Hidden Highlights 06.15.09: Issue #198
Posted by JP Prag on 06.15.2009
Batista slams the cage door on Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes wants the referee to continue doing his job, Tommy Dreamer and Christian can’t keep their eyes off each other, Zack Rider delivers a burn, Don West references the far past of TNA, CM Punk won’t wait for Jeff Hardy’s music, and more!
Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag
Issue #198
Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…
Commentator: The passing of so many high school compatriots brought out the motion in many others.
Guest#6638: (take that Randolph Jr./Sr. High School Class of 2000! I'm not only alive, but thriving!!!!)
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Haha. Nice. I'm class on 1994 from the same school.
Commentator: Of course, the past is one thing, but the present is an entirely different matter.
raistlinmajere: The same guy I've talked about is also present in Extreme Rules. You can see him clearly after Tommy won the ECW championship (Yay!) and celebrates with the crowd. First Tommy celebrates with a Hornswoggle look-a-like character then goes to the section near the steel steps. You can the see the guy with black cap and shirt with glasses on Tommy's left side when he sits down on the rail. His 4th straight PPV appearance.
Commentator: But more important than all of that, Hidden Highlight Hall of Famer Chris Jericho seems to be starting his own phrases once again.
ASK HIM !: ASK HIM! ASK HIM! ASK HIM WHAT'S UP!
Commentator: And now, 411mania.com proudly presents…
JP: Hello everyone who has spent the past three days out in the hot, beating Philadelphia sun to watch the Red Sox in a town where it is cheaper than seeing that at home, 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: You should know that it is 11:22pm on Sunday night, I've only finished one quarter of the draft, and Larry is looking for my blood. Let's see how far I can get in before he sends in the likes of those brownnosers Lansdell, Wilcox, and Jeremy Thomas to hit me with their limp wristed wet noodles. Who do I have on my side for protection. JT?
Ghost of JT: I'm a ghost, remember?
JP: Right, right. Stenographer?
Stenographer: I'm a girl! Plus, Sforcina has me kidnapped in his basement again.
JP: Guess I can count out Mr. Ask411, then. Is Small back from his bi-weekly vacation yet?
Commentator: And Small was no where to be found…
JP: Well then, guess we better get on with the Hidden Highlights! Let's kick it off in the past with a bit of the not-well known. Take your time with this one so you can get around to appreciating it.
Jasper Gerretsen: CHIKARA - Motivation Means Opportunity: In a tag team match, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant of The Colony took on Icarus and Chuck Taylor of Team F.I.S.T. after Chuck Taylor injured Colony member Worker Ant with an Omega Driver on the floor the previous night. The match ended when Icarus pulled off Soldier Ant's mask, which is an instant disqualification in CHIKARA. As Soldier Ant tried to cover his face Fire Ant hit Icarus with a low blow, but Fire Ant was then jumped by Chuck Taylor who hit him with a low blow and tried to unmask him too. Several referees immediately hit the ring to protect Fire Ant, and as soon as Fire Ant managed to fight free of Chuck Taylor he scrambled over to his partner to help cover his face. As the referees tried to prevent Team F.I.S.T. from stealing the other mask, one of them actually took off his shirt to help Soldier Ant cover his face. Both Fire Ant covering his partner and the referee giving up his shirt are perfect examples of how important masks are in CHIKARA.
JP: Now so long as they don't claim it is the first time he is being unmasked 10 years after the first one, then it's all good!
iMPACT – Retro 1 Week
JP: Also in the past, we move up to just last week.
Townie: On the June 4th Impact. Backstage interviewer Lauren was wearing a white top throughout all of her interview segments, including an interview with Daffney right before her match with Taylor Wilde. Right after that match, when Lauren came to the to check on her friend, she was wearing a completely different blue top.
JP: That's one of the benefits and oddities of taping three or four shows in a week. Sometimes they can re-order things so they work, but sometimes they do that and little blips like that appear!
ROH on HDNet
JP: Moving in to "this" week, we stick to the less known shows.
August: Something from ROH on HDNet that I thought was cool. In the fourway match for the title, Jerry Lynn was trapped in a double submission, a reverse Figure Four Leglock from Black, and a Camel Clutch from Aeries before Danielson breaks it up with a kick to Aeries. But before he can do that he has to motion for the referee to move out of his way. Just a cool detail that makes things look less planned.
