wrestling / Columns
Hidden Highlights 07.23.07: Issue #99
Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag and James “JT” Thomlison
Issue #99
Intro
Hello everyone taking the day off because a wedding on Saturday seemed like a good enough excuse, 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 have already participated in one Fantasy Football Draft. I will be the first to admit that it’s utterly stupid to have one this early, but I just couldn’t resist. The rest of my teams come at a much more logical time (except the August 8th one… August 8th? We haven’t seen a single play and there is the entire pre-season for someone to get hurt… wtf?). The rest come with one week before the season starts. I like that. Football.
….no….seriously….
FOOTBALL! Oh, and just so you know JP, I refuse to draft anyone off of your team in any of my leagues. Brady? Moss? LM? The kicker? The defense? Watson? NO.
JP: Funny, because Cook and I were just talking about your horrible football predicting ability. Guess that just proved our point. Anyway, JT, we are just one week away from our milestone 100th issue, and boy are the readers in for a surprise!
JT: I don’t think they’ll see this one coming.
JP: I have to agree, but let’s not hint at anything now. All will become clear in just seven days.
JT: Besides, we have a ton of stuff to get to in this issue!
JP: No kidding. Also, might I remind people that 100 is just a psychological goal. Issue #104 is the two year anniversary.
JT: I thought you said we were going to stop hinting and shifting them around…
JP: You’re right… you’re right. Let get on with the Hidden Highlights!
Hidden Highlights for TNA presents Victory Road : Sunday, July 15, 2007 by the Readers via JT
JT: We’ve all read what happened, so no need for me to recap, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have Hidden Highlights thanks to the readers!
(3) Let’s make sure, by Barry H.:
During the Tomko/Styles VS Sting/Abyss match, Tomko had Abyss pinned towards the end of the match. Sting ran over and didn’t just punch Tomko on the back to get him off and break up the pinfall, he got down and pushed Tomko off of Abyss. The man who has been around by far the longest didn’t just take the chance he might be able to hit the guy and he’d react enough to break the pinfall, he made sure he was totally off of Abyss, thus breaking the pinfall attempt.
JT: Things like this get overlooked all the time. They aren’t called veterans for no reason. They know what they are doing, and little things like this are just a natural reaction, they don’t even have to think about it. Kudos to Sting for being a REAL teammate here.
(2) That’s MY title, step back!:
Another was during the Match of Champions. Before we found out it was all a mind game by Team 3D, they were pushing the “internal stress” angle. They even went so far as to make sure that the person they covered was who they said they were going after during the interview earlier in the night (Devon going for the TNA World title, and Ray going for the X-Division title) by pinning the guy who held the respective title. Really pushed the idea of there being dissention and each man was bound and determined to get the title he said he wanted.
JT: Again, veterans. 3D is losing some steam, but the fact remains that they are there for a reasons. ECW has some SERIOUS potential right now, because of all the young guys. The problem will be that they don’t have guys like Sting and Cage to be VETERANS on that roster. I will reiterate that veteran leadership not only backstage but in the ring can go so far, because things like this come naturally to these guys and they do it without even thinking.
(1) Foreshadowing! (in a serious way because we’ve all now seen Impact:
I’m figuring you guys or the other readers caught this, and the end of this match made it a bit more apparent, but I kept my eye on a certain happening in the Ultimate X Gauntlet that wound up being true. I heard the XXX rumors beforehand so I kept my eyes on Daniels, Low Ki, and Primetime throughout the match and noticed that they virtually had no contact at all in the match’s entirety. They weren’t pulling one another down from the scaffold, they weren’t attacking each other, and I figured that if they weren’t reforming that night, it was soon to come as they took no offensive actions to each other.
JT: Didn’t see the PPV, so we’ll have to take your word for it! Thanks for passing it along for us Chris. (even though we’ve now all seen iMPACT, so good call!)
JP: I’m a little bit upset that Tripe X got back together considering the way they were broken up. Since they appear to be faces, I hope James Storm comes over to them and gives them a hard time about it! I do want to see that match, though, as it sounded astounding!
Hidden Highlights for WWE RAW: Monday, July 16, 2007 by JP
JP: Things I like:
Overall, I think it’s fair to say that King Booker is my favorite wrestler on RAW. Sorry Carlito and William Regal, but King Booker is just the tops.
(3) So excited for the King:
Speaking of King Booker, RAW began with him coming out to Triple H’s “King of Kings” entrance. Before King Booker came out, the crowd seemed to be going wild with excitement at the apparent return of Triple H. To this, JR commented on how excited the crowd was and the camera then panned to… a rotund gentleman who seemed so disinterested that he was falling asleep. Oh man, I could not stop laughing. I’m not sure if someone in production was playing a joke on JR or if it was just a snafu, but it made me chuckle severely for the next few minutes.
