Hidden Highlights 07.30.07: Issue #100 (Part 2 of 2)

JP: All right, we’re back. Ian C., please go on…

Another great thing about their segment on TNA Today is the way each of them acts during. Primetime is bouncing around, never stops moving because he is so happy to be back, and (kayfabe) get back in the ring later in the day for Impact. Senshi just sits there, no movements, watching everyone else speak, because that’s Senshi. Daniels is looking away from everything, moving his hands around, touching himself, going with his new gimmick as the new Fallen Angel with a purpose and a God to follow.

JT: I was actually thinking the exact same thing as I was watching it. They may be a team now, but they are clearly intent on retaining their individual characteristics; a smart move if you ask me.

If you guys (or the readers) haven’t checked out TNA Today yet, it’s really a great show, and a HH goldmine. They have a lot of TNA talent as guests on the show (today’s was Gail Kim. Mmmmm…Gail Kim) and the in-character HH are abundant. Especially when you get someone like Christian Cage. And, once in a while you’ll get a bonus match like LAX v the MCMG. And Don West’s Insane Deals of the Day. Good stuff, good stuff.

JT: Couldn’t agree more. TNA Today is a fun little video to catch more times than not. I love Don West and his deal of the day. The man cracks me up. I love how he always tries to make it seem like he stole it all from management and is giving it away for practically nothing unbeknownst to them. Good times. Edgar G. wanted to chime in from last Thursday’s episode:

On this week’s edition of TNA iMPACT during the MCMG/LAX match, after LAX delivers the elevated diamond cutter on Chris Sabin, Homicide instinctively goes to cover Chris Sabin but in a mere second steps back to let the legal man, Hernandez, cover Sabin.

JT: I like this. In kayfabe terms, this totally makes it seems like when people are in the ring in certain situations, “instinct” takes over. This was Homicide’s “instinct” kicking in and in good show fashion, he recognized what was going on and let the legal man go for the win. Joshua P has a couple from last Thursday:

During the introduction of Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley, I noticed the announcer called them the MOTOR City Machine Guns, not Murder City, which of course is their name on the Indies. When I reviewed the Tivo to confirm what I heard, I noticed they both are billed as being from Detroit, where before either Sabin or Shelley was billed as being from another city in Michigan, perhaps Auburn Hills. Makes sense; as the Motor City Machine Guns, they should both be from Detroit.

JT: At the time of writing this, I haven’t seen Impact yet, but that makes sense to me!

I also love how they are using Tomko as the straight man in the CC. This guy says more with a nod and a smirk than most. I hope they have plans for the IWGP title he keeps bringing around… maybe him and Giant Bernard defending against the Steiners, since they are 2 time former champs.

JT: Completely agreed on Tomko; he is steadily becoming infamous for every little nuance he throws out there as opposed to anything he actually says. TNA seems to recognize this and are continuing to just let him be him. Firstly, thank you Grayson for your congratulations on hitting 100, now let’s see what you have for us:

First off, in the opening scene with Christian, a lot of character building things were going on behind him. At first I didn’t even see Tomko there, as he blended perfectly into the background with the security team, which puts over his “Hey, I just work for the guy” attitude they’ve been cultivating lately. Also, as soon as Bobby Roode made it into the shot, AJ Styles started jostling with the security guys to get into the picture and be right next to Christian. That little detail sold AJ’s jealousy of Roode more than any of their exchanges to date.

JT: I’m not really sure that I completely like where they have gone with the AJ character, but I have to give him credit for how he has thrown himself into it completely and done a really good job of selling it in front of the cameras. As for Tomko, his whole “in the background” theme that they have going is brilliant stuff.

Later in the show, when the Steiners, Dudleys, and Jameses were all in the ring, they made it a point to make it into a ECW-WCW-WWF sort of thing (even though they’ve all held WWE/F tag gold). Anyway, after the talking stopped and the fighting began, it was LAX who came in and cleared the ring, leaving one to think “What company are they from?” Oh, that’s right, they’re straight up TNA, bitches! And they just whooped your ass! Nice use of brand loyalty to subconsciously put over TNA’s
homegrown talent.

JT: You explained that one perfectly. I completely agree and have nothing to add!

