Hidden Highlights 02.26.07: Issue #78
Posted by Prag-Thomlison on 02.26.2007
Jimmy Yang Wang finds strategy at No Way Out, Randy Orton admits how close he is to Vince on RAW, Johnny Nitro saves a match on ECW, the monster Abyss stays evil on iMPACT, the Boogeyman makes a leg come up on SmackDown!, Hulk Hogan finds Vince’s real office on his own show, and more!
Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag and James "JT" Thomlison
Issue #78
Intro
Hello everyone wondering how long the 2008 Presidential elections are going to run for, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights!!
There are very few positive things on the Internet. It's more about everyone's negative view of what everyone else is trying to do.
— Eric Bischoff, Controversy Creates Ca$h
Hidden Highlight (n) – a small, hardly noticeable point that makes a big, positive difference. This could be anything from a wrestler putting extra emphasis into his moves to make it believable to a person in the background reacting while not the focus to the cameraman shaking the picture to create an effect. There are just so many unsung heroes of wrestling that it is impossible to cover them all.
Every week we take the top 3 Hidden Highlights from the biggest shows on television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one). Plus we turn to you, the readers, to let us know all the Hidden Highlights you saw this, last, or any week in history. On top of all that, we explore the other issues that prove why this is the most positive article in the IWC.
We bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference. JT?
JT: Note to G.T. (you know who you are): HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! You're my boy, you know this. But I will never let you live this one down! Good luck on your next job interview! Aside from that, 34 days and counting ‘til WrestleMania 23! Now if Vince and Hogan can get over themselves and make it happen, that would be great. What? A man can hope can't he?
JP: Speaking of that very subject, be sure to catch ME beat the snot out of Zac Calhoun in Fact of Fiction this week.
JT: You guys only disagreed on one question.
JP: Yeah, but my reasoning was much better than his on the questions we did agree on.
JT: Do you ever not take the opportunity to put yourself over?
JP: Well I have to when Bayani says it was YOU in Fact or Fiction, not me! And he wonders why he's never been invited back.
JT: Point taken. In that case is it…?
JP: That's right, it's time to get on with the Hidden Highlights!
Hidden Highlights for WWE SmackDown! Presents No Way Out: Sunday, February 18, 2007 by JP
JP: Well, you did a little better than last week since we got TWO Hidden Highlights for No Way Out. These ones comes from Crimson and Rich Hornzy respectively (is that a real name?):
(2) EVERYTHINGS proportionate!:
Last night during No Way Out. I noticed that the "Little Boogeyman" came to the ring with a smaller clock than the "Big" Boogeyman. I thought that this was clever and should be reported.
JT: Even *I* have to admit that one is very impressive by the prop department. Now, I didn't see No Way Out, but I did look for this during the latest episode of SmackDown!, and sure enough it's a little mini-clock! Excellent eyes on that one.
JP: And I think there is more Bogeyman fun for you in the future!
(1) Remember the injury is half the fun:
Hey guys, I have a Hidden Highlight for the No Way Out PPV that I wanted to share. During the 'Cruiserweight Open', when it comes down to Jamie Noble and Jimmy Wang Yang, Noble gets himself hung-up on the ropes after missing a running boot. The highlight is that Yang immediately followed up the miss with an Atomic Drop. I think it shows excellent heads up strategy on Jimmy's part, to keep Noble off-balance and hurting by exploiting the injury which was just received.
Actually, I have another No Way Out observation (well question really): Were you guys as impressed as I was by JBL's solo commentary job? As good as the main event was, I don't think I'd have enjoyed it nearly as much had Cole been able to perform. That's all I've got, keep up the good work guys!
JP: Good catch there, I think. Well, anytime a wrestler focuses on a prior attack makes me happy in the psychology department. As for JBL, I can't comment since I didn't see the show. I do have to say, though, that I think Cole is highly underrated, especially by the Smark crowd. Most of the time I feel he is held back. In the few times he's been allowed to go out all the way, I found him to be incredibly knowledgeable about history and insightful into match-ups and styles. It's a shame they are just trying to make him into a plug machine like every other play-by-play announcer that they decided cannot replace Jim Ross until they want to fire him again.
