Hidden Highlights 05.14.07: Issue #89

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag and James “JT” Thomlison

Issue #89

Intro

Hello everyone asking why the pools at the hotels aren’t open yet, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights!!

There are very few positive things on the Internet. It’s more about everyone’s negative view of what everyone else is trying to do.
— Eric Bischoff, Controversy Creates Ca$h

Hidden Highlight (n) – a small, hardly noticeable point that makes a big, positive difference. This could be anything from a wrestler putting extra emphasis into his moves to make it believable to a person in the background reacting while not the focus to the cameraman shaking the picture to create an effect. There are just so many unsung heroes of wrestling that it is impossible to cover them all.

Every week we take the top 3 Hidden Highlights from the biggest shows on television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one). Plus we turn to you, the readers, to let us know all the Hidden Highlights you saw this, last, or any week in history. On top of all that, we explore the other issues that prove why this is the most positive article in the IWC.

And who is this mysterious we, you ask?

Why none other than JP Prag and James “JT” Thomlison, of course!

We bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference. JT?

JT: I actually had the entire weekend off. Somebody pinch me because I must be in la-la land! Also, I encourage everyone to check out 411wrestling.com’s MySpace page, where you’ll find The Daily 411, and other great stuff. Also a shot out to Will Helm who is really guiding that ship over there and also George Sirios for interviewing me for the 411 Staff Interviews! Busy week!

JP: Oh, so all that pimping and putting over the MySpace page was just to plug yourself. Got it.

Speaking of using others to further yourself… Meehan, I know you are trying to increase your hit count by adding a Hidden Highlights section to your column, but we do have a Reader Write-in Section. You can always submit like all the other fans of this article.

JT: Or we could whip you again in another Great Positivity Debate!

JP: I was actually thinking more like Bayani Domingo vs. Meehan. You know, it would be a Great Positivity Debate Losers Run-off.

JT: You were really thinking of that?!?! I was only kidding.

JP: Yeah, I was going to ann—

JT: Oh god, please spare us all from that!

JP: What are you talking about? Every TGPD was highly read, had large voting numbers, and became a part of the 411 society.

JT: 411 society? You really need to stop talking.

JP: You know what… ON WITH THE HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS!!

Hidden Highlights for WWE RAW: Monday, May 7, 2007 by JP

JP: So I have this fear about Santino Marella. The first week he won the title was fun because it was unexpected. The second week he looked humble and goofy because he did not know how to react to a camera, and it worked. This week, I don’t know. I had this really big “Rocky Johnson” feeling where they are trying TOO hard to make him look like a babyface. I mean the big smile, the clapping, the talking nice… it was too much. I’m afraid that the fans are going to turn on him and a perfect storyline will be ruined. It wouldn’t be the first time that the WWE took something that worked naturally and made the fans hate it because they tried too hard (See: Cena, John). Sometimes, the brilliance of being a manager is to just know when to let your employees do the work themselves, let them do what they do best. If you micromanage and try to control the work, it just doesn’t come out quite as good.

(3) Still keeping you away:

I feel like we’ve done a lot of these lately (which means that maybe we are doing our job so good that the wrestlers are taking notice), but here is another pin attempt done right. At the end of the Hardys / World’s Greatest Tag Team match, Matt Hardy had Charlie Haas in the corner after Jeff Hardy had hit the latter with a Swanton Bomb. When Matt Hardy went for the pin, he not only hooked the far leg and arm, but he also rolled the near leg up in the air and used his own free leg to synch it in. This was an excellent pin attempt (that worked) and showed smart thinking by Matt Hardy to keep Charlie Haas’ legs away from the ropes.

(2) He loves them?:

During the opening contest, Mickie James and Candice Michelle took on Victoria and WWE Women’s Champion Melina. During the intros the King said, “If I had my way, I’d have about five Divas matches on RAW.” Would you King? Would you? Although the King’s character is to play a horny old man (and not saying that he is), the King in reality has no love of Women’s wrestling. On WWE Excess/Confidential back about five years ago, the King said specifically (out of character, as himself) that he does not believe women have a place in the ring and that wrestling is a man’s sport. He also said that women have a place, but it is outside the ring in a valet/manager role, but that was it. So I find it very interesting that King would say that he would want to see these matches. Either he is being fed a line from the back, just acting in character, or has had a change of heart. My guess it’s parts of the former two and not any of the latter. But it does show you how easy it is for the King to lie about his true feelings/intentions, something I’ve been feeling rather bitter about since he neglected to actually get permission from the WWE before trying to book the biggest match to hit Memphis in 25 years.