(2) Keep away, guy:
Later in the evening, the Legend Killer Randy Orton took on second and half generation newcomer Cody Rhodes. In case you didn’t know, Cody has been in OVW for a little over a year and he just turned 22 a few weeks ago. That said, I want Cody to be around for a while. Now, we already know the WWE has Teddy Hart, Harry Smith, TJ Wilson, and Nattie Neidhart in the Hart Foundation 2.0. How about Cody Rhodes, David Flair (they could rehire him), and Mike DiBiase Jr. (he’s under development contract now) as the other team. Not necessarily Four Horsemen 21st Century, but maybe “The New Shooters”. There, I just wrote all RAW storylines for 2009-2010.
Oh, right, back to our story. During the match I started talking about earlier, Cody’s father Dusty was pacing outside the ring. Eventually the action spilled out to the floor and the referee got to the edge of the ring to yell at everyone. It was at this moment that the ref turned to Dusty Rhodes and said, “Keep you distance, Dusty!” I really liked this because it showed more of the shoot nature of the refs. Dusty may be a face, but the ref saw him just as another outsider who might interfere. The warning was a fair one and cool one to catch.
(1) One more for good luck:
In a match that had been building for a month, Mr. Kennedy took on Super Crazy in a sure to be remembered classic. After defeating Crazy with a reverse top rope super-plex (Kennedy needs to pick a finisher and stick to it for a while), Kennedy decided it was not enough. After the three count, Kennedy straight punched Crazy in the face before getting up and announcing himself as winner. I especially liked this because it was absolutely vicious and unnecessary, but effectively told the story: Kennedy is a huge dick always ready to take an extra cheap shot, even when he wins cleanly. Kudos to Kennedy for being so evil and taking that extra pot shot.
JT: That is actually Kennedy in his descent of said punch. He indeed just said “fuck it, I think I’ll punch him despite the win”. Good show on Kennedy’s part to drive the dagger in a little deeper. Oh, and Maria needs to find someone new… like me!
Hidden Highlights for ECW on SciFi: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 by JT
JT: CM Punk and Elijah Burke still don’t like each other (shocker!), Big Daddy V still has man boobs (shocker!), Matt Striker can talk (shocker after shocker!), the Miz is obnoxious (when will the shocking madness end!?), Kevin Thorn and Dreamer face off (okay… that one wasn’t that shocking), and Nitro has changed his name (such a shocking night)!
(3) I’m so…so very sorry:
Well, since JP has been giving William Regal’s face a ton of love around here lately, I figured I would get in on the action! After he had delivered a Backbreaker to Punk, Burke immediately went for two unsuccessful pinfalls (the second of which he initiated by yelling at the ref to count). After the second kick out, he got up, and got RIGHT in the ref’s face about his counts. The ref got very serious and began to warn him that he better – essentially – back the F off or he would get tossed. When he did, Burke put up his hands and just got the greatest look on his face. It was an awesome “apologetic-cowering” face that really screamed “okay, I’m very sorry, you are the ref, please do not toss me, I want to finish the match”. A great “heel” look to try and not only keep himself out of trouble, but also get himself back in the good graces of the ref (don’t want to be on their bad side!).
(2) You aren’t the only one:
So Kevin Thorne is really, REALLY into his character. He has the bats (skull with bat wings) on his pants. He has the bats on his trench coat. And now, it would appear, he has the bats on his beard! Talk about going above and beyond! Hey, why should Snitsky get all the credit for character immersion? Thorne is equally involved with his.
(1) Are you paying attention?:
During the opening contest, there were times throughout the match where either Burke or Punk would be rather vocal with the referee. One time in particular though came when Elijah Burke had him in the Boston Crab. After almost tapping out, he finally made it to the ropes and started yelling “I’VE GOT THEM, I’VE GOT THEM!”. This was a great way to send a message to Burke that he has reached the ropes. Furthermore (and more importantly), CM Punk could not see the referee and therefore wanted to make sure that HE was aware of it as well, and doing his part by getting Burke to break the hold.
JP: You know, at some point Snitsky and Thorne have to go home, buy something at the supermarket, and take their car to the carwash. I can only imagine what people think of them then! It’s not just getting into the look at work, it’s the fact that they have to look like that at home, too. How many of you drop your work clothes the second you walk through the door? That’s what I thought.
Hidden Highlights for TNA iMPACT: Thursday, July 19, 2007 by JP
JP: Over on iMPACT, the fallout from Victory Road led to some interesting happenstances. Me? I was just waiting to see Roxxi Laveaux. It’s always funny to see someone from Boston playing a Creole Voodoo master. Yes, it has been a big week of using Online World of Wrestling for me. That site is good stuff, even though JT is an editor.
But aside from Roxxi, there was a whole lot of (95% naked) Kurt Angle on the show, so it only seems fair that he gets ALL the Hidden Highlights.
