF recorded their episode of February 1 '' Raw''. Prior to the recording the empty arena match was filmed, that aired as Halftime Heat.

2019

Halftime Heat was a

event and

event produced by

for their NXT brand division. The event took place on February 3, 2019, the night of

Super Bowl LIII Super Bowl LIII was an American football game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2018 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Con ...

, at the

WWE Performance Center The WWE Performance Center is the official professional wrestling school system of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. The promotion currently operates two Performance Center locations, which serve as training facilities for WWE ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. After NXT TakeOver: Phoenix went off the air,

, and Velveteen Dream would brawl with

, and

. The brawl led to a

six-man tag team match Much like the singles match, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace. Tag team ladder ...

between the wrestlers was scheduled for Halftime Heat.

Other on screen personnel

References

{{WWEPPV 2019 WWE Network events Recurring events disestablished in 2000 Recurring events established in 1999 Super Bowl-related television programming WWE NXT WWE shows