(1) What’s the scoop?:

But to show I’m not totally going to hate on the King today for being a hypocritical, manipulative liar, he is often quite good at his job (especially when JR is not around and he’s outside of his comfort zone). During the Great Khali vs. Shawn Michaels No DQ #1 Contender’s Match, HBK managed to get Kali tied up in the ropes and was hammering on him. The ref then pulled Michaels off of Khali to chastise him. It was at that moment that the King said, “The ref pulled Shawn Michaels off of Khali when Khali was tied up in the ropes. I thought this was a no DQ match!” This was a great point by the King, and it stuck with me all match. Because the referee broke the move—a move that was not illegal in the match—it may have cost Michaels any advantage he may have had. This miscommunication eventually ended in Michaels losing the match, and it was the King’s point that this was not a fair use of the referee’s power that drove the point home that Michaels may have been screwed over a little bit.

JT: I’m sorry, did you use a Hidden Highlight to personally chastise the King!? I’ll tell you what I liked about RAW, that for once Kennedy got outsmarted by Edge. Yeah, it sucks that Kennedy is gone for a while, but having Edge literally outsmart him (when he is usually the one doing the outsmarting) really made Edge look strong heading into SmackDown which he needed because his title win certainly didn’t.

Hidden Highlights for ECW on SciFi: Tuesday, May 8, 2007 by JT The Readers!

JT: Bobby Lashley auditions for COPS, Marcus Cor Von plants the first seed of revenge on CM Punk, Snitsky takes out Sandman with ease, Vince is still intent on crushing The Originals, Elijah Burke tries to steer the New Breed back in the right direction with a win over Brian Major, and the McMahon entourage fends off Rob Van Dam to keep the ECW Title on Vince! And oh yeah, you heard it from Taz first; Edge is your new World Heavyweight Champion!

That being said, my TiVo gave me the big finger and decided that I had no need to see ECW. Either that, or for some reason – despite TiVo’ing it like 38 weeks in a row, I somehow forgot. Given my track record… I’m definitely going with the TiVo… what? Thankfully, we have some readers who chimed in to save the day! God bless you readers.

(3) Ribbon? What Ribbon? I’ve got tape! By MICHAEL REID:

On the May 1st edition of ECW, CM Punk’s usual wrist tape, which has X on them, had Capps on his left one. This was for Matt Cappotelli, who had successful surgery for his cancer earlier that day. Definitely a cool ‘hidden’ highlight on all levels.

JT: Completely agreed. Granted that doesn’t necessarily add enjoyment to the show which we usually are going for, but as you all know sometimes there are things that are simply are more important than the show itself. This certainly is one of them. Hidden Highlights wishes nothing but the best of luck to Matt in his ongoing battle.

(2) ME UNDERSTAND! By WESTIN SMITH:

While watching ECW on Tuesday I couldn’t help but notice something. At Backlash when Vince McMahon sort of forced Umaga to tag him in for the pins, Umaga looked very surprised, and possibly even a bit upset or angry. Now, fast forward to the RVD vs. Shane Vince and Umaga match. After Umaga does big moves he quickly and gladly went to tag in Vince, even pointing the way to RVD, telling Vince to go pin him. Umaga I guess is selling his “I don’t speak English” thing (unlike his fellow foreign friend The BLAAAAAAAARGH Khali) by showing confusion at first, but now, almost like a child, understanding the drill, and eager to please his new leader, Vince.

