Hidden Highlights 11.12.06: Issue #63

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: The Lions actually *gasp* looked good last week. The Tigers just got Sheff. The Pistons are .500, but lead in their division. The Red Wings are kicking ass. Yes sir, it was a good week to be a sports fan in Detroit. Of course, as of around 4:30 this afternoon, my tune may indeed change.

JP: The best thing about Detroit, though, is that it is the home of WrestleMania this year!

JT: Damn straight. My hometown rules.

JP: I wouldn’t go that far. Anyway, we do have some business to attend to.

JT: Business?

JP: All right, first off, congratulations to Randle, it was a good win. Second off, Cook, our match with Randle had DOUBLE the amount of voters than your match with him, so the physical number of votes we had far outstripped yours. Third off, for the old naysayers out there, here is something I’m going to say for the very last time: just because we are “positive” does not mean we are not saying what we mean. Us, Meehan, Sat, etc…, a lot of people out there need to accept something. You need to learn that we aren’t BSing you, this is what we believe. It’s just like Randle said, if you aren’t saying what you mean, people can see right through it. There is no faking, no lying, no manipulating going on. This is what we believe and this is why we like wrestling and life in general. Sorry if seems odd that not everyone is as cynical and negative about life, but you have to understand that some of us are trying to better the world by action, not by bitching.

JT: Does that mean we are going to help build a house, bring food and water to remote areas, and head a peace keeping mission in the Middle East?

JP: Ahhhhh… not before we get on with the Hidden Highlights!

(SPECIAL ERIC BISCHOFF RETURNS TO WWE HH!) :

During the DX match, Eric Bischoff went to say something to Triple H, and you could barely hear him call him Hunter. Now, as GM, whenever he would cut a promo or talk to him backstage, he would always call him Triple H. But this isn’t Eric Bischoff – GM. This was Eric Bischoff – Ref. The refs have to be on a more personal level with the wrestlers because they are the authority in the ring. Nice job by Eric to remember that.

(3) Selling Cyber Sunday, Part 1:

When all three champions were standing in the ring, the announcer began “And the title that will be defended…”. As he was doing so, they showed King Booker for a split second, and you could see that his fingers were crossed! Great little touch to add to the realism that “not even the wrestlers” know what’s going to happen. Great sell of the “interactive” Pay-Per-View, and also cool for the live crowd who were close enough to see. ALL HAIL KING BOOKER!

(2) Selling Cyber Sunday, Part 2:

As you know, a common theme for the E is to have the three potential competitors standing side by side when they announce who is going to be competing in/refereeing the match. Once they announced that Carlito was going to be going for the IC title, he began to walk towards the ring and the camera stayed with him all the way. After a good twenty/thirty seconds of walking, it was still on him, and I noticed in the background (always watching the background folks!) on the left side of my screen WAY behind Carlito was about a two inch figure flailing about (VERY small). As my attention shifted to it, I noticed that it was in fact Shelton Benjamin! He was still back at the set area throwing a fit about not being voted in! I thought this was an excellent example of when we talk about wrestlers staying in character even though the camera may not be on them. Double points to Shelton considering he wasn’t even in front of a crowd; this was just random and backstage.

(1) Cryme Tyme Time!:

At the end of the match, JTG was covering Charlie Hass for the pin, his partner Shad came over and stood over him, but didn’t directly apply any addition weight. Now originally I thought that didn’t make any sense because adding weight would only help ensure that Hass didn’t kick out. However, I quickly realized that he wasn’t worried about Haas. He was worried about his partner, and more importantly having his back. You see, if he had been laying on top of him, all it would have taken was one person kicking/hitting them to cause the pin to be broken. By standing up over him, he basically created a situation where you FIRST had to go through him before you could interfere in the pin. Nice job by Shad to put himself in a position to – if necessary – buy his partner a couple of extra seconds, which is all it takes when talking about a three-count.

JP: King Booker, Shelton Benjamin, and Cryme Tyme? One would think there was a theme going on here, if not all of these men are great performers and have shown up again and again in the pages of Hidden Highlights!

(3) Cheating on a vocabulary test:

After we learned that Eric Bischoff would be the guest GM for the night, the World Tag Team Champions “Hot Rod” Roddy Piper and “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair came out to confront our hero. The two continued to lace down the boss, but I notices something very interesting in Piper’s left hand. And no, it wasn’t the microphone. Oh no… it was actually crib notes! Piper obviously had a lot of points to remember, so he must have wanted to remember them all.

JT’s Note: We also got something about this in the emails, and I had the RWHH section done before I read this, so that person will still get his due later on.

