Hidden Highlights 12.24.07: Issue #121

Posted by JP Prag on 12.24.2007

It’s a Very Jewish Christmas Eve and we have Chris Jericho locking in the walls, Shelton Benjamin waiting for his opponent’s guard to drop, the Motor City Machine Guns and Jay Lethal coordinating in a Hidden Highlights favorite way, Matt Striker helping Big Daddy V learn to count, readers confirming the truth about CM Punk, and more! All with guest co-host Randy Harrison!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #121

Hello everyone who can FINALLY admit that they have taken a new job, 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: You read that intro right, kids, I have taken a new job! After a couple of months of being recruited, pacing the hallways weighing my options, and spending every waking moment that I was not doing something else thinking about it, I finally made the decision three weeks ago to make the move. I'm rather excited about the opportunity. You'll be happy to know that part of my motivation is this very article you are reading. I was looking for more flexibility with my time so I could spend more time with my side projects, especially my writing. So in many ways, Hidden Highlights has once again changed my life.

A man who I know feels the same way is this week's guest co-host. You saw him here five weeks ago, but he's back from MMA Zone and his two big articles Sprawl and Brawl Video Reviews and Five Rounds of News. Please welcome back to these pages Randy Harrison! Randy?

Randy: Glad to be back JP, even though I almost didn't make it. I was out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping and those old ladies get retard-strong when there's a sale to be had, I swear. I think one of them bruised my liver with her cane. Congratulations on the new job by the way and I have to say I'm glad a decision was made because hearing you pace up and down the halls of the 411 offices night after night made it a little distracting as a working environment.

JP: And here I thought I was being generous even letting you in the building! Well, I know who is losing their key to the executive washroom.

Randy: NOOOOOO! My golden bide!!

JP: That's the price you pay. Now on with the Hidden Highlights!



Sunday, December 16, 2007 by the Readers via JP

JP: And we got ZERO! Well, thanks to Dan Hamilton for the awesome logo. Be sure to watch for a new main image from Dan coming soon!

Randy: I'm sensing a trend here.... two times I've guest hosted with you and both times we've had a Pay-Per-View with nothing. Am I missing memos or something?



Monday, December 17, 2007 by JP

JP: With Armageddon in the books, the Royal Rumble coming up fast, and a week "off", the hard push began for the new programs and matches. The night actually proved rather refreshing with—outside of the Vince McMahon rehashes—things were actually rather new; Jeff Hardy in the main event scene, Triple H losing, Mr. Kennedy getting offence, Santino and Carlito both winning a match, and mixing up the main event scene with Jericho and JBL. Ok, not all of those are going to set the world on fire, but still!

(3) You're not getting away from me that easy:

During a mid-show tag match, the new World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly took on the former champions Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. It was a heated affair with former champions doing all they could to prove that they should still have the titles. After beating on Cody Rhodes for a bit, Trevor Murdoch tagged in Lance Cade to do some more damage. As Murdoch was walking through the ropes to the outside, Hardcore Holly came out of nowhere and shoved him outside to the floor. I like that Holly did not just let Murdoch escape unscathed, but made sure he hit some damage on him on the way out.

(2) A new tamer:

Well, since you readers were lazy on Armageddon and Scott Slimmer did not write anything our way, I thought I'd put one in here. During the WWE Championship match of Chris Jericho versus Chris Jericho, Jericho trapped Orton in the Walls of Jericho (Liontamer) before JBL came in and caused a DQ. But I noticed something different about the Walls of Jericho that I have not seen in years. Normally, Jericho locks it in like a weak Boston Crab and just sits down leaning back. This time, though, Jericho actually locked his hands together underneath Orton's legs. This way, Orton would not be able to move his legs and reverse the hold. I thought this was a great way to legitimately make the move look more dangerous and also gave it a unique look, which I thought it absolutely lacked.