JT: Hey, when you can’t speak the language, you learn by doing. Clearly this was a small showing of this here, and I like the call. While Vince, Shane, and Armando might be on the same page, it’s still the “untamed beast” Umaga that gets it done in the ring. When taking it into perspective, it’s kind of weird that Rosey is the one that enjoyed a “small career” with the E in tag action, while here we have Jamal bursting through. Even funnier is that most people wrote off Umaga when he debuted, yet here he is, doing the little things to entertain us and sell his character. I have to admit, I have become somewhat of a fan. At first I thought “great… this will really pan out… not”, but he has taken the role given to him and really capitalized on it. Plus from videos I’ve seen of “off-camera” stuff, Eddie (his real name) seems to be a really easy guy to get along with. More on the Umaga / Vince interaction later in the issue. Thanks to Westin and Matt for saving my ass this week!

(1) Sorry boss, you know the rules by MATT CHRISTENSEN:

Ok, maybe not so hidden but still it was unintentionally funny to me. In what was discussed last week as the new standards and practices for the WWE officiating crew, all shoulders are being monitored closely by the refs when it comes to a pinning situation. What used to be considered a pin now has to be verified that indeed a wrestler’s shoulders are touching the mat. Fast forward to the 3 on 1 match and Vince coming in for the final pinfall victory on RVD. The ref counts one, two, and then stops because RVD has his shoulder up. Now many people have said already that it was RVD who lifted his shoulder causing the recount but it was really Vince’s fault. He used that same, horrible looking, full cradle pin with the same spastic movements as he did when he pinned Bobby Lashley at Backlash. Because of this and his arm being under the neck of RVD during the pin, Vince himself actually gyrated RVD’s shoulders off the mat basically forcing the ref to stop the count. Kudos to the ref for doing his job the way he is supposed to, even if it is to the detriment of his boss.

JT: Wait… so… the man… held himself down? POWER TO THE PEOPLE! I agree Matt, we always try to find ways to give the ref some love, and whipping his “I’m the ref” dick out and pissing all over the boss (in legal fashion, mind you) is great. It also – deliberate or not – helps sell that Vince is not full time. He gets in there once and a while and therefore does not know the ins and outs of a ring (kayfabe). Anyone else find it funny he’s never tried to get in the ring with Chris Benoit? There’s a reason for that people.

JP: And I know it will come up again in the Reader Write-in Section (and it did come up last week), but I’m loving this “refs work a shoot style” thing they have going on. This is one of the many things I have been asking for forever! We all know wrestling is predetermined, but that does not mean it has to act like a cartoon. Treat wrestling more like a sport in the ring (enforce rules, have refs really work, keep time and points, make wins mean something, see In Defense Of… Issue #25 SPECIAL: The Sport of Professional Wrestling). The more “real” it gets treated, the better the product looks. I hope that what Linda McMahon said is true, that the E is committed to improving the in-ring product over the next year. We shall see!

Hidden Highlights for TNA iMPACT: Thursday, May 10, 2007 by JP

JP: It was the final iMPACT before Sacrifice, so that meant all mixed matches to put over all the other matches on the card. Actually, it was quite an enjoyable show and rather well paced until the end. Although some recappers seem to have insane expectations for a one hour show, I was fine with it. Could it be a better show? Oh, most definitely. Was it horrible? No way. That’s why I write Hidden Highlights; you just have to enjoy a show for what it is and what it offers, nothing more.

(3) I’m no litterbug:

During the main event, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels (yeah I found it odd that those two would be on the same side), and James Storm teamed up to take on connect the dot opponents Samoa Joe, Ryino, and Chris Harris. Late into the match, James Storm decided to take a liquid break and took a few sips from his beer bottle. After finishing, we saw him lean over the top rope to drop the bottle. I barely caught it out of the corner of my eye, but James Storm did not just drop the bottle to the ground (where it could have shattered and even have glass hit someone in the front row), but he actually gingerly handed it over to Miss Jackie! That was actually rather considerate of the Cowboy.

(2) Nicknames:

This one may not be so Hidden, but I do have to put it over. During the three way interview between Christian Cage, Sting, and Kurt Angle, Angle and Sting continued to argue, much to Christian’s delights. After Sting mentioned how Kurt Angle should not have interfered in his World Title match a few weeks back, Christian took sides again with Sting. Did you happen to catch exactly what he said, though? “I hate to agree with face paint here…” That was absolutely hilarious! He managed to rival his opponents and still make fun of Sting in just a few words. Christian Cage has been on a Hidden Highlights role! So much so that he may become the second ever inductee into the Hidden Highlights Hall of Fame!

