Hidden Highlights 09.08.08: Issue #158

Posted by JP Prag on 09.08.2008

Chris Jericho shows Shawn Michaels even less respect, John Morrison wants Chavo to remember his friend Kerwin, Suicide plans his appearances in TNA perfectly, Jeff Hardy take advantage of a prone The Brian Kendrick, and more!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #158

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

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Commentator: Everyone seemed to be having some difficulties with the English language…

Unforgiven: Unforgiven is not a word. Unforgiving is. Type it out on Microsoft Word and see for your self.

Leanne: Actually Unforgiven is a word. It's accepted by my Microsoft word and I looked it up on the online Oxford dictionary (yes I am that sad). It said:

unforgiven

• adjective - not forgiven.

relik kram: Unforgiven is not a word, however it is a "Title" titles such as these that become a commonly used trend can become words. Hard to explain, but it's accepted as a word and has a meaning but isn't truly a word.

Commentator: Of course, others noticed that JP should practice what he preaches…

me: You were really "amuse"?. Yes, great grammar there, grammar police.

Commentator: Still, most people are fine to continue the fine tradition of Hidden Highlights, though others are just confused persons.

mojo: Has anyone ever told you this column is hard to follow? I've not seen any of your other stuff but, if it's laid out like this (which I imagine it IS) I won't bother reading.. OMG

Stenographer: Checking through the records of 291 articles written by JP over three and a half years—including 64 issues of In Defense Of…, 50 issues of The Hamilton Ave Journal, and 157 issues of Hidden Highlights—no, no one has ever said the article is hard to follow. There were complaints about the new format of Hidden Highlights eight weeks ago, but JP has made adjustments and most are happy or at least content with it. Although, I do recommend reading The Hamilton Ave Journal and the In Defense Of… archives to see a number of different styles that JP does employ.

Ghost of JT: Or, you can just go fu—

Commentator: ::cough cough:: Ahem! Well, the question this week would seem to be: who will be the most confusing this week?

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





JP: Hello everyone overloaded with sports because you live in the city of champions (Go Paw Sox!), 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!


[King of the Ring ‘99] I'll double size it

JP: It looks like it's Classic Hidden Highlight week here! When you don't get enough from the current product, why not dip a bit into the past? We'll kick it off with the lovely, vivacious, and—may I even say—delectably delicious Amber Johnson.

Amber Johnson: I saw a classic hidden highlight this week that really had me missin' the Attitude Era of Professional Wrestling... It was the Handicap Ladder match at King of the Ring 6/27/99 with Shane and Vince McMahon against Stone Cold. The promos leading into that match had Shane and Vince both bragging about how they would destroy Stone Cold and that basically he had no chance in hell with the double ass kickin' he was to receive from father and son... to further prove this point Shane made his entrance to the ring wearing a hilarious shirt that read: McMahon 6:32.

JP: I miss WCW more than I miss the attitude era, but Shane McMahon's shirts were a constant source of Hidden Highlights… or at the very least hilarity!


[SmackDown – Retro] Edge brings it back to Jack

JP: Sticking in the past, it looks like Jeremy Tapp is just catching up to the present.

Jeremy Tapp: Did anyone else notice the hairstyle Edge was sporting the week after he "understood" Foley's advice. It was combed back with a portion of it being loose and a portion of it being in a pony tail. It was fashioned in the same exact way that Cactus Jack fashions his hair. I thought this was a really cool highlight because it showed that in his own way Edge was completely accepting Foley's advice.

JP: Can't say I picked up on it, but Edge has always been one for great subtlety. Well, except when he was doing the live sex celebration, but that's a different story.


[iMPACT – Retro one week] More clues

JP: If you weren't confused in our timeline already, here's Jared with one from last week's iMPACT!

Jared: When Cornette was talking to Traci Brooks in the back ground there was a guitar on the top shelf. You could barley see it but it was a bit of foreshadowing.

JP: How else could Jarrett get away with getting his music played every week? Huh? He's a minority owner of the company? Oh… right. I've noticed the Fan's Revenge sign seems to be missing from Cornette's office as well, so I assume he's working with Jarrett this time. That is, until somebody finally reveals the truth of what happened in the Controversy in Canada! I mean, Jackie Gayda Haas still has that tape… although Jarrett still has that other tape that stopped Jackie from talking. And whatever happened to that midget in a trash can?


