Hidden Highlights 10.08.07: Issue #110

Posted by JP Prag on 10.08.2007

Lillian Garcia has something stuck in her throat, Matt Striker plays a game of hide without the seek, Kurt Angle knows all about Sting’s friend “Larry”, MVP makes faces behind Matt Hardy’s back, and more. Plus we learn the winner of the Reader Write-in contest and who will be guest co-host for Issues #111-114!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #110

Hello everyone who is more exhausted from "not having a travel week" than they would be if you did have a travel week because you live 50 miles from your office but still put in the same hours (just without the expenses) and at the same time your local friends thought it would be a good time to see you because you were around, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights!!



Hidden Highlights, they 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. William Regal may bend his opponent's hand backwards just a little bit harder to dish out the pain. Christian Cage may reference a piece of obscure history. Tazz may bring realism to the product by describing an abdominal stretch in detail. The camera operator may take a low shot looking up at the Great Khali to make him look like a true monster. These are all examples of what Hidden Highlights is about.

Every week this article spotlights Hidden Highlights from the biggest shows on television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one), delves into the past to find the ones never recorded before, and goes beyond to small shows, live events, tapes, and the indy scene to see what no one else sees. This article may have an author, but it is just as much written by the readers and true fans of professional wrestling—those who love what they watch and want to tell the world what they have found.

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.

JP: What a great week to be a New Englander! Patriots continue their undefeated streak, Red Sox taking another step towards the World Series… it's a good deal. The most major blow to New England athletics has been John Cena going down to injury. And you can read all about that in the third lead story of the The Hamilton Ave Journal, your new Saturday News Report and the only wrestling news report focused solely on the business of wrestling. Catch it each and every Saturday morning. And no, I'm not sure which editor messed with my title this week. Whoever wrote it as "The Hamilton Ave News Journal" isn't getting the theme. I'm looking at you, Ashish! Stop censoring me!!

Ahem… anyway, without further ado, the winner of the contest with a score of 4.18 out of a possible 5.00 (don't ask me for the math): Brandon Methany. Brandon, let's hear that victory speech!

Brandon: Thank you all so much for voting for me, and thanks to Trevor and Nikolai for giving me considerable competition in this contest. Ever since I discovered 411mania almost four years I've wanted to write for the site and share my opinions with everybody, and I am ecstatic that I got the chance. I am honored and, quite honestly, humbled to have won this contest and will do my best to show you all that I do deserve this. Now then, with all of that mushy stuff out of the way, down to the important issues. First off, when do I get my cool nickname? You have your cool superhero name in JP, and I think I need one too. King of the Readers fits nicely, I think. Second, when do I get the keys to the Super Secret Writers' Forum? I know you all use it to control all world events, and I could use some help having my Rams get, I don't know, a win or twelve. Its gonna be a fun month...

JP: Who keeps the Martians under wraps? / We do! / We do!

Whoops, wrong secret organization. Well, not you are going to get a taste of being on the other side, so tell me in a month if you still want to be known as "King of Readers". I guess we could call you BM for old time sakes, but I believe that has some type of connotation I don't want to add for now (we'll see later). As for the Rams, well, they don't play my Patriots this year, and I DESPISE the Steelers, so I could help you out with that. Let me get to work on that…

All right, we'll see you next week. In the meantime, let's get on with the Hidden Highlights!



Monday, October 1, 2007 by JP

JP: Hey, it's JP doing RAW! What was the last time that happened? I'll give you a clue: IT WAS ISSUE #100!!! My goodness, have you missed my RAW insights? I know you have, so I have worked up a few here that I think you'll enjoy. As a bonus, we'll call JR a prophet for saying, "John Cena can't afford to be injured" right at the beginning on his match with Mr. Kennedy. Oh JR, you didn't knock on wood. Now I hate the Sooners even more!