JT: I thought you said we couldn’t induct anyone who was still an active in-ring competitor.

JP: I thought you’d be happy that I’d put over your favorite wrestler.

JT: I would be, if I didn’t think this was just a big setup to get Carlito into the Hidden Highlights Hall of Fame.

JP: All in good time, my friend, all in good time.

(1) Exit, stage left:

Also du—

JT: I’m pretty sure we use that title somewhere else.

JP: Talking here! And it has relevance!

Like I was saying, also during the aforementioned interview, Sting kept asking Angle to do something about it, and Angle decided he would. Did you catch which way Angle exited? That’s right: stage left, right towards Sting’s monitor! Now I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it certainly provided a great affect for the end of the segment.

JT: I think we should skip everything that you wrote for me in Highlight #2 and just go ahead and induct Christian Cage into the HHHOF this very second!

JP: Very funny, not gonna happen.

Ron Simmons …………………………………………….DAMN.

JT: Exactly.

Hidden Highlights for WWE SmackDown!: Friday, May 11, 2007 by JT

JT: Benoit and Hardy get a win over MVP and Finlay, Jillian Hall still can’t sing, Teddy and Krystal feel sorry for Vickie, London gets back into the swing of things with a win over Domino, Kane gets a quick win over Dave Taylor, and the World Title switches hands thanks to a brutal cage match between Taker and Dave, a post match beatdown by Mark Henry, and a cashing in of the MITB by Edge, who is now your new champ!

(3) Tonight is about you:

When Kendrick and London came out from London’s match, they did their usual spiel and then headed to the ring, although not like they usual do. You see, London took off charging at normal speed, but Kendrick hesitated for a few seconds, letting London get the “single’s spotlight” before he sort of jogged down to the ring. The unselfishness of these two are the reason they held the title so long!

(2) Oh… wow… that hurts!:

In spirit of the recent effort being given by the ladies to actually put on wrestling matches, I have to give some love to one of the Divas! At the end of the Michelle McCool / Jillian Hall, Jillian had thrown Michelle down and she hit the canvas face first. She popped back up, reversed an Irish Whip attempt, hit Jillian with a Backbreaker, and got the pin. The SECOND she got the 1-2-3, she rolled over and THEN grabbed the side of her face – the side that had been smacked into the mat twenty seconds earlier! Some may call it a lack of selling; I call it adrenaline kicking in long enough for her to get the pin, and then her selling the face shot once the job had been accomplished. I have to give credit to Michelle for coming back after the pinfall and “realizing” that the side of her face took a pretty nasty shot.

(1) Have a little of that while you’re at it:

During the opening tag match, Chris Benoit put MVP down for the pin via the Northern Lights. The ref began to count, and in came Finlay for the pin. Now, usually, the tag team partner will break it up by making contact with any part of the body; jab to the back, kick to the shoulder, etc, anything to break up the pin. Well, Finlay is a little more calculative than that. He came in and planted a fierce kick directly to the middle of Benoit’s chest. Hey, might as well knock the wind out of him while breaking up the pin so that your partner may have a chance to capitalize. Killing two birds with one stone if you will. Again, the veteran prowess of Finlay is shown here as he not only prevents the pinfall, but also gets in a little offense at the same time.

JP: No Mark Henry Hidden Highlight? I almost feel slighted! Usually when someone that hated by the IWC shows up we have to say something nice about him. Ah well, no biggie. He’ll be around for a few more months at least!

Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights

Hidden Highlights aren’t just for us to find and tell you about, but for you to spot and share with us. Don’t just sit there and stare, but be a more active, attentive, and engaged viewer. Appreciate all the hard work that goes into making the wrestling we have the privilege to watch and then let us know what you caught this and every week.

This week JT gets to pick our Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights of the week.