(3) Who cares?:
Towards the beginning of the program, Jeremy Borash went to Angle’s dressing room and invited himself in so that he could tell Kurt to see Jim Cornette. After knocking on the door a couple of times, Jeremy said to Kurt, “Kurt, it’s JB.” To this, Kurt responded, “So what?” What an absolutely great response! Kurt knew it was JB from his voice and camera crew, he just didn’t care. This was the perfect response that highlights the true self-centered nature of the Kurt Angle character.
(2) I’m thirsty:
After JB managed to get in the room, he found Kurt lying in a suntan machine, working hard to be TNA World Heavyweight Champion. After opening and closing the lid a number of times, I noticed there was a glass of ice water and a pitcher on a table next to the tanning bed. My first thought was that that was a good safety measure since you can dry out easily in one of those. (JT the Editor’s Note: Arrow by JT, who doesn’t know shit about creating an arrow in Vista)
That made me want to watch the water even more. So when we came back from a break later in the show, JB was back trying to get Kurt out of his tanning bed. At this point, Kurt had flipped over, but so had his water! His glass had moved to the other side of the table, which showed be that he had taken at least a sip. Good, you don’t want to get dehydrated in one of those things!
(1) Till Ten:
On his rampage around the arena looking for his clothes, Kurt made several stops (on a side note, I thought his stuff might have been spread out because Tomko was holding an IWGP belt, but then I realized that he is one half the New Japan IWGP Tag Team Champions). One of these stops was in a production meeting where Kurt gave the crew until the count of ten to get his clothes and belts back. But did you catch Kurt Angle’s counting?
“One… two… three… five… ni—”
That was just too hilarious! Skipping random intervals of numbers is even better than going 1, 2, 10. Nice one there Kurt!
JT: I’m not sure what to say here. Kurt Angle spent the entire episode in his bikini bottoms; the bigger question is why was it featured like 8 times!? I love silly, crazy Kurt, but the man can’t get a shirt? Get a shirt, Kurt! I have one in mind actually. Says something like “Kurt Angle Will Fuck You Up For Real”. Trust me.
Hidden Highlights for WWE SmackDown!: Friday, July 20, 2007 by JT
JT: Edge has to give up the belt because Teddy Long is adamant, Victoria FINALLY gets a Widow’s Peak (over Torrie), Khali wins the World Heavyweight Championship, Matt Hardy gathers cheers for his win over Kenny (see what I did there?), and Kane / Batista slug it out to the point where we now have a three-way at the GAB!
(3) It’s about to get serious:
Anyone notice anything about this picture?
Of course you did, there is no “entrance tunnel” for MVP. Now, usually, this would make sense to me. I would think “battle royal, only so much time, can’t be bothered with it”. It was different to me this time though, as there was still 90 minutes of show! It’s only a 20 man over the top Battle Royal. It’s not even like the Rumble where it’s a ‘every 2 minutes’ thing. Everyone starts out already there! As soon as I saw there was no tunnel, I immediately thought (like most of us would), “well, there are other people coming out”; but my second thought was “wait, maybe this thing is really about to go 90 minutes and be greatly entertaining!”. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but the lack of the production team bringing out the tunnel started with what seemed to be normalcy but seconds later was me marking at the possibility that we were about to see a GREAT match that we just HAD to get to. (Now, that didn’t happen, but I wasn’t aware at the time that the BR wasn’t the main event)
(2) FAIR OR FOUL!?:
We’ve actually got a clarification HH this week! And by clarification, I mean I need something clarified. I need to know if I need to file a report with the continuity police or not. JP, you may be able to help me here. Readers, you may as well.
To open the show, Teddy Long reminded us of the “30 day” rule for a World (or WWE) Champion. As soon as he said this, I immediately thought of a few months ago, when I could swear that on a PPV, John Cena wrestled in a tag match and his title was not on the line. So I had to investigate:
– On January 28th, 2007, John Cena retained the WWE Championship by defeating Umaga
– At the following PPV, rather than defend the WWE Championship, he teamed with Shawn Michaels to face The Undertaker and Batista.
– It wasn’t until WrestleMania 23 on April 1st that Cena defended the title. Now, by my math, that is roughly 9 weeks (we’ll say 8 with February being short), which – by my count – equals at least 56 days, almost TWICE the allotted time in which one is required to defend. So. Therefore, continuity police right?
……BUT WAIT…..!!!
– On January 29th, 2007, John Cena and HBK won the World Tag Team titles.
– February 26th, 2007, John Cena and HBK retained against Rated RKO.
– March 12th (which, let me remind everyone is less than 30 days from WrestleMania), 2007, John Cena and HBK defeated several teams.
Therefore, my question is, was Cena in violation of the rules with the WWE Title? Or does the fact that he not only defended one of his titles within 30 days, AND defended one of his titles within 30 days of him defending his WWE Title make it null and void??? Should it not be that he has to defend both within 30 days of their respective dates? Someone get on the case! Fair or Foul!?