JP: That's the stuff I like to see. Make it look less like it is perfectly planned out and everything just clicks much better.
WWE Extreme Rules
JP: For the first time in a while, we heard from y'all concerning a PPV. I am proud, and you should do this more often.
Jasper Gerretsen: Pretty early in the cage match for the WWE championship, Randy Orton tried to escape through the cage door only for Batista to pull him back in. As he threw Orton back into the ring, Batista reached over with one hand to quickly close the cage door, clearly not trusting the referees to be able to handle Orton's trickery and making sure nothing could go wrong.
JP: Considering Orton is practically a real snake in there, he could have just slithered out. Heck, the shabby way they connect the cage nowadays he may just be able to slip through the cracks! Didn't JBL win a cage match that way? He was chokeslamed through the ring and then crawled out underneath. WWE should use the cage WCW started using in the late ‘90s with the top on. It's king of like a mini-Hell in a Cell, but I liked it. Just looking at it made you believe they could keep people out. Plus, there were no escape rules, which I just despite. Much better to actually settle it in a match then to run away.
WWE Extreme Rules
JP: The other main event was a ladder match for the World Heavyweight Championship. That, of course, had to lead to some moments.
martyn hartlebury: Just watched the Edge/ Jeff Hardy ladder match, and the Hidden Highlight for me was the belt. It had the name plate already removed, so big props to the production team acting like they don't know who was going to win the match.
JP: Odd that they took the nameplate off at all. Normally the champion's name is all over that thing. More likely they wanted to get a couple of shots of the title without Edge's name and sticker on it so they can reuse the shots for other stuff.
WWE Extreme Rules
JP: Jeff Hardy winning the match immediately led to CM Punk cashing in Money in the Bank and winning the title.
Jeremy from Palmdale: Many people were surprised by CM Punk's cashing in of the Money in the Bank Briefcase, but earlier in the night CM Punk did a post match interview with Joey Styles in which he basically said that Sunday was the night he was cashing in.
JP: Well I would, except I need a flash player upgrade and I'm really tired from being out in the sun for three days. How about you get that puppy on YouTube for me so I can imbed all of its goodness.
RAW
JP: Over on RAW, newly crowned WWE Champion Batista proved himself quite the brittle guy when three men held him down and viciously assaulted him until he broke his arm. What a push over! Anyway, in the back the ambulance crew was strapping him in when he threw in a nice little line. Very quietly Batista said, "Not so tight!" This was the perfect sell to the beat down which sold everything to me. It was not an overstated scream, yelp, or anything of the like. It was just a subtle little note that put over how painful and real it was.
RAW
JP: The beatdown at the beginning of the show led to the main even match of Randy Orton vs. Batista for the championship, the latter of which did not even bother to show up. The referee then began to count Batista out so that Orton could win the title by forfeit. When the referee ended up stopping the count at 9, you could just pick up Cody Rhodes saying, "But you rang the bell!" Nice of Rhodes to be a team player, but more important to pay attention to the stipulation and the moments and try to move things along.
ECW
JP: Over in the land of Extreme, new ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer ended up having to deal with former champions in Christian and Jack Swagger at the beginning of show while trying to sign his new contract. After Dreamer and Christian disposed of Swagger, the two once again shook hands. Except this time, they never took their eyes off of each other. Too many times in the past few weeks one hit the other as soon as they turned their back while shaking hands. This time, both shook, let go, and walked away backwards so they never stopped watching the other. Sadly, this didn't last during the events later in the evening. Ah well!