(3) That just cannot be:

I know they showed it in a replay moment as well, but I just really wanted to point this one out. In the six person tag match featuring Paul London, Brian Kendrick, and Jeff Hardy vs. Lance Cade, Trevor Murdoch, and Shelton Benjamin, Paul London took a flying shooting star press/plancha off of the ring apron to the floor. The fact that they replayed this move makes it even more interesting. If you remember a few months back, London got reamed out by management for doing the same move at a house show after he was told not to. Now, he's done it on TV as well. One wonders if the London/Kendrick could see a push down the card in the weeks to come because of this, or maybe just Paul London will see some more repercussions. This is even better than when he smiled at Mr. McMahon about to get blown up (which was also covered here). Should be interesting!

(2) Cough… cough:

Later in the evening, the "Glamazon" Beth Phoenix came down for an interview and let us know that it was a forgone conclusion that she would win the title. Beth Phoenix is quickly becoming my new female hero on RAW, so you better pick up the pace Mickie James! Victoria, you are safe on SmackDown!, so no worries. Gail Kim… even nicer in person. Mmmmm…. Huh? Oh right! Anyway, after Lillian Garcia dared to disrespect the Glamazon, Beth Phoenix decided to crush Lillian's larynx and make sure she could not promote her new album. After Lillian's ear ring went flying (that looked painful), Candice Michelle came down and made the save. As Beth was walking away, you could just catch in the background Candice checking on Lillian, and Lillian giving a little cough. Extra nice sell there Lillian! There was no way that she could know that she was on camera, but did the coughing anyway. Then she kept it up as the night went on, and even had "trouble announcing" as the night went on. It was a great long term little sell without going overboard.

(1) A count-out… that's cool:

Our other big match of the evening saw Triple H taking on Mr. McMahon with special guest referee and future Hidden Highlights Hall of Fame inductee Carlito. Late into the match, Mr. McMahon was on the outside and Carlito started to slowly could him out. He got up to about three when Triple H came over to the ropes and started jawing with Carlito and Mr. McMahon. Carlito backed Triple H away from the ropes and then restarted the count at one! I thought that was absolutely hilarious by Carlito; he was counting extremely slow and had obviously not lost his place, but just to cheat a little more he started the count all over again.



Tuesday, October 2, 2007 by JP

JP: Over in ECW, the Elimination Chase came to an end with a SWERVE! I don't get it, ECW lacks challenges, and it's not like No Mercy is built around the ECW title match. Why not have Tommy Dreamer this month and Big Daddy V next? It's like jumping to the steel cage match before having a normal one-on-one match-up. Ah well, no bigs. I found a few good ones that make up for it, including one for Tommy Dreamer and the aforementioned angle.

(3) Blast from the Past: Part II:

As mentioned above, Tommy Dreamer won the big one, defeating his opponent in a hard fought match, barely surviving but still a winner. Then, a few moments later, he lost it all and was forgotten as the rest of the world moved on. Sound familiar? Well, back in 2000, Tommy Dreamer defeated Tazz for the ECW Championship, and then immediately lost the title to Justin Credible right afterwards. I felt this entire night was an homage to CyberSlam 2000, and was very amused to see the exact same angle repeated with the exact same person. Poor Tommy, always a dreamer…

(2) Can't find me:

Earlier in the show, CM Punk came out for an interview with himself when Matt Striker and Big Daddy V appeared on the Titan Extreme-tron. Striker gave a speech with a lot of funny and convoluted language (some of it improper, which was even better), but I notices something in particular about Mr. Striker. Despite the fact that he was on a television screen and no where near CM Punk, he was still hiding behind Big Daddy V! That just sent the perfect message that he was protected to matter where he may be, and enjoyed having that shield in front of him.

(1) Never letting go:

This led to the proceeding match where CM Punk took on old foe Mike Knox. Now, I know some people **cough** Larry **cough** did not enjoy this match because Mike Knox got so much offence, but I enjoyed it. I was surprised at how much catch-as-catch can wrestling Knox knew and was impressed by many of the moves he was pulling off. The tempo and story was strong, and I liked the message too. Sure, CM Punk was able to easily defeat Knox in the past, but shouldn't someone get better with time? Mike Knox is a growing character, so of course he would be getting better with time. CM Punk was not hurt by the match at all, especially because he could pull off the little things.

