Hidden Highlights 09.01.08: Issue #157

Posted by JP Prag on 09.01.2008

Shawn Michaels is in need of a dictionary, Todd Grisham remembers the long history of Matt Hardy, ODB cannot be physically held back, The Brian Kendrick’s man Zeke has interesting reading choices, and more!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #157

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

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Commentator: Ricky Ortiz became a subject of interest for seemingly imitation LAX's Homicide and Hernandez, but was that the true story?

Guest#2356: Ortiz is doing the LAX symbol because a few weeks ago he was calling himself the "Latin Assassin" so he's making an LA for that.

Ronald McFondle: That hand sign has been around LA gangs FOREVER! As in LAX the airport, just reppin' the city. Latin American Exchange just bit it.

JP: I prefer Long Beach Airport myself. LGB represent!

Ghost of JT: Isn't Ricky Ortiz from Phoenix, AZ? So shouldn't be doing a PHX hand motion?

Commentator: But the real conspiracy was not around Ricky Ortiz's hand signal, but about whether Jericho and Michaels were reenacting the last days of Chris Benoit's life.

ZeroVX: I think that what Derek said about relating the Micheals/Jericho feud to the Benoit tragedy is.....confusing.

I watched this week's RAW after reading this article, and to be honest, unless you actually look for similarities between the two, you can't really see them.

Nonetheless, what he said does have merit, and if he's right, then the WWE is being really subtle about it.

My question though, is this: If it's true, then who are Micheals and Jericho playing? Is Jericho playing Benoit, or the fans and media saying everything about Benoit? Who is Micheals playing?

Commentator: But even more theories were afoot this week as readers found their own questionable actions.

Polish Post: I have a conspiracy theory of my own. I noticed "the informer"(comment 2) said he was creped out and scared by the myspace page. I also noticed a few days ago that someone commented on the "who is suicide" angle in a similar way. They used "anonymous" as their guest name.

It got me thinking about who posts comments. Mostly skeptical wrestling fans who think they know it all. But in this case, I have noticed a real "gee guys, isn't that freaky" tone.

Just like the guy at Wal-mart that puts on a backwards hat and walks around pretending to look at stuff while he follows you, it just doesn't smell right.

I think TNA is having someone post comments posing as a fan. This ties in with their viral marketing campaign. They are trying to get the IWC behind this new angle by sending in a mole to drum up support.

The problem is this: whenever a square tries to blend in with the cool kids he ultimately tries too hard and sticks out like a sore thumb.

Nice try Russo.

Commentator: With conspiracy theories abound, what new mysteries will appear in this issue?

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Commentator: And now, 411mania.com proudly presents…





JP: Hello everyone whose Wii Fit thinks you can do ten more reps when you are barely getting through what you are already doing, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights! If you've never been here before, let me tell you what we are doing in these pages.

Hidden Highlights are about the little things that make the product great. They are about showing the positive motions all those involved in wrestling do to make a better show. The Miz may hold his opponents hands down to make a pin attempt better. Charles Robinson may let a little tear shed from his eye every time someone mentions Ric Flair. Mike Tenay may tell you about the 17 year history of a visiting wrestler and make them sound huge in one sentence. These are all examples of little things that make the product far better.

Every week this article spotlights the Top 15 Hidden Highlights of the week, whether the be from television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one), the past, small shows, tapes, or the indy scene.

This article may have an author, but it is also dependent upon the readers and true fans of professional wrestling—those who love what they watch and want to tell the world what they have found. The Top 15 are chosen from what I see and what readers write-in. Whatever is the best is what you'll see!

And who am I? Well, I am JP Prag, and I bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference.

Now let's get on with the Hidden Highlights!


[SummerSlam – Retro 2 weeks] Checking in on friends

JP: We'll kick it off this week with a bit more from SummerSlam and Tammy!

Tammy: You missed the best part of the HIAC match! When the section of the cell fell virtually on top of the announcers, Undertaker took the time to ask Tazz and JR if they were alright. Even the dead man cares about his announcers!