(1) Santino in the middle of a sentence:

During another tag team match, the unlikely duo of Santino Marella and Carlito took on Paul London and Brian Kendrick. Early in the match, Kendrick slapped Marella across the face. Santino, quite upset, started to say, "You stupid—" something before Kendrick cut him off with a flipping kick to the head. I really liked that Santino started a sentence and you could tell that he had an end to it. He didn't just start the words and trail off, he was in the middle of the next word when he was hit in the head, showing that he was thinking of just the words, not what was about to come.

Randy: Santino is entertaining as all hell. It's a shame he can't wrestle a lick but I suppose. Want to know what else is a shame? Your crush from my last episode here, Topanga. Who would have EVER thought she'd get busted for a DUI? I thought only the famous celebrities got busted like that.

JP: No, you got it all wrong; I'm glad she got busted. I had no love for Topanga. I'm all about Linda Cardellini's character Lauren: the cute mountain girl. She was the better choice by far!



Tuesday, December 18, 2007 by JP

JP: It was not a good night in the land of extreme as the only win an ECW Superstar had was CM Punk winning by DQ. Wait… wait… the new golden boy Shelton Benjamin had a win, and we'll cover it down below!

(3) Another shot to the back:

Similar to the shot Hardcore Holly took at Trevor Murdoch, the Miz decided to take a shot at Shannon Moore. Many times wrestlers, especially cruiserweights and X-like stars, do a lot of bouncing off the ropes. Well, the Miz was actually smart about this and he took a swipe at Shannon Moore as he was bouncing off the ropes and hitting John Morrison with everything he had. Sure, the Miz missed, but it was the action of trying the actually counts.

(2) Letting down the guard:

As mentioned above, the new gold standard Shelton Benjamin took on local boy Colin Delaney. After taking a stiff shot, Colin put his hands up in a boxing position to protect his very vulnerable head. Then, in a split second, Colin actually dropped his right guard. It was at that moment that Benjamin lifted into the air and hit a flying spin kick to Colin's right side. I don't know if that is how it was planned or not, but as a legitimate move it made Benjamin look smart and dangerous.

(1) One word away:

Later in the evening, SmackDown!'s Kenny Dykstra came out with Victoria to take on ECW's Nunzio, who was dressed up as an elf. Not too far into the match, Kenny had Nunzio in a pretty rough headlock. It was at that moment that you could hear Victoria in the background screaming, "Ask him, ref! ASK HIM!!!" Oh Victoria, you are always so into and involved in every match. It's a great little treat every time you come out to the ring. Keep up the good stuff!

Randy: I loved it when Jericho did it, I loved it when Victoria did it. It's that little line between "I know I've got him so you better ask him" and "I hope to God I've got him so you better ask him". I think it's a move that only a heel can pull off to perfection I think, because it's that perfect mix of confidence and cowardice that only a good heel can give you, but that's neither here nor there. Great job getting involved Victoria.. now can we just get her a Women's Title match sometime in the next year or two maybe?



Thursday, December 20, 2007 by Randy Harrison

Randy: All I know is that I'm never inviting Samoa Joe to any of my Christmas parties. I like all of my decorations FAR too much to risk having them destroyed by an angry Samoan.

(3) Down In Front!!!:

It might be a little thing that probably doesn't merit mentioning but the production crew did a great job on the Christmas Chaos cage match of making sure the lights were where they needed to be and not where they would end up being a distraction. They were all around the top section of the Six Sides of Steel and then around four sections of the bottom as well. The two sides that they didn't end up on were, of course, the side with the door, but also the hard camera side. A great way to put over the festive theme of the show with all the lights and yet still be thinking enough to make sure nothing gets in the way of the action.

(2) Unity:

No, not the old Operation Ivy song, but TEAM unity in the persons of the MCMG's and Black Machismo. You expect a tag-team to have matching outfits as a given, but when someone joins them in an angle for a match or two, you don't expect it from the outsider. However in the Double North Pole Match (I swear that somewhere out there there's probably a porno with that name), Jay Lethal, Chris Sabin, and Alex Shelley were all wearing ring gear that was black, red and white. What better way to show unity against the X-Division invaders than by donning the same colors to wear into battle.