(2) Stand for your man:

In another Bischoff related moment, the lord of controversy was coming out as the guest referee for the main even match between the aforementioned tag team champions and Edge and Randy Orton. First off, I just want to give Bischoff tons of props for his facial reactions during the match itself. But our real Hidden Highlight goes to Jonathan Coachman. While Bischoff was making his way down, the camera panned over to the announce table for just a brief second, and there was Jonathan Coachman standing up welcoming his boss to the ring. Excellent work by Coachman to show the proper respect to our hero.

(1) One last escape:

In yet another tag-team related Hidden Highlight, Eugene and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan were facing the Sprit Squad in a loser must break up match. Well, in the pinfall itself, Johnny was able to roll up Duggan and pull the tights for the victory. Normally when someone is rolled up, they try to squirm their way out to make the escape. But Duggan, showing he really is wise in that ring, instead went to knock Johnny’s hand out of the way and break the cheating move. You see, in wrestling physics the tights provide unfair leverage, but Duggan knew that if he could knock Johnny’s hand away he’d have the strength to kick out. Sadly, he wasn’t able to get cheating Johnny’s hand out of the way, and that was the end of that.

JT: Four of the first six HH tag team related? Two of the six Bischoff related? I like it. Can I keep the trend going? You’ll have to keep reading to see! As for RAW, I have to be honest. I am in NO way a K-Fed fan, but I have to give him credit, the man is drawing some serious heel heat.

(3) It’s my column, and I’ll talk about colors if I want to!:

We all know that Vince wants to incorporate subtle changes here and there to make ECW more of it’s own “WWE brand” as opposed to an “ECW entity”. Well, this week, I noticed some of those subtle changes, and they just so happen to deal with the colors! ECW for a better part of it’s return used the familiar shade of purple for everything. As I watch though, I start noticed small things and it just kind of ballooned from there. The ECW logo at the bottom of the screen? Red. The ECW on the shirts of the ref’s? Red. Lighting in the upper tier? Red. Just checked ECW at WWE.com. Yup. Red – all over the place red. Not ONLY did I see consistency in the changing of the color, but I also found the color interesting. Red, just like RAW, and as we all know, NBC had been pushing to keep RAW and ECW interlocked with each other. Well, it looks like at least in some ways, they’ve won that war. (Also did anyone notice the silver ropes and black, unmarked turnbuckles!)

(2) Did you know that the WWE warns people at live shows that they feature very loud and colorful pyrotechnics? Just a little fun fact for you:

Now, we all know that the E is big on pyro. It’s a big part of their show, and even a big part of some characters (SEE: Kane). If I’m recalling correctly, Big Show has never had a pyro on a consistent basis. It’s always the familiar song, and then the march down to the ring. Well, this is a new Show. This is a champion Show. This is a Show that now has five men chasing his title heading into December to Dismember. So what did we get for Show this week? That’s right, pyro! Not the most Hidden of Highlights, but I also liked it because the pyro came out of the top of the ring post, which made me realize that it essentially had to because they can’t have pyro strips or devices (safety) so close to the crowd at the ECW entrance ramp.

(1) Starting things off right:

Double Hidden Highlight time! Look, I love it when I can catch a HH in the opening segment/match/promo/whatever. It always takes me up a notch on the entertainment level, and gets me read for a good show (whether it turns out to be a good show or not is debatable, but that isn’t what we do around here). So this week, I got my goody. During the opening segment (which was a match), Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly were coming down to the ring. You may have noticed that as they almost got to the ring, Mike Knox turned around and looked like he was about to beat the living shit out of someone. Well, had you been paying attention five seconds before that, you’d have seen that the reason was some fan on the left side (Knox’s right) actually leaned over the guardrail, reached around Mike Knox, and touched/tapped Double K on the ass! Fan interaction is good, excellent signs are great, but taking a chance like this was just CLASSIC. Can’t say I blame the fan either. He may have been kicked out (doubt it), but he had a story for the rest of his life. Kudos to the boldness of this guy saying “f*** it” and going for the gusto. Not only is this a HH for the fan mentioned, but also a HH because I caught it just in time to kick off the show and get my mind right! God bless enjoyable opening segments!

JP: Ah, the return of talking about colors. It’s like retro day here in Hidden Highlights!

(3) Hail him:

Speaking of Chris Sabin, I would just like to give him a Hidden Highlight for existing all night. You realize during that entire hour he was up in the stands and had to continue to play his character? From doing the “woopdie doo” symbol when AJ won, to yawning during his match, to arguing with Lynn when nobody would understand what they were saying, you have to give props to Sabin. His new direction is coming along nicely, and he’s doing all the little things that can make is successful in the long run.