JT: From what I understand, JBL picked up the slack in a MAJOR way and really did a nice job of calling the action while putting over all the participants so kudos to him. I agree with JP about Michael Cole. If you ever hear him in a shoot environment (like his brief show with Taz on Sirius), he definitely knows his goods and is not the lame douche he sometimes comes off as when he has his kayfabe hat on.
Hidden Highlights for WWE RAW: Monday, February 19, 2007 by JP
JP: Change was in the air as the Road to WrestleMania picked up a lot of steam. With nothing else in the way, the WWE decided to break down all the walls (and brands) and just get things rolling!
(3) Quick to product place:
As Vince was making his opening monologue, he was quick to tell the audience that he was excited about what was to come in 41 days. And through Vince was quick with his words, the director and cameraman were equally quick with their actions. As soon as Vince said the words "41 days", the camera immediately panned over to his side and down so that the WrestleMania 23 logo hanging from the ceiling would be in plain view. That was an impressively sharp reaction to reinforce what this build is all about.
(2) First name basis:
Later in the evening, Edge and Orton were talking out back about the various things they wanted. It was at that point that the conversation went like this:
Edge: Did you talk to Mr. McMahon? Orton: Yeah, I talk to Vince…
I thought that it was quite interesting that Orton would chose to call Mr. McMahon by his first name. Was this an in character gesture showing that he has a closeness to Vince that Edge and other wrestlers do not, or was this a kayfabe breaking moment where he forgot the character of Mr. McMahon and reacted as if he would in the "normal" world? I'm not sure of the answer myself, but it is an interesting point to ponder.
(1) Give the paparazzi some love:
We see them always every week doing an amazing job, but no one ever takes the time to thank them. Well, that stops right here because it is time to acknowledge the paparazzi! No, not Alex Shelley, he gets enough love in this column. I'm talking about the paparazzi that photograph Melina and Nitro each and every week. I decided to pay attention to the background photographers as Melina made her entrance for her match with Mickey James. One photographer, in particular, really impressed me. The guy I will dub khaki-pants man was taking pictures of Melina and following her down the ramp. Without ever stopping or looking down, he was able to tell he was close to the edge of the ramp and jumped down to the floor. During all of that, he continued to flash pictures and didn't even bobble the camera. An incredibly impressive feat that deserves to be recognized.
JT: And let's not forget that the newest Hall of Fame inductee announcement was made and it's "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig. A fabulous choice in my opinion, and seeing the vignettes for him all week have really reminded me how good he was. Total package on that guy.
Hidden Highlights for ECW on SciFi: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 by JT
JT: The New Breed has a message for the Originals, RVD takes out Kevin Thorne (man was the crowd uber-loud for RVD or what? Speaking of which, how about that Body Scissors/Takedown/Pin attempt by RVD? Hey, if you really are on the way out, might as well showcase yourself), Punk breaks through the… what should we call at it this point, the seran wrap ceiling over Nitro? La Resistance returns, Snitsky is still in a grumpy mood, and Lashley retains! …………over two of my favorites that is………….
JP: I'm sorry, are you being nega-
JT: NO! Of course I'm not being negative. That's not what I do. …I'm just saying…
JP: I thought the whole deal last week was to not just say?
JT: Can I just do my thing please?
JP: That's fine with me, as long as your not just saying…
JT: I'm not.
I'm just saying…
(3) Botch Avoidance #1:
At the start of the (can it really be counted as "start" as it was so short?) La Resistance vs. Los Luchas match, Sylvian grabbed Will Florez who was in a corner, and started to Irish Whip him into the other corner. One problem. Confused ref standing directly in the middle of the ring in their path! So Grenier kept his grip on Florez, stopped him, turned around, and threw him back into the corner they started out in! Based on the way the ref was scrambling to get out of the way, I have to think this was again read and react stuff here by Sylvian to realize that the Whip was not going to work with the ref there (non-kayfabe). He is a veteran after all. As before, a nice save on a potential botch.
