Hidden Highlights 06.18.07: Issue #94

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag and James “JT” Thomlison

Issue #94

Intro

Hello everyone who was not blown up in a limo this week, 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: You know what little things I appreciate because they make a huge difference? Consecutive days off! And, today is my birthday! We’ll just go ahead and tell everyone I’m turning 22 because writing for an internet site on the subject of wrestling sounds much more impressive that way rather than coming from someone who is say, oh… I dunno, 27?

JP: Well happy birthday there, kiddo! And happy day after Father’s Day, too (though not to you, but to our dads).

Besides these events, I do have to hand it to the WWE. I’ve had a lot of non-wrestling fans come up to me or call me up and ask me how I was doing with the death of Vince McMahon.

JT: Yeah, I actually had a boyfriend of a friend of mine make her specifically seek me out just to ask me if it was true and they didn’t trust anyone else to answer it for them. It’s just like Meehan said, it’s created this buzz in the non-wrestling community where people will believe anything negative they hear about wrestling.

JP: I had to forward all the articles on Vince McMahon to my own brother! Even he didn’t really believe me that Vince is alive.

JT: That’s crazy. If anyone would know something about wrestling, you’d think it would be us.

JP: For sure. But more than backstage news and playing whose alive, we do know one thing more than most.

JT: What’s that?

JP: Hidden Highlights! So let’s get on with them!

Hidden Highlights for WWE RAW: Monday, June 11, 2007 by JP

JP: Just to prove that more went on on RAW than Vince McMahon being blown up, I have not 3, not 5, but 7—count them—seven Hidden Highlights!

JT: I’m sorry, did you say SEVEN? I think I’d like to go ahead and remind the good folks at home that *I* am the one who has to do the screen captures and all the work to put them into the article. So, while JP may give you 1,082 words, I’m in fact giving you 4,000!

JP: Gee, then maybe I should mention that *I* had the emails covered in one of the busiest weeks we’ve ever seen.

JT: Right, because answering an email with a one-liner is twice as tough as finding a spot on your TiVo, pausing it, getting the stupid little info bar to go away, connecting your Slingbox, screen capturing, disconnecting your Slingbox, doing it all over again (and again and again), uploading the pictures to a host, and then putting the HTML link into the column. JT: 1 – JP: 0!

JP: Uh, how about you wouldn’t even have the “responsibility” (you know, because no one assigned this screen capture job to you except you) in Hidden Highlights if I hadn’t, you know, conceptualized the article, pitched it, and asked you to be a part of it. JP: 1,000,000,000 – JT: 1. You’ve got a long way to go, son. Now leave me alone so I can get to it!

(7) Color within the lines:

This one was most likely going on all night, but this was the first time I noticed it and thus wrote it down. During the match promo for Lashley vs. Chris Benoit, the building behind Benoit was colored blue, his then SmackDown! brand. Nice little touch there by the bumper department. Also, if you looked at the bumper promo for the battle royal, it showed Ric Flair on the RAW team. Being that he was drafted, he could no longer be on the RAW team (see: Masters, Chris) and thus was not in the match. I liked that the bumper was not fixed since it showed that anything could happen that night and nobody knew what was in store.

(6) Can’t… breath… well… enough:

Something I’ve been wanting to mention for weeks now is MVP has taken up to wearing a nose guard to keep more oxygen flowing during his matches. This reminded me so much of Booker T and Stevie Ray during the Harlem Heat days that I can only assume it is an homage to them. Well, I finally got the opportunity to talk about this week because at the beginning of his match with Santino Marella, Santino went right for MVP’s nose guard and ripped it off. I thought this was a great move by Santino because if he could lower the amount of air MVP was taking in, then MVP would be more sluggish and tire easier. Very nice thinking there!

(5) The truth is out:

During the main event battle royal betwixt the three brands (hey, I can use that word), Marcus Cor Von was the sole ECW competitor left in the ring. It was as this time that the announce teams started talking about his conditioning and strength, and that is when JBL let the truth fly. JBL said, “Well the man has been in a SuperBowl!” To which Joey Styles could only respond, “Yeah.”

This is the first time on WWE television that they have admitted that Marcus Cor Von used to be an NFL player. I really think the powers that be were trying to downplay that and make it seem like he was just a monster out of Michigan (like some other people I know). Well, that cats out of the bag now thanks to the man who will not stop: JBL!

(4) Like a couple of mother hens:

Speaking of people talking, I caught a good one during the three way dance featuring Jeff Hardy, Batista, and Elijah Burke. Batista was making a pin attempt on Burke when Jeff Hardy came in the ring and drop kicked Batista from behind to break up the pin attempt. Batista then popped up and said (I’m approximating here, I had to read their lips), “What are you doing?” To this Hardy responded, “I’m just trying to win!” I though this exchange was absolutely what Hidden Highlights is about. There is no way the two could have possibly known that the camera was close enough to catch all of their words or even know if the camera was looking at them. Still, they acted in the moment and responded in character and as a person would react. What more could you want from that interaction?

