Hidden Highlights 12.08.08: Issue #171

Posted by JP Prag on 12.08.2008

CM Punk gets hit with some unexpected moves, Matt Striker picked up on MVP’s woes, Samoa Joe chokes back some tears, JR puts over the athletic abilities of the Big Show and the Undertaker, and more!

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #171

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

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Commentator: Ricky Ortiz may have lost his first match since coming up to the main roster, but that didn't stop him from doing an extra Hidden Highlight on Cha$e.

Kaiza: Actually in another hidden highlight of its own: when Ricky Ortiz caught someone he actually took out his Ricky-o-rally towel and waved it around. I caught this and laughed my ass off.

Commentator: Of course, Ricky O is not the only one who knows how to rile up the fans.

Greg: "John Morrison's pants were a double Hidden Highlight!"

It's sentences like this that make me love this column.

Commentator: Then again, sometimes it is the mistakes in our lives that provide a little smile.

Donners: "actually rubbed the soul of her boot"

I know Saeed is religious, but I don't think her boots have souls. Soles, maybe, but not souls.

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





JP: Hello everyone who has waited nearly a decade to see a Letters to Cleo reunion show tonight, 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!


WWE Survivor Series – Retro 1 Week

JP: Sure, Final Resolution may have been last night, but that doesn't stop the Survivor Series ones form rolling in! And remember, Hidden Highlights never misses, you just forget to send it in on time!

Ray Church: The Great Khali warned HBK that Morrison was about to hit the superkick at Survivor Series. Now, HBK could just have ducked the kick without explanation, but the warning from Khali gave him cause to avoid the kick...

JP: The real question is did The Great Khali warn HBK in English or has HBK learned Hindi?


iMPACT – Retro 1 Week

JP: Sticking in my past as well, my Australian babe Stacey picked up a couple of goodies.

Stacey Newman: Got a Hidden Highlight for you from the Turkey Bowl Impact. As J.B. was introducing the three guys in the finals, Rudy Charles was next to him holding the turkey suit. As he introduced Shelley (standing behind him) Rudy moved the turkey head (via his hand) to stare at Shelley. And then he did the same for Rhino in turn. For Sheik, he actually rested the turkey head on Borash's shoulder for a second. Even at the end when Shelley was begging off wearing the thing Rudy was puppeteering the head to stare at the camera, and then at Shelley. Don't know if that's a Hidden Highlight or just Rudy Charles showing puppetry skills, but I thought it was hilarious.

JP: That is freaking hilarious! Rudy Charles does a lot of great Hidden Highlights that we do not cover enough.

Stacey Newman: In addition - you mentioned the cheque wasn't signed (and before the match it wasn't) but when they showed the 'during the break' of Rhino recieving it, there was a squiggly curvy signature I couldn't remember seeing beforehand. (Couldn't tell if it was D. Carter though.)

JP: Dixie does sit just a couple of rows in behind the announce booth, so she could have just signed it then. Anyone who was in the iMPACT zone that night want to confirm?


SmackDown – Retro 1 Week

JP: But better then the lovely Dixie Carter is the even lovelier Cathy! Wow, who knew this may girls wrote into Hidden Highlights?

Cathy Kershaw: Massive HH from last Friday's Smackdown: THE Brian Kendrick's new coat! Remember the week before, TBK got Hurrapopped about doing Koko B. Ware's bit down to the ring? And now this week, he comes out in a brand new bright red jacket - just like Koko used to do when he was in the Pretty Young Things/PYT Express with Norvell Austin. I'd love to think that they've pulled out the Koko parallel because someone in Creative has remembered that he used to team with Beautiful Bobby Eaton, who had a hand in training Kendrick when he was in development in Memphis - but somehow I doubt it. Still, great thinking from somebody.

JP: That takes some serious thinking and knowledge of wrestling history, so I'm quite sure there are few in creative that could think of all that! More likely you and The Brian Kendrick are just on the same page.


SmackDown – Retro 1 Week

JP: Of course, who am I to deny my ladies from getting one more word in?

Cathy Kershaw: Kendrick was quite on form that night - the other thing I noticed was that he kept drawing Jeff Hardy's attention to the clock ticking away on the big screen. There was one great bit, just after the commercial break, where he was working Jeff's neck on the mat, talking trash, and he twisted Jeff round by 90 degrees so that he would see the clock. Then for the next minute or two, he kept Jeff facing towards the clock while he worked the neck, so Jeff had no choice but to watch his title chances slipping away.

Quality. Who says pot makes you unmotivated?

JP: No one ever said that Kendrick was unmotivated. What people want to do with the personal time, bodies, and minds is their business. But I 100% agree with Jeff Small that Kendrick chose his recreational habit over his job. You may not agree with the Wellness Policy, but the WWE has stated it. If my company suddenly decided that I could not wear black socks and had to wear white socks, I'd have to wear white socks to keep my job. Either I could continue to wear black socks and get reprimanded until I was released, or I could wear white socks. The choice is still mine. I just have to decide which is more important to me: wearing black socks or my job. If black socks are that important to me, than the job will have to go!


RAW

JP: RAW opened up this week with Chris Jericho making his way towards the ring through the crowds, though flanked by his personal security. As they made their way into the actual stands, Jericho made a comment along the lines of he had to respect for the fans. At that exact moment, one of his security guards pushed a little kid out of the way. That push happening at the exact moment really put the exclamation point on the fact that Jericho has no respect for the fans.


