Hidden Highlights 03.30.09: Issue #187
Posted by JP Prag on 03.30.2009
Michael Cole remembers JBL as his “partner”, Hornswaggle thinks he’s the little thing that will be stoppin’, Mike Tenay makes Scott Steiner’s cut a part of continuity, no one on his team tries to save CM Punk, and more!
Brendan: JP, I'd just like to tell you that I hate you. I hate you a lot. Frickin 3 Wrestlemania's in a row...
Angry Bear: It's pretty easy to have money for the shows when you never have to spend money on a girlfriend/wife.
Stenographer: It's even easier when you have a traveling job and have enough points for free hotel rooms, cars, and plane tickets. That pretty much just leaves the WrestleMania tickets themselves!
Commentator: Back in the land of Hidden Highlights, additional details and history were brought to what was discussed.
Townie: "JP: Later in the show, MVP, CM Punk, and Kofi Kingston teamed up to take on Money in the Bank opponents Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, and Kane. After the face team won the match, the trio was celebrating in the ring and putting their arms in the air. As this was happening, MVP kept on stepping in front of his partners and making himself the focal point of the adulation. See, even as a face MVP is still acting like a conceited jerk, and that's what I like about him most."
If you remember back at the No Mercy PPV, MVP had a confrontation in the ring with Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase, & Manu. As MVP walked away from a fight, CM Punk and Kofi Kingston - who were feuding with 'Legacy' at the time - came out and convinced MVP to join them in their efforts against Legacy, only to leave him high and dry.
So aside from being Money in the Bank opponents, MVP also had that bit of history to not be friendly with his partners in that match.
Commentator: And of course, there had to be talk of Mick Foley's children.
JOEY THUNDER!!!!: Mick's youngest son's name is Hughie, his oldest son is Dewey.
Deadpoetic: Mick Foley's son who was born in 03 is named Huey. Dewey is the oldest. He has gone on record to say if he ever has another son he will name him Louie. AS you all know he loves him some Disney and Pooh....
Commentator: And now, 411mania.com proudly presents…
JP: Hello everyone who can't decide if you have a cold or just bad allergies, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights! If you've never been here before, let me tell you what we are doing in these pages.
Hidden Highlights are about the little things that make the product great. They are about showing the positive motions all those involved in wrestling do to make a better show. The Miz may hold his opponents hands down to make a pin attempt better. Charles Robinson may let a little tear shed from his eye every time someone mentions Ric Flair. Mike Tenay may tell you about the 17 year history of a visiting wrestler and make them sound huge in one sentence. These are all examples of little things that make the product far better.
Every week this article spotlights up to the Top 15 Hidden Highlights of the week, whether the be from television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one), the past, small shows, tapes, or the indy scene.
This article may have an author, but it is also dependent upon the readers and true fans of professional wrestling—those who love what they watch and want to tell the world what they have found. The Top 15 are chosen from what I see and what readers write-in. Whatever is the best is what you'll see!
And who am I? Well, I am JP Prag, and I bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference.
Now let's get on with the Hidden Highlights!
Classic Hidden Highlight
JP: We'll kick it off this week with a little bit of Classics courtesy of 411mania itself!
Chris Wingert: Thanks to 411er Jim Grimm's article on the Rock/Hurricane feud (Forgotten Classics), and the imbedded YouTube clips, I caught a Hidden Highlight.
Chris Wingert: In the first two promo segments between the Rock and the WWE's HH (Hurricane Helms), whenever Hurricane would "whoosh" out off screen, the Rock always looked upwards, instead of straight ahead. I thought it was a nice little touch, selling the fact the Hurricane would "fly away".
JP: And just to steal some material from Jim Grimm, here are some of those segments:
WWE.com
JP: We leave the classics behind to move on with a first timer and a place we don't get a lot of traffic from (pun intended).