(3) The fourth brand:

Also during that same match the SmackDown! announce team of JBL and Cole were talking about the possibilities of who could go where in the draft. JBL started to wish for a one man announce team and then said to Cole that he hoped that he (Cole) was drafted to OVW! Wow, JBL even brought up the rare mention of the main development territory. That’s two for JBL already here! Do I have any more?

Well, apparently Bastien Retureau has something to add. He gets extra props for his self-translation into English from French. I don’t think people realize how strange of a language English is, especially when most other people around you have Latin-based languages:

Please allow me to thank you for this awesome positive column, while I send you my very first try to Hidden Highlight identification.

This was during the triple threat match between Batista, Jeff Hardy & Elijah Burke. Michael Cole and JBL were talking about different possibilities for the draft : tag team breaking, title stripping… or even announcing team breaking. When JBL mentioned the last one, he promptly added : I pray you join OVW so that I can be alone.

This showed how intense JBL can despise Michael Cole. JBL wants Cole gone from Smackdown, but also feels that the B & C shows of WWE (Raw & ECW, ‘cauz Smackdown is the A show remember ? ) do not deserve to be disgraced by the mere presence of Michael Cole!

All that in just THREE letters!

I guess this is now when I should add: JBL comments are GOLD !

One last time, thank you for your column!

JP: Nothing more to add than that! But what about more JBL?

(2) So not extreme:

The answer to that is: no. But what I do have is another one before the main event. As the ECW representatives were making their way around the ringside area, I caught something off to the corner that was really amusing. The Sandman and an ECW ref started to get into an argument, and the ref ripped Sandman’s Singapore Cane away! This was great as it made the ref do his job and enforce that it was just a regular battle royal, and made it so the Sandman had his weapon stolen, not taken from him. It was all barely caught by the edge of the camera, which makes it even more Hidden Highlights worthy.

(1) I’ll flip you good:

And of course, speaking of Edge, our top RAW Hidden Highlight involves him, but sadly is not about him. No, instead it is all about the IWC’s most hated: John Cena. After being knocked outside during their opening contest, Cena attempted a sunset flip on Edge to go for an early pinfall. Normally when someone does a sunset flip, they just keep pulling on their opponent until either the opponent flips over or sits down to try to reverse the pin (or squash them if they are a big dude). Instead of waiting, Cena flipped his legs up himself and attempted to hook Edge’s arms and flip him over that way. No better way to say it then this: excellent wrestling tactic by John Cena.

JT: I am in Geoff’s corner when it comes to RAW, or more importantly, how it affected SmackDown!. Because of that, I’m going to move on and have hope, because we are positive here!

Hidden Highlights for ECW on SciFi: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 by JT

JT: I finally see the big blast, Tommy gets an Extreme win over Balls (and what was up with Tommy’s hair? Did he just get out of the shower?), The Boogeyman has come to get ECW, or at the very least Matt Striker, Tazz lost his shades, and Benoit makes an immediate impact hooking up with CM Punk and overcoming Burke and Cor Von!

(3) Isn’t so easy, is it?:

I’m probably the only one who enjoyed this or found it funny in any way. But how about those firefighters and the job there were doing huh? I mean, these guys did a pretty good job getting the main of the blaze out, and in fact it appeared they only had a small bit left in the engine. But oh noes! It’s the flame that refuses to die! These guys must have kept the water flow directly on the backseat window for a good 90 seconds in total, and then when you thought they had it…

NOPE! That pesky thing just would not go away! Like I said, this probably amused absolutely no wonder, but I couldn’t help grinning a little as I just watched thinking, “man, that fire is really no-selling that water!” Yes, I totally use the term no-sell in real life situations…

(2) If that isn’t consistency, I don’t know what is:

Well, thanks to my TiVo being so punctual about when things begin and when they end, I was unfortunately not able to see Mr. McMahon get blown to bits. ECW reversed my fate though as they showed the last three minutes to start their show! After Vince took his drawn out walk from the ring to the arena to his limo, he got in, put his foot in, then put his foot back out for about five seconds. I thought this may merely be some sort of set up to the explosion, but after thinking about it for a second, I realized what he was doing… the same thing he had just done the whole time! As you all saw, every 10 to 15 feet or so, he’d stop, turn around, and survey what was around/behind him. This is exactly what he was doing here! Foot out, and turn to take one final glance at the arena! Very nice of Vince to remain consistent, even behind a tinted window where we couldn’t see him on *his way out*. What…? The man gets blown into a billion pieces and still keeps in character and you think I wasn’t going to give him some love for it!?