JP: I’ve been thinking about this one about how I would use the Steiners best for TNA’s future. They should beat Team 3D twice (once regular, once in a tables match), then beat VKM once. After that, they can beat a couple of smaller TNA teams, a couple of main eventers teaming up, before finally losing to an up-and-coming TNA tag team. At first, I was trying to think who could use the rub the most, but given the storyline as it is now, LAX is that team. So LAX decisively defeats the Steiners three times, and that’s a wrap! We get a nice nostalgia run and see the Steiner Brothers at their best and then they put over a TNA team and all ends well.

JT: I’ll have to think about that more, but first… Moving into SmackDown this week is Matt K., who wants to give the boys in the back some love!

I’m probably not the first one to pick up on this, but when Khali won the battle royal and hoisted the belt above his head (upside down!), it clearly still had the “Edge” nameplate on it. However, when his interpreter handed him the belt after his main event run-in, the plate had been changed to read “The Great Khali.” You would think that during a television taping, WWE staff would have more important things to do than engrave and attach a new nameplate, but kudos to the guys in the back for making sure Khali didn’t have to wait to see his name on the gold.

JT: I think this is a very impressive one. We are constantly reminded in new ways of all the little stuff that production/crew/etc has to worry about, and here we are yet again with something we’ve not talked about in 100 issues! And to be honest, if there really is an engraver on hand, it really doesn’t surprise me at this point. Speaking of the World Heavyweight Championship Battle Royal, we got this from Kevin S.:

During the Battle Royal to decide who the new World Champion would be Finlay’s music hit and I noticed something. I can’t remember who came in just before him, but there was glitter or little bits of ribbon floating around. Finlay came walking out and a bit of ribbon, or whatever it was, was about to land on his arm. Finlay blew it away and gave it a look to say ‘get that the fuck away from me’. I thought it was great and fits in with his gimmick, he is just out to fight and couldn’t be annoyed for things like ribbon.

JT: Typical Finlay. He is business all the way; ESPECIALLY if there is a major championship at stake. He just continuously does all of these little nuances to sell his character. Speaking of selling his character, did anyone see the video of him talking about Hornswaggle’s win? It cracked me up how he was talking about what a big party they were going to throw. Was nice to see him act unlike himself – happy – to support his… whatever their relationship is and celebrate with him. Keeping with the same match, we got an email from David K.:

On Smackdown, when Kane entered the ring for the battle royal, Eugene moved back and started to hide behind everyone else.

JT: You know, Dinsmore has really immersed himself into that character. He is constantly doing things like this that just fit the Eugene character so perfectly. Granted, the character itself will never be more than a laughable undercard act, but man does he put some effort into it. Neeraj A. kicks off our Other section this week, as he wants to touch on several things:

– Speaking of wrestlers being involved in their characters, I absolutely love how Umaga always counts along with the ref (in Samoan, presumably) when he gets a three-count.

– When Umaga beat Santino, ‘Jerome’ Lawler (thank you, KING Booker) said “He buried him!” Maybe this was a nod to the smarks, using a bit of backstage language to get the message across while sounding fairly within the range of kayfabe for the casual fans, ‘cause Umaga did really destroy him. And I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it.

JT: Obviously I don’t know Booker and couldn’t guess either way, but I like your explanation for his use of the word as I would any other!

– Speaking of The King (Booker, of course), someone mentioned he had that big ‘T’ on his trunks. But the same trunks contained the crown and “KING” on the back, and he had “KING” in huge letters on his boots. What’s up with that?

JT: Who knows! Maybe he has the combination on there because he has to let Booker T come out every once and a while when he is getting really perturbed.

– When MVP was on commentary, he lambasted Cole because he (Cole), like all
the “media people,” had a tendency for looking only into the negative side of things. Great social commentary by MVP, taking a shot at the media’s handling of Benoit’s death while looking relatively un-suspicious. By the way, MVP was OWNING Cole on commentary (“I could buy AND sell you, Cole!” – MVP. Now that is instant gold.)

JT: Yup, thought the same thing when I heard him say it. The funny part here is that he is one of the few characters that can legitimate say it without arising questions. After all, he is this “high profile athlete”

– It was wonderful to hear JBL and Cole treat the Major Brother’s win over Chavo/Noble as a major upset. I said pretty much everything there is to say about this issue last week and it was great to see that JBL’s continuity circuits are still functioning correctly.