For instance, early in the match Punk had Knox in a lay-down front chancery. He then wanted to lay some knees into Knox's side. Most people would let go of the move and then stand up to hit some knee drops. But Punk knows if you control the head, you control the person. So he managed to hold on to the chancery as he laid in the knees, and then turned right back to synching it in. Excellent work by Punk, giving him the William Regal Award of the Week!



Thursday, October 4, 2007 by JP

JP: It was the first ever two-hour iMPACT, a most historic night in professional wrestling. And what did the erstwhile competition have to offer? Glad you asked, because here they are in reverse chronological order.

(3) Commercial breaks done right:

During the Gauntlet Battle Royal late into the broadcast, the show was forced to go to commercial break (This one legitimate. No wrestling match under 15 minutes should EVER go to commercial break during the middle of it. It's a terrible habit that needs to be broken). Now as covered many times here, announcers should never say the match will continue after the break, because then it makes the show look scripted since they know it will not end during the break. I always used to like when Tony Schiavone would say that if the match ended during the break, they would show you the highlights. This night in TNA had one of the moments that I felt was worth pointing out. As I said, the match was forced to go to commercial break and Mike Tenay said, "We'll review any eliminations when we return to iMPACT." This was a nice touch showing anything and everything could happen while they were away, but they would be able to show it later. It added that element of surprise and realism that the product often needs. Little comments like that go a long way.

(2) Good friends, better references:

For the entire evening, Kurt Angle spent the show at Sting's son's football game (I didn't know Sting had a son old enough for varsity high school football). Instead of calling the police, Sting called a good friend of his to get Angle out of there. When they went back to Angle, Angle said that Sting's good friend "Larry" was not able to get rid of him, and that he'll most likely be walking with a limp for the rest of his life. And who would "Larry" be? Larry is Lex Luger's real name, and he is walking with a limp for the rest of his life. That was quite a good reference there by Angle, I was impressed.

(1) It's bigger than bigger:

Much earlier in the broadcast, Jeremy Borash was in the back interviewing "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal with "The Guru" Sonjay Dutt standing by. Lethal started to talk about his match with Christopher Daniels at Bound for Glory for the X-Division Championship when he said something hilarious. He called Bound for Glory "The Grandmother of them All". Grandmother? That is just too funny and goes along perfectly with his insane Macho Man gimmick.



Friday, October 5, 2007 by JP

JP: On the last stop to No Mercy, SmackDown! had the honor of making the final push to the Punjabi Prison. The show was jam packed with Hidden Highlights, so I was torn about what ones to put here. Still, I think these are the three best that don't involve Chuck Pulumbo (even though I had one with him).

(3) Jobber strikes back:

SmackDown! this week had the in-ring debut of Jesse and Festus. First off, "Biscuits and Gravy" is way too awesome of a song. Second off, I like Festus' gimmick already of being a monster turned on by a bell and can see ways he could be manipulated in the future. Third off, Jesse is rather impressive in the ring; fast moving and pulling off unique moves. Rather unlike his father. Now on to the Hidden Highlight. As Jesse was making his way into the ring, Chad Collyer (what a random appearance) actually tried to take a kick at Jesse! I thought this was a great little touch by Collyer in the few moments he had. Sure he was a jobber for this match, but he got to show personality and gimmick (particularly a heel gimmick) in those short few moments.

(2) Here's my forth half:

Another tag match saw the WWE Tag Team Champions MVP and that other guy who's not MVP defend their titles against Deuce and Domino. After that other guy (let's call him Matt Hardy to make things easier) made the pinfall on Deuce, the champs started to walk up the ramp together, jawing all the way. As they started to walk away, MVP graciously let Hardy walk up the ramp first. Then, as he got behind Hardy's back, MVP stuck out his tongue and made a face at him! How absolutely hilarious and childish was that? MVP is doing such a fantastic job with the little details that it is incredible.

