Hidden Highlights 11.10.08: Issue #167

Posted by JP Prag on 11.10.2008

Kurt Angle references his own history on the Howard Stern Show, Santino Marella still remembers that sandwich, Finlay’s arm makes a strong cracking noise, Sharmell is not impressed with Somoa Joe, Scotty Goldman makes a special appearance, and more!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #167

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

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Commentator: JP is well known to be a world class traveler, on the road every week for his other job. But there is an odd pattern going on.

Lillian Garcia: Next week, RAW is live from Atlanta, GA!

Stenographer: And JP has been in Atlanta since September… except he leaves for Australia this Saturday.

Ghost of JT: Well that's ok, because RAW and ECW will be in JP's home state of Rhode Island the following week.

Stenographer: Except JP won't get back from Australia until just after the show ends.

Ghost of JT: Quite odd.

Stenographer: No, what is really odd is that is the third time that something like this has happened this year. The WWE went to South Carolina the week after JP left and went to Tennessee also the following week. And when the WWE went to Boston, JP was out of town. Heck, Survivor Series this year is in Boston and JP will be somewhere over the Pacific while it is going on!

Ghost of JT: What are you trying to say?

Commentator: Will we learn what the Stenographer is trying to say? Find out… NOW!

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





JP: Hello everyone who didn't even have time to write this into, 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 – Retro 1 Week

JP: We'll kick it off this week (while I'm still around) with a bit of last week courtesy of the mystery commentary section!

Guest#1176: On the last RAW with the 6 diva tag match, Layla was wearing knee pads with Regal's new golden logo on them. HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT~!

JP: Hidden Highlight indeed! Now if only she could still be called Layla El and we'd have a great day!


SmackDown – Retro 1 Week

JP: Also sticking to the past is my favorite blonde bombshell Tammy!

Tammy: My Hidden Highlight comes from the Halloween edition of Smackdown. After the match between THE Brian Kendrick and John Wayne Yang, Big Zeke catches a flying Yang then drops him on the edge of the ring, then throws him in the ring. Big Zeke starts to go into the ring, but remembering he's a bodyguard first, stops and asks THE Brian Kendrick if he's okay. Kendrick then orders Big Zeke to go get Yang. The interaction continued to prove that Zeke is one of the best bodyguards in the 'E!

JP: Well who is the comparison? Bam Neely? Luckily, Zeke is way better at his job than that. Now Tammy, I have to know why we didn't hear from you sooner with something as good as this.

Tammy: I was going to send that in Saturday morning, but I'm blonde and easily distracted by shiny things.

JP: Hence why I no longer bleach my hair!


Howard Stern Show on Sirius

JP: For those who don't know, Kurt Angle made an appearance on the Howard Stern Show last week in a special segment for Eric the Midget. Howard and the gang enjoyed talked to Kurt and the next day said they wanted to have him back on the show real soon. But even during the segment someone managed to work in a little Hidden Highlight.

Rick Goodwin: I noticed last week when Kurt Angle was on Howard Stern, he made the remark to Robin that he liked African American woman. Thought it was funny of Kurt to play on the angle he had a couple of years ago with Booker T and Sharmell.

JP: Especially now that they are aligned in the Main Event Mafia! I'm looking forward to Kurt's next appearance on the show. Having heard him many times on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show as well as interviewing him in person, Kurt is always just fascinating to listen to. Whether he makes sense or not on any given day, the man is just captivating when he speaks.


RAW

JP: Jumping ahead to RAW this week, the show was a special 3 hour presentation celebrating the 800th episode of RAW… that happened a couple of months ago. Throughout the night they production crew showed several clips of the old RAW episodes, but something in particular stood out to me. All of the clips from the very early RAWs did not blur out the WWF logo. As we have seen since they got the ‘F' out, the WWF scratch logo was blurred out in old clips. This was especially glaring since the stuff they showed from the Attitude Era had the WWF scratch logos blurred out! I don't know why the classic WWF logo gets a pass, but it was good to see it on TV even for a little bit.


RAW

JP: This episode of RAW was also filled with firsts, especially during the 16 diva tag match. During that match, two women saw their WWE in-ring debuts with both Lena Yada and Tiffany being in the match. But in a double Hidden Highlight, neither of the ladies actually had any in-ring action! So they made their debuts but did no wrestling. Hopefully we'll see what they are made of at some point, but for now Lena Yada is in UPW and Tiffany is in FCW, so check them out there and maybe they'll actually wrestle in a match.


RAW

JP: Also on RAW was a great bit on continuity that I wrote down immediately, but The Big Fig heard as well.