JT: REMEMBER ALL, THERE WAS A PAY-PER-VIEW YESTERDAY, AND WE COULD REALLY USE YOUR HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS FROM SACRIFICE!!!. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

Starting us off this week is Brandon S., who wants to take us back to Backlash and give some love to MVP:

There more and more I see MVP the more I’m liking him, at Backlash I don’t know if you saw this or not because it was really quick but MVP had rolled out of the ring pretty early in the match, when the ref was looking at him and counting he didn’t do the normal time out sign but he did the 20 sec timeout, the guy stays true to his sports gimmick.

JT: F’N… GOLD. There’s not much to say about this one. For some of you who may not be familiar because you are either not a sports fan or in a part of the world who doesn’t get into certain sports, I’ll explain. We’ve all seen his “sway-sway-sway-take a shot” basketball move he does in the ring. Well, in basketball, there are two different types of time-outs; one being a full timeout, and the other being a 20-second time-out. When the coach or player calls it, there is a separate signal to the ref to indicate which one is being taken. Excellent little mannerism by MVP, and I really have to give him credit for having the presence to bust that out in the middle of a heated battle with Chris Benoit on a live Pay-Per-View. Chris J. who makes reference to Johnny Nitro’s counter on Jeff Hardy from last week’s column:

I have seen him, and Carlito do that same counter many times, that was the best sell Hardy has done though.

JT: Well, it appears Chris has been paying a little closer attention than JP! Zing! Next is Geoffrey J. who’s been watching the ring entrances:

I noticed that last week (5/1/07) on RAW instead of using HBK’s DX intro they used his “heartbreak kid” intro music… is this a disbanding of DX due to HHH being out? or is this a shift of HBK being taken off TV…

JT: He’s actually been doing it for a little while now, since around the time he announced that the “Old HBK is back!”. If I’m recalling what I read correctly, the E switched it up so to give more importance to HBK as a single’s wrestler during his recent push.

JP: Thanks to both of you for paying attention to me, since that was my #1 Hidden Highlight for RAW the second week after WrestleMania. See, it’s easy to make fun of me when you think I’ve missed something, but I find it easier to make fun of you.

JT: Yeah… whatever Nancy-boy. Patrick M. touches on ECW, and the Umaga / Vince situation mentioned earlier:

On ECW this week, during the main event (McMahons and Umaga vs RVD), Umaga got the tag into the match (I forget who tagged him in). But when Umaga got the tag, he held his hand out and looked at it with such a confused look on his face. I actually laughed. Then, I think Vince tagged back into the match, and Umaga did the same thing before stepping back out onto the ring apron. I thought this was good by Umaga since it shows him as the simple minded person that he is. Also, he seems to be dumber without Armandoooooooooo around to shout orders to him.

JT: And there you go, further evidence of Umaga incorporating little things into his character to sell that no matter how hard you try to control him, he is a very raw upstairs and that makes him a dangerous beast – even to the likes of Vince McMahon and Estrada; they just happen to be on his good side! Matt C. who helped us out earlier in the column is back with another ECW ref HH:

A second ref bit for the night came during the CM Punk/Marcus Cor Von match during the first time they were out of the ring. The ref begins his count as he should but the two of them were taking their sweet time to return to the ring. Now I know the refs have some knowledge of how a match should end but sometimes have no real control over the wrestlers that would create a situation to counter the true ending. Case in point and a HH I caught from the ref; since a 10 count would have resulted at the rate he was counting, the ref literally started counting imaginary numbers and was just throwing his fingers in the air in no discernable pattern. MCV in the same move made it seem like he was going to throw Punk into the stairs and then up the ramp before finally throwing him in the ring so the ref really had to improvise since he wasn’t sure how that whole sequence was going to end. Yes normally a ref would leave the ring for purposes of getting the wrestlers back in in those situations but since he had no idea what the wrestlers were going to do he made the best of the situation in his own way.

JT: Great little piece of improv there! That is another thing we don’t think about to often, but if something is not going as planned, the ref is just as responsible as the wrestlers to make the match look legit. And really, what could he have done in that situation? As Matt said, sometimes you just have to make the best of what you’re working with, especially when working a live show. For TNA this week, we had Edgar G. email us with some cosmetic continuity:

On this week’s TNA iMPACT, I noticed that Sting’s facepaint was already peeling off when he and Kurt appeared at the end of the show fighting each other. I thought this was a nice display, as it was probably supposed to be from Angle and Sting having fought off camera for a while before appearing in the iMPACT Zone.

