Hidden Highlights 03.02.09: Issue #183
Posted by JP Prag on 03.02.2009
Edge brings the Rated R back to the World Heavyweight Championship, Jerry Lawler remembers his WrestleMania history, Cute Kip tried to hide his evil deeds from the camera, MVP starts dressing nice again, and more!
Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag
Issue #183
Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…
Commentator: Theories were abound on how Shawn Michaels was related to the future.
Ben S: I'm pretty sure that Shawn Michaels was not being referred to as "the future," but instead as FIGHTING for his future. As in keeping his name/likeness for himself and not allowing JBL to own them.
Skyywalker: Or he could of been talking about the future of his kids???
Tony: The Defending your future thing for Shawn was in relation to his match with JBL. He was fighting for the future of the Shawn Michaels name, so that's where that comes from.
Commentator: Other people had more pressing matters to deal with.
Jeremy from Palmdale: I am extremely offended, I would not like to date ODB. I prefer women without testicles.
Commentator: Of course, when this article is getting more reader participation than ever and people are really enjoying it, there have to be a couple who do not enjoy the show.
Guest#7571: again thanks for making the obvious, obvious again guys
ur like the john maddens of wrestling
Jdizzle: What happend to this article it used to point actual things u might not have noticed. Now its just full obvious bull that arent even highlights.
Commentator: Thankfully, some were quick to point out what is really obvious to everyone but our guests.
neverAcquiesce: And you just murdered the English language.
JP: Still, let's take the positivity route, which is rule #1 around here that people like those two seem to forget. Do you think that perhaps in 183 weeks, IE three and half years, you may have gotten the Hidden Highlights methodology so ingrained in your head that thing SEEM obvious that aren't. I take for granted things I can pick out anywhere, but most people do not have that skill. Despite that, I often get surprised by what the readers send in and enjoy them. If you lack the ability to enjoy what others or I point out just because you happen to catch them or don't think they are big enough, then I feel quite sorry for you. Enjoy the little things in life, like this message I got from my brother in the commentary section!
your bro: Just heard that the next WrestleMania will be out here at the Cardinals Stadium next Spring...
JP: That came from my real brother who lives in Arizona. Made my day that he wrote in the commentary section because he didn't want to send a personal e-mail from work. Something like that just puts a smile on my face, which is something people like you two desperately need. So enjoy what we've got, write is something great of your own, or go read that other JP (Truss) so you can complain all you want. Either way, we've got plenty to get to!
Commentator: And now, 411mania.com proudly presents…
JP: Hello everyone who is buried under a nor'easter, 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 up to 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!
Classic Hidden Highlight
JP: Normally I saw let's kick it off in the past, but this time we are going quite a bit back! It's time for I Love the 90's, Hidden Highlights style!
Chris Roedel: This would be a retro HH. It is from Raw on 12/8/97 which is airing on WWE 24/7. During the beginning of the Marc Mero/Salvatore Sincere match, Mero goes on a tirade about how he is a star and point to Sincere and says your name is Tom Brandi and your a jobber and he can't believe he stooped so low to take the Sal Sincere gimmick. In the background you hear Jim Ross say, "You're a bad man." Obviously this plays us to Mero's gimmick in WCW Johnny B. Badd. EPIC HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT.
JP: That was in a time of breaking all sorts of kayfabe. I like the occasional breaking, but that time was nuts! But there were even more crazy things going on a coupe of years later.
Classic Hidden Highlight
JP: You see, in 1997 WCW was still dominating the WWF, but two years later the roles were reversed. Because of that, WCW tried doing some interesting things. That's not what this one is about, but if you watch the whole clips below you'll something that blurred the lines in an odd way.
Chris Walkup: I was digging around watching old WCW Sting clips on YouTube, and I started watching Sting/Hulk Hogan from Halloween Havok. As Sting was coming to the ring, I thought the entrance music sounded really familiar, so I rewound and listened again... Stings music from Halloween Havoc is the exact same track that is being currently used by Man Mountain Mike Knox. Not sure how much of a Hidden Highlight it is, but I thought it was kinda cool that they're recycling their WCW tracks.