[WWE.com] One happy family

JP: I couldn't begin to get this one myself, so I'll let Steve from Indiana catch you up to speed.

Steve: This week on the Dirt Sheet, John Morrison mentioned, "All of Jay-Z's 99 Problems are me." In response to being offended by Cryme Tyme's segment, Miz and Morrison decide to come up with their own rap song to respond.



This seems an awful like how earlier this year, Jay-Z headlined the festival in Glastonbury, England, which the thought of a hip-hop act at a guitar festival offended members of Oasis. After Jay-Z decided to make fun of them by walking out on the stage with a guitar over his shoulder and "singing" Oasis's hit "Wonderwall", he went into "99 Problems".



This inspired a response, where Noel Gallagher redid the lyrics to "Wonderwall" to attack Jay-Z, and the clip on the web closes with rapping over Jay-Z's beats to continue the diss track.



It seems that Morrison also took offense to Jay-Z's actions and rock and roll types are sticking together.

JP: I hope you don't mind, but I added the YouTube clips so that this could make sense to people who don't follow things like this… people like… errrr… me.


[RAW] Every piece of me

JP: Moving on to this week's stuff, we can get going with RAW! Oh, but if you happened to write-in after Friday afternoon, my apologies but my e-mail server went down and has not come back yet. We'll try to catch you next week, but for now I want to talk about William Regal.

On RAW, William Regal took on Jamie Noble who was trying to impress Layla El (who in turn was returning from England after taking care of a family issue). Early into the match, the two pulled quite a few reversals on each other, one of which resulted in Regal attempting a flip rollup pin on Noble. But did you happen to catch where Regal's knees were? Instead of just going for a normal rollup, Regal used his knees to try to pin down Noble's hands so that he could not use them for a kickout. Nice thinking by the man who happens to have an award named after him for just such a thing!


[RAW] Wrestling Strategy 101

JP: Slightly later in the evening, we were treated to the surprise return of Candice Michelle. Candice teamed up with Mickie James and Kelly Kelly to take on Jillian Hall, Katie Lea Burchill, and WWE Women's Champion Beth Phoenix. When Candice finally got in the match, she was a house of fire and had knocked most of her opponents around. She then, surprisingly, went up to the top rope in order to pull off some maneuver. It was the King then who pointed out that Candice went up to the wrong corner (her opponents) and that it was not a very smart thing to do. I like that Jerry Lawler took the time to talk about wrestling psychology and point out a mistake by a performer without demeaning them. This was a nice show how you can be effective on color commentary without being overbearing.


[RAW] Total Disrepect

JP: The apparent main event of the evening was a contract signing between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels for their non-sanctioned match at Unforgiven. I know, I know; contracts and unsanctioned don't mix, but whatever! Anyway, the two sat at the table and Jericho flipped through the pages and signed his name. He then proceeded to NOT hand the contract over to Shawn Michaels, but actually to push it all the way to the other side of the table where Jerry Lawler was and make the King push it back to Michaels. That was the ultimate show of disrespect in a very subtle way. Jericho thinks so low of Michaels that he would not even want to hand him a piece of paper and had to go through a third party. Although it was not emphasized, Jericho really took the time to show here how to do something small that means something huge.


[ECW] Cleanliness is next to Godliness

JP: Over in ECW, the show saw almost everyone who was involved in Championship Scramble and the matches leading up to it in the opening segment (more on that opening segment in a minute). After Evan Bourne and Tommy Dreamer helped clear the ring out, the camera very briefly focused on ECW Champion Mark Henry. On the outside, Mark Henry was actually brushing off his belt, making sure it was clean! I was really amused that Mark Henry would care so much about the appearance of the belt that he would be cleaning it even in the middle of a fight.


[ECW] That's a shoot, brother

JP: The real opening contest on ECW ended up being Super Crazy taking on Gavin "Creative doesn't like me, therefore I will job for the next year" Spears. During the match and while talking about the new superstar initiative, Matt Striker said on commentary, "Learning to take a beating is what being a WWE SuperStar is all about." Well, that's an actual truth! You aren't learning to be a better competitor to make more wins; you are learning how to bump in the ring safely, make your opponents look good, and entertain a crowd. So here again is an example of Striker using a sentence that has quite a double meaning.