JT: I like it; it definitely would have been a little off if they had fought backstage and then TA-DA! Here comes the Stinger with fresh, undisrupted face paint. Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed that no matter what, the Boogeyman’s face paint always seems to be 100% unscathed? What are they using on him!? Moving us into SmackDown this week is MCM, who caught something about Cherry:

I was wondering, has anyone noted yet that the skates Cherry (w/ Deuce & Domino) wears to the ring are not actually real, the rollers are not moving at all. Have noticed it many times, but haven’t seen anyone mention it (Don’t really read HH write-ins though, I know, I know, shame on me, but now I have a reason to 😉 )

JT: Hmmmmm…. I think I have to disagree with you. I could swear I’ve seen her actually “rolling” either on the stage or down the ramp. I think that the black padding around the ring probably doesn’t allowed for them to roll, but I’m fairly sure I’ve seen them in action (in fact, I can remember a specific backstage segment which I found a HH in, and it was Deuce and Domino walking towards the stage entrance for their match, and Cherry was skating dutifully behind them). In fact, on SmackDown two days ago, I saw the skates roll, just not very well.

JP: I’m not so sure. I read this one before I watched SmackDown! and saw that the skates didn’t more when she flipped into the ring. She actually was walking in the ring, not skating. Maybe there is a locking mechanism so that they don’t roll sometimes?

JT: Guess I’ll have to watch her attire more closely next week. Speaking of attire, Jason R. chimes in with something from Edge (I’m putting this here because he is now on SD):

You guys probably already caught this one, but I noticed right away that Edge was wearing blue tights during his match with Kennedy (Kennedy). I knew he was going to SmackDown; I just didn’t think it would be the next night, as champ!

JT: This was actually also mentioned in the 411 Forums. Some say he has worn the blue before. I personally don’t remember it, but they’re probably right; this time, however – being it the first or 83rd time – I have to think it was intentional this time. The E foreshadows more than we realize and I say kudos to all that immediately made the connection. Taking us into the stretch run with our other section is Travis B. (no, not the drummer from +44), who has quite a few for us this week:

While surfing Youtube for some older WWE matches, I came across a Lita vs. Chyna match for the Women’s Title at Judgement Day (Around the time that Chyna and Eddie had a thing going).

Well I found two of them, one being a different way of getting out of a headscissors submission. Instead of Lita doing what has become a bit of the normal escape (doing a headstand and then popping up and out.), she kicked off of the mat twice in order to get herself closer to the ropes, and then hooked her legs around the bottom rope.

JT: Uniqueness and creativity? Say it ain’t so! Gotta admit, you’re right that the headstand/pop out has become quite a common maneuver for escaping Headscissors. Nice to see Lita changing things up a little!

The second one I came across was within the commentary between Jim Ross and Heyman. Eddie had come out of the back to watch from the entrance ramp. They spoke of Eddie’s relationship with Chyna disolving and then who he could have given advice. Heyman then proceeded to ask Ross if he thought that Eddie had given Lita advice on how to beat Chyna, only to have Ross say no. But Heyman’s counter to that statement was a simple “At least not on camera.” I don’t think it’s often if at all, that the commentators speak of what goes on off camera.

JT: Agreed. Sometimes things are “implied” (such as picking a mystery opponent, etc), but generally anything going on “backstage” is of course put on camera and then used during the show as promos.

Also the match made me think of what Tammy Sytch said during an interview with In Your Head about how the women in wrestling are all nothing but beautiful barbie doll types. This lead me to believe that Lita and Chyna are the last (or at least seen on TV.) of the Divas with a different look. I don’t believe there has been many muscled Divas/Knockouts/Ect out there other than Chyna and Nicole Bass (Correct me if I’m wrong.) Also other than Luna Vachon, I don’t think I can name many other females that have a tattoo (once again, feel free to educate me.)

