Hidden Highlights 4.24.12: Daniel Bryan, Knockout Tag Champs, More

2. John Laurinaitis, National Treasure – I have to assume at this point that the Creative team is aware of the immense trolling power they have whenever Laurinaitis speaks. Case in point, cheery John came out to interrupt John Cena’s promo, and his first words were “Cheers, everyone!” which was perfect considering they were in England. Plus, when you have the guy start waving to people while he’s being booed, it just looks so much better.

1. Daniel Bryan gets more audible – Here was a noticeable style change from Daniel Bryan from last week’s Raw: ever since YES! YES! YES! got huge, Bryan has decided to incorporate it more into his matches. More specifically, by yelling YES! while doing those kicks in the corner. I’m not sure if the WWE is trying to kill the YES! chants by having Daniel Bryan yell YES! in Kofi’s face for a good minute, but it’s not going anywhere, and kudos to DB for incorporating it more into his gimmick.

All of the champions in the ring. Well, almost. – So, the Hulkster called all the champions to the ring so that he could make a major announcement. Well, everyone came down except for Eric Young and ODB. Why? Well, they were on their honeymoon, as Tazz and Tenay would realize during the Knockouts tag match. Nice little bit of continuity here. Sidenote: I loved watching Samoa Joe react to Hulk’s first announcement with a look that stated “Why on earth was I brought out here?”

3. It just keeps getting better. – To continue the dinosaur theme that Brodus Clay has going, besides dancing the ‘dactyl, we found out the names of his dancers, who he refers to as his “Funkadactyls.” I’m sorry, but I couldn’t get over this. And now, here’s Curt Hawkins’ reaction to Hornswoggle joining Brodus Clay on Smackdown:

That was my reaction as well.

2. Booker T loved the winner’s purse – Up through the early 90s, the idea of the winner’s purse existed in wrestling. I’m sure I don’t have to explain how it works, but it provided a reason for wrestlers to care about the outcomes of regular tv matches. In the Attitude Era, the idea of the winner’s purse began to be phased out, but announcers such as Jim Ross would occasionally bring it up. So, imagine my surprise with Booker T of all people making a reference to the winner’s purse at the end of the Big Show/ADR match. It helped to add to the story that Big Show and Cody Rhodes have been telling for the past month, and made Big Show seem even angrier with his loss.

1. Quick Highlights – Here are some other things from this week’s Smackdown:

– The return of Aksana’s mood-lighting and music powers. When she turns out to be Kane’s illegitimate daughter, this will all make sense.
– Cody attacking Great Khali as he was entering the ring. Honestly I’m surprised no one has tried this before, since it seems like an extremely successful strategy to employ against a guy who can’t move that quickly.
– The reference to Sheamus’ $500,000 fine. Suddenly this episode has become all about money.

Reader Highlights

Let’s start out with a BOX O’ EMAILS! First up, Chris Bragg of The Ultimate Fight Show. I’ll be honest, I don’t follow MMA that often, so this totally flew over my head, but this was an amazing catch.

Something I noticed when Brock Lesnar reemerged last Monday night, was Michael Cole announcing Brock at 6’3″ 266 lbs. That, of course, is the Heavyweight limit in MMA.

With that being said, I can’t remember what the WWE used to bill him as during his original run, but I it seemed to be in the290-300 lbs range.

Next we have mpl who brings up some logic to the SALT CLAW OF DOOM, which is the unofficial name for Lord Tensai’s Salt Claw Hold.

I don’t know if anyone else has sent this to you, but I know that if I don’t it’s gonna bother me for weeks.
Lord Tensai (A Train / Prince Albert / Baldo / Yeah I can pretend to be smart by using his other names too) did spray something other than spit on his hand before he applied the Dreaded Claw Hold – it was SALT. The same “Ceremonial” salt his follower tossed into the air before Tensai’s entrance.

So what most folks thought was a camera crew screwup (cutting to Tensai before he was done putting something in his mouth) was a different kind of screw up – the camera should have cut to Tensai before he *started* putting the salt into his mouth so the announce team could call attention to it.

And here’s Zach Brinkley noticing Mick Foley dropping references on the live Smackdown.

Mick Foley had a Hidden Highlight on Smackdown this Tuesday, referencing a departed, beloved Superstar

“Enough is enough, and it’s time for a change” R.I.P Owen Hart

And now for comment Hidden Highlights! Hatt Mardy gets us started with a highlight from Wrestlemania.

Think you forgot to mention the miz making fun of zack’s lowblow by eve on raw. minor detail but wanted to point it out.

Game2Watch busts out some ring psychology on us from Wrestlemania. Even more impressive was that it was from the Rock/Cena match. Take THAT, people who think Rock and Cena can’t wrestle!

Wrestlemania – The Rock puts Cena in a sharpshooter and Cena makes the ropes. Rock pulls him out again for it and Cena makes the ropes, but this time he crawls under them so he doesn’t get pulled back aa third time. Then the Rock uses that move to hit Cena on the outside. Very nice continuity.

loughie21 also brings us a WM28 highlight, this time from Punk/Jericho.

HH from WM 28.

When Punk got the anaconda vice back on soon after Jericho went for the knee to the head again but Punk adjusted his body just in time to avoid it and stay out of reach. Jericho then had to tap. Perfect finish proving he was a better wrestler. Haven’t seen Punk’s movement mentioned anywhere though!

Finally, Just John brought up some great fans from the live Smackdown. I’ve seen people dress up as refs before, but I always get a kick out of people using their front-row seats and having fun with it, so this gets in.

Hidden Highlight from Smackdown: The four fans dressed as WWE referees in the front row. Most of the time they were just funny to watch as they shouted “TWO!” or “DOS!” every so often. But their astounded and angry reaction to Sheamus Brogue-kicking the actual ref was great, and one of them pulled his shirt up by the shoulders as if to say, “I’m a REF! See the stripes?? You can’t hit a REF!!”

***

And with that, the 10th 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.