(1) I’M AN 8 YEAR OLD SUPER MARK! EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION TO ME!:

I definitely have to give it up to the boy sitting in the front row who was probably 10 years old. I must have seen that Rey Mysterio belt on television FIFTY times. Sure, there were probably people behind him ready to kill him, but there is no greater time as a wrestling fan than when you are at that age and don’t know any better. He no sold each and every person behind him like “GO MYSTERIO!”. Kudos to the kid in the front row for still being an innocent fan; just please kid, don’t ever get seats in front of me! (I’m using all three pics from the main-event because that is when the action really picked up for this little guy)

JP: Although I enjoyed that RAW in Dayton, OH when those eight year olds without signs were in front of us. Even when they stood up for Chris Masters (and remember that girl behind us marking like no tomorrow for Chris Masters?), we could just sit back and watch over their heads. And that’s pretty good for a couple of relatively short guys.

Hidden Highlights for TNA iMPACT: Thursday, June 14, 2007 by JP

JP: On the final episode of iMPACT before Slammiversary, TNA has still not admitted that Scott Steiner is hurt and most likely will not compete. They better announce it on the pre-show, otherwise that’s not cool. I can understand why they didn’t say anything before now considering the promos and matches the Steiners were in, but now it’s time to let the bird out of bag.

(3) Are you on the list?:

Just for the record, these were the names on Christian’s list (in order):

Sting
Rhino
Joe
Shark Boy
AJ
Tomko
Kurt
Harris
Sting

Did you catch that last one? It was Sting again! What a great rib by Christian since Sting gets so many chances yet never does anything to prove he’s deserved them. Plus, he beat Sting twice.

Now, I know you may have think you say another name on there, but I watched it frame by frame about a dozen times. At first I thought it was Steph, then I thought it was Steiner, but in the end I am 92.3% certain that the last name on the list is Sting.

JT: And the photographic evidence for the first time comes back to not only haunt us, but to call us liars as well! I will say this JP. It was shown VERY briefly and so I commend you for not only trying to grasp it but also making the connection in terms of how many chances Sting gets, but it is not Sting. It’s Storm with an X through it. And if you look closely enough right above it, as you pointed out, his former tag partner, Harris. Makes perfect sense considering that they were the most recent match (the line goes down in order of when qualifying matches took place). Sadly, I cannot give Cage credit for what would have indeed been an awesome rib.

JP: I’m still not convinced because that still looks like a “G” at the end of a name that begins with an “S”. Although your reasoning makes a lot more sense than mine. Oh well, I’m making this a Personal Hidden Highlight because it’s what I wanted to see!

(2) Jimmy boy:

That scene eventually led to the meeting in Jim Cornette’s office where he told AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, and Kurt Angle that he was putting them in a six-man tag that night with their spots in the King of the Mountain Match on the line. As the crew was exiting, I barely caught Styles say this: “You’re real selfish, Jimmy Cornette.” Number one: it’s hilarious that AJ would call Cornette selfish for giving away such a big match for free. Number two: he called him Jimmy! That in itself is beyond funny!

(1) Poor, poor Rudy Charles:

Our top TNA Hidden Highlight completely revolves around referee Rudy Charles. First, when Abyss hit him with the chair, a piece of the chair (I think a rubber foot) went flying in the opposite direction. Now that is some impact! Then, after Christian’s Coalition attempted a beatdown, Christian made a quick escape. But on is way out, he rolled Rudy Charles out of the ring! See: Christian isn’t such a bad guy after all, just like he’s been telling us.

JT: I like how at the same time he was “helping” the ref, he was getting himself out of there. Classic Christian Cage. …or should I said… INSTANT CLASSIC!

Hidden Highlights for WWE SmackDown!: Friday, June 15, 2007 by JT

JT: Vince McMahon gets his second *moment of silence/bell ring*, The E “thanks us for our support”, Deuce and Domino get another win over Londrick, Teddy Long decides what pics go up in his office, Hardy gets a singles win over Regal in a pretty nice match, Big Dave and Flair reunite which leads to Batista getting a win over MVP, Jimmy Wang Yang wins himself a match at Vengeance, and Flair gets a W in his first SD match! Oh, and FYI Michael Cole, our readers pointed out the 20 second timeout thing with MVP weeks ago. Stop stealing our shit!

(3) Why are you counting?:

Okay, it’s HIDDEN HIGHLIGHTS BLOOPER TIME! I know that once and a while we call out a little mistake and poke fun, but this time I just have to CALL OUT Charles Robinson! Was it hilarious? Yes, but still. Why? As both Edge and Flair were down, he was checking on them. Edge stands up, and as he is standing there, CLEARLY STANDING UP, Charles Robinson (who is checking on Flair) looks DIRECTLY at Edge, who – again – is STANDING THERE COMPLETELY UPRIGHT. It looked like so:

Charles then stands up… crunches in his arms… and… GIVES US NUMBER ONE IN A TEN COUNT!? WHY!? Charles, you’re great at what you do. What is the deal with starting a 10 count while looking directly at one of the guys standing up? Like I said, major blooper here, but I literally had to laugh out loud when I saw him do this. I couldn’t help thinking (as I said )…. WHY?! WHY CHARLES?! You’re better than that, act like it. But I will take the good laugh either way.