Greg from Kayfabeland: I saw something on WWE.com that kinda caught my eye, I thought you might want hear. I was browsing the divas section and noticed the basketball new pictures. After seeing who was wearing OU (JR approved I'm sure) I looked through the rest and saw that it was missing my favorite and Hidden Highlight filled diva, Maryse. I thought it fit perfectly for her character, far too good to wear a cheap American basketball jersey. I would have thought it was because she was Canadian but OU's diva is
none other then Nattie Neidhart! I amaze myself...
JP: Why would Nayatla be wearing OU? That's the real question. Admittedly, I know next to squat about college basketball, but isn't there are least one Canadian team involved?
Greg from Kayfabeland: Also I wanted to say Hidden Highlights has me calling Highlights out while I watch wrestling or rewinding to catch something that was in the column. Keep up with good work.
JP: Will do! But wait until you start catching Hidden Highlights in everything you do. Or more so, when you start yelling "HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT" while pointing at your friend.
Santino's Casa
JP: Sticking to the interweb, Alec got one from a perennial Hidden Highlights favorite!
Alec: I spotted a Hidden Highlight on this week's episode of... Santino's Casa!!
After slipping on a banana skin Santino got to his feet in pain and quickly made the crossed forearm gesture ref's use to signal a legit injury before he bravely carried on to complete the broadcast.
JP: Check it out at the 2:43 mark:
What was even better was that he called for Dr. Andrews, the guy who fixes most of the WWE SuperStar's necks, backs, and the like.
Legends of WrestleMania Video Game
JP: Sticking in the land of make believe, we leave the World Wide Web and go on the console world.
Connor O'Boyle: I was playing the new Legends of Wrestlemania game and was playing a Royal Rumble. When The Undertaker came out the King said, "Death takes a holiday". Now I have never heard King say that before but I do remember Bobby Heenan saying that when Undertaker was making his entrance at Wrestlemania 8!! So even the announce team are using past Wrestlemania lines for the game!
JP: If only Bobby Hennan still had his voice, I'd love to hear that guy doing some color from time-to-time.
RAW
JP: Moving ahead to RAW this week, it only took a few minutes for the first Hidden Highlight to come in.
Matt Lake: There were a lot of great little touches in the powerful opening segment of Raw with Jericho and Flair- the symbolism of crushing Flair's Hall of Fame watch; ruining his clothes and shoes which Flair always took pride in; and even hitting Flair with a camera since Flair always loved to be in front of the camera.
That said, the one thing that struck me was noticing all the championship belts laid out neatly on a table near the gorilla position as Jericho made his way to the ring. It makes sense when you think about it to have them all near the entrance instead of trusting the wrestlers to bring them when needed, but I had never thought of it before. It's an interesting look as to how the producers leave nothing to chance.
JP: I was really watching the Gorilla Position to see what was going on over there. I know Vince McMahon and a few others are usually stationed there, so I thought it was amusing that everyone but one guy disappeared so that they would not get in the shot.
RAW
JP: Not getting too far away from that same segment, we combine pieces of the last two Hidden Highlights!
Terry Matthews: During the Jericho - Flair beatdown, when Jericho tossed Flair over the announce table there were some boxes of the Raw vs. Smackdown game on the table. Don't know if they planned that, but props to the production crew for putting them there.
JP: of course, you weren't the only one who caught it.
Guest#6821: On the 3/23/09 edition of Raw, during the Flair/Jericho segment, as Jericho was assaulting Flair behind the commentator booth on the table there were three copies of SVs.RaW09. little bit of product placement.
JP: I have to think that was all intentional product placement. Nice work, WWE production crew!
RAW
JP: A few weeks ago I mentioned some of the people we haven't heard from in a while. I guess that set some other in motion!
Chris Roberts: Hey JP, it's been a LONG time since I've written in (after checking, the last time I e-mailed you was for Survivor Series 2007), but I caught something on RAW I just watched.
JP: Good to have you back!
Chris Roberts: It's only a little something, but it's still a Hidden Highlight. When JBL came over to do guest commentary with Cole and Lawler, Cole referred to him as "partner," like he used to when the two commentated together over on Smackdown. Then again, Cole may have called JBL partner in JBL's other guest commentaries as well without me noticing.