(2) That hurt so much:

You know sometimes when a wrestler gets hit with a “painful” move they may open their eyes really wide in shock? Well this week, AJ Styles did the complete opposite. When he got rammed head first into the chair during his match with Abyss, he just shut his eyes and grabbed his head in pain. And he didn’t open them for a good minute or two because he was in so much pain. Now that is truly natural reaction to being hit in the head. What do you do when you get a massive headache? Close your eyes and rub your temples or nose. And that is exactly what AJ was doing. Good work there by Styles.

(1) Not cool enough for me:

The second match of the night saw a three way X-Division match between Johnny Devine, Petey Williams, and Austin Starr. When Starr made his way to the ring, he was accompanied by the rest of Paparazzi Productions members Kevin Nash and Alex Shelly. Well, when Starr got in the ring, Nash held out his first to knuckle down, and waited there for Starr to notice and send them out. But when Shelly put out his first to knuckle down, Starr just ignored him! And then Shelly had the most dejected and upset look on his face for being slighted. EXCELLENT work all around by all of these guys for doing the little things that are going to make this story work in the long run.

JT: Yes, they really started that whole three way relationship thing at Bound For Glory and I’m very curious to see where it goes from here. I’m also pumped for the big two hour special next week. Things could be on the up for TNA!

(3) RAW invades SD!:

Okay, so sometimes, we have to be a little selfish around here. I know that I shouldn’t be picking something from the RAW rebound, but I know that JP is a big fan of costume work. Now, you guys are mah peoples. But JP is MAH BOY! So I have to throw one out there he can appreciate.

Larry (Pretending to be JP): Aww, isn’t that sweet, thanks JT.

Larry (Actual Larry): Fags…

JT: Okay, I don’t think that was really necess—

JP: No, no. I got this one JT. You know what Larry? Just remember for every two minutes it takes to rib on us, that’s another two hours you have to spend dealing with the forums and e-mailers.

Larry:

JT: Ooooooooo; maybe THAT will teach you to make cute little Smallville jokes at my expense!

JP: Yeah. I thought so. Please continue JT.

JT: O—K. As I was saying. During the RAW Rebound, they showed the Maria/Cena/Umaga segment. They focused in their little slow motion way that they do for a shot of Umaga in the foreground looking at Maria in the corner in the background. Now, something off pattern from his “Samoan Wrap” or whatever the hell he wears caught my eye. I looked at it closely, and sure enough, he has the word “Samoa” in very small cursive letters printed several times on the wrap. Just thought this was a great little touch (especially – considering that it’s an unnecessary touch) by the wardrobe dept. to make the wrap genuinely his. Hell, with his popularity growing, they might put it up for sale!

(2) It’s a queen thang:

I want to talk about Sharmelle. Friday night, she wore a dress we’ve seen twice before. It’s the black dress that has the sequence on the top half that is in the form of a crown. We all saw that, nothing Hidden there. But I think she has strategically chosen when exactly to pull the dress out. We first saw it after Booker won King of the Ring. We then saw it again after he won the World Heavyweight Championship. And now, she wore it the first time we see her following Booker becoming the “Champion of Champions”. It’s almost like she’s reminding us that he keeps getting better and better, and anytime she gets the chance, she’s going to put it in our minds that he is the “newly“-crowned whatever-it-may-be (in this case, newly-crowned COC); basically putting him over… just like a heel wife would do. Just another small touch in the MANY she brings to the table in order to fully engulf herself in the role.

(1) Let’s get another tag in here:

During the tag match between Hardy/Yang and Helms/Sylvan, Helms was tagged in and had JWY by the ropes. He then set him over the second rope to use it to choke him. As the ref was counting, you might have briefly noticed him put his shin on the bottom rope and push down. What you may NOT have seen was why he did that. Because of the angle, you couldn’t really see it live, but after checking several times (in slo-mo no less), he had actually taken his left arm and thrown it over the second rope, reached down, grabbed the bottom rope, and was pulling up. First of all, that means his right leg pushing down on the rope was creating extra pressure on the portion of the rope he had in his hand. Smart. But I also liked this because it’s such a heel thing to do. It’s not enough he was choking him with the rope. Oh no, he has five seconds to break the hold, might as well cheat / use the ropes in as many ways possible in said 4.5 seconds.

JP: Genuine Samoan wrap with the word “Samoan” on it! Hahahaha, that’s like when you get those “genuine” whatever country you are in products and you look on the bottom and it says “Made in Malaysia”.

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

JT: These Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may or may not contain the greatness that is SmackDown. Team HH apologizes in advance if this is the case. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

First up this week is Jeremy A., who wants to give Bischoff the referee some love for Cyber Sunday, and well, he thinks a picture is worth a thousand words:

JP: It’s another awesome episode of…

Hidden Highlights for Hogan Knows Best: Sunday, November 5, 2006

JP: Brooke was feeling a little worn out from driving 2 miles to sing and be told she needed to sing better. Me? Oh, I just worked 63 hours this week including 15 hours of travel (of which 8 were on airplanes) and then co-wrote a 14-page article that requires watching 6.5 hours of wrestling before it can even be started and then usually takes 2-3 hours for the first draft and another 1-2 hours for the final draft. Yeah, my sympathy level was a little low.

