Hidden Highlights 10.29.07: Issue #113

(3) Where is that guy?:

For a long time now, David Penzer has been TNA’s official ring announcer, at least for iMPACT. Yet, we never see the guy. I have not even been able to catch him out of the corner of my eye. Meehan, did you see him when you were there? He certainly wasn’t at any of the live shows I went to over the summer. This week for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship match, they did the extra special in ring introductions. Yet despite the fact the Penzer was the ring announcer for every other match before and after, it was Jeremy Borash who was in that ring and did the announcements on camera. What is the deal with Penzer? Why won’t this guy ever appear on camera?

(2) You’ve stabbed me in the back:

Anyone who has ever read this article knows that I am a big fan of Carlito (and I can’t believe they jobbed him out to D.H. Smith on Smith’s first night. Isn’t that Jim Duggan, Val Venis, or the Brooklyn Brawler for? Actually, looking at the RAW roster, it is distinctly missing jobbers, but I digress. On iMPACT, James Storm took on Eric Young in a Fight for the Right Quarter Qualifying Match-up. During the match, James Storm hit Carlito’s backstabber right on Eric Young. If that wasn’t blatant enough, Mike Tenay then said, “Oh, he stabbed him right in the back!” That could not have been any more clear of a direct reference to Hidden Highlights perennial favorite Carlito. Hidden Highlights also likes James Storm, Eric Young, and Mike Tenay, so all is forgiven.

(1) No waste in the cost of peace:

Last week, Sonjay Dutt (not a favorite of mine) premiered a new portion to his gimmick when he started soliciting money for peace. This week, the “Guru” came out to the ring shaking his tambourine, asking the fans at ringside for cash. The fans, much to their credit, were more than happy to oblige. As Dutt made his way to the ring, one of the fans dropped a single dollar bill on the floor. Dutt then stopped, bent down, and picked the dollar bill back up, adding it to his collection! I thought this was fantastic by Dutt to show how committed he is to his new gimmick by trying to get as much money as possible, not wasting a drop. Keep this type of stuff up, and maybe I’ll change my mind about you yet.

Wilcox: It’s not commitment to the gimmick JP, it’s the fact that TNA needs as much cash as they can get to be able to sign the recently-released Daivari. Hey, I was just joking, but Daivari and Dutt would actually make for a pretty good tag team… until they are buried by Team 3D that is.

Friday, October 26, 2007 by Wilcox

Wilcox: The go-home show for Cyber Sunday featured some good build for the three SmackDown matches and was highlighted by a great tag team match that actually provided us with all three of our Hidden Highlights this week! And as an unofficial Honorable Mention of a HH, check out the “C” for captain that is now on MVP’s ring attire!

(3) “Suck it up!”:

During the tag match between MVP and Matt Hardy against Finlay and Rey Mysterio, the tag team champions were isolating Mysterio and tossed him to the floor. Here, Finlay took the opportunity to hop down from the apron and go over to yell at his partner, telling him to “suck it up!” This is great because not only does it build to the fact that Rey and Finlay don’t like each other and are going to be opponents, but it also fits Finlay’s character perfectly; he loves to fight and would be frustrated when he is losing a match through no fault of his own. This was great work by Finlay to sell his character and the match at Cyber Sunday.

(2) Hidden Dangers:

In the middle of the same match, Mysterio and Hardy were working in the ring when Rey went for a hurricanrana. He hit it and this busted Matt Hardy wide open as a result of a gash above the eye. Reports have stated that this was caused by a sharp edge on Rey’s knee braces that he wears underneath his ring gear, and as I saw nothing to contradict this I have to assume that’s what happened. This was a great reminder that even performing the “safest” of moves can prove dangerous to a professional wrestler and it isn’t just the high-risk or spotfests that can cause someone a terrible injury, and if you don’t believe me, ask Matt Hardy who had 35 stitches as a result of the wound.

(1) You do you’re thing, I’ll do mine:

After Hardy was cut and his face became the proverbial crimson mask, Finlay tagged in and went right after the wound. This was great work by Finlay as something unexpected happened during the course of the match and he had the brains to switch up is attack to target the injury – this, of course, is what Finlay is all about. He didn’t let up on that head injury the entire time he was in the ring. Then when Mysterio is tagged in, he was reluctant to fight Matt! This was great by Mysterio to differentiate himself from his tag partner who was also his bitter enemy and stay in character and be compassionate to his fellow competitor.

JP: It’s rare that Ryan Byers and I agree on a point, but this reminds me of what happened to Candice Michelle on Monday. During that match, Candice was hurt and yet they still decided to go for the finish despite the fact that the injury could have been life threatening. They do that to protect the show and make it look good. The same thing happened here. You are absolutely right that Finlay and Mysterio reacted perfectly as they would in the real world and took their characters to the next degree. But that did not STOP them from actually taking the time to check on Matt. Matt was losing a lot of blood, and for his safety they should have just stopped the match. I know it is anti-climatic, but at some point we have to start caring about the wrestler’s health before the finish of the match. I don’t ever want to see Buff Bagwell laying in the ring for 50 minutes of a live Thunder ever again (guess that is a highly unlikely scenario, but you get my drift).