JP: Actually, you have the whole Hidden Highlight backwards. You see, you watched the clip that was taken from WWE 24/7. You can hear Sting's entrance at 2:34:
But here is the same clip taken from the original WCW broadcast. Listen at 3:26:
So you see, the WWE actually removed the original music, most likely because it is a score that belongs to someone else. Since the WWE didn't want to pay the rights fees, they chose to replace it with Mike Knox's theme song! They do it all the time with old ECW broadcasts. It's very hard to watch Tommy Dreamer, RVD, and the Sandman come out to a generic track or their WWE music instead of what they really used in ECW.
Still, that was a weird time in WCW history.
Classic Hidden Highlight
JP: Leaving the 90's behind, we enter the 00's with something more than a little mean.
Jasper Gerretsen: This really isn't intended as making light of suicide, but... on the original ECW One Night Stand, Mike Awesome wrestled his old ECW rival Masato Tanaka. During the entrances Joey Styles went verbally berserk on Awesome, berating him for betraying ECW and almost jumping the company's belt in the trash on WCW TV. As the match got underway Styles calmed down and focused on calling the action, until Awesome hit a suicide dive. Styles' response ("suicide dive and it's a shame he didn't succeed in taking his own life!") is very unfortunate, considering that Mike Awesome did in fact end up taking his own life just a few years later.
JP: Did you catch Matt Striker's reference to their feud on ECW this week? I could not believe he mentioned the name "Mike Awesome" on WWE TV considering the company trying to distance themselves from dead wrestlers.
JP: We continue to trek our way to the present with one that is not as old.
Paul Quinn: Here's one I've been meaning to send to you guys for about a year now.
When Jericho originally debuted and had the confrontation with The Rock, after it was over JR says "Well, The Rock gets the last word."
When Jericho returned after all the SAVE_US promos, after he shuts up Randy Orton, JR remarks "Chris Jericho has gotten the last word."
I don't know if this was intentional or not, maybe JR had gone back and watched Y2J's debut again in preparation for the 2nd Coming. Either way, I caught it and thought it was cool.
JP: That is a good bit of circular reference, though it is something JR says quite a bit. I'll go with the coincidence method in this one, but unintentionally love how it all worked out.
Hidden Highlights on DVD
JP: Sometimes the Hidden Highlights are not in the classic moments themselves, but in between them
Jeremy from Palmdale: This one comes from the second disk of the history of the Intercontinental title DVD, but is not related to a match. Instead it is related to the previous endeavors of host Todd Grisham.
After the famous British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart match, Grisham remarked that "it was a World Cup atmosphere in Wembley that night". This is a Hidden Highlight because, of course, the World Cup is soccer and Todd Grisham is the host for Fox Soccer Channel's Major League Soccer broadcasts. He also received a Soccer Scholarship to attend Wingate University (where that is located, I am unsure, presumably Georgia or Alabama).
JP: That's way more information on Todd Grisham than I ever wanted to know. But boy am I not looking forward to hearing from every other country outside of the USA, Canada, and Australia telling me it's not soccer!
SmackDown – Retro 1 Week
JP: After that trip down memory lane, it's hard to get back to the present. So we'll take a small stop before we move on.
Guest: How in the BLUE HELL did John Morrison calling Carlito and Primo "the Colons" (no accent) NOT get a mention?!
I honestly don't know if I have EVER laughed out loud at wrestling before, but that one KILLED me, especially since their last name is RARELY used.
Awesome, awesome stuff by Morrison.
JP: Jim Ross and Tazz picked up on it this week, but Carlito picked up on it during the skit. He actually said under his breath, "Did he just call us the "Colons"… again?!" I must have missed the first time, but it looks like the two teams have been having some fun together for a while.
RAW
JP: All right, jumping ahead to RAW the show began with John Cena in the ring and then an entrance by the World Heavyweight Champion Edge with the Big Show in tow. It was pretty quick and damn funny, but when the Big Show came out from the cloud of smoke from Edge's entrance, he was actually waving his hand to clear the smoke and coughing a bit. It was quite funny to see the Big Show playing it up in the background.
RAW
JP: Of course, Edge and the Big Show had to make it to the ring, which would bring us to our next moment.
Mike: At the beginning of Raw when Cena and Edge are having their back and forth, if you look at Edge's belt on the name plate, you can see not only Edge's name printed there, but also the Rated R logo. This small detail is pretty cool to see as it was only put there just in case it is shown in a close up on TV.