JP: We forget nothing! YOU forgot to write it in the first time! Remember kids: don't wait for us, we're waiting for you!


[RAW] When a text message is not enough

JP: The Undertaker was not the only one to check in on the announcers. During the opening contest on RAW, the World Heavyweight Champion took on JBL. Late into the match, JBL was handing outside near the announcers and CM Punk went for a suicide dive on his opponent. After landing on JBL, CM Punk got up and said, "Hi guys!" to Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler. That was real nice of Punk to just pop in and say hello!


[RAW] Someone buy this man a dictionary

JP: Later in the night, Shawn Michaels made a "serious" appearance (I can't take anyone serious who wears a straw cowboy hat and a suit jacket. That just takes too much work!). Unfortunately for him, Chris Jericho was over at the WWE Studios on Hamilton Ave in Stamford, CT. But after much debate, the two agreed to a match at Unforgiven and Jericho tried to get in the line that Michaels will be the one who is unforgiven. Michaels then cut him off and screamed, "You don't know the meaning of the word unforgiven!"

Well, I don't think Michaels does either since "unforgiven" is not a word! As a matter of fact, you should see how many red squiggly lines this one Hidden Highlight has! I know, it's a bit of a grammar police Hidden Highlight, but I was really amuse that Michaels would say Jericho didn't know the meaning of a word that doesn't exist.


[RAW] Charlie Haas wasn't the only one embarrassed

JP: Finishing off RAW this week is our latest conspiracy theory courtesy of Grant!

Grant: The next thing I've noticed is a bit of a stretch, but I believe in Puerto Rico there is a wrestler called Carlitos who is a spoof of Carlito and his father. I think he was in the rival promotion to Eddie (or primadonna Brandon or whatever the WWE are calling him) so seeing Eddie (Editor's note: he means Primo) take on the spoof of his brother and father would of probably been a dream match to fans of Puerto Rican wrestling. So in a way WWE have delivered the justice to Eddie of going over the imposter except it was someone else doing the gimmick of mimicking Carlito.

JP: This is far outside my area of expertise, so I'll have to turn it over to the Puerto Ricans. What I do know, though, is the WWE highly covets the Latino demographic and I could see them using this as a way to bring in more of those viewers. But then again, I don't believe WWE creative is well versed enough to know anything about Puerto Rican wrestling history.


[ECW] "Different" night, same error

JP: As you may remember, this week's ECW was actually taped before RAW. Thus, both RAW and ECW came to us from a town I have spent a lot of time in: Wilkes-Barre, PA. When Todd Grisham started ECW this week, he said they were coming from the "Wachovia Center", the same thing Michael Cole said on RAW. The issue is that in Wilkes-Barre it is the "Wachovia Arena". The "Wachovia Center" is two hours to the south in Philadelphia, PA. Easy mistake to make, but I was amused that both said the exact same thing on separate shows. Guess when you are in PA you always think you are in the same place.


[ECW] Vintage reference

JP: But we'll redeem Todd Grisham with this little gem I caught later in the evening. Matt Hardy and John Morrison fought for a spot in the Championship Scramble at Unforgiven with Matt Hardy coming out on top. The battle was long and hard and Grisham wanted to put over how much work Hardy put into it, so he started spouting off praise. Then, out of the blue, he described Hardy as "the man who will not die!" Wow, that is a nickname we have not heard for Hardy in quite some time! Kudos to Grisham for remembering the reference and bringing it up here.

Andy Clark: Andy Clark… will… not… die…

JP: Yeah, Andy, we know, but this was actually about Matt Hardy.

Andy Clark: Andy Clark… WILL… NOT… DIE!!

JP: I agree Andy, I do! I mean, this gimmick itself has gone of for ye—

Andy Clark: ANDY… CLARK… WILL… NOOOOOOOOOT… DIE!!!!!

JP: You know what, we really need to mo—

Andy Clark: ANDY! CLARK! WILL! NOT! DIE!!!!!!!