(3) We’re close:

When the CEO of Sobe Entertainment came to visit to Hogan house, did you notice what he called Hulk? That’s right, he called him “Terry”! Only people really close to Hulk (and smarks) call him Terry, so it’s obvious that he and Hogan have a close relationship and have done business together a lot in the past (I actually know this is true, but I like confirmation).

(2) That’s a lot of downloads:

While Brooke was feeling tired and trying to sleep in, Hulk came in and let her know that she broke all sorts of records on MySpace. He said that she had over one million “downloads” on her MySpace page (which is still a lot). But Hogan didn’t actually mean “downloads”, he meant hits! This is a common mistake Hogan makes and I’ve heard him say it about a hundred times on the Bubba the Love Sponge show. Hulk just really has no knowledge or understanding of the internet!

(1) Where’d that come from:

During the last segment of the show, Hogan was wearing a nice nWo t-shirt cut off at the sleeves (surprised?). But this was a shirt I’ve never seen before. It was the traditional one with a blue shadow along the letters. I have no idea where that shirt came from, but it was cool, and I’d like one!

JT: Yikes, sounds like someone needs a nap! The Cook report is in, and he enjoyed this episode so much, he’s seen it twice now!

JT: Well, kids, as you know, we are all about the positivity here. Myself and JP, we hold ourselves to a certain standard in this column, and make sure that we are always looking for the good. However, nobody said that rule applied to anyone else. So if a good friend of mine wanted to be negative, and I had the ability to capture his screen, who am I to argue? It is with that in mind that I bring in my man (who already injected himself into the column several times earlier; the jackass) Larry Csonka. Larry?

Larry: Thank you JT. Hello again JP. I just have one thing to say here. JT, bring on the screen caps, and I guarantee all of you that it’s indeed 100% me.

JT: Don’t mind if I do, LC. Don’t mind if I do. Now kids, as all of you have read in Your News, My Views lately, you have seen “Conversations with JT”. Well, Csonka was in a bit of a mood Friday evening, and so, I bring you an ACTUAL conversation with Csonka, and boy was I grateful for this little nugget – as nobody else seems to agree with me on the subject:

First, I got this:

Then I got this (as you can see by the next two pictures, this is actually an animated emoticon where the one little messenger guy is smacking the other little messenger guy over and over and over. Thanks to Casey for that by the way, even though he doesn’t read the column, the drunk-ed bastard):

And finally, I got this:

That’s all I have to say on the matter folks. Don’t listen to me, listen to Csonka!

JP: How was that in any way positive again?

JT: I said I was grateful for the conversations! That’s positive!

JP: You’re upset about the loss to Randle aren’t you…

JT: No, I jus feel that Larry may have a point and that when it comes to Randle we may have been scre—

JP: Let’s stop right there! We are the Kings of Positivity (Well, me a King, you my loyal jester, but still)! You’re going to let three measly points stop that!?

JT: ………………..you’re right. We are us. We are JP and JT. We are Team Hidden Highlights. This is WHAT WE DO! Someone might beat us once, but we are still THE most positive column in the IWC! I tell you what I’m going to do:

1. Randle: You are a positive man, and you beat us fair and square. Kudos to you.

2. Meehan: You always bring it, PERIOD.

Truth is, the both of us would rather lose than see either of you go away. We are all on the same team here, and the positive things we do in our columns is – no matter what the IWC or readers of said IWC say – one of the best things going in the ENTIRE IWC. It was a pleasure to lose to you Randle, and it’s always been a pleasure to have you on board Meehan. May we all fight the good fight.

Randle: That was the gaye—

JT: Not helping! Maybe we should just get out of here. JP?

JP: Actually, I thought this whole thing was going to be about Larry attacking “being positive” in his news report, to which I will be honest I was greatly offended and wrote a blast against. Of course, then I find out that it was not an attack on us but against some e-mailers that were bothering Larry. Still, it couldn’t have come at a worst time considering the content that going up between us, Randle, Meehan, and Cook. And then JT had to write me about 15 8-page e-mails telling me that Larry was not attacking us, and that he and Ashish love Hidden Highlights and all our other craziness. All I’m saying is, to anyone who wants to do any type of writing, please be specific in your qualms so other people’s work is not adversely affected by flippant remarks. Greatly appreciated!

JP: Tapping Wilbon this week, eh?

JT: Yeah, I like to keep it spicy.

JP: Which reminds me; everyone, go get some cactus salsa. I love that stuff!

Thank you for joining us for THE 63rd 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.