(1) Total Elimination, BITCHES!!:

They might have called it a high-low on commentary, but you and I both know that when Shelley and Sabin busted out Total Elimination on Brother Ray, the first thing you thought of was all of the great matches between The Dudley Boyz and The Eliminators in the original ECW. It also figures that Ray would probably have known best how to sell the move since he must have taken it countless times as part of that feud back in the day. I love nods to history like that and it's something that should be expected from two students of the game like Shelley and Sabin.

JP: I marked out HUGE when they busted out Total Elimination on the Team 3D. The Eliminators were such an awesome team! Now Kronus is dead is Saturn is, ummmm, I'll ask Cook later.



Friday, December 21, 2007 by Randy Harrison

Randy: Lots of goings-on after a huge Armageddon show, and Smackdown delivered on the Hidden Highlights. I give a little love to an outgoing JBL, a piece of managerial awesomeness and even the Edge-heads get a little respect, despite the whole thing looking like a re-hash of the multiple Kurt Angle angle which was a re-hash of the multiple Doink angle, which was a re-hash of the....

I could go on but we'd be here all night talking about how the wrestling business constantly rips itself off, ERRR pays homage to itself, so let's just get to the goodness from the Blue Brand.

(3) Foreshadowing a Change:

JBL is on his last night of commentary and in kayfabe-land, no one has any idea who it is that is going to come and replace the COMMENTARY GAWD. During the V/Henry/MVP vs. Punk/Kane/Mysterio match I noticed a sweet little piece of business when V got the tag and JBL said something along the line of "The mood just changed". Now who used to have a VERY similar catchphrase when he debuted in the WWE before he moved from the ring to the broadcast booth? That's right, Cole's former color commentator Tazz. The rumor is that he'll be coming back to Smackdown to replace JBL and whether JBL meant to or not, he ended up dropping a hint while at the same time putting over the action in the ring.

(2) The Thinking Man's Cheater:

In the same match, Matt Striker, the manager for the big, bad heels, made his presence known even though he did nothing to interfere. When Mark Henry had CM Punk in the corner and was doling out the punishment, he broke away when the ref was counting for him to break. Off-camera and in a move a lot of managers don't use anymore Striker shouted out "Remember you have until five. Use that count" . It was nice to see a manager actually managing for once and giving advice to his charge while he was in the ring instead of just kind of standing around ringside and collecting a paycheck for no apparent reason.

(1) It's Not Just About The Looks:

Before the World Heavyweight Title match, Edge was making his way to the ring with his Edge-heads and had already made his way into the ring with the two clones on the outside. I'm going to call him Clone #1 cause I have no idea which one he was, but Clone #1 showed that it's about a lot more than just looking like Edge as he bounced up and down on the floor and began adopting the mannerisms of his more famous, more popular inspiration. They both continued to do it throughout the match and it was a great little thing that showed just how committed to the character the Edge-heads are and how convincingly they play the part to fool both Batista and The Undertaker at Armageddon.

JP: I would like people to remember that Edge and Christian basically got their name when they started following around Gangrel in a revenge for the Hardy Boyz leaving him. You never know how a tag team heel run will turn out!




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'm glad y'all remember that you should e-mail your Hidden Highlights into me and not just put them in the comments section. But keeping dropping in comments anyway; those are quite fun. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

We'll kick it off, like we know how to do, in the past with Patrick Monroe:

I found a great highlight by Kurt Angle during Impact. During the Roode/Angle vs Cage match, Kurt was outside the ring. Cage got a quick rollup on Roode, and while the ref was counting the pinfall, Kurt started to slide into the ring, seemingly to break up the pin. When Roode kicked out, Angle slid back outside the ring. Adds some realism that Kurt didn't know if the match was going to be over with that rollup.