JT: I think I have adequately explained my thoughts on JBL plenty this week, but is it really ever enough?

– When Edge was watching the ‘Rey Mysterio Returns’ video in his locker room, there was a straw hat on his TV set. Now I’m assuming that this is a traditional Mardi Gras hat and giving the props department credit for it. If it turns out that it’s just a random hat, then I’ll take it back next week.

JT: Well, they were in Mardi Gras country during Mardi Gras! I don’t particularly remember the hat, but the prop department does little things like this all the time, so it probably was for that very reason.

– There, I’ve reduced the amount of stuff you have to HTML, JT. Unless, if you take turns at doing the reader write-ins, then that was directed at JP.

JT: If only you knew… Thanks again to all who submitted this week!

JP: We have taken turns, but I asked JT to do the readers this week because of the section that follows this one…

Do you have a Hidden Highlight from this or any week in history that you would like to share? Please e-mail Hidden Highlights 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!

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that this, the 100th issue of Hidden Highlights, will be JT’s last issue with us.

I learned about this just a few weeks ago myself, and JT can tell you about himself, but I wanted to take this time and dedicate a little space to my co-writer and co-host for nearly the past two years, as well as give a little “behind the scenes” history about how this all came about.

Once upon a time, two columnists with little credibility and experience were writing a couple of pieces on 411mania. I was working on an article called In Defense Of…, which had picked up so much steam and was generating such buzz and numbers on a Sunday that it was promoted to a weekday spot after just 17 weeks. I actually had to have Larry delay the move so that I could tell readers in the article first. Meanwhile, there was a writer going barely noticed on the site named James Thomlison who was recapping the WWE online show ByteThis!. It was a show watched by barely anyone, recapped by no one else, and read by fewer.

At the beginning, I was not very interested in reading about ByteThis! either, but JT’s hooks (we write our own hooks) drew me in. His stories and recaps were engaging, his energy apparent, and his skill completely under utilized. JT was pouring his heart and energy into recapping something that so few cared about, and here I saw someone that had all the talent and insight in the world. I wondered what would happen to him if ByteThis! ended or if he would try something else. The schedule was quite tight at the time, and I had no idea what JT’s aspirations or thoughts were. All I knew about him was his writing.

When Larry told me about the promotion of In Defense Of…, an idea I had been playing with in my head for a while came to the surface. But first, let’s go back in time.

Hidden Highlights was not the first time JT and I interacted or collaborated. Shortly after launching In Defense Of…, JT sent me an e-mail (May 15, 2005):

Howdy Sir!

James

To which I responded:

Hello James!

Keep up your good work, too! Just remember, for every one piece of mail you receive, there could be a 10,000 people not saying a word. Don’t feel under appreciated, and we’ll see what we newbies can do for 411!

I’m so amused that I didn’t want to call him JT! This would not be our last correspondence as in June this conversation happened:

Hola JP. I know you already vetoed any possibility of EVER doing this, so I wondered:

James

To which I responded:

Buenas tardes JT,

-JP

Would you believe that? The seeds were already planted there. And yes, Meehan, I did use Haley as a template. Happy now? Well, then you’ll love this one. On August 22, 2005 after Larry offered me the promotion for In Defense Of…, I sent this e-mail:

Hi Larry,

-JP

You see, at this point I already appreciated JT’s work and thought of him immediately as my co-writer. He was the only person I thought could handle the job. Reading him made me think that our styles would immediately connect, though we had never tried something on this scale before! It was a giant risk, but because of JT’s work ethic and skill, he made it work.

A couple of days later (August 24, 2005), I officially contacted JT about the idea:

Hey JT,

– Intro
– Top 3 Little Things from RAW
– Top 3 Little Things from SmackDown!
– Top 3 Little Things from Impact (when it returns to Spike)
– Reader write-in top Little Thing of the week
– Classic Little Thing
– In Defense Of… mini-case

JT was quick to respond looking to clear things up:

Okay I’m going to completely respond to the email, but first I need two things clarified for me.

JT

A little apprehensive, but understandably so. Here I was coming out of the blue asking for a lot of time and effort in a concept that I understood maybe 75% and he understood 25%. It was a big leap to ask anyone!