Sunday, October 21, 2007 by JP

JP: Father of the Year Award? It took a lot of research, but this organization and award do actually exist. That said, there is nothing available to what the criteria is, who votes, how someone is chosen, or anything for that matter. What I could tell was that there are several “regional” awards as well, with the New York one just being the big one. All and all, it looks like a good deal for Hallmark.

(3) She cooks!:

As noted in an earlier edition of Hidden Highlights, since moving to Miami the Hogans never cook, not even for breakfast or making sandwiches. This especially came out in an episode where Hulk brought Linda breakfast in bed after going through some styrofoam boxes and picking out cold eggs and whatnot. This week, when the Hogans returned to their old stomping grounds in Clearwater, I noticed something interesting. While in the kitchen, Linda was actually making sandwiches!! Since this was the first time this season that any Hogan has made their own food, I thought it was worth noting.

(2) Get that plug in:

Anyone else who has followed this season knows that I also like to point out any reference to Hulk’s best friend: Bubba the Love Sponge. Now, it would be too easy to point out Bubba appearing on the show and Hulk, Nick, and Bubba all wearing Bubba Army shirts. Instead, I’ll point out when Bubba did appear he was wearing a hat that advertised Sirius Satellite Radio on all sides. So no matter where they took that shot of Bubba, he was going to get that plug in.

(1) It’s all innocence:

As you also know, here in Hidden Highlights we like to point out what people wear and how it defines their character. When the Hogans returned to their Clearwater home, Brooke was not wearing her frilly or skimpy Miami or performance wear, she was wearing a dumpy sundress. The context was quite clear: she was going back to her childhood and reliving the past. This could not be more poignant then when she sat down at the piano. Yep, they do a good job on all of the details on that show, even dressing the cast.

Wilcox: I’m constantly failing to keep up with this show. I think we’re a full season behind in the UK anyway. And if Brooke ain’t wearing skimpy shit, I guess it’s not worth watching anyway.

Hidden Highlights are not just about what was written above, but about what you have seen as well. This article strives to not only spotlight the best Hidden Highlights, but to engage you, the viewers, and make you the best audience in the world.

JP: Back to the normal amounts of readers with their abnormal amounts to say. So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

As requested, I got some live and local information from merry old England in one Chris Finch:

Being an Englishman, my hidden highlight is a nice touch and something only a local to the Midlands would have noticed….

Whenever Smackdown and ECW come to England, they have that double decker London-style red bus, but this week we had a retro style “Midland Red” bus rather than the typical London ones, as we were in the Midlands, Birmingham. Something you wouldn’t care about if you weren’t local but I thought it was a nice tough by whoever decided it to be there.

JP: Like I’ve said before, I’m always impressed with the vehicles the WWE production staff picks up, and that was a nice touch you added here. Former Reader write-in contest finalist Trevor Alexander returns with a few observations, so I kept one:

Samoa Joe actually set up the muscle buster without putting his opponent on the top rope.

JP: I know, that was the first time he’s done that in TNA. I was quite impressed with the little setup. Speaking of impressive things, even regular Chris Jacobs is impressed with come recent continuity:

I would like to add a HH to the new “shoot styles”. Not only have the refs been doing this, but the writing crew as well. I noticed on the Raw preview that Candice Michelle is using her rematch clause to go for the title. Randy Orton used it at the PPV, and HHH used it the next night after the PPV. Really it has been said that the champion gets a guaranteed rematch, but the last few years when the champ loses, he is screwed over. He has to fight up from the bottom, or just gets misused and thrown around because he has a feud with higher ups, and maybe a year or so later, the face gets his belt back. But we have had three rematch clauses granted since the last PPV already, I like it for the realism, and continuity of this new “shoot style” rules.

JP: This is what I was talking about before. I really enjoy when they enforce the rules as if this were a real organization and not just make things up. Let’s hope they do more of it. Any other thoughts?

Another HH. In Ashish’s article about Lesnar, this was said by Dana White:

Now I find this a HH for two reasons, Dana said he was the best pro wrestler to transition, then Lesnar with a wrestling background, and after Dana saying that, instead of saying the WWE of fighting, (ala not doing indie shows such as K-1, or whatnot. Not that they are not good, but UFC is so much more known). Brock cuts his ties to WWE by saying he joined the NFL of fighting.

