Hidden Highlights 3.12.12: John Laurinaitis, RoH, Hebner, More!

And then Nigel McGuiness stole all my thunder. – So, there’s this big problem with anniversary shows. They’re nice and all and you get these moments where the current workers will all attempt spots used by prior wrestlers as a form of respect. This would be good and all, but then you have commentators point out each of these moments to the point where my job is useless. So here are the things I liked about the 10th Anniversary show. Take this as you will:

Homicide’s attempt at starting a “Yankees” chant.
Maria and whatever that outfit was. All I know is I want to see it more often.
The CHIKARmy coming out to protect their Grand Champion (also it was great to see Eddie Kingston back in an RoH ring).
The Young Bucks. I like the Briscoes enough, but I wanted the Young Bucks to win so badly just so they could rep PWG.
The “YES!” chants.
Kevin Steen playing to the “YES!” chants.
Steve Corino’s sad face after Steen won.
Steen’s promo to end the night. I like Davey as much as the next guy, but he’s not a very good champion, and just doesn’t stack up well when compared to Steen.

1. Teddy Long only wore red because he hates dogs. – First off, if you get that, then kudos to you. Second, I like how both Long and Laurinaitis continued to wear the colors for the respective shows they would be running this week. While Laurinaitis went with the rather understated blue tie, Teddy went for the extremely loud red suit. Whatever, I still liked it.

It doesn’t say a whole lot when that was the best highlight of the entire show, does it?

2. Bobby Roode was so not ready for a match. – Since I have to talk about TNA in this column, let me start by saying how much I love Bobby Roode as champion. Dude has the smarmy dick heel champion down to a T, and I can’t wait for the Storm/Roode showdown at Lockdown. But as for this week’s Impact, credit Roode for selling the fact that he didn’t want to be out for a match. Sure, he was apprehensive all the way down the ramp, but what really put it over was the part where Roode was surprised by his own pyro (running theme here on Hidden Highlights). Also I guess this would be a good time to mention the attractive ladies who managed to get in the front row. Hello, attractive ladies!

1. Jesus, Earl, I’ve seen you call for the bell before. – And on the other end of the spectrum, we have Earl Hebner, who just might be the worst referee in history. Every once in awhile, I have to point out bad things in wrestling, and Earl is right there. I don’t know how someone with his amount of experience manages to miss doing such small things such as RINGING THE BELL TO SIGNAL A DQ, but here we are. Congratulations, Earl Hebner. You did it. You managed to be the worst at your job.

Wait….

Where did he even get that…

4. There is no highlight here, but oh my god Laurinaitis. – Yup, this is your weekly “gushing over how great Laurinaitis is” section. This week, it’s all about the match between Teddy and Big Johnny. From the track suit he was wearing down to the ring, to the grin and thumbs up he flashed to Michael Cole, to the FULL BODY UNDERARMOR SUIT, Big Johnny was great. The one thing I hated about this was having a former referee beat a former wrestler, but dammit if Laurinaitis didn’t make this entertaining as all hell.

Oh lordy…

3. Crazy R-Truth is the best R-Truth. – You can’t really get a Hidden Highlight for having one of the best picture-in-picture interviews in a long time, but I can totally give Truth one for the commitment to being crazy. It started during his entrance when he waved out an imaginary Little Jimmy, then gave him a high-five. Then he sat in the corner talking to someone who was I guess supposed to be on the other side of the post. Then he kept high-fiving Little Jimmy during the post-match celebration. I honestly want him to do a sit-down interview with his imaginary Little Jimmy. I don’t care how long the segment lasts, it just needs to happen.

2. AJ in a catholic schoolgirl outfit….oh and she was also in this segment. – So, here’s my favorite part of the DB/Sheamus in-ring segment: AJ Lee. She has been playing the completely-smitten girlfriend perfectly, alternating from staring lovingly at Daniel Bryan to shooting Sheamus the dirtiest looks in history. Ryan Byers brought this up earlier in a conversation, but it really needs to be pointed out how good she’s been. Also kudos to Daniel Bryan for being a star on the mic. Now go ahead and go back to imagining AJ in a catholic schoolgirl outfit like I’m sure you’ve been doing since Friday.

1. Miz takes a trip into the world of the little people. – Smackdown ended with a brawl between Kane and Orton, but the highlight here was where Miz went after losing. The normal process is to roll off to the side and stay out of the way, but a problem occurred when Kane and Orton started brawling right to where Miz had gone to lay down. Miz, acting quickly, decides that the best course of action here would be to roll under the ring so that he wouldn’t get involved.

Reader Highlights

So, I made a challenge last week. If you guys thought I was doing so terribly, then you should send in your own highlights. And, surprise surprise, I didn’t get a single highlight in last week. I’m not sure if calling the comments section out on their bullshit is enough to get you guys to back up, but whatever I did, it must have been effective, so we’ll use this section to talk about two things from the comments that I noticed.

First, we have this from Mike Dino, about the ODB pyro comment from last week.

The ODB pyro was not off, it was meant to be that way. Eric Young used to come out to the same pyro, only to be frightened when the pyro would go off late.

Now, I know I was in the right here, because this week ODB and Eric Young came out again, and this time the pyro went off when it was supposed to. Sure, EY used to have that gimmick where he’d get surprised by his pyro, but he hasn’t done that since he started coming out with ODB. So, Yeah, I was right. Go me!

Also we had this comment from Michael, which I guess we have to address as well.

During the Knockouts tag match on Impact, when Velvet covers Angelina for the win, in the background Sarita sees it happening and tries to reenter and stop it but is blocked by Mickie who keeps a hold of her until Velvet gets the 3 count.

Ok, so we had another commenter point it out, but I guess I should reiterate. This sort of thing happens in almost every tag match. Hell, I think the AI is programmed to do it in WWE ’12. So yeah, it is a good thing that Mickie remembered to stop Sarita from interfering with the pin, but it’s not exactly hidden since it seems to happen every single time.

And since we didn’t have that many reader highlights, now would be a good time to announce that Hidden Highlights will be starting nominations for the first class of the Hidden Highlights Hall of Fame! Here’s how this is going to work: for the next two weeks, you may put in nominations for people you think are deserving of a spot in the HoF. Please include legitimate reasons for the nomination, or I’ll just ignore you. I’m talking to you, Paul Roma supporters.

Get your nominations in now!

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And with that, the 5th edition of Hidden Highlights v2.0 is in the books. Make sure to send in your reader Highlights so we can return this to being the most reader-inclusive and positive article in the IWC.