[ECW] Respect

JP: When the main event came around, Matt Hardy, Tommy Dreamer, Evan Bourne, and Finlay teamed up to take on The Miz, John Morrison, Mark Henry, and Chavo Guerrero. At one point when Chavo was in the ring, Matt Striker said, "You must respect Chavo. You must use the ‘usted' form." For those who don't know Spanish, "usted" is for formal way of using the word "you", so Striker was really bringing home the point in away that does not appear in English. Nice little tie in by Striker.

Speaking of Striker, I'm sure you noticed at the end of the SmackDown Your Vote segment Striker gave a rousing "vote Republican" plug. Now, I've been thinking about this. Matt Striker is a heel and a very smart guy. So, do you think he know that as a heel people would do the opposite of what he says and therefore vote Democratic? In other words, is Striker really a Democrat and is using his position on TV to say Republicans are heels like him? Or am I reading too much into this?


[ECW] A reference in the truck

JP: I was going to do this one myself, but others got it for me!

Kirk M: I'm sure a lot of people noticed this Hidden Highlight during ECW this week, but for those that didn't: during the Dirt Sheet, Morrison blamed the "miscue" on Chavo's music on the production crew. Morrison then told a production guy named Kerwin to see him after the show. However, this may have been a rib on Chavo as he played the short-lived Kerwin White gimmick on RAW a few years back.

Chris Jacobs: I love the comment made by Morrison as he acted like he was talking to the guys in the production truck, I wonder if anyone realized that the name he dropped was a slap to Chavo. As he yelled at "Kerwin" to stop playing the music, do you think Chavo remembers his days as Mr. Kerwin White?

JP: For those who don't remember this, here's Kerwin White:



Of course, this all came to crashing end with the death of Chavo's uncle Eddie Gerrero. Chavo then went back to SmackDown in an Eddie Guerrero tribute tour before finally turning against Rey Mysterio.




[iMPACT] Is Suicide getting smarter?

JP: As we noted here in the past (and has been brought up in several other places since), TNA has been advertising the storyline mode character Suicide from the upcoming TNA iMPACT: The Video Game by Midway (available tomorrow!!) by doing little flashes on the screen that link to WhoIsSuicide.com. This week, not only did I notice the flashes, but the timing of them is what caught my attention. Every time Mike Tenay or Don West started talking about the game, that is the moment the flash came up on the screen! For instance, it happened once during Consequences Creed vs. Sheik Adbul Bashir and twice during Raisha Saed vs. ODB.




[iMPACT] Do a little dance

JP: Also on iMPACT, the TNA Tag Team Champions Bear Money, Inc. took on the Prince Justice League. It looked like it was going to be Curry Man and Super Eric taking on Cowboy James Storm and Robert Roode, but despite Curry Man's music playing he was no where to be found (later found being seduced by Christy Hemme). Shark Boy then came out and showed his confusion, but decided to do his best while out there and gave a little hokey pokey dance! It was so brief that I almost missed it, but I was laughing pretty hard after rewinding and seeing Shark Boy trying to be a tough guy at the same time he was filling in for Curry Man.


[SmackDown] The Leg Drop

JP: Over on SmackDown this week, the competitors in WWE Championship Scramble took on each other as The Brian Kendrick squared off with Jeff Hardy. Early in the match, The Brian Kendrick went for the spot where you throw your opponent into the ropes and then drop down on the ground so they have to hop over you and then jump up again to hit them with something. But instead of hopping over The Kendrick, Jeff Hardy just stopped and delivered a short leg drop! I am so glad he did so because that spot is just plain silly. It showed Jeff Hardy being quite smart out there and delivering a move that makes sense and capitalizes on his opponent's weakness. Nice work by Hardy to think quick and do a smart reaction to something that seemed so obvious.


[SmackDown] You ok, kid?

JP: Wrapping us this week is another small moment from SmackDown that was easy to miss. Super Crazy was again talking on someone creative hates in the form of Ryan Braddock. After Super Crazy won the match with a top rope moonsault, Vladmir Kozlov came down to demand some competition. This was followed by the Big Show who answered his call for competition. But as the Big Show was making his way up the steps and into the ring, in the corner of my eye I caught the referee from the prior match. He was still tending to Braddock out in the corner! I like that these guys did not just disappear and walk to the back while Kozlov was cutting his promo, but actually continued their little storyline in the corner, even though absolutely nobody was watching.


Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 158th 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!