JP: You have GOT to stop ripping off PTI.
JT: More on that later!
JP: Here’s the thing: Cena did defend his title, just not on TV. Those live events count in the by-laws. So no dice for you! Still, Teddy Long should have waited the full 30 days, Edge was right. And I don’t know when Edge last defended his title (I’m assuming at a house show a couple of weeks ago), so he still had a bit to go!
(1) OW! My Eye!:
With 20 superstars (or 15 or so by this point) in the ring, I have got to give some love to Eugene. But I’ll get to that. First, I think that the picture I’m about to show you is great. Nobody seemed inactive; Cherry was on the outside cheering, you had some people trying to eliminate others, you have a couple just fighting, you have a couple trying to recover. Just a great “shot” of a Battle Royal to me.
Onto my love for Eugene. Despite the fact that the main camera was not on them, Domino had him up and halfway-ish over the ropes. What you are witnessing in this picture is Eugene actually giving him the “thumb-to-the-eye”! (see the right bottom corner, as so eloquently displayed by my lack of ability to draw a good arrow in the snipping tool that Vista provides)
How do I know this? Two reasons. 1. The shot right before it was of the two up close and in the corner, and you could see Eugene lifting his right arm up, possibly going for the eye. 2. After this shot, we got this only seconds later (notice him working the eye; again, a lovely 3rd grade arrow demonstration):
See! I love this! There is so much going on in a match like this that it really is hard to catch some of the little stuff because so much of the big stuff is being spotlighted. Kudos to both Eugene and Domino for remembering that (which we praise often) it doesn’t matter if the camera is there, SOMEONE might be watching.
JP: I was thinking during this match that I miss WCW’s World War 3. WWE should bring that back for a PPV with 20 RAW, 20 SmackDown!, and 20 ECW stars (which would be the whole roster). In case you don’t know how World War 3 works, I stole this from Wikipedia:
The rules for a World War 3 match were similar to the rules for a Royal Rumble match. There were two major differences:
The rules for the World War 3 match were:
I miss WCW.
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: Oh if only they knew. I should just run with it. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…
Kicking us (and RAW) off this week is Murf, who actually goes back a couple of weeks:
From RAW on July 9 involving the one and only King BOOKAH!! While I haven’t been able to watch Smackdown consistently until recently, I do know that it has been a while since King Booker has been Booker T. However while he’s making his way to the ring, what is that that’s right on the front of his trunks? (Yeah, you have to meatgaze to see it.) Only a big ole T. Maybe foreshadowing a return to normal, maybe just old trunks.
JT: See, it’s like JP is going out of his way to not give the King love. This was a great one! No mention, JP!? (this is a joke, as King Bookah has become his new favorite) But your guess is as good as our Murf, you’re right, could be foreshadowing, could not be. Staying with RAW is Trygve O.:
Long time reader, first time writer. I watched RAW last night, and was somewhat bored by the Rhodes-Orton clash, but I did catch a hidden highlight: When Orton pinned Rhodes the younger, he hooked one leg with his hands, but with his leg, hooked the other leg, just in case Rhodes could have kicked out – he gave himself just a hair more leverage. I thought it told the story well, that even though he’s the heel, he still respects the newcomer to ensure his victory.
JT: Agreed, but there is one thing to remember. Yes, he is facing a newcomer, but he is also facing a newcomer whose father happens to be a WWE Hall of Fame legend. THAT is another reason to be careful instead of going for a lazy pin. More from the same RAW is Paul K., who caught several:
Some things I noticed on the July 17th Raw. During the 4 way elimination match, I noticed a couple of times that the ref for a couple of pins, slid out of the ring while keeping a consistent count when he had no room to count in ring. Then, after the Orton/Rhodes match, as Orton was walking up the ramp, he never turned his back on Dusty Rhodes. That’s standard, right? But what I liked is that it looked like he hesitated to turn around completely, in fear of Dusty coming after him, finally opting to just walk backwards. Finally, I saw a “Hi Mom” sign on the right side of the screen, which isn’t really a hidden highlight in itself but to the left of the screen, someone had a very similar “Hi Mom” sign. I thought it was funny.
JT: I saw the refs as well. They are really going above and beyond to try and enforce this rules, one of which is “always be in the correct position to make the count”. Orton – despite being a douche – CAN be big if he wants it. He has what it takes. He just needs to get his head out of his ass, and I suspect that until he does, we’ll keep giving him chance after chance because we’ve SEEN that he can be great. Since I’m completely bashing the guy, I will say that Captain Obvious wrote me an email this week and told me that the way they handled his title run/face turn probably set the man back years. Still not sure he’s recovered. No, scratch that, I’m almost POSITIVE he hasn’t (play on words!). As for the sign, I didn’t see it. But I DID see a sign on ECW that said “(name) WILL YOU MARRY ME?”, and the name on the sign was neither a wrestlers real or stage name. I think some guy legitimately proposed live on ECW television. Hope she said yes, brother! Getting us into ECW this week is the ever-popular Catherine S., who is back to gi-
JP: Oh, my dear swee-
JT: No, no, NO. Not this week. It’s my week, get over it. Now, onto Cathy:
Hey guys, Catherine again
JT: Hello CS, nice to see you again.