RAW

JP: Later in the evening, the World Tag Team Champions CM Punk and Kofi Kingston took on Priceless members Cody Rhodes and Manu. During this match, something unusual happened: moves that are not normally hit connected. For many years in the WWE, there have been plenty of moves that are completely telegraphed and almost never hit. But during this match at least two of these actually did hit!

First, Cody Rhodes caught CM Punk's leg and it looked obvious that Punk was going to his the enziguri. Instead, Cody Rhodes was able to actually hit the intended clothesline. Later in the match, CM Punk attempted a sunset flip on Manu. Manu then went to punch straight down and actually connected! I know this does not seem like much, but these moves almost never happened and actually helped make the match much more unpredictable and enjoyable. I mean, if a big guy can drop a fist down and connect, anything could happen!


RAW

JP: Still, hitting moves was not the only thing noticeable from this match.

Jay Carroll: Someone mentioned last week about all of Team Orton at SS wearing Black & Gold apart from Cody ‘The Rebel' Rhodes, but this week he could be seen sporting, YOU GUESSED IT, Black & Gold, the same colours as Orton. Is young Rhodes now conforming?

JP: And now Evolution 2.0 seems to be Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, and Manu. Who will be wearing the robes in that group?


RAW

JP: And how could we start talking about clothes and not get to John Morrison himself?

Steve: From December 1st's Raw, John Morrison picks up where he left off last week. As pointed out in the previous column, Morrison has been imitating Shawn Michaels' move set as well as ring attire, but he stepped it up this week by also having crosses on his sunglasses.

JP: I was wondering about those glasses, too, as they seemed wholly out of place, but now it all makes sense to me!

Steve: But his finishing combo also ties into this theme. The springboard kick to the head is one of the signature moves of Chris Jericho, who had said before Wrestlemania XIX that he wanted to be Shawn Michaels as seen here:



Morrison isn't the first to imitate Michaels on a large scale and only time will tell if he can have as successful a transformation as Jericho had. I could think of worse footprints to follow and wouldn't be surprised to even see almost the same promo in about 4 months.


RAW

JP: Then again, it's not always clothes we are interested in, but sometimes the ladies…

John Madigan: During the Jillian v Melina match, Glamarella were on commentary. Michael Cole pointed out that Beth was the Daily Diva. Santino then asks "why do you have to have everyone look at her". It's quite a fitting response since being jealous of other people looking at his girlfriend is what led to the breakup of his relationship with Maria.

JP: Not only that, but Beth also responded saying, "It ok if they want to look." The two were actually able to keep it up for quite a bit, so I enjoyed the whole segment!


RAW

JP: For the main event, Rey Mysterio made his return after injuring his arm earlier in the evening to take on the Miz in the Intercontinental Championship tournament. Towards the end of the match, Mysterio went for a seated senton on the Miz. As he did so, instead of flaying his arms out he actually crossed them across his chest, placing his good arm over his hurt one. I thought this was a great way to protect his arm and sell the pain, an overall smart move by Mysterio!


ECW

JP: Over in the land the extreme, the most extreme thing on the show was none other than Hidden Highlight's own Matt Striker! For the main event, MVP tried to snap his losing streak by taking on ECW Champion Matt Hardy. As MVP made his way to the ring, Todd Grisham asked where MVP's tunnel and fire was. Striker's response? "MVP is cutting costs." It was so simple and effective but got the point across perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that MVP ended up using the same excuse on SmackDown! Guess MVP was listening to Striker's commentary to have everything make sense.


iMPACT

JP: Leaving the land of Extreme, we head over to the land of… ummmm… X's. On iMPACT, it was the last push to Final Resolution. As part of that, TNA decided to combine a couple of matches in one so AJ Styles and Christy Hemme teamed up to take on Scott Steiner and Awesome Kong. At the end of the match, Hemme had Awesome Kong down for the count and Scott Steiner tried to dive into the ring for the save. Despite being cut off by AJ, Steiner did not give up and continued to reach and try to pull his way towards the pincover. I really enjoyed that Steiner did not give up when he was cut off and kept trying despite already knowing the outcome.


iMPACT

JP: Also on iMPACT, towards the end of the show JB interviewed Frontline members AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and (for now) Team 3D. As the interview was wrapping up, everyone started to head out in their own direction. JB then stopped Samoa Joe and asked him if he had anything to add. Joe thought for a second and, behind his sunglasses, let out a little sniffle. That's when it occurred to me: Samoa Joe had been crying about his loss earlier in the evening! He was wearing sunglasses to cover up his eyes and that sniffle let us know he really had not gotten over it. Nice work by Samoa Joe to wrap that all up in there!


SmackDown

JP: Jumping ahead to SmackDown this week, Michelle McCool and Maria has a non-title match that really pushed ahead the Diva Champion's heel turn. As their match got underway, it quickly broke out into a catfight. The referee worked diligently and finally got the two apart. When he did so, he yelled at them, "This is a wrestling match, not a fight!" I love that the ref worked in this little comment to emphasize that they should still be working under wrestling rules. The best part was there was no way he could know the mics were picking up his comment, so it was also one of those "react to the moment" situations.


SmackDown

JP: And wrapping up this week's episode and SmackDown as well, the main event saw the Big Show and the Undertaker go at in a steel cage. As the match got underway, JR made it a point that despite their size, both the Big Show and the Undertaker were athletic enough to climb over the top of the cage. That was a really smart thing to say as it showed that these are two trained athletes who could accomplish a lot and that we should not judge by their size. It also put an element of surprise back into the match as it made it possible that they would not end the match in the middle of the ring. Good work by JR using that one little comment to add quite a bit to the match.


Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 171st 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!