JP: Ah, but you weren't the only one who thought along the same lines!
Rachel Pritchard: When JBL was joining Cole and King for commentary, Cole said something along the lines of 'Good to see you, partner' to Mr. Layfield. Nice work by Cole to remember that up until he kicked Jericho's head off at Armageddon 2007 JBL was indeed his partner, commentating on Smackdown. Of course, it could just as easily have been him making a really lame cowboy joke, but I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt.
JP: And I hope you two noticed that Michael Cole tried to shake JBL's hand not once, not twice, but three times! The first time JBL ignored it, the second time he made that he was busy doing something else, and the third time he just glared at Cole. That guy NEVER stops being the character.
RAW
JP: JBL was out to watch his WrestleMania opponent, which brings us to the next couple.
The DaGreene: William Regal vs. Rey Mysterio
During the match it looks like Rey may have a broken nose, the ref is keeping William Regal back from Rey as he checking on him. The Hidden Highlight: Regal stayed right behind the ref the whole time ready to pounce once the ref gave the word.
JP: Whenever I see Mysterio and Regal fight I think back to WCW when it was such a huge deal. Mysterio's first "heavyweight" opponent was supposed to be Steven Regal, but then Regal was injured. When they were to have the match again, Mysterio was injured. It took the better part of 6 months for the match to happen, but they still made it such a big deal that Mysterio was seeing if he could compete outside the cruiserweight division. It wasn't like now when they just feed cruiserweights to Mike Knox; fighting outside your weight division meant something! I really do miss that type of realism infused into wrestling entertainment.
RAW
JP: Sticking with the same match, though, we get another goodies from the man with an award named after him.
Rachel Pritchard: During the Mysterio/Regal match, Regal falls across the middle rope as people only do when they're facing Rey, but gets out of dodge before he can be 619'd. Why? Because he turns around to look at Rey first, and then decides to get the hell out of dodge. Nice work by Regal to actually turn around and see what's going on, something which I don't really recall anyone else doing before being 619'd before.
JP: And that is why Regal has an award named after him (though not for what he did in this match). The man is nothing but perfect in the details of trying to make a match look real.
RAW
JP: The main event of the evening was another uncomfortably long beating. Did I mention Dixie Carter is my hero again for her calling out Vince McMahon hypocrisy? Whether you like TNA or not, Dixie Carter got him right in the grapefruits on that one. But anyway, this one has nothing to do with that!
Gary Graham: This one goes for Randy Orton and his great details to the little things. Right after he hit Triple H with the hammer he looked at Triple H with that great evil grin. Then he looked at Steph who was on her back with her head tilted to the right. Randy at first looked at her with his head tilted to the right but then he corrected himself and tilted his head to the left so he could see her evenly. It was just great stuff.
JP: Randy Orton did a lot of things with his body language that told a great story. He worked that segment perfectly and finally looked good doing so.
ECW
JP: Over in the land of extreme, we can not get away from the lovely Rachel for too long.
Rachel Pritchard: Told you I'd be back. For future reference, would it be better for you if I waited until the end of the week and sent everything at once?
JP: For future reference, you can write in to me as much and as often as you want.
Ghost of JT: ::groan::
Rachel Pritchard: Anyhow, I was just watching this weeks ECW, and I have to talk about clothes in the MizMo/Colons/Bellas affair again. Firstly, the gentlemen: both Colons wore Smackdown t-shirts down to the ring, with Primo keeping his on throughout the segment since he wasn't wrestling. This, in the midst of the WWE's pre-Mania 'screw the Brand Extension' run makes it clear which show's roster they're a part of, even if they're appearing in the land of extreme tonight (and last week... and the week before... and so on...)
JP: Well, since Vickie Guerrero is the GM or RAW and SmackDown and ECW does have a talent exchange program, there actually is an excuse for the meanwhile.