But to JT’s credit, he stayed on and we continued on this path for a couple of weeks. Looking back over our thoughts, it was really JT who added the integrated elements, the conversation pieces, the fuller reader interaction, and the logistics of how and when we worked on the article. In less than two weeks we turned this from an article with no name and sort of a concept to what you saw in Issue #1. Pretty amazing in my book; and a testament to just how hard JT has always worked for this article and how seriously he always took it, even when he was looking completely goofy.

Something that most people do not know, not even JT, is I was going through a pretty rough time in my life at that point. I wanted to quit my then employment but was not doing well in the interviews department. Because of that, I was forced to once again relocate with that job moving from central PA to the Philadelphia area. So while Hidden Highlights was launching, I was going through the agony of despising my work (one where I would be at for another 9 months before everything panned out) and was being forced to move. Needless to say, I was not in the best condition, state of mind, or organizational capacity.

JT may not have seen how much I was leaning on him at that time, how much I needed him to help get Hidden Highlights off the ground. JT likes to say that Hidden Highlights is my baby and he’s just along for the ride, but he does not realize that there would be no article without him. If not for all the “little things” that JT did in those first few weeks, and the ones he continued to do every week, what you read above would not exist.

And would you want to live in a world without that much positivity? I certainly wouldn’t!

So yes, it will be hard to move on without JT because even today I’m not sure he realizes how much I depend on him to help shape my vision. On the same token, he may not realize how often he has changed my opinions and ideas by just being him.

Even today, JT wanted me to make sure I dedicated sufficient amount of time for thanking you, the readers, in his going away piece. He’s not concerned about himself, he wants to recognize that there would be no article without all of you reading and sending in your contributions. Of course, he is right, and I could not deny him that. Once again JT, you have added to this article and will be sorely missed.

I have some plans for what we are going to be doing over the next few months, and as always they may change. JT has already offered to help me in any way as I bring Hidden Highlights into the next phase, and I’m glad he has because I value his insight and thoughts more than he knows.

JT, I will sorely miss working with you every week on this article, and wish you the best in everything that is to come.

JT: It’s so funny that you mention the early days, and I will gladly touch on the other side of the fence on this. When JP emailed me with this, I honestly had never read and to my recollection wasn’t even aware of “The Little Things”. All I knew was that I liked JP as a writer and he was offering something that wasn’t called the ByteThis recap.

He sent me the base for the first issue, and I distinctly remember his first set of Hidden Highlights in issue #1; he gave props to Edge for being in jeans (they showed a clip of him walking to the ring backstage prior to the match) instead of wrestling gear because it was a street fight instead of a normal match. As soon as I read that, I thought “oh, so that’s what he means”, and the rest was history.

That issue was what… 6 pages at most? Then of course we expanded and experimented with different things. I will take credit for the Reader Write In expansion, as we originally planned on one a week and because Hidden Highlights picked up so quickly, I suggested to JP that maybe we just include them all and make it it’s own long section. That I can say is mine. The other stuff was both of ours or his alone. The “Other” section thrived for a while but eventually found its way out of the column. My goodness, how I hated “In Between The Lines” with a passion (seriously, you guys have no idea how bad I loathed that)! Thankfully that didn’t last long. The Hogan Knows Best is completely a product of JP. The Hall of Fame? Honestly can’t remember if that was myself, JP, or a reader who suggested it. Either way, it was a great idea, as was the Great Positivity Debate (which is JP’s all the way)! Speaking of the Great Positivity Debate, no matter what the voting says, we never lost; we just had too many Randle homers invade our column.

Then of course is Meehan. Our ally in positivity, yet so had no shot against us.

Readership, JP is like my brother from another mother… and Jewish. He is one of my favorite writers on the site, and one of my best friends on the outside world. I mean, the man let me (after attending WM 23 together, which kicked so many kinds of ass – thanks again to [unmentioned] for getting us into the “McMahon picks up the tab” party) use the allure of his Jr. Executive Suite – which I’ve dubbed “bigger than most apartments” – to lure hot women back to a WrestleMania after-party (albeit, it isn’t like he wasn’t totally into the blonde, and for good reason; she was hot, even while wearing my World Heavyweight Championship belt [yes, I’m one of those dorks. I wanted a souvenir from WM 23, and that was it, deal with it]. If it wasn’t for that one chick getting all pissy about her boyfriend, or her boyfriend getting all pissy about something, we were so in). THAT is a true friend people!

