Hidden Highlights 10.20.08: Issue #164

Posted by JP Prag on 10.20.2008

Haas Hogan has to tell Lillian Garcia who he is, Finlay tightens up his moves against John Morrison, Roxxi makes Raisha Saed work to inflict damage on her, The Big Show won’t let Chavo Guerrero be a failure, and more!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #164

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

---

Commentator: JP thought he had got a good one in on JT, but that would be far from the truth…

Guest#5965: Sorry to break it to you man, but the sign says JJ is a jabroni.

Polish Post: Guest#5965....you are correct sir. and the sign is also correct.....zing!

Ryan: If you pause at 1:06 it is a JJ is a jabroni.

Crazy8: Yeah, it's JJ, not JT.

Ghost of JT: Ha! You see! Screw you JP!

Commentator: While JP may have been thoroughly wrong on this account, he previously had a reputation as one of the best lawyers in all the IWC.

Phoenix Wright: I'd love to see JP blow the dust of his old defense attorney badge and defend Jimmy Graham for his joke at the Iron Sheik roast. Too bad that's not happening ever. Hey Stenographer, you busy this evening?

Stenographer: Let me check me day planner… hmmmm… yes… just as I feared… I'm washing my hair.

Commentator: While Phoenix Wright may not have been so lucky in love, others faired much better.

Michelle: JP is hot.

---

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





JP: Hello everyone who has looked at a dozen investment properties in the past couple of days, 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!


RAW

JP: First up, before we get too far I want to up front apologize for only making it 22 minutes into SmackDown this week and I still haven't seen the first episode of Hulk Hogan's Championship Wrestling. This week will be a bit RAW intensive to compensate, but I've been on the road for seven days at this point and something had to give… namely my time to watch wrestling. So we'll move ahead with what we've got and catch up some more next week!

As for this week, something caught me right away as Rey Mysterio was coming out for his match to team with ECW Champion Matt Hardy against Kane and Mark Henry. Rey has been making some… interesting… modifications to his outfit and ring attire recently, and this week included making his over-the-mask mask into something of a "split personality". One of the sides was a skeleton face over a black backdrop. While someone in the costume department may have thought they were creating something scary, conflicting, or Halloween-related, I only saw one thing: The Chairman of the Board La Parka!



Oh gosh do I miss La Parka! Being a luchadore himself, Rey Mysterio may have been doing this as an homage to La Parka, and that's the way I'll look at it, too!


RAW

JP: This week was filled with a lot of those ad-lib "react to the moment" situations that always make me quite proud. The first one that really caught my attention was when JBL came out in his limo for his match with Haas Hogan. The limo driver was not so great at turns and parked the limo so close to the guardrail that JBL had trouble getting out the door and the fans got to glad slap him. JBL, much to his credit, started berating his driver immediately, pointing out that he parked in the fans that JBL hates.

If that wasn't enough, Jerry Lawler also picked up on it and gave a quick quip that JBL would be looking for a new driver next week. All around, it was excellent work by everyone to show how to do a true ad-lib job in character and not just read from a script.


RAW

JP: That was not the only thing that happened during the entrance of this match. Haas Hogan came into the ring and Lillian Garcia was about to announce him. Haas stopped Lillian and whispered into her ear, telling her to announce him as Haas Hogan. I really liked that Lillian "didn't know" (in kayfabe) that Haas was going to come out and therefore was unprepared on what to do. Little moments like this make the shows feel much more on the cuff and unscripted, a feeling they desperately need more of.


RAW

JP: As has been mentioned in the past, sometimes it is what you don't do that makes a moment a Hidden Highlight. Take for instance this week's encounter with Johnny Knoxville and company. Last time any of the Jackass crew were around, Steve O took a Samoan Spike from Umaga. But instead of selling it, he popped right up in the background as Umaga walked away from the ring. This lack of selling made Umaga and the rest of the wrestlers who fell to the move look awful in contrast.