(2) Get over there, boy!:

During the Matt Hardy vs. William Regal match, Matt had Regal in a standing headlock. Regal began to push Matt towards the ropes and instead of the usual whip maneuver that you usually see from this position, Regal actually took his left hand, reached up, and placed it on the back of Hardy’s head! Why run the risk of him hanging in the headlock? Might as well get BOTH hands on him to ensure the whip. Completely unnecessary as we see it done the other way all the time, which just makes it even greater coming from a veteran like Regal who could have dialed the move in. In addition, as happened a few weeks ago, JBL just happened to be talking about what a physical guy Regal was. Obviously not planned timing, but still great timing nonetheless.

(1) WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!:

So I noticed some green spray paint on a randomly placed box as Big Dave and Ric Flair reunited. My mind instantly went for the obvious DX, but I wanted to know for sure. So, as Dave was walking away, you could make it out, and it actually said “BATISTA ROX!”. What the hell? I must know the meaning behind this!? Was it a setup? Random accident? Why is it spray-painted in the first place? Was it purposely put there for that promo? It seems like such an obvious plant, but if it is why don’t see more things like this? Hell, the real HH here might be how many questions it raises simply by being there in the background! It was just so random and out of north field that I had to put it in here and give it some props for driving me so crazy!

JP: Well, they are different colors, so I’m going to assume “ROX” referrers to some other content inside the box. Oh, and I have to give more props to William Regal and give him the William Regal Award for Excellent in Hidden Highlights (see Issue #19 for a description of the Hidden Highlight Awards). Regal his a fisherman’s neckbreaker suplex on Hardy and went for the pin cover. Hardy managed to get his foot on the rope and Charles Robinson started to argue with Regal to break up the pinfall. While arguing with Robinson, Regal placed his quad over Hardy’s neck, just kneeling down on him. Now THAT is dishing out the additional punishment and blatantly cheating in a style that only Regal has mastered.

While I’m at it, I’ll give Michael Cole (yes Michael Cole) some props (not award worthy, but so close) for saying the Yankees buy championships. Though JT may disagree, we all know it’s true.

GO SOX!!!

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

JP: There are just so many write-ins this week that I’m not going to attempt to order them at all. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

We’ll start off this week with a real quickie from Kevin McIntosh:

On heat coach mentioned Eugene’s boots.

JP: About time somebody talked about it on television! We’ve been talking about them for, what, fifty issues now? Now responding to a few comments from me is Chaz Cruz:

I went to One Night Stand live, and I had seats in the mid-upper level- far enough away that for the most part, I was watching the Titantron all night. I could hear in-ring slams and falls, I could hear weapon shots and all that goodness- but one sound DEFINITELY stood out- and that was when RVD got DDTed by Randy Orton from the railing. I *swear* I felt that one and heard a very convincing thud that literally made me “Oooooh” and cringe away! I don’t know if it was more of a “crunch” sound on TV- but the real true life audio and sensation of that was a very convincing one in itself!

JP: Sounds like they pumped the arena with a real sound. Wouldn’t be the first time!

I’d also like to point out that the Sesame Street movie you mentioned in relation to the background of the Christian and Tomko scene is “Follow That Bird” by Warner Brothers pictures. I know because I own it on DVD… and the music from it rocks 🙂 Maybe Tomko was just working on his “Street” cred. Works for me!

JP: Oh puns, you are delicious. Zack Rizza is back… with a commercial:

This may have to go into the “other stuff” category…but in the AllTel wireless commercial (with Fluffy) did anyone pick up that the owner of Fluffy was none other than…..Aaron “Jesus” Aguilera! Glad to see he’s getting some paycheck….for saying one-word lines

JP: Just a heads up, Zack, that that commercial does not air in all markets. A lot of places don’t have AllTel wireless. Nonetheless, hilarious nice catch! Manu Bumb spent some time chastising JT for enticing homophobes to commit violence on a co-worker (to which we learned it was magnet, not a sticker), but then chimed in with this gem:

“Christian made a great continuity and reference point. After revealing that Tomko was nothing more than a prison guard, Christian said that if it wasn’t for him, Tomko would still be serving bread and water to people like Abyss. What an amazingly perfect reference to the fact that Abyss spent time in jail, both bringing up that storyline and keeping the missing Abyss fresh in people’s minds.”

Not only that, but it also explains how Tomko knew Abyss’ secret before sting revealed it, and shows us the connection between them. nice bit of continuity there.

I’m surprised tomko didn’t rough up Abyss more, given their prison guard/inmate relationship.