JP: Absolutely, this is the type of stuff I like. You should always act like you have no idea what is to come. And if you have no idea what is to come, you do things normally like try to break up a pin. Well, for only the second time we have Rich Homzy, who last appeared in Issue #78. Of course, I spelled his name wrong them, which apparently is a reoccurring theme with me recently:

I caught this first HH because of a HH mentioned in a previous issue. In that issue, a reader wrote-in to tell you of Gillberg's debut match. The reader pointed out, that as Gillberg made his way to the ring, Michael Cole asked the question "Who's First?" instead of "Who's Next?" because Gillberg had yet to defeat anyone. And that leads me to this week's three hour RAW 15th Anniversary special. On it, they had an over the top rope battle royal, "featuring 15 superstars from the past 15 years". One of the Superstars was none other than Gillberg. During his entrance, J.R. made the comment "You can't be first, but you can be next." I thought it was a great touch to reference Cole's earlier comment.

JP: That it is. Lest we forget Gillberg was a Light Heavyweight Champion. Hey, isn't X-pac the last Light Heavyweight Champion? That means that both the Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight title disappeared without a final defense.

At the end of the ECW opening tag match of Kane/C.M. Punk vs Deuce and Domino, Kane goes up for his trademark top rope clothesline. As he's doing it, you can see Cherry pointing at Kane and hear her yelling at Domino in order to try and warn him about Kane.

JP: I've been watching Cherry very closely as she's been doing tons of little things on the outside without drawing the attention to herself and away from the action. That latter part is what many of the eye candy of today miss. It is not about you, you are supposed to put over the action in the ring. Cherry, Victoria, Mickie James, and Maria get it very well, but others still need some work.

At the end of Smackdown!, when Edge is kneeling over the Undertaker and mocking him, Taker lifts his head a bit in an attempt to get up, but he's unable to. This leads to the HH, which is Edge's reaction to Taker: He stands up and backs away, ever aware of the fact that, even when Taker seems to be completely beaten, he's resilient enough to get back up at any time.

JP: A bit to the in your face side, but definitely a nice touch.

I've got three retro HH's from ECW shows from the last few months. The first is from the October 30th edition of ECW, where Tommy Dreamer dressed up as Paul Heyman. I know it was mentioned in that week's HH issue, but there was an element to it that wasn't touched upon. Not only was Tommy dressed as Paul E., but during the match he pulled out an old, brick-style cellphone. It was a great nod to older fans who not only remember Heyman's WWE and later ECW days, but from his early days as Paul E. Dangerously as well.

JP: Oh I noticed it as well, not to mention a reference to his Paul E. and the Dangerous Alliance back in WCW.

The second is from the Morrison-Punk title match on the November 6th edition of ECW. In the crowd, somebody had a sign that said "You've been punked, CM style". It's most easily seen in the replays following the match, where The Miz is smiling and backing away (A picture has been included). Quite appropriate for a match where John Morrison got screwed out of a victory over CM Punk.

JP: And here's the picture for those who can't see my e-mail:



And finally, we go to the October 23rd edition of ECW for the main event tag match of Punk/Balls vs Miz/Morrison. At the finish of the match, Punk goes for the Go To Sleep on Morrison. BUT, he doesn't just hit a GTS. He first gives Morrison the old airplane spin before hand. This ends up serving two different purposes: A. If Punk's opponent is disoriented, it makes it harder for them to get out of the move and B. The disorientation should cause the GTS to have even more of an effect than it already does. Frankly, I'm surprised Punk doesn't do it more often.

JP: Well Morrison is a special type of opponent and CM Punk knows he needs to do something extra to take out the man who originally defeated him to win the ECW Championship. Sticking with the past we have Luis Machado:

I know that this is a bit late seeing as I JUST read the column containing highlights from the Raw 15th Anniversary, but I wanted to point out something that happened during the show which really stood out for me. During the McMahon Family Portrait segment Shane decides to leave after the disgusting display of people that his father has had sexual incidents with. As Shane exits the ring, Triple H says "Oh. There goes the money!" in reference to Shane's entrance music. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing at that comment. It was such a simple, sarcastic, comment. But it was so well timed that we kept laughing about it all night. Just wanted to know if anyone else caught that and what they thought about Triple H's genius joke.