(2) Botch Avoidance #2:
During the Money In The Bank Qualifying Match between CM Punk and Johnny Nitro, Punk had his arms wrapped around Nitro in the middle of the ring. He backed him into the ropes, then Irish Whipped him into the opposite ropes. The problem was that when CM Punk laid down for the ever popular "wrestler jumps over another wrestler" maneuver, he was nowhere near the middle of the ring. Nitro only had about a foot/foot and a half to work with after bouncing off the rope. He recognized this, and basically leapt IMMEDIATELY to try and make it. Not the HH, though. If you watched his right foot (the back foot), he had to stretch it just a bit and extend the toe to make it over Punk! Think of a wide receiver stretching out his feet to remain inbounds. That's exactly what he did, and the very top of Punk's chest was the goal line. This really could have turned out bad had he not thrown in that little extra effort to get over him. Even if he had fallen down, the announcers would have played it off as smart on Punk's part to trip him, but we'd have all known it was a botch. Nice job of read and react on Nitro's part to keep the action going.
(1) R.I.P. to ALL we've lost:
Sometimes, the Hidden Highlights aren't the happiest of one's. Sometimes they're not the most entertaining ones. Sometimes they're not the most innovative ones, but they're the ones that mean the most. As we all know, Mike Awesome passed away and as usual, we got the screen shot in the beginning wishing him a personal R.I.P from the E. I certainly can't sit here and dive into how I felt about Mike Awesome because to be honest, I don't know much about him. He always seemed to be a pretty good worker and one of the more agile big men in the business. But that's besides the point. The point is that the screen made me reflect on how the E handles death. From these little screenshots (even for a guy like Candido who was with the competition at the time), to the HOF inductions (Curt Hennig, Eddie), to even extending their wallet to help pay for one of Bam Bam Bigelow's funerals. The point was driven home hard to me that while Vince may not be the most sensitive and heart-warming guy, he always makes sure that in most cases of a wrestler's death, the E goes out of their way to recognize and pay respect to them, even if in the smallest regard. The opening screen shot may not seem like much, but (maybe not in ECW's case) there are three million people who see that screen, so even the most casual of fan (even those still in kayfabe land) can acknowledge someone who was part of and in some way contributed to this business. I suppose sometimes it's the things that they do hidden that matters; sometimes it's the things they do right. Mike Awesome wasn't but my favorite, but he was someone's favorite, and that should never be ignored.
JP: And if you remember, I did write In Defense Of… Mike Awesome Leaving ECW. In light of current events, and especially the circumstances surroundings Awesome's death, I'd give it another read. It really helps us to remember what Awesome had to go through during his career, and maybe what eventually led to his recent decision.
Hidden Highlights for TNA iMPACT: Thursday, February 22, 2007 by JP
JP: Finally someone sort-of explained what the rules of Elevation X are. You know, I don't like mystery in matches I'm supposed to pay for. Tell me the rules, tell me what's supposed to happen, and I'll happily watch. I don't watch wrestling to be confused. You are looking at a guy who reads Nabokov and Dostoyevsky for fun, so if I get confused you know it must not make sense!
(3) No Entry:
On a packed iMPACT, we got to see the gang warfare lumberjack strap match between Team 3D and the NWA World Tag Team Champions LAX. The first person to get knocked out of the ring was LAX's Homicide, and the Italians attacked him appropriately. In turn, Homicide tried to get into the ring. And it was at this point that we caught our Hidden Highlight. Where so many others would stand by and not react, Brother Ray took the opportunity to stomp on Homicide a few times instead of allowing him free entry into the ring. Good, quick thinking there by brother Ray.
(2) Out of control:
In the back, Jeremy Borash decided he would try to interview Abyss and find out the Monster's thoughts. Now, step back in time with me. Kane, a masked monster, lost a lot of his teeth when he was left alone. People became comfortable to approach him, to be alone with him, to interact with him. Over time, it made Kane less a monster and more… human; more fallible. It looks like the lesson was learned here. Instead of letting Jeremy Borash get away unscathed from approaching the monster Abyss alone, he instead faced Abyss' wraith and got beat up quickly. I appreciated this amount of continuity in Abyss' character, and something that continued all night. It was the correct thing to do to keep the true Abyss intact.
(1) I'm being a bit emo:
Shortly thereafter, Robert Roode, James Storm, and Eric Young teamed up to take on the Voodoo Kin Mafia and Lance Hoyt. In the match, Eric Young was not happy to be teaming with his partners (and I thought the Team Canada breakup clause would keep those two apart… maybe that's the end of the story). Just watching him in the background while he was on the outside was great. He took the time to not watch the match, to look away and be sad every time his team was winning. He held his hands up to say he wouldn't interfere, and argued with Robert Roode about what to do during the match. There is no way Eric could have known when he was on camera or not, but he never stopped being a part of the match and acting in character. So super kudos to you Eric Young for doing all the little things that make a true difference.