ECW
JP: Sticking in ECW, the Money in the Bank participants again got together.
Jeremy from Palmdale: On ECW, MVP hosted the VIP Lounge with all of the money in the bank participants for WrestleMania as well as Tony Atlas and Hornswoggle. MVP did his usual hype about the VIP Lounge (Big things poppin', little things stoppin' etc.) as he got to the "little things stoppin' line", Hornswoggle began pointing to himself as if he were asking Finlay if MVP was talking about him.
JP: Hornswaggle did a great job of staying involved with all the segments he was in last week, but this one had to take the cake.
iMPACT
JP: Leaving the land of extreme, we head to the land of wrestling's only TV-14 show!
The DaGreene: Super Mex had just gotten eliminated by Kurt Angel and we see that Scott Steiner had been cut and was bleeding. Nice job my Mike Tenay to say he was bleeding because of what Joe did to him a few weeks ago.
JP: I thought that was a good touch, too. It seemed that a lot of things were forgotten from last week like Steiner wearing a hood to cover up his cuts, but Tenay did a good job to fill in the missing pieces.
SmackDown
JP: Leaving behind iMPACT, we just into SmackDown with yet another 8-man tag match featuring the Money in the Bank participants, although some people switched teams this time.
Rachel Pritchard: First off, the ending of the eight man tag match. Kane pins Punk, and nobody breaks up the pin, even though they're over towards Punk's teams side of the ring. Good work by the bookers, I suppose, to show that while they're teaming up for his match, they're not actually on the same page in any way shape or form. On a smaller level, MVP has his arm out as if wants to tag in (because, being the MVP, he could do better) while Mark Henry is yelling at Punk for getting pinned. Nice work by them to stay in character.
JP: I actually rather enjoyed that touch, too. No one can in to try to save their partner because it really did not matter to them. At first I was a bit confused but then I was really happy with the different and clean ending.
SmackDown
JP: Finishing us off this week is the girl that just won't quit!
Rachel Pritchard: We were treated to a spot of subliminal messaging during Matt Hardy's promo with the dog. The collar that the dog is wearing has written on it, upside down, 'bad'. Just to hammer home which Hardy we're supposed to be booing come Wresltemania, I guess.
JP: That, and maybe it was the evil twin dog of the dog that Matt Hardy killed when he burned down Jeff's house. I was laughing pretty hard every time he kissed that dog, like he was trying to make Jeff enraged with jealousy! It was a much better use of a dog in a WrestleMania storyline than what happened between Chris Jericho and Triple H a few years ago.
Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 187th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights!
Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail this article at lookforme@mikefine.com with your thoughts! Send them by Saturday afternoon to be considered! And remember, they can be from any show, live or taped, or any house show, or anything you saw. The best of the best will be featured among the top 15 next week.
In the meantime, be sure to catch my very own Thursday morning news report The Hamilton Ave Journal: the only wrestling news report focused on the business of wrestling.
And don't forget to bookmark 411mania.com and perhaps even make it your home page. You can do that by clicking here!
Until then, you have just experienced the most positive article in all of the IWC: Hidden Highlights!
Just wanna go back to the March 23, 2009 Episode of Raw again, but I kinda noticed that Flair and Jericho had nearly identical suits.
Not sure if that was planned but it was interesting for sure.
Posted By: Smithy Blythe (Guest) on March 29, 2009 at 11:53 PM
On Smackdown, when Carlito was facing Morrison, Nikki was wearing red while Bree was wearing pink.
Red, besides being the color of Raw, is the color symbolizing sin.
I think Nikki was the one that was hit in the face with the spit apple (Garden of Eden, apple = sin) on the Dirt Sheet where the Tag challenge was made.
What is more, the Miz's shirt says "Chicks dig me". In the g-rated WWE this shows Nikki dug him a lot without saying this outright.
Posted By: Guest#3412 (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 12:20 AM
On Smackdown, when Carlito was facing Morrison, Nikki was wearing red while Bree was wearing pink.