I am no writer. I am no Csonka, I am no Sirios, I am no Dunn, I am no Cook (when he’s not all drunk and lazy, ZING!). I am merely a man who 411 was nice enough to let share his thoughts on the wrestling world with a public audience. JP – the real writer between the two of us – gave me the pleasure of doing so alongside him.

And naturally, I will miss you the readers as well. Many of you may feel that the writers blow you off sometimes and we probably do, but please don’t think that we aren’t well aware that without you, there is no us. It is often very difficult to justify to someone – even to ourselves – why there is any point or purpose to writing a column on the internet for free no less. But when we get emails that say things like “I love this column; you guys have really changed the way I watch wrestling. I still sometimes see the bad, but I no longer ignore the good.”, those questions go away. I am proud of each and every issue of Hidden Highlights, and I am so very glad that it allowed me to interact with and entertain so many of you. I still get a bit of a surreal feeling when I realize that our sign has made live television; and that is because of you guys. Our “fanbase” if that is what you want to call it, is one of the best on this entire site, and I will miss the connection that we have.

Now, all super-serial-sappy shit aside, you guys aren’t getting rid of me completely that easily. I’ll still be lurking, popping up in a Wrestler of the Week here or a Roundtable there. Maybe even a Top 5 over in the movies zone, or – if Csonka remembers I exist – a Fact or Fiction. But I hope that I will always be remembered first (at least, for the 2 week attention span the internet has) for my contributions to Hidden Highlights. Plus, I have already committed to doing the 2007 Year End Awards like I did this year. If I’m lucky, by that time I’ll be so scarce in everyone’s mind yet so desperately wanted back a la Chris Jericho (seriously, hurry the fuck up), that anything I say will be witty. …Hey, a man can dream!

I just want to thank JP for tapping me for this. It spawned one of the most popular columns on 411, and gave us some great times like attending WM 23 and arguing with some drunk-ed Brit about Royal Rumble technicalities. JP was introduced to the love of his life Catherine, and I’d like to think we had a small part of bringing Jordan – and Jis to the forums – to this site. I want to thank all the readers for continuing to bare with us through our 19 28 page columns, for getting our sign on TV, and for sharing your own Hidden Highlights, wrestling related or not, with us. I’d finally like to thank Larry and Ashish (and on a small token, Steve Cook) for allowing us form and shape this how we wanted and just run with it. I will miss being a part of Hidden Highlights, but that doesn’t mean I’m not reading it, looking for them, or even sneaking one in here or there. Thanks to all.

…..and speaking of Cook, he was aware of this change and couldn’t help himself in commenting; I promised him I’d share so:

Cook: You know, JT leaving is a big loss for this column. I don’t think fans have been so disappointed to see somebody leave since Poochie left the Itchy & Scratchy show.

JT: Jane, you ignorant slut. Yes, the always funny Steve Cook. Make sure you read him kids. He’s the guy who looks things up that other people are to lazy to and then reprints the info and calls it a column. I’m sure you’ll love him.

JP: Wow JT, you said I made you blush like a little school girl, but I think you just did the same to me! And yes, kids, I do plan on having JT return (whether he wants to or not) for a few special moments, including this column’s two-year anniversary issue in just a month (52 weeks a year = Issue #104… ok, so it should be Issue #105 because there was no Issue #0, whatever! Actually, there was an Issue #0; maybe I’ll share it with you some time. It’s the one I used as a template and contains notes from me and JT about how to set up the article. Kind of interesting if you like reading technical manuals.). But for now, there’s only one thing left to do…

JP: And with that, JT finds the most tasteless way to leave us! Well, it’ll be a brand new Hidden Highlights next week. I’ve spent the past few weeks putting a lot of elements into place and changing up the format/look/design/build of this article. Even JT doesn’t know what I have planned, so I’m looking forward to his reaction as well.

Thank all of you for joining us for all 100 ISSUES of Hidden Highlights. Stay tuned, because things are about to be shaken up.