Stenographer: Andy, I'm sorry to tell you JP has already left this Hidden Highlight for the next one. He asked me to say sorry he had to leave without saying goodbye.

Andy Clark: Oh… well, that's ok… I guess… I mean, it's not like just walking out on would suddenly make me die. Not even this will stop me! Andy Clark will not die!!!!


[ECW] Showing some bias

JP: Whew, I never thought I'd get out of that last segment. I need someone to take over for me for a sec while I recover.

Jeremy from Palmdale: Smackdown Your Vote may be non-partisan but Matt Striker is certainly not. Twice on ECW, Matt Striker expressed his political views, first during Todd Grisham's throw to Josh Matthews at the Democratic National Convention.

It comes while Grisham is talking about Smackdown Your Vote's trips to both the RNC and the DNC, when Grisham stated that they will be at the Republican National Convention, Striker gave an approving thumbs up, but when T-Grish stated that they will be at the Democratic National Convention, Striker shook his head in a disapproving manner.

The second time came during the Mike Knox vs. Finlay match. T-Grish commented how Knox repeatedly called Finlay out but ran away several times as well, Striker then said that Knox "has flip-flopped more than Barack Obama".

JP: I missed the first one, but definitely caught the second one and thought it was a pretty out of place comment. Then I was waiting the whole match for him to compare Mike Knox to John McCain in some way and it just did not come.

And just to show a little bias of my own, if you compare John McCain's voting record to the words that come out of his mouth, I think we know who the biggest flip flopper is of that crew. No, but seriously, I think I'm leaning towards Bob Barr and the Libertarians at the moment. My main disconnects with them are that I believe is a nationalize health care system (although I also believe in divesting the Post Office and public transportation to private companies, so I'd hope to make up funds for healthcare by eliminating programs I believe can be privatized), I'm an environmentalist and could never sanction allowing drilling in the National Wildlife Refuge, and I believe that marriage should not be controlled even by states and that if this country has marriage as a law (which I disagree with because marriage is a religious item and goes against the first amendment) that it should be guaranteed by the federal government for all people in any way these people see fit between willing adults.

But enough of the Politics Zone, back to wrestling!


[ECW… From the future]

JP: As mentioned above, ECW for this past week was taped before RAW, but ECW for next week was taped before SmackDown. Because of that, Dean got to send in a little bit of sneak preview Hidden Highlight.

************ SPOILER WANRING ****************

Dean: At the live event Tuesday in Pittsburgh I noticed another small hidden highlight during the ECW 8-man tag. With two men standing on one side of the ring, they get pretty close to the center of the ring where someone can be thrown into the ropes. Every time, Mark Henry pulled back on the rope a bit to keep the tension right for the wrestler coming off of the ropes.

JP: Luckily that wasn't much of a spoiler because I have no idea who else is in that match!


[iMPACT] That's a strong woman

JP: At the start of iMPACT this week, Awesome Kong took on newcomer Sojourner Bolt and managed to thoroughly decimate her. After the match was over, Kong and Raisha Saeed decided that the beating was not enough and proceeded to send the chairs in after Bolt. This precipitated ODB coming down to make the save and try to prove that she could dominate Kong (quite well, in fact). During their altercation, referee Slick Johnson tried to pull ODB off of Kong, but while he had his hands around her waist ODB was still able to perform an Irish Whip on Kong. That, to me, made her look incredibly strong and sent the message home. Even while physically being held back not only could ODB throw punches and whatnot, but she could actually pull off wrestling moves.


[iMPACT] Got some new stuff

JP: It's been a while since we've seen Jim Cornette's office on iMPACT and I was glad to see they were continuing to do work to the place, including adding a television monitor to Mr. Cornette could actually watch the show instead of being surprised by everything. But that wasn't the main thing I caught. When Tracy Brooks came into the office, you could barely see it but the white board had been moved over (it is not halfway behind the door) so that a very large TNA iMPACT the Video Game poster could be displayed where it used to be. Per usual, good product placement in Cornette's office, even it was at the expense of my favorite white board.