Red, besides being the color of Raw, is the color symbolizing sin.
I think Nikki was the one that was hit in the face with the spit apple (Garden of Eden, apple = sin) on the Dirt Sheet where the Tag challenge was made.
What is more, the Miz's shirt says "Chicks dig me". In the g-rated WWE this shows Nikki dug him a lot without saying this outright.
Posted By: Guest#3412 (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 12:20 AM
WTF is this shit? Seriously: WTF?
Posted By: Groot (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 12:44 AM
On Impact, Booker was in his wrestling gear in the ring on the opening segment. Then on the backstage segment 5 minutes later, he was wearing his MEM clothes and a watch.
Posted By: Bunkhouse Buck (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 01:43 AM
the smackdown colors are blue which represents the ocean and the coral reefs aka the colons and the great khali. raw is red which is blood legalized by lance cades shorts in the svr 09 videogame. but when you pick him to wrestle, he is wearing black shorts. plus he was let go. wtf. impact has cracks in the logo representing the lowest of the low storylines they have to dig up with a construction crew fueled by 8 liters of pure black unadulterated COFFEE. This is why ROH has a new cartoony font to put on the news headlines on their website. did anyone see the 7th anniversary show graphic? ...... not for me. but all these highlights that ive found really dont make the product any better does it? WRONG. its everything to me.
Posted By: chin lu (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 03:22 AM
Groot is my hero. And I'd like to second that...
WTF?
Posted By: Alyaz (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 03:30 AM
Would have thought this was a no-brainer--
JR saying that Gail Kim really made an "impact" when she took out Michelle & Maryse?
Posted By: AlexXx (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 07:48 AM
JP: There are no Canadian teams in the college basketball tournament. The NCAA only covers American colleges and universities, while Canadian colleges and universities have their own association.
Posted By: Dubhagan (Registered) on March 30, 2009 at 10:24 AM
JP, love the column week-in and week-out, but if you think there's a Canadian team in the NCAA, you know less than next to nothing about college hoops.
Posted By: Steve B (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 11:09 AM
"The collar that the dog is wearing has written on it, upside down, 'bad'."
Which, upside down, spells "pap." As in "pappy." Is Matt saying their father is on his side?
Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 12:24 PM
Okay, so it would say "paq." That's a big fail on my part.
Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Not really a Hidden Highlight, but how funny was that particular episode of Santino's Casa? I mean, a money pooping dog giving refunds for people who had to sit through 12 Rounds? Classic!
Posted By: Wyatt (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 02:32 PM
it was nice to see the rock and hurricane promos again. funny stuff. thanks
Posted By: Guest#1219 (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 03:10 PM
i have a CLASSIC HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT
kurt angle vs stone cold vs rvd
No Mercy 2001..... during rvd's entrance theres a sign saying RVD 420 like the austin 316 sign... 420 is national weed day and we know rvd and pot
Posted By: DONALD (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 07:23 PM
Raw Hidden Highlight:
Before his match with Chris Jericho, Lawler hyped Randy Orton's appearance later in the show by saying that he would be addressing his 'reprehensible actions' from last week. I found it funny he'd use that word considering both Orton's attack on Stephanie and Jericho's attack on Flair (which prompted Lawler's match) were the exact incidents Dixie Carter pointed out in response to Vince McMahon's statement that some of the things TNA does on television are...reprehensible.
Posted By: FireReaverX (Guest) on March 30, 2009 at 09:35 PM
ECW Hidden Highlight
During the Nikki vs. Brie match to close ECW, John Morrison was on the outside cheering on Nikki...but in all actuality, he was simply dismissing the match, paying attention to his phone, so much as to not yell "c'mon Nikki" at times, but just "c'mon red!," the color of Nikki's outfit...so not only is Morrison disinterested since he's so obsessed with himself, he can barely remember which twin was which, using the color of her outfit instead to identify her, yet STILL not remembering her name!
Posted By: Ramsey (Guest) on April 02, 2009 at 12:55 PM