JT: I'm sure I enjoyed these Saturday night!
Hidden Highlights for WWE SmackDown!: Friday, February 23, 2007 by JT
JT: Big Dave fears no man – dead or alive, Hardy and the Hooliganz get one over on Mercury and the Untouchables, Chavo escapes the worm to beat Scotty 2 Hotty, King Booker is heading to WrestleMania 23, Khali is roaming outside his RAW realm, the big and little Boogeymen faced the same in the form of the Finlays, Rey returned to San Diego, and Vince and Umaga have a point to make! Albeit at the expense of Rey Rey!
(3) Oh just read the stupid highlight:
Pigs have grown wings and flown. Monkey's have flown out of my butt. Hell hath frozen over. It's time to give the Boogeyman some love! Yes, I'm actually going to give him some credit; but rest assured it's quite bittersweet, like the joys of chugging a slushy, followed immediately by the pain of brain-freeze. Anywho, after Lil' Bastard hit the DDT on Boogeyman, he went for the pin but was clearly struggling to get Boogeyman's leg up. Then out of nowhere POOF! Up comes the leg! Boogeyman clearly recognized that LB wasn't going to get his leg up, and put it up for him to help sell the little guy's victory. It can't be easy going out there and laying down for a little person, so kudos to Boogzy for going the extra mile to put him over.
(2) Twist Of Fate… minus the twist:
At the end of the mixed tag team match, Matt Hardy hit the Twist Of Fate on Joey Mercury. The difference is this was a modified Twist Of Fate designed to maximize the current storyline! As you may have saw, while Hardy did indeed swing himself around he also made sure that Mercury remained in the position he started in – face down. This naturally makes sense because of the history between the two and the injury to Mercury. Something like this is usually discussed ahead of time and I think both men did a very good job to continue …er… continuity by utilizing the very injury that started this whole feud in the first place.
(1) Hey, we need that!:
During the MITB Qualifying match between Kane and King Bookah, Booker went over to the timekeepers table and got the ringbell. After a couple of failed attempts to hit Kane with it, he was finally able to blast him it, and then dropped it outside the ring. Later in the match, Booker again went over to the table, this time to get a chair. Turns out, the ringbell was back on the table! Someone out of camera view had picked it up and returned it! After all, we do have a match going on, and they need the bell for when the match ends. Something like a chair or a table is expendable and therefore can be left anywhere; the bell on the other hand is a necessary component to a match.
Hidden Highlights aren't just for us to find and tell you about, but for you to spot and share with us. Don't just sit there and stare, but be a more active, attentive, and engaged viewer. Appreciate all the hard work that goes into making the wrestling we have the privilege to watch and then let us know what you caught this and every week.
This week JP gets to pick our Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights of the week.
JP: I guess I used up some in the PPV section above, but there's still plenty more. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…
It's old hat week here in Hidden Highlights. We'll start off with a blast from the past in both show and person in Steven Masters:
Hey homies, been awhile since I wrote in here, and as such, you get not one, but TWO from the oh-so-innocent Cherry.
A) Name: Cherry. Intro? Crosses her legs as she gets picked up out of the car. Man, talk about your prudes.
B) In the words of Jerry Lawler: GRANNY PANTIES~! [/perverted old guy] Cherry's totally gone all the way with her gimmick, including the grannie panties. You can check those out as she gets flipped over the rope.
JP: So it's prudish for a girl to NOT want everyone to see up her skirt? I'm not saying I'm disagreeing with you, I'm just saying tha—
JT: Not one write-in in and you are already starting!
JP: Since when do you want me to stop?
JT: Point taken again. Please continue!
JP: Thank you. Sticking with SmackDown! (and not women's undergarments) Sean Aylward wants us to know:
Seeing as you enjoyed this weeks one so much (I didn't actually get to see it but have heard a lot about it), I thought you'd enjoy this, which you've probably seen already, but is always worth watching for the immortal line:
'AND I GOT A SWORD TOO, NOW CAN YOU DIG THAT, SUCKAS?!'