Counting down the days to my triumphant Canadian return. I just got to watch Vengeance and I wanted to make a comment about Johnny Nitro, who seems to be the Highlight King of ECW.
JT: You mean Mr. Morrison? I agree, and you get a pass because this was two days before he announced it.
As he stepped out from the curtain, he had a huge smile on his face. Then he put a hand over his face, the smile disappeared to be replaced with a very serious expression and he said the words “Game face.” I thought it was an awesome touch, to show how he can turn on the intensity in just a second. Plus it’s just ridiculous enough to fit his Hollywood playboy type image.
JT: One of the best things about cutting a promo (or coming out for a match or being in the ring or whatever) is the ability to go from one attitude to another like THAT. Batista is actually very good at this. I think that’s a great call.
It was a small gesture, but then again, that’s what this column is all about, eh? And hell, JP, you’re a master of little things.
JT: You should all see the size of the grin on my face or hear the loudness of my laughter right now. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Karma, JP, it’s a bitch.
Love,
Cath
JT: You too, Cath. Thanks for the email.
JP: JT, I am laughing now because that love was just for me. And don’t forget, complete opposites of truth = funny.
JT: There is no way I believe that one! Also from ECW is Matt C., who actually goes back a couple of weeks:
I waited on this one because I thought surely someone would have noticed it at some point. Alas no. Going back to ECW 7/10 and the Burke/Balls match, as Burke is coming to the ring Joey is putting him over with the usual New Breed shtick but something he said caught my attention. Joey mentions that Burke was hand selected by Mr. McMahon for the group but there was no connotation or inflection of sadness in his voice in saying the name Mr. McMahon. He just says it matter-of-factly as if Mr. McMahon is a normal living person. RAW is still running with Coach being in charge and together with Smackdown seem to be avoiding any mention of McMahon or anything related after the storyline fallout. I know the whole kayfabe thing of Mr. McMahon’s death has been dissolved but the shows were still running for all intents and purposes as if he was still dead just without the mention.
JT: And Matt, I think that all of it has been completely on purpose. To change the inflection in his voice – even a little – would be in a way acknowledging the storyline, something they will probably not do for a very long time. I suspect that they will probably wait for this whole Benoit / Steroid issue to die down a bit (something which could take MONTHS) before we hear or see Mr. McMahon the character or any mention of him. Good catch though, by the way. Finally for ECW we have Jay P. (JP!), who pointed out something that… well, I’ll let him talk:
The crowd is an integral part of a wrestling show, and after the two wrestlers and the referee, is the vital “Fourth Man” in any match. I know we try to stay positive on the Hidden Highlights, but I have to say that the crowd for ECW’s July 17th broadcast was rather bad, particularly how they sat on their hands during a pretty solid match pitting Elijah Burke against C.M. Punk. That being said, my Hidden Highlight is to the group of kids in the front row toward the left side of the screen, who were obviously having the time of their lives. They were energetic, animated, mugged for the camera, and even got a little crowd participation going during the aforementioned match. Kudos to them for having fun and making the show a little more enjoyable for everyone in attendance and the millions watching at home.
JT: People get really serious about wrestling, and often forget that where that passion for it started was when they were 9. I can still remember my first live event, and no matter how many people knew the real deal (although it was like 89, so probably not many), I was marking out like a school girl. I saw Virgil beat The Million Dollar Man, and saw The Ultimate Warrior put Taker in his own body bag. LOVED IT. In the end, we often forget the kids, which we shouldn’t because being a wrestling fan at that age is probably the best time of our “wrestling” lives (short of being drunk on Vince’s tab at WM 23).
Thanks for the great column week after week. I look forward to the 100th edition.
JT: We look forward to it too Jay, glad you’ve enjoyed it. Finally catching Impact was regular Chris J.:
Joe knocked Christian down, and ran to bounce of the ropes on the heels side, and stared right at Robert Roode into the ropes and off the ropes before he dropped a knee, since he knew he was enemy territory he never broke eye contact just to make sure or even challenge Roode to try something.
JT: You know, for a man that is regarded as the talent he is, we have never really given Joe a lot of love around here. Fortunately, Chris did it for us!