SuperStars
JP: Leaving the extreme and going to the full star power, Evan Bourne ended up taking on Zack Rider (Woo woo woo) in the ECW match on SuperStars. Late into the contest, Bourne went up to the top rope to attempt the shooting star press. Unfortunately, it was too early and Rider was able to get up and knock Bourne off the top rope. When he did so, you could just make out hearing Rider say, "Enjoy that rope burn!" Nice little burn of his own there by Zack Rider. Looks like the guy may have some potential yet, especially if he is pulling off character Hidden Highlights.
iMPACT
JP: Leaving behind the WWE, TNA put on their weekly show called iMPACT. And during that show, Alex Shelley teamed up Black Machismo Jay Lethal to take on Team 3D in a non-title contest. During their match, Don West and Mike Tenay were talking about the King of the Mountain match for the X-Division title at Slammiversary, which includes X-Division Champion Suicide. Don West was saying how he really does not care who is under the mask, but he just hoped it was not "Glen Gilberti". For those who don't remember, Glen Gilberti was the Disco Inferno. This was a nice reference unto itself, but it also ties into the theme of Slammiversary. You see, Glen Gilberti was actually quite a prominent part of the early days of TNA, so this is a reference to the characters of the past who made their way through TNA during these seven years. Nice double reference by Don West there.
iMPACT
JP: Later in the show, Lauren (wearing the same outfit from earlier) was running away from Raven and decided to run into… the women's room. As it turns out, Raven is a gentleman who will not go into a lady's room, even when he is stalking them. Unfortunately for Lauren, Daffney was inside to beat her senseless. Worse yet, the cameraman did not have the same gentleman qualities as Raven! You could actually see the cameraman's hand opening the door to the bathroom to go in; a nice bit of realism in the moment. It was actually one of two during the night where they did not pretend that the camera people, grips, and producers do not exist and let them actually be interesting in the action (the other people when the sound mic guy checked on Jeremy Borash after Eric Young slapped him across the face).
iMPACT
JP: Also on iMPACT, Tara made her in-ring debut again Madison Rayne. Some time in to their contest, Tara had Rayne in an interesting arm vice using her legs and twisting around. As the two ended up in various positions, Tara managed to hold on to the move. But you really had to watch referee Slick Johnson, who was paying very close attention to the positioning. At two separate moments, Tara actually ended up on top of Rayne while Rayne had both of her shoulders down and Johnson gave a one count. All of these were not planned spots and really added some solid realism to the match. Nice work by Slick Johnson.
SmackDown
JP: Heading back to the WWE, they presented SmackDown on Friday night. The show began with new World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk coming out to address the audience. Shortly thereafter, Punk was interrupted by Jeff Hardy's entrance music (90 second entrance for cutting someone off). Now normally, people hear someone else's music and they shut up until the other person gets a mic and says their piece. Punk instead—after a brief pause—finished his thought during Jeff Hardy's music. I like that Punk did not even bother to care that Hardy was coming to the ring and decided to just get his thought out there. Why should he stand around with his mouth shut when it was his time and he was already talking?
SmackDown
JP: Wrapping us up this week, The World's Greatest Tag Team (who, according to JR, are not officially back together as a single unit) in Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin took on John Morrison and R-Truth. Halfway through the match, Haas and Truth were in the ring together and Haas managed to get a grip on Truth's ankle. Haas then showed off a lot of his amateur skill that really went below the radar. He was doing a number of different moves and shifting position, but the entire time he never let go of Truth's ankle. That is old school attention to detail and catch-as-catch can style, and Haas deserves kudos for being able to pull of such a simple yet effective set of maneuvers.
Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 198th 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.f
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!
What are you going to do for issue #200? like a list of 25 hidden highlights?
Posted By: CJ (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 02:14 AM
On Extreme Rules, when Vickie announced that the Hog Pen match was going to be a Handicap match, you could hear Santino off-camera going "but that's not fair!" in his Santina falsetto.
Posted By: Joey Riot (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 07:59 AM
Issue 200 should consist of the HH Hall of Fame, with a couple of classic HH's for each person.
Posted By: Guest#6352 (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 08:50 AM
On SD, during Jericho's first rest hold in the Punk match, Jeri of course ASKS the ref to ASK HIM! several times. The highlight is later on, during another Jericho resthold he can't ASK HIM again, so the lamer COME ON PUNK! is screamed. A rare mishap from the man.
Posted By: ASK HIM! (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 10:20 AM
it should be the top hidden highlights of hidden highlights! jp can finally tell us his favorite hidden jokes that only he gets.
Posted By: Guest#0202 (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Worlds Greatest Tag Team is better off as tag champs defending the belts.
Posted By: Dynamite Dickie Runne (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 11:11 AM
On the subject of the World Title belt in the ladder match. I believe there was no name plate on it as it was a brand new belt.