That is why this week I was quite skeptical about allowing Johnny Knoxville into the ring. But much to my delight after taking the tadpole splash from Hornswaggle, Knoxville stayed down for the entire remained of everything that happened until the Great Khali came out. Not only that, when his friend came to check on him he would not focus his eyes or even attempt to stand. It was a good sell and by not trying to look strong he the segment a thousand times better.


RAW

JP: Later in the evening, Cryme Tyme teamed up with Kelly Kelly (who was disappointingly not in her gangsta outfit) to take on the rapping Miz and John Morrison and singing sensation Jillian Hall. As the match moved along, Miz and JTG were in the ring dishing it out. Then, Miz was able to hit a modified reverse front Russian leg sweep on JTG, taking him down to the mat hard. But did you catch was Miz did as JTG was going down? He put his hand on the square of JTG's back and pushed him to the ground faster. Way to go Miz with dishing out the extra pain and making the move that much more devastating a realistic!


RAW

JP: The main event of the evening saw Chris Jericho take on CM Punk, an opponent that Batista had picked out for him. Much to Jericho's dismay, Batista also named himself as special guest referee. As the match started, Jericho got in Batista's face and started to yell at him. You could just barely make it out, but Batista calmly said back, "I'm the referee… that's your opponent." It was a funny little dig that Batista did just for the in-ring action and I was glad to see him do something that was not for the camera or the audience.


RAW

JP: I was not the only one who caught something around Jericho, as Hidden Highlight reader since Issue #78 (that issue included Hogan Knows Best and Wrestling Society X… yikes!) CyberFreq points out.

CyberFreq: During the pre-match chit-chat after Batista was introduced as the guest ref, Cole talked about Jericho being a victim of a conspiracy theory. Well, if we remember back in the days of WCW, as he competed in the cruiserweight division Jericho claimed he was a victim of a conspiracy theory involving the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. Now it's over the World Heavyweight Championship. Maybe this is just a coincidence, maybe not. Either way, it's another Jericho-related HH for you to use if you want.

JP: Jericho is the victim of a global conspiracy, for sure! Of course, I fell victim to his conspiracy when we inducted him in the Hidden Highlights Hall of Fame only to come back a year later………… Jerk.


ECW

JP: Over in the land of extreme, something was a bit different. All throughout the show they had the corner "Live" thing next to the WWE logo that we pointed out for RAW a few weeks ago and Todd Grisham even said the show was live. Now, as many people know ECW is usually taped before SmackDown and then edited and aired a couple of hours later. It took me a bit to thing about, but the show was taking place in Las Vegas which is West Coast time. For a show to air at 9pm EST, it must be taped before 6pm EST on the West Coast. So instead of trying to tape the show at 4pm when most people probably couldn't make it to the arena, they just had a live ECW instead and then taped SmackDown afterwards.

I just think it's amazing to point out the flexibility of the WWE production staff and how and when they put on a show. Kudos to the team for making the one-week switch and pulling off a live show with little issue.


ECW

JP: This one just completely perplexes me, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway. The show contained just a couple of matches, the first one being Chavo Guerrero and Evan Bourne fighting for a spot in the Cyber Sunday ballot. As their match went to commercial, Matt Striker started giggling uncontrollably! I have no idea if he thought he was off the air and someone said something funny or if he thought of something to say later and cracked himself up, but the giggling going to break really caught me off guard!


ECW

JP: The other match of the evening saw Finlay take on John Morrison for a similar opportunity. By the way, anyone remember last year when the Miz surprisingly won the chance to face CM Punk for the ECW Championship? I'm just saying, sometimes it's good to mix things up a bit…

During the match itself, though, Finlay went for a backslide on Morrison to get the 1-2-3. Morrison, much to his credit, tried to wiggle free and not go willingly. This is where I caught something great and interesting: Finlay then tightened Morrison's arms together behind his back so that he could not wiggle as much and the slide went faster. It was such a smart and simple move that I was compelled to point it out and give Finlay his proper due.


iMPACT

JP: Well, this was the last episode of iMPACT in standard definition, so it makes sense to catch things that you can see even in low resolution. Sal Minella has just the thing to kick us off.