(1) It's a new era:

With Teddy Long out with a heart attack, Vickie Guerrero has taken over the role of GM of SmackDown!. Now as you know, I love to look at the decorations on the walls and around the office and poitnt out the new and old stuff. As seen in the past, Teddy Long always had a picture of Mr. McMahon and Martin Luther King Jr. on the walls, his two heroes. I noticed this week that those two picture were gone and were replaced with… pictures of Linda and Stephanie McMahon! I thought that was a great touch that a woman's heroes in wrestling would be the most prominent women in wrestling. An excellent touch by production to put those ones up. What more could you ask for from that crew?




Hidden Highlights are not just about what was written above, but about what you have seen as well. This article strives to not only spotlight the best Hidden Highlights, but to engage you, the viewers, and make you the best audience in the world.

JP: I have done way too much work this issue. You people, pick up the slack! So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

Since you'll be hearing from him a lot this week, here's the winner of the our little contest Brandon Metheny:

Everyone (myself included) seems to think that the mysterious videos are leading to the return of Jericho, but this week's video gave me pause. Why? Because it said "Savior_8211". Who is the most notably "saved" person in WWE? Why Mr. 8 2 11 himself. What are those 3 letters in the alphabet? HBK. I'm pretty sure this is a red herring, but its a very clever one.

JP: There are a lot of red herrings going on in those videos. I'm kind of looking forward to it not being Jericho just to get the swerve. Then again, I'd really like Jericho back. I'm so torn! But runner up Trevor Alexander is not:

At the end of the Kane/M.V.P match M.V.P was disqualified for kicking cane below the belt and M.V.P left the ring and did his "BALLIN!!!!" taunt. Whether it was intentional or not it brought a smile to my face that M.V.P. would be "BALLIN!!!!" after he kicked Kane in his.

JP: Ok, that was mildly funny, I will admit it. Still funny (and that LAST TIME I'll be covering this subject) is Chris Robinson and the Undertaker's tattoo:

I read your hidden highlights column and I noticed something interesting. In your reader feedback on the bottom it's mentioned that the Undertaker's neck tattoo seems to have been photoshopped out of some pics. Well, I've found conclusive proof of this. Go to the Undertaker's bio on wwe.com/superstars. There's a pretty large picture of him there that clearly shows his neck. The tat is not there at all. Very interesting.

JP: I just don't get why they are doing it? It's not like people don't know it's there. Kind of off base, if you ask me. But why ask me, why you have Chris Jacobs:

HH for Lillian Garcia selling the choke job. As much as I cannot stand Lillian, after Beth choked her she would announce names and matches afterwards with not as much enthusiasm. I don't call the Mr. McMahon messup a HH because the commentators brushed on it, BUT all the matches afterwards didn't have the same energy, and you could see her in the background as Vince was talking she was rubbing her throat and coughing a bit every so often.

JP: Exactly what I was talking about above, and this is just the continuation of it. I was impressed with Lillian that night. And Brandon Thibodeaux was impressed with Mr. McMahon:

Right after Umaga had "destroyed" the three men in the ring, Mr McMahon went over to him and raised his hand. The Hidden Highlight about this is the fact that instead of holding him by the wrist, he was holding him by the thumb. The very same thumb that Umaga uses for the Samoan Spike. Its almost as if he were saying, "This is the weapon that will destroy Triple H."

JP: I noticed that, too, and almost took it as he was leading Umaga around. Like holding him by the thumb was like holding him on a leash. Sticking on RAW but going from the French to the British is Luke Southworth:

On Raw, there was a crest on the wall of William Regal's office. I thought it looked familiar, and, with a quick check on Google I discovered it was in fact the crest of Blackpool, Regal's hometown.