Kurt Angle gets his cheap win at the end, and notice when he celebrates he does not climb the turnbuckle from the inside of the ring, he goes to the apron and climbs up to celebrate because why… Joe was in the ring (who he just chop blocked), and team 3D was on the outside on that side of the ring, so instead of turning his back to three men he just pissed off, he climbs to celebrate while not taking his eyes off his own teamates, that want to kill him.
JT: When you are the champ, the truth is that you have no friends, and a roster full of enemies. Kurt Angle knows this, and keeping his eyes on EVERYONE is the smartest thing he can do here. Besides, he is well aware that Samoa Joe is not above a post-match beat down. Speaking of Kurt Angle and championships, Tyrone H. has a question:
I just watched the TNA Victory Road PPV and something caught my attention. In the video package opener for the ppv, Angle says he’s an 11-time World Champion and at the end of the ppv they have a promo for the Hard Justice ppv and bill him as a 7-time World Champion. The TNA website clams he’s a won 2 titles in TNA. So based on that, they say he’s an 8-time World Champ. Lets go over his world title reigns: WWE World Heavyweight Champion 4x, WCW World Heavyweight Champion 1x, World Heavyweight Champion 1x, TNA World Heavyweight Champion 1x and if you count it IGF World Heavyweight Champion 1x (I refuse to call him IWGP Champion, he’s not the real champion, that champion is Yuji Nagata. Take that Inoki) Grand total of 8. Which is it 11, 9, 8 or 7? You think their trying to do what WCW did with Lex Luger and claim he was also an NWA Champion to boost his title credentials?
JT: Well, let’s just have a look, shall we! (These are not necessarily in order)
1. PPW World Heavyweight Title
2. WWE (World) Heavyweight Title
3. WCW World Heavyweight Title
4. WWE Heavyweight Title
5. WWE Heavyweight Title
6. WWE Heavyweight Title
7. World Heavyweight Title
8. NWA World Heavyweight Title
9. TNA World Heavyweight Title
10. IWGP World Heavyweight Title
Technically, he did win the NWA World Title, and then the TNA World Title. He is in the record books as the NWA’s last champion before they cut ties with TNA. But even that combined with the IWGP only equals ten. I suppose that they could be counting his gold medal because in theory, he is competing in an officially sanctioned contest against the best in the world, and therefore the gold would make you a “world champion” and that would be 11; but strictly world wrestling titles, I count only ten. Oddly enough, they ran a promo on Impact this week that claimed 7-time… so who knows!? We got nothing for SD, but we still got another 411 regular, be it this column or another. Lynx R. chimes in with one from WM 22, from yet another wrestler no longer around (man, the last 18 months have been brutal!):
The first one goes back to WM 22, the tag match between champs Big Show and Kane vs Carlito and Masters. I don’t know if this one has been covered, but when Carlito and Masters do a flapjack on Big Show, Show grabs Master’s head on the way down. Just thought it was a good veteran move showing that Show knows he is going to get hurt, so take someone with him.
JT: Big Show, another guy I miss. Yes, that’s right, I miss the Big Show. Say what you want, when he actually gave two shits he was a very entertaining guy and solid worker, as Lynx demonstrates here. David G. does a little reminiscing about the infamous mystery opponent shadow!:
DrBassman in this week’s column mentioned how the shadow of mystery
partners/opponents have changed from Bob Holly to Mr. Kennedy. An old-school hidden highlight (in comedy, not realism) was after Randy Savage lost his retirement match against the Ultimate Warrior. Then came the Macho/Liz wedding, and with it Jake Roberts’ ol’ cobra in the wedding present gag. Anyhoo, Macho was retired and couldn’t wrestle, but on the road show circuit Jake started seeing action against a mystery opponent.
The man, called “Mr. Madness”, had a mystery shadow that looked just like Macho Man, right down to his cowboy hat and hand gestures. They even did promos where “Mr. Madness” insisted he wasn’t Savage (of course, in Savage’s usual voice/delivery). It still cracks me up to think of Sean Mooney saying “Jake the Snake Roberts takes on the mysterious Mr. Madness”. Too bad it didn’t catch on to a full-length program.
I know others have pulled the same “retirement/masked man” gimmick, but I think this was the funniest.
JT: I don’t remember much about this, but it does indeed sound pretty hilarious. I would love to listen to Macho – in his own voice – try to convince me that he wasn’t Macho. Travis B. takes a trip down memory lane:
While watching some of TNA’s older stuff (The old Nashville stuff Pre-Six Sided Ring.) I noticed something on the corner of the screen. At first it was a hand moving in and out of it, and it drew me away from the match (It was the “Wildcat” Chris Harris teaming up with “Cowboy” James Storm [before they started going by America’s Most wanted] against Ron Harris who was teaming up with Bryan Lee [And apparent legend… Never heard of him before, is there any information you can share on him?] After a slight camera move it became apparent who’s hand it was, none other than TNA’s poster boy for work rate (Hey, even ring side/interviewers have it, just some more than others.) Jeremy Borash. He was leading up a TNA chant to great success. It really makes me wonder if without him, would TNA have gotten over as much as it did/has, especially when it was mentioned in this column (can’t remember by who sadly or I’d give props for getting me thinking about it) how much he works his ass off for TNA.
