Hidden Highlights 11.03.08: Issue #166

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #166

Commentator: Previously, on Hidden Highlights…

---

Commentator: Canadians could not decide if they wanted to be a part of America or not.

JJ: Not to get too technical, because I love this column, but since Canada is a part of North America, would that be what Saed meant? Also, how come she’s not teaming up with Bashir?

Sal Minella: Generally when foreign people refer to “Americans” they are referring to folks from the U.S. So, yes, technically Canadians would be Americans, but more specifically North Americans. But in what context would Canadians, American and Mexicans be lumped together in a group.

Saeed is Syrian, Bashir is Iranian maybe that’s why.

Curtis: As a Canadian I do not wish to be referred to as an “American”, it is much like referring to Irish or Scottish people as English.

I think it was merely just a mistake that happens all the time with pro and anti American gimmicks. I remember a match that was I believe La resistance vs Val Venis and either Tajiri, Lance Storm or William Regal and the crowd kept chanting USA despite the fact the only American in the match was Rob Conway.

JO: Actually, I think it’s more people from the USA that call themselves Americans. To me an American can be from any country in North, Central or South America.

Chico: Yes, and Asia is a continent, not a country or a race, so being Asian can mean you’re from one of the many countries in Asia, and not necessarily from an Oriental country. So, Vladimir Koslov is Asian, Russian and Caucasian.

This concludes today’s anthropology lesson.

CyberFreq: Which is why I always get a laugh outta people when I tell them how I’m Asian, despite being white.

JP: The only true African American I know is a white Jew from Egypt who lives in Massachusetts now.

---

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

JP: Hello everyone who doesn’t even have time to write an intro comment, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights! If you’ve never been here before, let me tell you what we are doing in these pages.

Hidden Highlights are about the little things that make the product great. They are about showing the positive motions all those involved in wrestling do to make a better show. The Miz may hold his opponents hands down to make a pin attempt better. Charles Robinson may let a little tear shed from his eye every time someone mentions Ric Flair. Mike Tenay may tell you about the 17 year history of a visiting wrestler and make them sound huge in one sentence. These are all examples of little things that make the product far better.

Every week this article spotlights the Top 15 Hidden Highlights of the week, whether the be from television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one), the past, small shows, tapes, or the indy scene.

This article may have an author, but it is also dependent upon the readers and true fans of professional wrestling—those who love what they watch and want to tell the world what they have found. The Top 15 are chosen from what I see and what readers write-in. Whatever is the best is what you’ll see!

And who am I? Well, I am JP Prag, and I bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference.

Now let’s get on with the Hidden Highlights!

ESPNews

JP: We’ll kick it off this week with a Hidden Highlight in the most unexpected of places: ESPN!

BigJon: This isn’t a wresting Hidden Highllight… well I guess it sorta is… but Saturday night / early Sunday morning on ESPNews. The Coach was running down all the college games from the day and as he was doing the Texas Tech game they showed video of one of the T.T. players with a crazy hair cut and face paint. Without skipping a beat Coach said under his breath but loud enough for everybody to hear “Wow I thought I had left all that stuff the behind me!” referring to his days in the good ol’ E. I thought it was a neat throwback to his former job for all of us wresting fans to catch.

JP: Ah, Coach, I miss you so! Not everyone hated you, but it’s good to see you doing well at ESPN. Keep it up!

WWE Cyber Sunday

JP: Bringing us up to the PPV and something truly wrestling related, we have The Big Fig!

The Big Fig: At Cyber Sunday, when Stone Cold Steve Austin made a 2 count, rather than using 1 hand to show the 2 count, in typical Austin fashion, he used his trademark double bird to show “2”

JP: If only I had a third hand.

RAW

JP: Moving ahead to RAW, we have something I wrote down myself but someone else caught for me.

Mike Labbe: On the 10/20 episode of Raw, Jericho got in the ring and berated Lillian Garcia for not announcing him, screaming he was the World Heavyweight Champion and she needed to notify the crowd of his presence, so to speak.

This past week on Raw, Jericho power walked to the ring at the opening of the show. Once he got in the ring Lillian announced him as the Former World Heavyweight Champion. Clearly angered at this Jericho glared at Lillian who mouth, “well you are”. Maybe not so hidden, but definitely a highlight.

JP: I absolutely loved the continuity form the prior week as well as part of this, and it gave me a good smile that Lillian or someone thought to do this.

RAW

JP: Later in the evening, Kofi Kingston and CM Punk teamed up to challenge the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. On the outside, Kingston started to climb the turnbuckle to pull off a big move. DiBiase took a swipe at him and but didn’t quite hit it right. Instead of pretending, though, Kofi knew it was not strong enough and continued to climb. DiBiase, to his credit, did not miss a beat and again took the correct shot at Kofi to knock him off the ring apron. Good job by both to continue to go through the motions and act naturally in a moment that was to be scripted.

RAW

JP: On WWE Classics on Demand this week, they showed slips from Showdown at Shea III, headlined (might I stress that word) by Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage match. But during the clip, the showed the match between Hogan and Andre (pretending it was the main event) saying that it was one of the first time the two met before WrestleMania III. This was the first time the WWE **EVER** admitted that Hogan and Andre fought before WrestleMania III on free television, which makes this quite a momentous occasion.

RAW

JP: Still on RAW, Evan Bourne and Rey Mysterio fought in a high flying match that saw one particularly interesting thing: Rey Mysterio slipping on the middle rope and landing on the mat. During that moment, Evan Bourne did something that I would expect from a veteran: he immediately went to cover up the mistake and went for a pinfall. I thought this was an incredibly smart move and showed how Bourne was living in the moment and reacting fast.