Sal Minella: Hey I noticed a nice Hidden Highlight on Thursday's Impact. During the match that the MCMG had with Sheik/Dutt there was a moment in the match that struck me as a bit of a jab at the Guns. When Shelley was going into the ropes and got tripped up by SheikAB, Bashir pointed to his hand mocking the Guns salute to Detroit. Now being from Michigan originally myself I love the salute the Guns do, however, when Bashir did it he held up left hand instead of his right hand and made the gesture. May not seem like much, but in reality he had the map of Michigan backwards. Having used this 'point to my hand to say here' method many times in the past it immediately struck me that Bashir had the wrong hand. I wonder if he just doesn't know any better or if it was a hidden little gem to mock the Guns just a bit.

Anyway, yeah I'm a geek for anything Michigan, but the Guns always get it right (as they should). But like I said, it seemed like a nice dig to get the salute backwards.

JP: I was thinking about this one, too, because I'm pretty sure that Sheik Abdul Bashir is really from Detroit or he had lived there for quite some time. I'm away from the internet at the moment, so I will have to check later, but I'm sure the comments section can answer anyway.


iMPACT

JP: Kurt Angle was on a rampage all night and started to take his aggressions out on everyone, including rarely seen ring announcer David Penzer! After beating down Penzer, security and referees came out to separate Angle and try to calm him down. Angle would have none of it and proceeded to beat up the security as well. He then shoved referee Shane Zule to the ropes.

Shane, as many know, is really a wrestler who has been brought in for a slow turn angle where he'll go from being a referee to someone who has had enough and starts to fight back. The burn has been going well, and this week he took it up a notch. After Angle pushed him, you could see Shane in the ropes visibly trying to control himself from ripping off his shirt and punching Angle back. I like that he thought enough to continue his character growth in an unrelated moment. The inner-dialogue he was having with himself was quite pertinent and I was impressed with his acting ability.


iMPACT

JP: Also on iMPACT, Raisha Saed finally got some ring time as she took on the hardcore brawler Roxxi. Saed hit Roxxi with what I can only describe as a bow and arrow face buster; a devastating move either way. But what got my attention was not the execution of the move, but how it was set up. With her face down, Roxxi did not just reach her arms behind her and do one of those opponent-assisted setups that look so fake. Instead, Saed had to hit her on the back and sides multiple times to get her to reach her arms back, thus setting up the move. It was an excellent bit of realism that I thought worked well for the move and the wrestlers involved.


iMPACT

JP: The true main even of iMPACT say "The Blueprint" Matt Morgan take on the aforementioned crazed Kurt Angle. Morgan managed to his Angle with his hell-e-vator once, but it was not enough. He then went for the move again, but something interesting caught my eye. As Morgan set Angle into position, he took a second to shake his left leg a little, the one Kurt worked on during the match. It was not much of a move, but it allowed the brief moment that Angle needed to recover and win the match. I really enjoyed the very slight sell and how it led to Morgan's demise. It was one of those moments that shows the difference between rookies and veterans but still made Morgan look like a very smart man in that ring.


SmackDown

JP: Sure, I only caught 22 minutes of the show, but that didn't stop me from also getting a Hidden Highlight! The Big Show decided to hold a little demonstration for the three match types he could be facing the Undertaker in at Cyber Sunday. The last one was appropriately a Last Man Standing match. During the demonstration, Show asked Chavo to get him a table, which he eventually did. But when Chavo was in the ring setting up, he was having some trouble getting the legs stable and the table in place. That is when another one of those great ad-lib "in the moment" bits happened. The Big Show then went, "All you have to do is pick up the table! Come on!" It was so over the top mean that it was absolutely perfect for this incarnation of The Big Show.


Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 164th 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!