JP: Hahaha, classic Booker T back in the day, classic. Not so hidden, but just great. Speaking of King Booker and SmackDown!, John Bryant also returns with:
I had an idea that maybe you can do. Since you guys are such King Booker pushers, a gimmick which I'll admit that I'm not too fond of, perhaps you can do a King Bookah version of HH.
I'm surprised no one caught what happened on FNSmackdown last night during the Boogeyman/Finlay match. Yes an HH happened during a match involving the Boogeyman..... the end is coming -_- . Anyhow if you notice when Boogey struck Finlay the little orb that hangs on the end of his staff broke off and went flying. Oddly enough no one had commented that Boogey had struck Finlay so hard as to break his staff which would put over he was angry about being cheated last week out of his match & out of his Undefeated streak.
JP: For the first one, doing King Booker would be great. But as you know, here in Hidden Highlights we're about bigger, better, and crazier. I think if we ever did an "in character" issue again, we'd do the entire SmackDown! roster at once. That said, we've already done the joke, so we must be even more diabolical.
As for your points about Boogeyman, I'll always be happy to give him his props, as will JT. Right JT?
JT: Oh hell no. I've shown him more than enough love this we— OWWW! [THUMP]
JP: JT can't talk right now. It appears he hit himself in the head with a sledgehammer. Anyway, this is the last time I'm going to fix your spelling and grammar. This is e-mail, not an IM, and it is for printing to a large audience. Capital letters, spelling, paragraph spacing, and not using non-allegorical characters count, ok?
Well, since JT can't talk, I thought I'd give Mike Labbe a chance to debunk him:
This is an e-mail in response to your recent Hidden Highlight about the ECW Announce table.
The fact of the matter is, is that they have never once moved the ECW Announce table. It is in-fact the same announce table that is used for Smackdown.
Previously they had a separate entrance off to the side of the Smackdown set and the ECW wrestlers who came through the crowd to the ring. So the audience at home couldn't see the Smackdown set they placed the ring's hard camera in the Smackdown aisle way, which allowed the fans at home to the see announcers table.
Now they have moved the ECW entrance way to the aisle way in front of the Smackdown set, and placed a large curtain up blocking the set from the camera. They are now using the same hard camera that they do for the Smackdown taping, so we can no longer see the announcers table.
I also preferred it the other way where we could see the announcers table.
JP: I agree with Mike here, it's more that they moved the entrance (probably to take away some of the complicatedness of the separate entrance that also killed seating and to use less cameras). If JT were conscious, I'm sure he'd apologize for his wrongness.
JP: Aw, JT!! Why did you hit yourself in the head with a sledgehammer again? It's a shame you did that, because Matt Christensen has even more King Booker goodness:
This Hidden Highlight is dedicated to that intern with WWE who actually remembers past events in the E's history.
King Booker is already comedy gold and as I prepare to go see RAW live tonight in Bakersfield, I think back on the good times of the man formally known as Booker T. Why it was in Bakersfield where he had the legendary confrontation with Stone Cold that carried from (what was then) Centennial Garden to one of the local groceries where the two of them proceeded to use every item they got their hands on to fight. (ok cheap plug)
I also remember a period back in 2002 where there was a segment aired every few weeks called At the Movies starring one Booker T and his partner Goldust. Oh yes, the At the Movies segment this past week was a Hidden Highlight but not just because it was funny on the surface but more because we already knew, somewhere subconsciously, that this is why we like Booker in the first place.
"You damn right it sounds delicious."
JP: I absolutely have been thinking about that the entire time. Well, except what Supermarket that segment was in, but thanks for the history lesson! We finally move to this week as I let John Bryant back into the article because his grammar and spelling improved dramatically:
Something I noticed this past week on RAW. The color of Carlito's apple. Usually when we see Carlito he almost ALWAYS has a green apple but this week it was different as it was Red. I know this may be a pointless HH but it still was different than normal.
JP: Ok, so maybe it was easy to fix when it is only two sentences. Anyway, I enjoy pointless Hidden Highlights because in the grand scheme of things it's just about finding enjoyment in unexpected places. That sounded rather unexpected to me! Speaking of colors, Jeff Murphy says:
An HH for you from Thurs night raw, while HBK is doing his promo for Wrestlemania 23 (the one with don't look guy in the background), if I remember properly, he was with the DX DVD. The background lighting is conveniently green. Coincidence?