RAW

JP: The main event for RAW this week saw Jericho team up with his odd partner JBL to take on Batista and the thoroughly beat down Shawn Michaels. Batista had been beaten down near the heel corner and Jericho came into the ring to lay into him some more. When Jericho did so, though, he put his body between Batista and the ropes, making it so Batista could not reach them and make a break. Smart thinking by Jericho to keep Batista out of the ropes so he could continue to deliver the pain.

iMPACT

JP: Not much happened on ECW this week despite fun with John Morrison and Miz, so we’ll move right along to iMPACT. On that show, AJ Styles began the program with a promo tearing down the Main Event Mafia (and we’ll have a talk later about slow burn and buildup instead of giving big matches away fro free without even mentioning them before the show later). During said promo, AJ started to say, “And I’ll tell you what bothers me…” to which someone in the audience screamed out, “What’s that?!” Sometimes I love when the audience gets involved and says the absolute right thing. Good work random dude!

iMPACT

JP: In the feud that never ends, Eric Young took on James Storm, just for old times sake. At the conclusion of the match, Beer Money, Inc continued to beat down Eric Young for his audacity to actually win his match. This prompted the Motor City Machine Guns to make the save later in the evening to show their solidarity with the TNA Originals. When Young started to get u in the corner, he saw that Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were in the ring and actually flinched with fear. This was a good continuity move by Young since he did not know where they two stood and they could have even been there to beat him up. I liked that he did not immediately trust them and was still reacting to what was going on from earlier.

iMPACT

JP: Speaking of the Motor City Machine Guns, they took on the makeshift team of Tanahashi and Volador. Meanwhile, in the announce booth Sheik Abdul Bashir was complaining about various things, including his so called anti-American stances. During this rant Bashir actually said, “I was born in this country; I was raised in this country.” While this is all true, it certainly goes against his character being from Iran. Looks like Bashir just went full shoot for a minute and decided to let his thoughts be heard.

iMPACT

JP: The non-main event for the evening saw AJ Styles and Samoa Joe team up to take on Kevin Nash and Booker T. But it also saw this one from Colin Breaux.

Colin Breaux: AJ at one point jumped in to break up a pin, Kevin Nash rushed Joe as well. But for a moment he paused, told the ref “Get him outta here!”, then dropped an elbow on Samoa Joe while the ref’s back was turned. It shows Kevin Nash’s mastery of ring psychology, as well as adding to storyline of the more experienced veterans versus the naive young guys. Say what you will about Nash’s crappy ring skills, but the guy sometimes knows how to tell a story in the ring.

JP: I laughed pretty hard at Nash’s ability to play the match and the ref in his hands. He made it look extra evil because he was blatant and sneaky at the same time. It was a perfect Nash moment.

iMPACT

JP: The next one I caught, but plenty of other people did as well, including the aforementioned Colin.

Colin Breaux: When Scott Steiner ran in at the end of the show to take out everybody with a lead pipe, when Petey Williams saw him. For a moment he ducked and had a confused look on his face. Big Poppa Pump elected not to hit Maple Lead Muscle. It played off well from their previous relationship, giving it’s curious that lil’ Petey still keeps up the Scott Steiner look even though he’s aligned with the TNA originals.

Kevin Rutherford: When Scott Steiner came out did you notice that he went to hit Petey Williams twice but stopped and hit the guy next to him. I like how Big Papa Pump still might consider the Canadian Destroyer his little protégé.

Rick Goodwin: I was watching last weeks Impact and noticed when Scott Steiner came down and hit everyone with the lead pipe, the one person he didn’t hit was Lil Petey Pump. Scott Steiner is the bully of the MEM, but even he has a warm spot in his heart for his lil buddy.

JP: Three different interpretations around the same moment, but it was interesting either way. I’m glad they are continuing with that and it will be interesting to see where this shakes out.

SmackDown

JP: At the beginning of SmackDown this week, the Big Show cut a little promo to complain about his match with the Undertaker from Cyber Sunday. During his rant, he let the Undertaker know that he used an illegal choke maneuver and that it was not appreciated. The great thing is is that maneuver was made illegal by Vickie Guerrero during the Undertaker’s feud with Edge and despite the ban on the Undertaker being lifted the ban on the move was not. It was wonderful of The Big Show to remember this and point it out, showing a long running continuity with Vickie Guerrero and the Undertaker.

SmackDown

JP: The Big Shows rant led way to the main event of the evening pitting Chavo Guerrero against the Undertaker in a casket match. At the onset of the match, Chavo had backed himself off the ring apron and he almost stepped on the casket itself. When Chavo did so, he looked down and just let out a little “Whoa!” in shock of where he was. I was totally amused by Chavo’s little shock there and it gave me a good giggle.

Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling

JP: Over on Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling there was a nice Hidden Highlight that actually took place in the ring. The first match of the evening saw Candy Girl (Nikki) & The Winner (Dustin) vs. Mistress Of Mayhem (Erin) & Rodzilla (Dennis). When Dennis Rodman was exiting the ring after tagging in Eric, he actually booted Dustin Diamond in the face on his way out. Whether intentional or not, this little extra punishment looked impressive in Dustin’s face.

Well everyone, that wraps up this week’s show. Thank you for reading the 166th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights!

Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail this article at [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. The best of the best will be featured among the top 15 next week.

In the meantime, be sure to catch my very own Saturday morning news report The Hamilton Ave Journal: the only wrestling news report focused on the business of wrestling.

Until then, you have just experienced the most positive article in all of the IWC: Hidden Highlights!