JT: First off, I believe that was yours truly, and I believe I mentioned it sometime after the TNA Meet & Greet before last year’s Bound For Glory PPV. I could be wrong and it may have been JP, but either way, whichever one was us mentioned it, I know we both share the sentiment. Borash is one of the most “involved with the fans” people I’ve ever seen. He is always keeping the crowd involved somehow during shows, and when I met him at the MAG, he was one of the most down to earth guys ever. He treats every fan like they are the most important one, and he really does appear to love that company.
As for Bryan Lee, he has been around for close to 20 years and been successful just about everywhere he went other than the E. He was also ironically BOTH the best man at Taker’s wedding, AND the man who played the Fake Taker. You can read about this and much more about him here
Jeremy continued his Hidden Highlight with another contribution during a beat down of the Wildcat and Cowboy combination at the hands of the Hot Shots (I believe consisting of Cassidy Riley and Andy Douglass) and The Michaels. After the four finished round one of the beat down, Jeremy had gotten into the ring, but only a foot or so and then the attack hit again for round two. And what did Jeremy do? Well knowing there wasn’t anything he could do, he got out of the ring in a hurry, only to return to check on our fallen duo after the beat down finally ended.
JT: Borash the TNA HH Beast!
Also, the early “Cowboy” James Storm gimmick reminded me a lot of the old tag team known as the Smoking Gunns (Bart and Billy Gunn (now known as Kipp
James.) It was a personal hidden highlight for me as it took me back to being younger and watching them enter with their guns blazing.
JT: For those who weren’t fans back in the PPV-only days:
Now for some newer hidden highlights, and less childhood reminiscing. On last week’s Raw when King Bookah was doing his rant over being the only king and wanting Jerry to resign his title and to “Pass the Torch.” It was a bit of a shot from the past as it made me remember reading an article about how Jerry Lawler won a match making him the only king in the at that time I think WWF, so the “Passing of the Torch” would also grant King Bookah the right to claim he can be the only king and have some backing behind it.
JT: While I don’t think that the King would do that, it doesn’t take away the awesomeness that is KING BOOKAH! Sadly, I do not recall the match that you’re talking about.
And I think TNA has figuratively killed the continuity officer that strolls about backstage by reuniting XXX. As they aren’t supposed to be able to reunite due to losing a “Loser must break up” stipulation match against AMW.
JT: JP, both your legs okay? Nothing broke over there right?
JP: Nope, I’m good. Must have been someone else’s shift!
JT: Okay. What can I say Travis? It happens, and good job catching it. I’m sure JP is yelling at some inanimate object as we speak (lamp maybe?).
And yes, I realize my spelling/grammar/punctuation is really bad tonight, sadly I’m working off outdated software with no spell/grammar check. I shall not torture you two like this again. Also on a more personal note, it’s quite tempting to steal JT’s rather nonsensical sign offs, but I shall look to tame that dragon another day.
JT: Gimmick infringement? …on top of gimmick infringement? I wonder what he was going to call us JP, his little pacifiers?
As we get close to the end of this weeks emails, we have James M. (JM!), who wants to turn up the Heat!:
On the 7/13/07 online edition on Heat, Charlie Haas and Brian Kendrick wrestled a great match. Early on, Haas had control of the arm and Kendrick fired back with two punches. After the 2nd punch, Haas pointed it out to the ref, who then attempted to hold Kendrick’s arm back. Kendrick then changed up to a hammer fist but this must not have met the ref’s approval either because he held the arm back a 2nd time, allowing Haas to take Kendrick down. Kendrick then had to change up a 2nd time to forearm shots. The announcers completely glossed over this but it was just one of those stories within a match that set it apart from other matches. Just remember, it’s about entertainment, not size.
JT: Absolutely right, JM. We often call everything and anything “in ring psychology”, yet forget to mention that it is synonymous with “telling a story”. It is the entertainment, not the size, at least for most of us! Finishing us off this week is Neeraj A., who apparently thinks the thought of me having to HTML like 93 of his own and my comments is hilarious. I kid, Naheej, it’s my pleasure:
Hello JP/T,
JT: Hello, sir.
On Smackdown, a week and a half ago:
– MVP’s new ring attire features the text “PROTECT THIS RING.” Any idea about what this is supposed to mean?
JT: Yes I do. There is a company called “Under Armour”, which makes sport clothing designed to be tight-fitting to the body yet provide all kinds of benefit depending on which sport you play. Their motto/slogan/marketing campaign/whatever is “We Must Protect This House”; it started with Football and has expanded with its growing popularity. Since MVP’s gear is tight-fitting, I’d say that’s a direct play on that.