JP: Not a chance! WWE production is nothing if not amazing. Since people this week have been giving a lot of love to wrestlers they don't like, Oliver P thought he would do the same:
Now, I'm a fan of the Hardys and not a big fan of Umaga, so you can as you can imagine I wasn't to happy that Umaga won the title off of Jeff...CLEAN. Despite that, I got to give Umaga props. After he won the match and Estrada was handing him the title, Umaga just had this confused look on his face. Now Umaga, being the Savage monster that he is, probably wouldn't understand why he was being given a title just for destroying someone like usually, and Estrada had to explain to him what was happening. I just thought that was good acting on the part of the Samoan Bullldozer.
JP: Probably should give props to Estrada, too, for being able to play the "explainer" role to perfection. Moving on to ECW, Patrick Morone says that:
During the ECW main event this week (Holly vs Lashley vs Kennedy), right at the finish of the match, Kennedy hits Holly with a chair. Then Lashley picks up Kennedy for a powerslam. But while Kennedy is on Lashley's shoulder, Kennedy doesn't just accept the move. He keeps jabbing his elbow into Lashley, trying to break up, I guess. Great touch by Kennedy. Usually in wrestling, the victim will just sit there while a move is performed on him. (eg powerbomb or any move setup like that). Kennedy shows here that while he's about to get slammed, he tries anything to get out.
JP: Do you know what else people usually do? USE CAPITAL LETTERS!!!!!!!!! God, how hard is it to find the shift key. All readers are to immediately take a word processing class. This was a great observation, probably the best of the bunch this week, but it was totally ruined to me because of the lack of capital letters and sparing use of apostrophes. I'm glad the home readers get to enjoy it because I took the time to edit it, but geez! I'm really getting upset about bad e-mail skills. Bobby Hinkle, you have the last Hidden Highlight of this segment. Please, make it a good one to calm me down:
Just wanted to point out a hidden highlight. After the Steiner-Angle contract signing segment, Tomko and Christian Cage hit the ring, and as DW is always so quick to tell us, the "numbers game" caught up with Angle. Once he was subdued, Big Poppa Pump held Angle while Tomko came over to deliver some straight punches. In keeping with the rift between Steiner and Tomko, however, Steiner yelled at Tomko to get out of the way so that he could deliver a belly-to-belly suplex on Angle. I just thought this was a nice instance of continuity where it could have been easily overlooked. Rather than give Tomko the satisfaction of beating up Angle, Steiner wanted to dish out the punishment himself and send a message to both Angle AND Tomko that he was in charge and didn't need anyone's help (especially Tomko's) to get the job done. Nice work by Steiner.
JP: Ok, that was awesome and had perfect spelling and grammar. I'm totally calmed down now. Thank you. JT?
JT: ::blagu gabi odo?::
JP: Oh… right… I really need to have my anger looked in to.
Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail JP..erT…er…us at jpjthidden@yahoo.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… we just like to know!
That Other Section
This week, JP and maybe JT have some things for That Other Section.
JP: Sadly with 100% less Knobs, it's…
Hidden Highlights for Hogan Knows Best: Sunday, February 18, 2007
JP: After watching Brian Knobs, Vince decided he needed to lock Hogan up for 20 years. Of course, this was actually back in August 2006. Wow, time sure does fly in the editing room.
(3) Where is your Hart:
As Hogan was making his way around backstage at RAW, his good friend Jimmy Hart was also with him. In case you don't know, Hart does a lot of work for TNA, especially in their musical composition area. What I found interesting was that Jimmy was wearing a WWE t-shirt under his jacket. I wonder if that was a peace offering for the folks backstage or a requirement for appearing on camera with the WWE crew?
(2) Vince's Office:
Watching RAW every week, we often see the "office" set where people go to meet. Not once in my life did I ever think that this was the actual temporary office that was used. Yet when Vince called for Hogan in his office, that is exactly where Hogan went! So the question is on this one, is that really an office then, or is just an even bigger work than I already think it is?
(1) The way to Titan Towers:
I have been to Stamford, CT more times in my life than I can count. I have been outside WWE corporate headquarters, aka Titan Towers, an almost equal number of times. That said, I have no idea what road Hogan took to get there! Titan Towers is right off the highway, so I have no idea why Hogan's limo went through some random bombed out neighborhood that I don't even think was IN Stamford. It looks like it was just another editing tool made to send a message about the state of affairs in Hogan's mind. An interesting technique, I must say. Who cares about reality anyway?