JP: I don't know, I thought it was rather obvious. But that doesn't take away from the fact that it was a good joke and I'm glad it helped you and your friends enjoy the show all night. Also going back to the 15th Anniversary show is Asim Baig:

I just read your HH issue #120 and I noticed something interesting.... There are people still commenting on the Kennedy segment from the Raw 12/3 show but all of them are mentioning the comment he made about fake Razor Ramon , which were quite obvious and not quite so Hidden, but to me the HH was the comment Kennedy made to fake Diesel. When Diesel was walking to the ring Kennedy said something to the effect of "Could you please hurry up and get to the ring". This was a real HH because Big Kev has bad knees and due to them he doesn't walk or wrestle as fast as he used to.

Anyways, just thought this was a very interesting and blatant dig at Big Sexy.

JP: Well I would put both comments in the same category, but you are right, that was a good one as well. With another controversial moment from the 15th Anniversary show is Ryan Estok:

Not sure if you have video of the RAW 15th Anniversary - but I watched it again, and its REALLY obvious that Hogan is rocking a blonde wig - at least in the back. His hair back there is longer than its been in 20 years, and blonder than everywhere else on his head including his white sideburns. Also when Khali hits him you can see him holding on to his bandana so it doesn't fall off.

Everyone in the room (non-wrestling fans alike) was laughing at how bad it is. I kind of thought he was gonna take it off and put it on Hornswaggle or something.

There will be plenty of opportunity to identify it during this American Gladiators run - cause he's wearing the same thing in the commercial for it. Maybe it was NBC's suggestion. How the mighty have fallen.

JP: Well, with the writers strike American Gladiators has already been extended. If American Gladiators gets any decent ratings, it will be a major win and pay raise for Hogan. So who is looking fallen right now? Didn't people say the same thing about William Shatner? Never count these guys out! Just like I'm not counting out my chances with Nikki Wilson:

During the 12/13 edition of Impact, Christian was sporting black wrist tape. Which, really, isn't anything out of the ordinary. Only 'MB' was written on it. Any idea of what it meant?

JP: I have no clue, but maybe we could discuss it over dinn—

Ghost of JT: Oh bro—

JP: RANDY! Go get him!

Randy: What? Why me?

JP: Do you ever want to be a guest co-host again?

Randy: All right Ghost, you and me, outside, right now!

Ghost of JT: Uhhh… I'm a ghost. You can't hit me.

Randy: Correction, you are an imaginary character, and the best thing to fight imaginary characters with is—

Ghost of JT: Oh no…

Stenographer: That's right! But guess what? It's a double swerve! It's Team Imaginary vs. Team Hidden Highlights and we challenge you to…

THE GREAT POSITIVITY DEBATE 4: IMAGINATION VS REALITY

And we want that challenge, right here, right now!

JP: Well, being Interim Vice Chief Moderator of The Great Positivity Debate, I'd like to know who is the impartial referee in this contest?

Randy: It's a triple swerve, because I'm really the referee and I'm on Team Imaginary's side!

JP: But it's really a quadruple swerve, because it turns out that I'm the higher power behind Team Imaginary, and therefore I have already won!

Stenographer: That's just stupid. I'm out of here.

Ghost of JT: Yeah, me too. See ya!

Randy: I'll be in the green room if you need me. I heard there were some nice sandwiches and sodas in there so, on second thought, don't need me. Please.

JP: Well, I guess I'll move on to Criss Wolfman then:

Just a little something I've noticed in Chris Jericho's new entrance. After the code-y stuff, and the sideways pyro, and Jericho's theme starts with the "come on... ya know i gotcha... yeah... one... break the walls dooooooown..." part, just as the singer says "one", up on the Titan Tron reads a specific line of code:

X + 1 = Y

Just thought i'd point it out. Keep up all the great work, dude.

JP: I refer you to Meehan to solve the suspect algebra. Matt Millis, on the other hand, is ready to move on to RAW:

I just thought I'd throw out a quick highlight for RAW, regarding the Santino/Carlito versus Londrick match. Londrick made their usual entrance, but I noticed that when they did their usual stereo backflips off the middle ropes, Santino saw them flying and got down into a karate pose like they were on the attack. Just thought that was amusing.