JP: That’s great! I totally didn’t think of that one but it fills in the hole perfectly. Thanks for that one! We’ll stick with the regulars for a bit and give J2K his fair due:

Hey, J’s, it’s J2K again, with some hidden highlights from the Ring of Honor show from this past Saturday in Philadelphia. I know you guys more or less stated you wouldn’t do ROH HH’s until they got a television deal. Of course, they have a PPV deal now, so maybe they’re not on broadcast or cable television, but you do HH’s for PPVs, so I keep hoping.

JP: Not unless JT orders them or you send them in! I just don’t have time for Sunday PPVs anymore. I have to be up at 4am every single Monday to catch a flight.

At any rate, ROH is a great show to attend live, especially given that the crowd is among the best in the business. And being in smaller venues than a WWE show, there’s a lot more fan/wrestler interaction.

JP: Nothing better than a show live, now let’s get some Hidden Highlights!

One of the matches on the show was between two female wrestlers, Daizee Haze and Lacey, who have had a feud going as of late. Also recently, the long-running “Jimmy Jacobs loves Lacey” storyline has reached a new high, as he took her on a series of dates, attempting to win her heart, since he wanted romance instead of just meaningless sex. Well, in the final installment of the “Jimmy & Lacey dating” videos (on ROHVideos.com), it was implied that they finally did it.

So, Jimmy accompanies Lacey to ringside, and naturally fans are calling out things during the match. One guy in my section calls to Jimmy, “You ****ed her pretty hard, didn’t you, Jimmy?” Rather than get angry or pissed off like some jealous boyfriends would do, Jimmy just turned around and shrugged, saying, “She’s a little sore tonight.” This got a huge laugh from our section.

JP: I’m always a fan of truly reacting to the crowd instead of making generic gestures and not paying attention.

Later in the show, Davey Richards fought “M-Dogg” Matt Cross in a grudge match, as they’re each members of feuding factions (the No Remorse Corps and the Resilience, respectively). Richards heeled it up as much as possible, intimidating the ref, spitting at him, in fact spitting pretty regularly. Again, a guy in our section of the crowd kept calling out things about the spitting, at one point saying, “Aw, come on, Davey, again with the spitting? That’s unsanitary!” Well, I guess Richards had had enough of the guy’s heckling, turns to him and goes, “You wanna talk unsanitary, you got dandruff in your hair!”

JP: At least he didn’t fill a sock with urine and throw it in the ring… I still haven’t gotten over that….

One of the most anticipated matches of the show was the ROH World Tag Team Title match between the defending Briscoes (Jay & Mark) against the reunited Kings of Wrestling, Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero. (The Kings had broken up about six months ago.) Hero has also amassed his own faction, of sorts, “Team Hero,” consisting of his agent, “Sweet & Sour” Larry Sweeney, his personal trainer, Tank Toland, and their whipping boy, Bobby Dempsey. Apparently, they’re working an angle, of sorts, where Team Hero is trying to whip Dempsey into shape. He came out to the ring in a sweatsuit, getting abuse shouted at him by Sweeney and Toland. Periodically, during the match, Sweeney would turn to Dempsey and shout, “HEY, DEMPSEY, DO SOME SQUATS!” When Hero got tackled against the guardrail later in the match, Sweeney grabbed a towel and fanned Hero with it.
While “Team Hero” won’t be on ROH’s first PPV, I hold out hopes that they will be for the second one, because Hero and Sweeney are HH magnets.

JP: Hopefully they’ll cut the lead time out of these shows. Six weeks is waaaaay too much time. How about one day?

Whether you guys decide to use these HH’s is your choice, of course, but I hope you check out ROH when it comes to PPV next month. You’ll see some damn fine wrestling.

JP: I’ll always use ones sent in so long as the are good (and I haven’t sent them). As for ordering the PPV… well, no promises. Next up is Alex Forsyth who wants to comment on Cole stealing JBL’s lines:

You forgot one little thing: SNME was taped first. It was taped before Raw May 28th at the ACC in Toronto. I should know I was 3 seats down from the “Another Headlock Randy” sign guy.

JP: Yeah, but they do voiceovers afterwards in WWE Studios to add the content from the shows that haven’t aired yet. So in the end, it’s still up in the air who said it first! And I can’t believe you let that sign get on the air and not a “MY SIGN IS A HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT!” For shame! Ok, finally getting into this week is Paul Kamo and some RAW action:

I noticed this during the Carlito/CM Punk match. I noticed that there was a kid who either had his face painted like Sting or had a Sting mask on. Hard to see because it’s to the very right of the screen in the behind the turnbuckle.

JP: Oh, I totally saw him, too! It was a mask because the expression never changed. Also, he was holding up a sign that said, “Don’t read my sign”. I really tried not to, but as you can see I failed. By the way, there was another guy just about 50 feet away from him with the same sign. Is there some new smark thing going on that I don’t know about? And where are your “MY SIGN IS A HIDDEN HIGHLIGHT” signs! Come on people! Sticking to the same match is Stephen Straka:

Obvious one that will likely be added in the column but during the Carlito/Punk match on Raw after Carlito hit the Backstabber, he turned around expecting Punk to be there for the easy pin but Punk had rolled to the side, leaving Carlito to wonder “Where the F#&$ did he go!?” Nice job by Carlito.