JP: This one seems awfully familiar…
Stenographer: Let me help you out here. From Issue #92 on June 4, 2007:
JP: … Up next we have first timer Ian with something I meant to call JT out on last week:
I haven't written to you before but I thought I would point out that on Edge's title belt either side of his name is the Rated R logo. It isn't obvious at first because they are not in black like his name but engraved on. You can see them briefly right at the start of SmackDown when he comes out and holds the title above his head, there is a quick close up and then it is difficult to spot after that.
JP: I did totally notice these as well, but it took me a bit to realize what I was looking it. The stickers are like orange-red, so they kind of blend with the belt when the light is on it.
JT: Hey, I noticed it, I just didn't use it! To make up for the no-sell:
[Photo lost to time]
JP: Pictures don't prove anything! You could have taken that whenever.
JP: And that means it's a continuity Hidden Highlight as well!
RAW
JP: Outside of the main event players, the usual crew of goodness was in flight.
Steve: From Raw tonight during the 6 person tag match, the highlights are not limited to the repeat of last week's Italian flag colored headband and Santino's "glamorized" look.
JP: Tell that to this guy who apparently completely missed that giant section for that one Hidden Highlight last week!
burpy103: Beth Phoenix's crown has the same colors as the Italian flag. Those colors are red, white and green.
JP: Seriously? But please, come up with something new because we've had enough repeats already.
Steve: Melina comes out in a new outfit, with "Sensational" spelled out across the back of the tights. Of course, these tights look like something right out of Harlem Heat's wardrobe. Who was their manager? None other than Sister Sherri who was also known as "Sensational Sherri".
RAW
JP: Fine, I have something else on Beth Phoenix's outfit, too. You should have noticed that among her black outfits were pipings of red, green, and white to once again go with her Italian tiara. I'm going to give the props to the costume department for being on their game this week.
RAW
JP: Leaving outfits aside, later in the evening Shawn Michaels and JBL faced off for the right to face Vladmir Kozlov in order to see who would challenge the Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. During the match, Michael Cole rhetorically asked, "can you imagine being 16 and 0 at WrestleMania?"
To this, the King very quietly said, "I can't even imagine being in a WrestleMania." Nice dig by the King to point out he never got to compete at the big one, and throw in a little bitterness to boot.
RAW
JP: Back to main even scene, Randy Orton was causing a bit of mischief.
Gary Graham: Just wanted to mention something odd I noticed on Raw. When Orton came out off his dressing room before the show ending promo/angle the sledgehammer he was carrying wasn't taped up but when he came out on stage it was halfway taped up. Musta been a fast tape job huh?
JP: I was watching Orton's sledgehammer when he and Legacy and came out, too, and couldn't quite figure out why the tape on the hammer was bothering me. Now I know why! Subconsciously it was bothering me, though I was trying to remember if Triple H taped his hammer up or not.
RAW
JP: Speaking of Triple H, this has nothing to do with him other than his presence!
The DaGreene: Triple H was making his way down the ramp to face off against Legacy. When the camera switched to Legacy in the ring, you can see the King getting his stuff together. He knew the shit was going to hit the fan and he wanted to be ready to get out of the way.
JP: Better watch out!
iMPACT
JP: Skipping over the land of extreme and going to land of the Main Event Mafia, the opening match saw the Beautiful People take on Taylor Wilde and Madison Rayne. In the middle of the match, Rayne found herself in her opponent's corner with the referee being distracted by her own partner. During that moment, the camera's barely caught that Cute Kip was pulling on her hair, delivering the extra evilness. But I noticed something interesting in the way he was pulling on her hair. Kip actually was wrapping her hair underneath the turnbuckle. This had a two-fold approach. One is that it made the pull even tighter. But more important is that it actually hid the moment from the cameras! Since Male on Female violence is not allowed, Kip had to make sure he was not picked up by the cameras. Too bad for my eagle eye!
SmackDown
JP: Finishing us off this week is the savior of MyNetworkTV: MVP.