The Big Fig: When Santino came out to do commentary, he quickly comments to Jerry Lawler that he "didn't recognize him without his sandwich" which shows Santino still remembers "that delicious subway sandwich" he took from Lawler a few weeks before Wrestlemania. Gotta love them $5 footlongs.

JP: I have no love of Subway, but man Santino is great!


RAW

JP: The main event of RAW was of course the cage match between Chris Jericho and Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship. During the match itself, Jericho found his way to the door and was trying to make his escape. Batista was down and was supposed to grab Jericho, but he was a bit slow in getting over there. So while Jericho was out the door and had his hands on the floor, he actually had to catch himself in the ropes with his legs so that he wouldn't fall out. It was so seamless that you would not notice unless you were watching closely (which I was), so kudos to Jericho for making a mistake look like an intention and not taking away from the match at all.


ECW

JP: After a week off, I've noticed some things from the land of extreme PG. Jack Swagger came out for a little promo to bury Tommy Dreamer and all that he did not accomplish. As part of the promo, Swagger took the original ECW Championship belt and dumped it in the trash. This reminded me of when Rhino took the real title that he had been carrying and burned it in the trash on a TNA show. I think the WWE used Swagger to create the moment they were robbed of and finally got to throw the title in the trash their own way.

As a bonus, here's a match of Rhino vs. Christopher Daniels in Christopher Daniels' only ever match in the original ECW:



Daniels with hair really freaks me out!


ECW

JP: Also on ECW this week, the main event saw Finlay take on Mark Henry in a match to determine the number one contender to the ECW Championship. Late into the match, Henry started to wrap Finlay's arm around the lower rope. Then, something quite odd happened that I had to rewind twice to make sure I heard it. But sure enough, there was a cracking sound there. Now, I'm not sure if something really cracked, if there was a noise somewhere else that was picked up, or if a cracking sound was added in post-production, but there was a sound that there that can not be denied.


iMPACT

JP: Over on iMPACT the era of the Main Event Mafia was getting underway, but not before a quick recap of last week. When they were showing the recap, though, they got to the point where Scott Steiner hit the ring and started laying people out. In a bit of interesting possible foreshadow, they showed Steiner threatening Petey Williams with the lead pipe but then immediately cut to where everyone was laid out. As we all know from last week, Steiner did not hit Petey Williams as a nod to their relationship. I believe by not showing that Steiner did not hit Wiliams, TNA is trying to cover up and make it more of a surprise when Williams turns against the TNA Originals. I thought this little jump clip was a good way to avoid the issue without making it too obvious, so good work by the production crew.


iMPACT

JP: This recap, of course, led to the Main Event Mafia coming out to cut a promo followed by Samoa Joe and the TNA Originals. As Somoa Joe was speaking, I was keeping my eyes on the background to see how everyone was reacting in the moment. The winner of it all was definitely Sharmell who very gently rolled her eyes and just looked generally annoyed the entire time he was speaking. She was not over the top at all, but had the perfect look of pure exasperation. She could not have done it better. By doing just enough and not too much, she made her presence and the mood of everyone around her that much more apparent.


iMPACT

JP: Speaking of Sharmell, her husband Booker T teamed up with the TNA Tag Team Champions Beer Money, Inc. to take on Christian Cage and the Motor City Machine Guns. Chris Sabin had taken a pretty good beating during the match, but finally made it over to tag Christian Cage in. When he did so, though, Sabin was too pooped to get out of the ring. Alex Shelley then jumped down from the ring apron and actually dragged Sabin out the ring to make sure he would be out of harms way. I liked that Shelley cared enough about his partner to help get him out the ring and at the same time make sure he did not illegally stay inside the ring and cost them the match.


iMPACT

JP: In one I cannot believe I missed, here's Chris Faught.

Chris Faught: In Jeff Jarrett's office, on the bookshelf was a book laying down that had "RULEBOOK" on the spine.

JP: Now THAT is the little detail that brings a smile to my face. But I have a feeling that is not all we've got from you?


iMPACT

Chris Faught: When Kong attacked Roxxi backstage, the trash cans had pieces of the Karen's Angle set in it. ODB even picked up a part of the set later in the show that had Karen's face on it.

Trevor Alexander: When ODB was in the back checking Roxxi she started looking through the garbage and what did she see, the Karen's Angle set. At first I thought ODB was just being ODB by going through the garbage but I guess it was just TNA's little jab at Karen.

JP: Guess we know which Angle TNA happens to stand behind!


SmackDown

JP: This one will just go under my personal enjoyment. On SmackDown this week, I caught someone with a "Scotty Goldman" sign. The kicker? All of the O's were replaced with Stars of David! Now that is such great Hidden Highlightness that if you don't understand it, I'll need another 5,769 years to explain it to you.


Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 167th 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!