Am I the only one that has noticed over the last few years that whenever a champion comes out to drop the title they have a new title belt?
At Extreme Rules, Mysterio and Christian both noticeably had brand new belts while Kofi's was clearly older. It often annoys me as it spoils the results of the matches.
In order to prove my theory I saw that Melina had a new belt on Smackdown. Therefore I predict McCool will win the title in the near future.
Posted By: Hasterio Jr. (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 12:38 PM
I noticed and appreciated Batista's "Not so tight!" line as well but the EMTs reaction had me in stitches: he couldn't loosen it at all since Big Dave's size had the poor strap at its limit already.
I also liked the cameraman staying put during Lauren's beatdown. They're used to seeing all sorts of Offbeat Shenanigans (copyright E&C, Inc.) so it's a gut instinct not to get involved. However, even if they were tempted to intervene with a woman being beaten Raven was right there to make them think twice.
Yes, Punk still talking during Jeff's music was awesome. Someone off their rocker like Edge would be pissed at being interrupted but that isn't Punk's style and his effective no-sell of the interruption further solidified his face/heel blurring.
Don't know if the World Title is a new iteration of it. I would think, with the belt on SmackDown now, they'd put blue jewels instead of red on it.
Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 02:07 PM
At Extreme Rules, there were two additional hidden highlights.
1. Matt Striker commented towards Christian, something about "the killswitch engaged". If you aren't aware, Killswitch Engage is a band which could have been referencing them.
2. Tommy Dreamer's pants were silver and black, the same two colors of the ECW Championship.
Posted By: Alex (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 04:47 PM
so who is from randolph? is weird seeing my high school list on here.. just curious if anyone i know
Posted By: matt (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 04:59 PM
1. Matt Striker commented towards Christian, something about "the killswitch engaged". If you aren't aware, Killswitch Engage is a band which could have been referencing them.
Not only that, but Killswitch Engage is the band who plays a certain future champion's entrance music. Foreshadowing the night's turn of events, perhaps?
Posted By: Slick Rick (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 07:08 PM
Actually, backstage technical people in TNA having their existence acknowledged isn't unprecedented. I recall noting an occurrence of... I think it was Kevin Nash, asking a cameraman where someone was and getting an answer, in a recap. I stopped recapping about a year ago, so the first documented case of it happening is at least that long ago.
*Back to the shadows (but I'll be keeping an eye out)*
~sdc
Posted By: twf's sdc for one night only (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 07:48 PM
Jericho v. Mysterio on RAW. Both times that Jericho was playing possum for the 619, he peeked back to see when Mysterio was getting ready to do the move. Same thing for Mysterio peeking back to play possum on Jericho. Then when Mysterio really hit the 619, Jericho sold that he was in no condition to take a peek.
Posted By: Y4 619s (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 08:24 PM
During CM Punk's interview with Josh Matthews, you can clearly see the name Misawa written on his taped arm. A nice tribute to a man that deserved every bit of respect he has.
Posted By: ZeroVX (Guest) on June 15, 2009 at 10:47 PM
After Legacy eliminated Kofi Kingston in the battle royale they mocked Kofi's "Boom Boom Boom" gesture in what some others have viewed as doing a gay high-five instead.
Posted By: cm puntkicker (Guest) on June 16, 2009 at 12:59 AM
Last weeks Raw, when Kofi Kingston was introduced. Lillian Garcia introduced him as the Intercontinental Champion, not the United States Champion. You could see Kofi kind of laugh at her with the goof up.
Posted By: Steve (Guest) on June 16, 2009 at 01:36 PM
Over on Superstars, during the 6-man tag, while Primo was playing face in peril, trying to get the tag, Carlito was standing on the bottom rope, trying to reach further. Charles Robinson would have none of that tag attempt which was nice, because while sometimes they are admonished for not holding the tag rope, but rare to see them call wrestlers out on that.
Also on RAW, while others have pointed out how Punk had "MISAWA" on his wrist tape, they also had a clip with a bunch of wrestlers and a "don't try this at home." Not sure if it classifies as a "highlight", but was good and timely of the WWE to run one of those, even though there's no reason to not do one of those every week... maybe in place of "Did You Know?" segments.
Posted By: Steve (Guest) on June 19, 2009 at 12:01 AM