John Madigan: MVP was doing commentary during the Benjamin/Guererro match on Smackdown. It was not what he said, but what he was wearing that was a HH. During MVP's losing streak, he went from wearing fancy clothing, suits and jewelry to nothing but his ring gear. Now that he's winning matches again, he's back wearing a fancy suit & expensive looking shades. Intentional or not, I'd say it qualifies as a HH.
JP: I really liked the look of that vest as a half-suit jacket, too. Where can I get one of those?
Well everyone, that wraps up this week's show. Thank you for reading the 183rd 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 lookforme@mikefine.com 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 Thursday 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!
Why all this fuss about entrance music lately? Is it realy that relevant? I mean we do watch the wrestling, yes? I am old enough to ACTUALLY REMEMBER WHEN MOST OF THE WRESTLERS WHO CAME OUT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ENTRANCE MUSIC! Shocking!
Posted By: Dr Thaddeus Soggybottom (Guest) on March 01, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Two extensions of your highlights:
Big Show in the smoke. It struck me that Edge did not bother telling Show there would be smoke. Edge knew, hence he walked through it nonchalantly. Show, however, looked annoyed as he walked onto the stage, because he wasn't expecting to be blasted with smoke. That was my take anyway.
The MM/Colons skit. Morrison's cheesy delivery of "The Colons!", as if his dastardly plan was foiled, was awesome, but the true HH for me was the fact that Miz and Morrison KNEW that the food was terrible. Primo eventually revealed he had deliberately sabotaged the meal, but M&M are clearly used to the finest, given their success, and so they KNEW their food was sub-par. I imagine the idea was to make them look like jerks, but I think it showed how classy they are.
Posted By: Jimmy (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 12:36 AM
You missed the hidden highlight after Tazz mentioned "miz and morrison refered the 'Cologne's to the Colons. Who does that right?" JR responds, "Right, I am colon sensitive." A play off the surgery he had a couple of years ago.
Posted By: LOLZ (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 01:04 AM
Sting's theme was "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica. If WWE wouldn't fork out the money for "Enter Sandman", they sure as hell aren't gonna do it for a a song Sting only used for few months. Also, sadly that clip wasn't the worst part of that PPV. Bret Hart tapping out to Lex Luger's half-crab. Absolutely disgusting.
Posted By: AsoTamaki (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 03:04 AM
Sting's entrance theme in the original broadcast of Halloween Havoc? You're right, it does belong to someone else -- namely, Metallica. In the last couple of years of WCW's existence, Sting used a live version of "Seek and Destroy" as his entrance theme. And if you believe the dirt sheets, Metallica and Vinnie Mac have a bit of a history going back to WWE's usage of the song "St. Anger" for the SummerSlam 2003 theme; Metallica wanted to play the show live to promote the "St. Anger" album, but Vince (behind the times as he always is) allegedly didn't know just how big a band they were and refused to let them. Them when it came time for ECW One Night Stand, Metallica told Vince he could use "Enter Sandman" so long as he paid them a million or so a pop each time they used it (which is why you'll never hear that song on any future airing or release of that show; on the ONS DVD, "Enter Sandman" is replaced with a production track called "Cave Rat", and on the "Extreme Rules" DVD, it's replaced with Sandman's WWECW theme -- both times, the crowd's singing is dubbed over and Foley's reference to the crowd's singing is removed).
In fact, WWE redubs a lot of older themes they either no longer have the rights to or don't want to pay to get the rights back (a prime example is the origial nWo theme; another example is Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop", which was overdubbed with Edge's first WWF theme on Edge's DVD set).
Posted By: Anonymous Smart Mark (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 06:59 AM
I meant to post this sooner so it would show up this week, but I completely forgot. So, maybe it could be a retro HH?
Anyway, during last week's RAW, when Vickie Guererro was in charge, I noticed that Lillian Garcia wasn't doing any ring announcing, but the other guy (forget his name) from Smackdown was.
Maybe this was a move by Vickie to show that she was in charge of the brand?
Posted By: ZeroVX (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 07:59 AM
I also enjoyed in the Colons/Miz & Morrison match that one of the Colons Irish Whipped Morrison, and the Miz reached over to try and make a blind tag. He didn't make it because it wasn't planned, but it was a great way to demonstrate that it's a real athletic contest, and the outcome isn't predicted. (I know it is, but it helped make it feel that way).