JT: I was also surprised at how willing Vince was to completely break kayfabe in front of the cameras and be himself; it takes coraggio to sit Hulk Hogan down and tell him that he owes you something.
JP: I think Hulk got his revenge by showing Umaga out of character on camera. Up next we would have…
THE Hidden Highlight for Wrestling Society X: Tuesday, February 20, 2007
JP: But the show was cancelled due to loosely edited fireball. I'm sure we'll talk about that next week. So instead, I turn it over to JT for an old favorite of ours…
JT's Bi-weekly Once in a While Rant
JT: Let me share a little something with you that we received THIS WEEK from reader James Page:
I don't think I've read so many self congratulatory comments since Chris Hyatte was on the site. At least with him you had the feeling he was being ironic.
Just because you think it's funny, or you took a long time to write it, doesn't mean anything. It would take me a long time to paint a picture with my feet, but it'd still be shite. And how I did it shouldn't have any bearing on how it is received critically.
When an article is received badly because it is disagreed with, that is one thing. When it's received badly because the regular readers can't be bothered to carry on reading it, it's quite another. The whole thing felt like a joke that went on too long.
JT: Okay, James. First, we always appreciate the feedback. We also appreciate how cordial you were about it (as were most of our readers). Believe us, the last thing we want to do is get into a shouting match with a reader who chooses to be an idiot about how they go about letting us know what they thought. We have Larry for that. But "self congratulatory?". I went back and read the column again just to make sure we weren't coming off as pretentious, and after having done so I just don't see it. Firstly, we presented all feedback despite the fact it was clearly not in our favor. We then responded to said feedback with our own opinions. Remember, those were our opinions; we were certainly in no way presenting them as fact.
As for our thoughts on the column itself, where did we tell anyone who didn't like it to fuck off? Where did we claim it was Nobel Prize winning journalism? When did we say "you guys are crazy, we are the shit and this column was awesome stuff!"? We didn't. We merely pointed out that it required a large amount of effort, and that we – as the writers – were proud of our work; never did we claim it was the greatest read we've ever churned out. In fact, we apologized to those who didn't think it was good or found it difficult to read.
Basically, just because we stand behind our work, and share the opinions of myself, JP, and a few others that we personally enjoyed it does mean we are screaming out loud to the word that it was for everyone or how great it was. We simply did not say those things.
We made no bones about the fact many people found it to be completely un-awesome, and not only do we not have a problem with that, we gave them a soapbox to stand on and announce it to the world. Us having pride in something we created together is hardly self congratulatory, it's merely being proud of what we feel is a job well done.
So if you thought the column was a complete piece of shit, we're fine with that. Hell, half our readers thought it was garbage and we are certainly pleased that our normal body of work got us a free pass in most of their eyes and they read the following weeks issue. If you hate it, no biggie, just please don't accuse us of downplaying any lack of quality in the column because we do still stand behind it and it is something we both enjoyed writing, and still enjoy reading. We have our opinions, and you are definitely entitled to yours. As with all of our readers, we appreciate each and every reader, and hope we don't lose you as one.
JP: Geez, and I thought it was my job to argue with our British readers over absolutely nothing. That's right, I'm still thinking of Maven at the Royal Rumble. NEVER ELIMINATED! The refs never saw it! What do you think of that, Floyd?!
Exit, stage left!
JT: Well, that was a fun week with the work phones at night. I swear I am about - - close to telling them they can keep their stupid check and get someone else to do it. …meh, I'm in a mood… ‘til next week my little Orange Elephant Ear Sponges!
JP: You know, these endings are getting so hard to fathom.
JT: You'll be okay. It could be worse, I was going to call them my little CARRRRRRRRRNE Asada's because I cannot get enough of that taco bell commercial!
JP: Oh, JT, you really do think outside the bun.
Thank you for joining us for THE 78th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights! Be sure to drop us a line and let us know what you think and all the other Hidden Highlights we missed. Plus, we want to hear your Reader Write-ins for all the moments you see this and every week.
We'll catch you next time in the reader approved most positive article in all of the IWC: Hidden Highlights! Until then!