JT: Well, off hand Asya comes to mind from the WCW days. She was pretty built for a female wrestler. As for tattoos, you’re right, I certainly am failing to think of very many well known female wrestlers that have them – or at least have them on open display on a regular basis. Finishing us off this week is Pedro R. (no, not the Mets pitcher!), who found some from a couple of shows:

-During the Main Event on RAW, Khali comes down to the ring and take Cena’s belt, but look closely at what he does. Not only does he take it, he keep looking at the title and shaking his head in approval. Small but effective at selling the fact that Khali wants to be champion.

JT: You’ve given Khali props; that in itself screams positivity more than I could ever explain.

-During Punk/Cor Von, before Cor Von hit the Pounce, notice Punk. You could see Punk trying to slow down, trying to avoid the move.

JT: And who could blame him. The Pounce is clearly one of those moves that you actually have to TAKE, so slowing up a little before doing so definitely helps to shift the balance of momentum down a bit to not make it a total train wreck.

Here with more Striker! The guy played his role as manager (or watcher) to perfection. Here’s some ideas how:

-Before the match began, Striker began trash-talking to The Major Brother until Elijah Burke stopped him.

JT: The man has received credit from us plenty of times for his work in the background; reasons like this are why.

-During the match, after Elijah Burke did a move, you can see Striker clapping for a brief second. This is significant as the crowd actually begin to clap sometime, but majority of it was from the corner Striker was in. He even acknowledged it.

JT: We have said before that one of the keys to being an effective heel is still being able to invoke crowd reaction, even if it’s as subtle as helping keep a crowd into the show during a match.

-At the end of the match, Striker comes into the ring and while raising Burke’s hand the first time, he clearly kicked Brian. It’s a small touch of how managers try to get an extra hit in to a fallen opponent.

JT: Keep ‘em when they’re down, indeed! Well, I think Pedro showed that we are not the only ones who think Striker is more than a bland low-carder! Thanks to all who emailed us this week and remember, keep them coming!

JP: All that Striker talk as an OK wrestler and great manager reminds me so much of “Above Average” Mike Sanders. I checked up on him at Online World of Wrestling, but they don’t have anything after 2005. Wikipedia has nothing much either. Anyone know what this guy is up to? I think he’s on the “Wrestling for Jesus” tour, but is there anything else?

Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail JP..erT…er…us at [email protected] 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… we just like to know!

That Other Section

This week, JT has something for That Other Section.

HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS POWER 25 READER FEEDBACK

JT: Uh, there was no feedback for the Power 25. Guess everyone agrees with me! Way to step up this week lazy ass.

JP: Was that for me, or the readers?

I was going to do an analysis of copyright laws, but I thought nobody would be interested. For instance, when Meehan said that RVD had nothing when/if he leaves the WWE because he doesn’t own his name, I thought that could not be right. I was almost certain that RVD could not have been that stupid and had actually trademarked his own name. So I did a little search at the trademark office and four this.

If you don’t want to read that (or can’t figure out the garble), let me break it down for you. In 2002, WWFE filed a trademark for “RVD” and “Rob Van Dam” for use in any entertainment genre. The most telling thing was this, though:

NEITHER “RVD” NOR “ROB VAN DAM” IDENTIFIES A PARTICULAR LIVING INDIVIDUAL

So therefore Meehan was right! RVD the character and name is completely owned by the E. Additionally, anything that shows the current person playing “Rob Van Dam” has the consent of one “Robert Szatfowski”, meaning that the E has all the legal ground and Van Dam is screwed. Guess he could always change his name to “Bob Cam Mam”. That’ll work!

JT: No, you were right the first time, nobody is interested.

Exit, stage left!

JT: 94 days until the NFL pre-season starts… WOO! Who’s with me!? Have a great week my little cacti!

JP: Ummm… my Red Sox are in first place, while your Yankees are seven games behind. I guess you are giving up this season early!

Thank you for joining us for THE 89th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights! Be sure to drop us a line and let us know what you think and all the other Hidden Highlights we missed. Plus, we want to hear your Reader Write-ins for all the moments you see this and every week.

We’ll catch you next time in the reader approved most positive article in all of the IWC: Hidden Highlights! Until then!