[iMPACT] That's a big hint

JP: One more from iMPACT also is from Jeremy form Palmdale.

Jeremy from Palmdale: Kurt Angle was backstage with Borash and was pointing out how AJ stole his Olympic gold medal with shots from "the mystery guitars". Kurt then said "I don't give a damn how much stroke AJ Styles has around here." This is a HH because "the stroke" is the finisher of Jeff Jarrett, who everybody (except Tenay and West apparently) knows is responsible for the guitar.

JP: I honestly have to say I missed this one and am quite disappointed in myself for not picking up on it!


[SmackDown] Listen to the music

JP: After weeks and weeks of built, R-Truth finally made his SmackDown (re)debut. This one isn't so hidden, but I did find it quite interesting. When R-Truth came out, his theme song was "What's up", the same song he used in TNA (and also happens to sing). I was not expecting R-Truth to have the same theme song so I can only assume that he owns the song and TNA has no first refusal rights. This has to be the first time that a whole song has gone from TNA to WWE exactly as it was before.


[SmackDown] That's just plain extra mean

JP: In an attempt to show SmackDown has a women's division, there was not one, but two Divas matches on the show! The first one happened to involve Natalya Neidhart teaming up with Maryse to take on Divas Champion Michelle McCool and Maria. At the end of the match, Maryse hit a DDT on Maria and scored the quick pinfall victory. But after she won and the bell rang, Maryse started to get up and—just to add extra insult to injury—just pushed Maria's head to the side, almost in a paintbrush manner. I love when people do these little things to make themselves look more evil and dominant, and Maryse certainly did it here.

Also, I certainly hope you realized what is going on with Brie Bella. She and her twin sister Nichole work as the Bella Twins in FCW. They are doing an angle where they switch under the ring to win matches. As soon as Brie came out I knew what was going to happen. I see this one ending when Hornswaggle scares one of them out from under the ring during a match and everyone learns about the scam. Sorry Freddie Prinze Jr., I just ruined your plans for the next two months!


[SmackDown] Directed shot

JP: After being abandoned (and locked inside of) her office, Vickie Guerrero began to get scared and frustrated. I don't see why she didn't ask the camera man if his cell phone was working, but what the hey? Anyway, Vickie got so upset that when the phone wasn't working she ripped it out of the socket and threw it at the wall. When she did so, did you happen to catch where it hit? Right into the poster of the Undertaker on the cover of WWE magazine! That was a nice little shot there and thought it worked perfectly, whether intentional or not. And even better, Vickie had this look of recognition of what she had done immediately afterwards and covered her mouth up in shock.


[SmackDown] LeVar Burton would be proud

JP: Wrapping us up this week is what has to be a Hidden Highlights first as I received this next one via text message. 411mania's own Jeff Small let me know what he was doing with his Friday night…

Jeff Small: Zeke reads "Cat in the Hat"… That's my Hidden Highlight.

JP: I had no idea what this meant until I wanted the show two days later and also got this message from first timer AK.

AK: This was during the The Brian Kendrick promo where he's talking about studying the art of war. First thing that caught my attention was they both were reading - and the fact they are making Zeke to be more then the typical (Batista/Bam) silent dumb bodyguard. I was caught in "what was Zeke reading?!

I kept looking closely to see exactly what Zeke was reading. At first all I saw were bright color pictures which lead me to believe he wasn't reading anything "artistic" in the world of literature. After a few page turns (way to sell reading btw) I noticed what book it was. CAT in the (FREAKING) Hat. I thought that was awesome. Especially since Zeke shows signs that he's just as (if not more) intelligent then The Brian Kendrick.

JP: I caught it too, at the end, thanks to the messages from you and Small. What I found even greater was how much time Zeke was taking on each page. Not only was he reading "Cat in the Hat", but he was reading it REALLY slowly!


Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 157th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights!

Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail this article at [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. The best of the best will be featured among the top 15 next week.

In the meantime, 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.

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