JP: Santino did so many hilarious little things before, during, and after that match that it could take over the entire article! But I think regular Chris Jacobs would rather the article be filled with this man:

Chris Jericho HH's from Raw, both were while on the mic.

Jericho used some of his old lines very subtle like. One calling for the Monkeys in the back to play the video of him getting booted, just like he and a few others, but mostly in his cocky original days he would call for the monkeys in the video truck to play videos. Then he talked about how he won his match at Armageddon, and he should be feeling like the "king of the world". That was the nickname he gave himself after winning the first ever undisputed championship. It was very subtle hints of him bringing back old lines from his arrogant original self.

JP: I'm a big fan of self-referential humor, so you know I enjoyed both of those when it happened! But here's one that I can't believe I missed via Gaz Priestley:

Hey - did you notice how during the Santa's Little Helper match, the wonderful Victoria went for her moonsault, but on her way to the turnbuckle she stood on the stomach of Michelle McCool? A simple way to inflict extra damage and one of the reasons Vicky is still one of the best divas the wwe has - use her more wwe!

JP: Like I said, I can't believe I missed that one! Victoria is beyond awesome in and out of that ring. Let's switch gears to Fixxer315 and an odd bunch he caught:

I only caught the main event of the ECW show, but I caught at least two and probably three hidden highlights that are worthy of mention

MVP's promo was great, but I loved how he closed it out by saying that he would show the world that he was "better than you". Of course, this was clearly a reference to Punk's heel catchphrase when he was in ROH.

JP: I don't know about that. MVP has been saying that on SmackDown! for the better part of four months. Nice try, though!

Late in the match, Punk does an underarm hook, suggesting that he might have been going for the pedigree. This may have been another callback to his ROH days when he used a top rope pedigree as his finisher.

JP: Ok, that one may actually be true. I'll have to take your word for it!

I also liked how Tazz pointed out how MVP was doing the little things to make a pinfall that much more effective. Of course, these little things is why MVP gets so much love in this column. I would have completely marked out if Tazz actually used the phrase "Hidden Highlights".

JP: He was   close to making that happen! This isn't the first time we've caught Tazz deliberately pointing out Hidden Highlights. We've actually got him one time saying "the little things" and another time saying "hidden things". Tazz, we are so on to you, but it's ok; I really don't mind when you steal our stuff. It definitely makes your game even better, so keep up the good work!

Finally, a classic HH from November 2 Remember 2000:

During the Kid Kash/CW Anderson match, Kash does one of his flippy moves from the top rope and essentially blows the move, only managing to graze Anderson, who has to sell it as if Kash hit him dead on. Anderson kicks out of course, but the real HH comes from color man Cyrus who said that even though Kash didn't get much of him on the move, the momentum of the move alone was enough to take Anderson down. This was a really good call showing how on-the-ball announcers have to be to cover up when the action doesn't quite go as scripted. Joey was always good at that; this shows that Cyrus was no slouch either.

JP: I really miss that guy on the mic. I doubt he'll be backfilling for Tazz when Tazz moves back to SmackDown!, though. Shi, on the other hand, wouldn't want me to backfill that role either:

"Howard Finkle was the WWE's Women's Champion. Was I the only one who got the joke when he came out as one of Vince's ladies?"

Probably, JP, since you're thinking of Harvey Wippleman's Women's Championship reign: Fink never held that prestigious belt!

JP: Whoops! My error! Maybe you'll forgive me if I introduce first-timer Bobby Bronx here:

Last month at Survivor Series, during the World Heavyweight title match JBL did his part to put over Edge's interference that prevented what would have been the transfer of the belt from Batista to The Undertaker. I think the term that he used on the air was "Edge has robbed the world of a masterpiece!" Anyway, flash forward a month to Armageddon and the scenario is fairly similar: Jericho has Orton locked into the Walls of Jericho and the change of the belt seems virtually assured. What does JBL do? He interferes in the match and robs the world of another masterpiece. I have to imagine JBL's comments last month were specifically planned in order to get him fast heel heat for his hypocrisy a month later.