JP: See, Carlito love that did not come from me. You people think I’m crazy, but the man is great! You’ll love him again in full heel mode. I know Dan Hamilton will, if he can ever catch a program on time:

I’ve got a few HH’s to point out.

1. Not sure what the date was but at the Beginning of ECW I noticed a person had a sign for CM Punk, but this wasn’t an ordinary “CM Punk Rules” sign, the person either knew about Punk’s earlier wrestling career or did a little research, because the sign clearly said “Chick Magnet Punk”.

JP: I’ve notice a few signs recently that have been referencing CM Punk’s past. Good stuff to catch.

2. Now for TNA Impact! (once again 2 weeks after the fact) At one point during the night as we were coming back from commercial break, Mike Tenay said “Welcome back to the sold out Impact Zone” I found this weird because TNA is not allowed to charge for a ticket to get into the studio Impact is taped in, as it goes against the rules set up by Universal Studios.

JP: But they do have to turn away fans from the taping as the place fills up fast. Also, I think Universal Studios gives them some cut of the park ticket sales, or at least lets them use the studio for free for bringing in traffic. That is a transaction in my books!

3. Later on, after Rhino went against Homicide, Konan was running why TNA is racist instead of calling Team 3D by their TNA names he referred to them as the “Dudley Brothers”

JP: Slip of the tongue there! Whoops!

4. Lastly, during the Sting/Daniels match, when they were in the crowd and Sting was trying to move people out of the way, I noticed while selling the injury of being slammed into the wall once already Daniels was also waving his hand to move the crowd out of the way.

JP: I think I noticed that too! Nice of them to care about the fans, and I like that Daniels intentionally tripped one more time so it would not look like he was just standing around waiting to be thrown into the wall. Bobby Hinkle is ready to go back to RAW and talk about something I already did earlier:

MVP’s entrance has become very integral to his character, and now that he is the United States champion it is only fitting that his pyro be red, white, and blue fireworks (his former pyro always made me think that Kane was interrupting MVP’s entrance…) But the real hidden highlight on RAW was that MVP, for the first time that I’ve noticed, was wearing an actual nasal strip. Now that is a small touch that helps to sell his character in a very big way. Only someone who thinks of himself as a main event athlete actually takes the time to put one of those on, especially when studies show that they have no effect anyway. Plus, it wasn’t just a normal unassuming flesh-colored strip, no sir…it was some kind of bright obnoxious color. Well done Mr. Porter.

JP: Guess I can only give you credit for the fireworks since I already took the nasal strip. Better luck next time!!

JT: Way to berate and alienate the fans, JP.

JP: Fine, I’ll make it up by letting first timer write-in Paul talk about something we’ve already covered:

Don’t know if this would be considered a HH but was that Jericho’s silhouette on both legs of Benoit’s tights during his match with Lashley on tonight’s Raw. A source within the ‘E’ said McMahon was upset that Benoit was giving a shout-out to someone who is no longer active with the company. Reportedly, Mr. Wild Pegasus, in response said that it would “NEVER EEEEEVVER happen a-gayn!”

JP: Like I said, we actually mentioned this weeks ago and have noticed it on Benoit for a while. Still, any Jericho reference is worth reprinting.

JT: Actually, didn’t we determine that it had nothing to do with Benoit, and that while it resembled it, it wasn’t anywhere near the same thing? If we didn’t determine that, I’d like to do so now, because it’s most definitely not the same thing.

JP: I don’t see any reason to argue with that logic, especially when I want to move on to Jason Runion, though it is really submitted by Alicia:

I have a hidden highlight from the Raw draft show, courtesy of my girlfriend Alicia ( this is the first HH that she has noticed ) . When Mick Foley came out for his little promo, she noticed he was wearing regular pants for once and not his usual sweat pants. We came to the conclusion that this was due to it being a special night and he felt the need to wear something a little better than his usual attire.

JP: Alicia, what are you doing with this chump? He’s trying to steal your glory and spot right here in Hidden Highlights, not to mention by my side. And what a great translation it was too! Alicia dear, when you are ready, I’ll be here.

JT: What about Catherine?

JP: She’s in Korea and a man has needs!

JT: What about her needs?

JP: She can’t have any except wanting to see me again.

JT: Sheesh… will you please continue.

JP: Maybe if you’d stop interrupting I could let Wyatt Beougher talk:

Wyatt again, and while I’m still a little congested, I did manage to stay awake long enough to catch all of RAW this week, and I’d like to offer up a couple of Hidden Highlights, mostly dealing with facial expressions (and no Trevor Murdoch on the show, to boot).