– In the early part of their match, Flair forced Finlay into the corner off a headlock and gave him a clean break. After that, Flair backed off and waited for Finlay to come out of the corner. As Finlay came out of the corner, he wiped the sweat off his forearm against the turnbuckle, so he would not be at a disadvantage in upcoming headlocks. A great showcase of veteran instincts by Finlay.
JT: I love this. He wiped the sweat on the headlock in case he got in a similar position. While this one is obvious kayfabe (as Finlay was just probably sweaty), it’s still beautiful. Just awesome veteran tactics there.
– I know you noticed it last week, but Finlay shoved Charles Robinson off twice in his match against Flair.
JT: Hahaha… Finlay no selling refs is hilarious. The fact he does it consistently is not only REALLY hilarious, but also keeps the continuity police happy, right JP?
JP: We take what we can get.
– Props to Charles Robinson for the way he refereed the Finlay/Flair match. He was great, putting himself in the right position all the time, and forcing Finlay off Flair several times in the corner, including those instances that led to him being pushed. It didn’t stop him from going right back to it, though.
JT: And on the other end, props to Charles Robinson for being the other half of the Finlay/ref tag team. Those guys are performers as well.
– I suppose it wasn’t exactly hidden, but I loved Finlay’s game plan of working on Flair’s leg. It makes it that much more difficult for Flair to put on the figure-4 or synch it in, thereby reducing Flair’s arsenal by 1/4. Even Cole touched upon it. Of course, the finish tied in too, with the Celtic Clutch working the same leg. Great continuity. Also, Flair biting his fingers during the half crab was an awesome touch.
JT: Not much to add there. Neeraj nailed that one for us.
– The Major Brothers beat some jobbers. At the end of that match, JBL said something to the effect of “yeah ok, you beat a couple of unknowns, now step up against Deuce and Domino.” This was great from JBL for a couple of reasons:
1. He didn’t jump on the bandwagon of the impressive new team as is the trend in WWE, reminding the fans that there is actually a tag division on Smackdown.
2. He kept Deuce and Domino on everyone’s mind by mentioning them, as I think D/D didn’t feature on this particular SD.
JT: They were not featured, as Deuce has a broken nose. But I agree with you on this because JBL made sure he kept the tag division strong while – as he always does – hate on newcomers. Seriously, has there been one guy he has liked RIGHT of the bat? He grows to like people, but I cannot remember one guy during JBL’s announcing tenure that showed up and he was just like “oh yes! He’s great!”… he is always like “who the F are these people/this person?” (keep in mind that I mean actual newcomers, not people who were moved there. He will obviously put over someone established like Khali or Edge immediately. I’m talking about guys like the Majors and even D/D.)
– On Raw, Lashley speared Cena to end the show, as Cena came to, his first movement was to reach out for his title. This was despite Lashley being in the ring at the time. It goes to show that in Cena’s mind, the title is top priority, even taking precedence over personal safety. Plus, Cena’s already had his title stolen from him once (Khali) and would not want a repeat of that experience. This was a great touch to tie all that in.
JT: I completely agree and I gave personal props to Cena on this one. He really did IMMEDIATELY reach for his title, and under the circumstances of it haven been stolen already and despite a beast like Lashley being in the ring, he went for it.
– Neeraj
p.s. They wiped out the Benoit chants. There were no chants at all, not even the ECW ones that they dubbed over on the ECW broadcast. There was some really obvious piped heat.
JT: I’m assuming he is talking about the delayed PPV because I can’t recall Benoit chants from anything else. Good to know that they are on top of things in your part of the world.
JP: Yeah, that was the question I had. Weird that they didn’t even make them ECW chants. Guess that was a little TOO unbelievable in the ECW getting 1.27 ratings. Do you realize how close iMPACT is getting to overcoming ECW in the ratings? That would be a big showing for TNA to say they beat a WWE brand in the ratings one week, even if that brand was ECW.
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: What a week! Have a good week my lit—
JP: No, I already know what you’re going to say because you pretend like it was what you were not going to say in the Reader Write-in Section. Anyway, I forgot that I promised Jeff Small that I would mention him and his Small for All News Report. Of course, I didn’t tell him that I would yell at him for posting SmackDown! spoilers (with pictures, nonetheless) without ANY WARNING IN HIS COLUMN. Thanks a freaking lot there, Small.
JT: After being interrupted and thus making me the second man, I have to steal Wilbon’s ending and say something like “you can catch the HH replay everyday on ESPNews”. Until next time Knuckleheads.
JP: You just couldn’t give up, could you? Also before we go, don’t forget that Hogan Knows Best returned yesterday and I’ll be bringing you those Hidden Highlights starting next week as well. So stay tuned for our 100th Issue!!!
Thank you for joining us for THE 99th 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!
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