JP: I don't know about that, but JBL is excellent on the mic so we'll give him the credit all around on that anyway!

On this week's RAW in Buffalo (at which I was in attendance) we saw a side of Chris Jericho that we haven't seen since he came back to Save Us a few weeks ago. Gone was the silly Jericho who had been making snide jokes at Randy Orton's expense for three weeks, and instead we saw a Jericho who had been the subject of an extreme injustice the night before and had legitimate reason to be vindictive towards another wrestler, JBL. After RAW went off the air there was a dark main event of Chris Jericho vs. Randy Orton. The two wrestled for about five minutes before JBL ran down the ramp and again interfered in their match (surprise! he wasn't appearing via satellite). This time, however, Jericho managed to fend off JBL and locked him into the Walls of Jericho right at the center of the ring. If you remember the previous week on RAW, Jericho similarly had Orton locked in and forced him to tap, at which point he immediately released him, content that the message had been sent. This time, although JBL also immediately tapped, Jericho kept him in the painful move for a good 15 seconds or so, all while JBL was frantically tapping to be released. I thought this was an excellent display of Jericho's differing opinions towards both men. Even though Jericho thinks Orton is super lame, he had no real quarrel with him beyond the WWE Championship. With JBL however, it's now personal. I think this has the potential to be a great feud because it plays to both men's strengths. Also, kudos to JBL for selling the Walls of Jericho, especially with his history of back problems. He had to be helped out of the ring by three officials as he convincingly clutched his lower lumbar region.

JP: That's a nice collection of JBL and Jericho goodness. You know, I made fun of their feud above, but I really liked their mic work on RAW. It sounds like it could lead to something good in the ring judging by your opinions. And by the way folks, we love us some LIVE Hidden Highlights, so keep more like these coming in. Then we can have more first timers like John Madigan:

During the 6 man tag match on SmackDown!, Big Daddy V had CM Punk in the corner and was beating him up. During this, Matt Striker yelled to V to remember that he has until 4 to do what he wants. That would be fine, but for one thing. To quote Bryan Danielson, "I have until 5, referee". You would think the former teacher would remember that.

JP: No, don't you follow Striker's logic? If V made it to 5, he'd be disqualified. But if he gets to 4, he's all safe. See? Matt Striker is once again your teacher. Anyway, finishing us off this week we have Dan Pelletier and Pawat Techapongtada solving the mystery from last week (respectively):

Here's picture proof punk wasn't drinking beer on raw last week, and in fact, had a Pepsi

I'm tired of people claimed that CM Punk drank beer during the 15th anniversary show. I found a picture on the internet that confirm that CM Punk did indeed drink Pepsi.



JP: Thank you! Now is this subject finally put to rest?

Randy: Sure, why not?

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: I have to say, I am in complete overload mode right now (ending one job, beginning another, finishing a project, writing these articles, dealing with personal stuff) and am glad to have top notch quality guest co-hosts like Randy on board. Thanks again Randy!

Randy: I love getting to dabble in the wrestling side of things and I enjoy getting to work with such an esteemed co-host. Thanks again for having me JP.. and um.. I hate to bring this up but since it's the holidays and I'm a little light at the moment, I still haven't received my payment for the last time I guest-hosted this little dog and pony show of yours so I'll be expecting double payment this time plus interest. Merry Christmas!!

JP: Ummm… Larry is in charge of payroll.

Larry: We fixed the glitch.

JP: So you mean he's out of here?

Larry: No, we just fixed the glitch. We figure everything will just work it out for itself.

JP: I'm sure it will, I'm sure it will…

While we are waiting for the next pay cycle, be sure to catch my very own Saturday morning news report The Hamilton Ave Journal: the only wrestling news report focused on the business of wrestling.

Also, check the Movies/TV Zone this for the second ever issue of In Review of…, where I review the newly released Stardust DVD!

Thank you for reading the 121st 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!