First off, gotta love Edge’s face going from complete confusion (when the bell rang and no winner was announced) to sneering triumph over Cena (when it was revealed that he had won by countout) to absolute horror (at the prospect of potentially facing the Great Khali). If Edge keeps up the pace he’s been on for the past two years, he’ll be the legend that they’re already calling him on Smackdown. Good match overall, made much better by that simple series of expressions (and Cena’s triumphant smile at not having to worry about Khali anymore was pretty good, too).

JP: You could not have asked for better reactions for Edge. He is a future Hidden Highlights Hall of Famer himself.

Next up, the Carlito/Punk trainwreck. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like both guys, but the chemistry just didn’t seem like it was there, although they did manage a decent little ending on the match, starting with Carlito countering the bulldog into the Backstabber. My Hidden Highlight, however, was Carlito’s face any time Punk kicked or kneed him in the head, especially after his initial slap was countered into a high kick. The look of shock, which was seen again a couple of times later in the match, was awesome, like “Did he really just kick me in the head?” Plus, Punk’s seeming amusement with Boogeyman was worth a chuckle as well.

JP: I believe Punk the character was thinking about more competition. You know, because competition is his only addiction. Mine include reading wrestling news, gambling, and hard boiled eggs in salt water.

Then there was the Lashley/Benoit match, which I liked for more than just facial expressions. I really think that if they’d allowed Lashley to work a more mat-based style all along instead of just using generic power moves, he could’ve probably gotten more over. Of course, some of that has to be attributed to Benoit and his inherent greatness. I’ll admit I haven’t watched a lot of Smackdown lately (I’m usually either driving or flying home on Friday nights, and I don’t usually get in in time to watch), but shouldn’t Benoit’s Chuck Norris-esque beard be a (not-so-)Hidden Highlight. It’s much thicker and manlier than I remember, and it just screams “Asskicker” if you ask me. Plus, in the post-match interview, Lashley sounded like he’s finally going through puberty. At least Vince Russo isn’t still with the WWE, or we’d have Lashley coming out in fedoras and doing the Moonwalk (remember the Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea?) Which segues into just how hot Queen Sharmel (formerly TAFKAPI’s valet Paisley) looked tonight – yowza!). Oh yeah, and kudos for the announcers actually acknowledging Benoit’s history in ECW when he got drafted.

JP: I think the Hidden Highlight in there was the history of Benoit in ECW. But you have to realize that Lashley is an amateur wrestler on the same level as Haas, Benjamin, Angle, Lesner, and the Steiners. Yet, you are right, he’s not allowed to use those moves. I’d love to see him be more of a wrestler. It would be a great way to surprise people instead of having him just hit big moves. Just because a guy is huge, doesn’t mean they don’t know the moves (see: Big Show vs. Kane).

Again, not having seen a lot of Smackdown lately, I’m really impressed with MVP. He plays his character extremely well and his smile at seeing Torrie Wilson was a Highlight for me.

JP: You could read his mind.

PIPER!

That is all.

JP: Would have been nice if he did something more than introduce a video package. Guess they don’t trust him with a live mic. I wonder why? Something JT was wondering about (brand sponsorship) is answered by Mike Labbe:

Remember a few years ago when WWF/E was loosing all it’s advertisers because of the PTC… well Coke dropped their sponsorship and Mick Foley made a big deal out of it two weeks in a row. First in a segment when he was Commissioner and he got Newly Crowned Tag Team Champions: Edge and Christian some ice cold Diet Pepsi while they were lounging in their leather recliners..walking away singing the famous “Mick just gave you soda’s” song. Then the next week he took a long slow drink out of a can of Diet Pepsi before finishing off with a refreshing “ahhhh” at the end of another Commish segment. He even mentions it in Foley is Good.

JP: So it looks like Pepsi has been a big supporter of the E for years and they just like to thank them! Brian Sinclair is a fan of us and supports us with this:

I was re-viewing Raw yesterday (Tuesday) on my Tivo and something strange caught my attention. I believe it was when they showed Rowdy Roddy Piper walking backstage. As he is walking out on the left-hand side of the screen (Roddy’s right hand side) a guy is sitting at a table frantically sewing away on a sewing machine. WTF is going on here? Trying to prevent a wardrobe malfunction? I just thought that was funny!

JP: Hey, those tights take a beating! Those wardrobe people have a ton of work to do. It must have been harder with 100 wrestlers there. I’m sure their demands were quite high. Speaking of demanding wrestlers, Graeme has a couple to show:

OK, so The Miz was all set to face an ECW representative (chosen at random, remember) which turned out to be Snitsky. Now, at this point most superstars would be crapping themselves, right? Well, The Miz wasn’t; hell, he looked positively psyched; and for a second it confused me.

Then I remembered. Only at the beginning of this year, The Miz was being thrown into consecutive matches with Kane and The Undertaker on SmackDown!, and of course whenever he had to face these guys, he always had that little ‘ohmigawd i’m gonna get killed’ look on his face whenever he came out. So after having to battle those two, someone like Snitsky pales in comparison, and that’s why instead of pure fear, Miz instead showed determination that he wasn’t going to get his ass handed to him by a third monster.