Posted By: Empire Of Ownage (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 08:38 AM
for the record, Sting use to use a live version of Metallica's Seek and Destroy back in WCW
Posted By: stryper2000 (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 09:15 AM
Matt Striker's comment about the 3rd Mulkey Brother was classic!!!
Posted By: Dimez55 (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 10:19 AM
Not sure if it counts as a hidden highlight but during that Shelton vs Chavo match, Shelton had Chavo in a powerbomb position outside the ring and launched him into MVP who was at the announce table.
A mirror image of what Shelton did to Evan Bourne (Matt Sydal at the time) on his debut as he threw him into Kofi Kingston who he was feuding with at the time.
Posted By: BenPhoenix (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 11:28 AM
JP - Obviously you have a life otherwise you might know that this uninflected Colons/colons stuff has been happening on The Dirt Sheet for a little while. MnM eve have some disturbing masks they bust out when impersonating the brothers.
Posted By: Alec (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 11:54 AM
For more of the record, the version of "Seek & Destroy" used was from Woodstock '94. Never heard about the Metallica/Vince thing but it doesn't surprise. But, and I say this as a huge Metallica fan, Vince did save us from having to hear St. Anger live.
"Never Gonna Stop" was one of those themes that was always deleted, even on the released-a-month-later PPV discs.
Loved King's remark and was a bit shocked when I first heard it. Either it was true anger coming through (because he did go back to cheery old King immediately after the comment) or it's an awesome display of subtle foreshadowing if he indeed faces Jericho at Mania.
Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Matt Striker's comment about the 3rd Mulkey Brother was classic!!!
Posted By: Dimez55 (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 10:19 AM
---------------
I was going to say the same thing. And did, in another thread a few days ago.
Posted By: Dr. Jones (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 02:00 PM
Guest#7571: again thanks for making the obvious, obvious again guys
ur like the john maddens of wrestling
neverAcquiesce: And you just murdered the English language.
fuckin kid dissed me last week, and ya'll didnt even put in the motherfuckin response i gave back
so i end up the fool?! fuck that, and fuck neverAcquiesce, fuckin prick
Posted By: THE REAL guest#7571 (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 02:11 PM
thanks for pointing out my mistake. I didn't realize i was watching the WWE 24/7 version of halloween havok.
Posted By: Krow (aka Chris Walkup) (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 03:40 PM
Loved the camera work on the opening women's match on Impact. When one of the Beautiful People was slamming her opponent's head into the mat, the camera bounced with each hit. Reminded me of a ship getting hit in Star Trek.
Posted By: Donners (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 06:17 PM
Another sweet week of HH!! What's the record for most consecutive reader write in's anyway?
Posted By: The DaGreene (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Oh yeah, and how could you miss the Milk poster on Impact. Great subtle jab at Micky Rourke.
Posted By: Donners (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Guest#7571: again thanks for making the obvious, obvious again guys
ur like the john maddens of wrestling
neverAcquiesce: And you just murdered the English language.
fuckin kid dissed me last week, and ya'll didnt even put in the motherfuckin response i gave back
so i end up the fool?! fuck that, and fuck neverAcquiesce, fuckin prick
Posted By: THE REAL guest#7571 (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 02:11 PM
-----
Am I in a feud now?
Posted By: neverAcquiesce (Guest) on March 03, 2009 at 02:00 PM
I meant to post this sooner so it would show up this week, but I completely forgot. So, maybe it could be a retro HH?
Anyway, during last week's RAW, when Vickie Guererro was in charge, I noticed that Lillian Garcia wasn't doing any ring announcing, but the other guy (forget his name) from Smackdown was.
Maybe this was a move by Vickie to show that she was in charge of the brand?
Posted By: ZeroVX (Guest) on March 02, 2009 at 07:59 AM
==========================================
Or maybe it is because Lillian Garcia was in South America for the WWE Smackdown! South American Tour, and she couldn't make the trip back in time?
Posted By: paladin181 (Guest) on March 03, 2009 at 04:34 PM
This week on TNA impact - the begin segment, the big screen says Destination X this Sunday, 2 seconds later we see Mike Tenay and Captain Fat Throat, and the screen says March 15th. TNA trying to save on the pyro with their triple show tapings?
Posted By: T-Mac (Guest) on March 06, 2009 at 06:03 PM