This particularly nauseated me, as it is also the crest of the bitterest rivals of my glorious Preston North End Football Club, but I can understand it being there!

JP: And thanks for the background info because I never would have figured that out! Of course, being a huge Regal mark I'm going to have to cheer on Blackpool. Sorry! Not as sorry as Dan Hamilton is:

Somebody had a sign about [on ECW], I don't remember who being a thief, the only problem is that they spelled thief wrong, spelling it "theif". Sorry it's the anal English teacher in me.

JP: No, I understand, I'm anal about English, too. Of course, without a co-writer my spelling and grammatical errors have been on the rise.

Usually this isn't out of the norm, but when I saw a "Will you make out with me CM Punk?" sign I had figured it would be a chick holding it, but to my surprise it was a guy probably in his early 20's holding it. Just a little odd is all.

JP: No, it was not a guy in his 20's, but like a 10 year old guy! I couldn't quite figure it out either and watched it three times. I think it was a joke sign that only smarks get, so I had no idea.

On a side note, Dan will be brining us new banners next week, so get ready to check those out. Thanks again Dan!

Moving on to SmackDown! (I feel like we barely left) is Patrick Morone:

Both my HHs come from Smackdown this week. I found the Deuce and Domino vs MVP/Matt Hardy match to be a bit long. As MVP and Hardy were walking to the back, Kane came out for his next match. This adds a little realism to the show that the match went on so long that the next segment had to be rushed out. I know they're playing on the MVP/Kane feud, but it works both ways.

JP: Oh, so that's why Kenny Dkystra didn't get an entrance. Now it makes sense to me.

Also, usually when there's a heel beatdown, and another face comes to make the save, the heels stop what they're doing as soon as the rescuer's music hits. In reality, they still have a few more seconds to continue the beat down. This week, Khali continued to beat on Mysterio during Batista's music. Batista still had to come out and run down the ramp. Khali used this time to continue beating on Rey. He only stopped as soon as Batista hit the ring.

JP: More Great Khali love! That's too great. What more could I ask for, except to finish off the column. And finishing us off this week is fellow columnist Bill Bumgamer:

Literally five minutes after I read your latest Hidden Highlights, I was watching Weird Al Yankovic's Jurassic Park music video for the first time ever (heard the song, but just found the video today), and what do I see? A wrestling-related Highlight. At 1:49, as Al sings the lyrics "someone left T-Rex out of his pen", the Tyrannosaurus is climbing the wires of the formerly-electrified fence.....and, lo and behold, there's an old-school WWF logo on the top of the fence support (the Rex then proceeds to do what appears to be a Hogan elbow drop onto a dinosaur in striped trunks outside the enclosure). I wasn't looking for it, I didn't expect to see it, but it's there all the same. Here's the URL of the vid if you want to see for yourself:



As I said, if I've breached some protocol in this, I'm sorry. But hey; I guess even guys like me with negative columns can spot the positivity in things, and seeing that old-school logo makes me remember the days when everything saw in wrestling was positive (to me, anyway).

JP: We have etiquette and protocol? I've been here for two and half years and people are just telling me these things now! Geez man. Ah well, I enjoyed the positivity from one of the most negative writers we've got, so you get a pass this week!

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 [e-mail] 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… readers just like to know!




JP: Wow, this article is a lot shorter without voting and banter. That's ok, because I had absolutely no time to finish this article this week. As it is, I'm already an hour late for bedtime. Damn you 4am Mondays! Oh well, I have a whole new outfit to wear, so let's get to it.

And of course, just a could of service announcements:

GO SOX!

YANKEES SUCK!

COME BACK on Saturday and read the next issue of The Hamilton Ave Journal. What news will shatter the business of wrestling this week? Only time will tell.

That is all.

Thank you for reading the 110th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights! Be sure to drop a line with all the other Hidden Highlights not covered this time around and everything you catch in the week to come.

Until then, you have just experienced the most positive article in all of the IWC: Hidden Highlights!