Unfortunately he still did, but hey, it’s the psychology that counts, right?

JP: Damn straight! The result has little to do with the Hidden Highlight! Although sometimes knowing the result might have an impact as first time Andy alludes:

Just got hip to the hidden highlights column and I’m digging it. I came across a hidden highlight of my own while watching RAW the other night. During Vince’s walk of death to the limo he passes what can only be described as a cavalcade of WWE superstars. Most of them had somewhat of a look of concern on their faces to sell that Vince is acting crazy until we get to Paul London who has just an insane shit-eating grin. Huge innappropriate smile in a sea of concerned faces. Absolutley hilarious. I have a link here to the picture for you to enjoy it yourself if you did not catch it before.

Anyways, keep up the good work. I’m going to go catch up on some of the old HH’s that I have yet to read.

JT: I have to be honest, I caught this as well, and just thought to myself “my goodness, Paul London is working the super-cheese with that smile of his, how odd!”. He literally looked like he had just hit the lottery!

JP: I know our intrepid Sunday News Reporter did not appreciate it the way we three did. And Andy, there’s only about another 92 issues for you to read to be all caught up. Scott Harvey would also like to go backwards with a few classics about one man:

Hi guys. I really enjoy the column. My HH is basically about one person… Tommy Young. Growing up, he was the “ref who always got knocked down” (I didn’t know what a ref bump was back then, thanks internet). While watching the Flair v. Morton match on the Horseman DVD, (w/out commentary rules, btw), I realized just how great he was. The first HH is during the intros when they couldn’t get the cage door shut. Flair tries to help them, and TY runs over to the door, so Flair can’t get that advantage. Subtle, yet very effective. The second is when Morton and Flair have an exchange, and afterwards, TY is kneeling over in exhaustion, putting over how much effort it takes to have such an exchange.

The match itself is a clinic by both men, but just watch how Young makes the match even better without ever being a focal point of it. He yells, “It’s a wrestling match, not a street fight!”, and nods in approval as Morton “Hulks up” during the match.

It’s just a few of many examples of how great he was at his job. If a Ref gets in the HOF, Tommy Young deserves it. He was an outstanding worker, and doesn’t get the props he deserves. I challenge anyone who owns the DVD to watch the match, and tell me he doesn’t make it better, without even noticing him. That is the mark of a great.

JP: Refs never get enough credit, and this is another example of it. I’ll be glad to just let it stand. On the subject of refs, Nikolai Nygard said:

Ok I found one for TNA iMPACT. During the 8-man tag match (that wasn’t very exciting) one of Hemme’s people rolled up one of the VKM, I can’t remember the names but it was the one that used to be Mr. Ass (I think it was Kip). Well Hemme threw some dirt or sand or something like that into his face and one of her guys (Basham I think) rolled him up. Well when someone tosses crap in your eyes it’s like a requirement to fumble at them. But I saw the ref wouldn’t count until Kip stopped lifting his elbows for the eyes. I think that’s for the ref but Kip was fast stopped until right after the count. So someone gets a highlight. (even though most of the match bored me.)

JP: I’ll give it to the ref because is seems like he would not count until Kip’s shoulders were on the mat. Now some notes about writing into Hidden Highights:

1. Do your research. It was Kip James and Hemme used hair spray.
2. Decide what you are writing about and write it.
3. This is THE MOST POSITIVE ARTICLE IN THE IWC! We don’t want to read whether you thought the match was boring or that you don’t care to know the names of the participants. Just write in about that little thing that you enjoyed. That’s what we want to know! This would have been a Grada-A-1 Hidden Highlight, but your negativity ruined it.

JT: Ummm… ouch?

JP: Hey, it’s true. I don’t want to see our concept bastardized. Whew, I’m wiped here. As a final note, Suzie Q let us know:

Hey! First of all, I LOVE reading Hidden Highlights! You guys rock! Keep up the amazing work!

In your 6/11 edition, you made mention of a sign on the wall behind Jay Lethal. Here’s a screencap I took where the sign is mostly visible. Classic! We have a poster with this expression hung in the breakroom at work!

JP: Well, because you love me, I’m willing to keep my area clean.

JT: That’s just awful, and I think sexual harassment.

JP: What, I was talking about my desk at home!

JT: Sure you were… Thanks to all that wrote in, I’ll be back next week for actual normalcy. What can I say, it’s a bi-weekly thing.

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!

Exit, stage left!

JT: Happy late Father’s Day to you dad’s out there. We wouldn’t be here without you! Have a great week my little arm chair quarterbacks!

JP: It’s still early in baseball season. Settle down bucky.

Oh man, I really shouldn’t have wrote most this issue while sunbathing on roof. The draft before I sent it to JT was 14 pages! Feeling quite woozy now…

Thank you for joining us for THE 94th 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!