JP: Well I thought the whole thing was a dig on Kurt Angle. Kurt keeps talking about MMA, but Lesner actually did what it takes. Dana is making a point that Angle had not shown that he can really compete. It was a good subtle dig, though. Up next is Basti Heckl who I’ll forgive the lack of capitalization because he’s from Denmark, though I’m pretty sure they use capital letters there:

Concerning Brandon Sloss’ Hidden Highlight of Jay Lethal hooking his own leg at Bound for Glory:

My impression was rather that he didn’t do it to support the pin but that he hurt his knee/sold hurting his knee on the impact of the Lethal Combination off the ropes. Watching it again, it doesn’t seem quite that obvious to me, but I believe that you can see him favouring his knee after the pinfall and limping when he stands up to celebrate. At first I thought it was a great sell job but then again you probably don’t need to be a great actor to pretend your knee is hurt after you’ve just had a grown man crash on it from five feet up… Anyway! Just my two cents.

JP: Actually, you do have to be a good actor because the tendency is to oversell. Have you ever seen someone screaming out so much that you knew it could not have been real? That’s the trick here. Another person in argument is… err… Blah DeBlah:

The reason the WWE hasn’t used the name is because there’s already a tag team in the indie circuit called “The Redneck Wrecking Crew” – they debuted in UPW last January, maybe even a little earlier. Lately they’ve been working for Empire Pro in North Carolina. Anyway, they certainly have dibs on the name time-wise, so it’s unlikely WWE would use it as any kind of “official” name for C&M unless they paid off the indie guys.

JP: Well, Blah, I have to say I completely disagree with you here. I did a little search at the patent office and no one owns the name “Redneck Wrecking Crew”, so the WWE can do whatever they want. Besides, I’m sure they are quite unaware of what some indie team in UPW is calling themselves. There is no such thing as “dibs” in business and trademarks. Copyrights, on the other hand, are plausible. Moving on to a lighter topic is Mark W:

I was watching RAW during the Santino vs. Ron Simmons match and this guy in the front row was holding up his, what looked to be 6 yr. old son…who was right in front of them? Maria! The dad and son’s eyes were SQUARELY locked on Maria’s ass (not that I blame them). The dad was taking a picture and the kid just looked in awe…staring at Maria’s ass… his dad should be proud!

JP: Hehehe, I saw the dad putting his kid down, but I missed that part. I hope the wife/mom didn’t catch that one or that she doesn’t read this article! Oh, hey, Brandon Sloss is here, but not to defend himself:

I’m sure others heard this when it happened, but good job goes out to the ref in the Beth Phoenix Candice Michelle match this week, the moment he knew that Candice was knocked out he told Beth its over pull her out and pin her.

JP: Yeah, it was quite loud. You could also here him saying, “Be careful, watch it!” as Beth dragged Candice back into the ring. I noticed they fed her water in the ring, too. Guess no one knows what they are doing. Luckily, the BKeeper (seriously people, where are your names?) seems to get it:

This past Monday, (yesterday), when Coachman got in the ring for the match between Umaga and Hornswaggle, the camera zoomed in on his face, and you could clearly see a fan seated behind him doing the “bunny ears” with his hand!! That fan knew where he was (even checking the TitanTron!), and took advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Kudos to that guy!!

JP: I love unique audience interaction, and that was an excellent catch. You are right, kudos to that fan! Let’s take it far to the south with first timer Nicholas Noel who checks in from Australia:

Just something I picked up from watching ‘Smackdown’ on Friday concerning Big Daddy V. Not sure if he does this every time, but when he had Miz in the corner he went for a chop with his hand in the “V” sign instead of a plain flat palm. A little thing like that makes the shows worth watching.

JP: No, he’s been doing that for a while, but it is still worth a note.

Not sure if this one is a HH, but on ‘RAW’ this week, when Randy Orton was talking with Kennedy in the back… did you notice the size of Randy Orton’s head? It DWARFED Kennedy’s. I dead set laughed out loud when I saw that.

JP: Boy, I really hope Randy Orton isn’t reading this week! Sticking in Australia and RAW is Brett Sullivan (you two should get together):

During the opening to RAW when Orton was looking to punt Jeff’s head into about the 20th row. Jeff actually covered up which I thought was great in the past the person who is about to get their head punted just seems to stay there and wait for it.

JP: Yeah, it’s a basic boxing thing: COVER UP! It mostly hurts the person doing the hitting that way. From Australia to the oldies, it’s the return of Travis Bucklaschuck:

First off is my first Hidden Highlight from the up and coming Smackdown Vs Raw 2008, while watching a video the commentating track (I’m pretty sure JBL’s line) has a familiar nickname from the WWE’s estranged sibling TNA, the nickname used is “The Charismatic Enigma” (Which is alot more masculine than the “Rainbow Haired Warrior”), it’s nice to see that Jeff Hardy’s time in TNA got at least a little nod, as I don’t remember that nickname being used on WWE programming at all.

JP: They used it a few times when he returned, but you are right, it has been phased out. Guess I didn’t even realize it, so a nice little nod.

Secondly this is for Matt Hardy’s old Version 1 gimmick back when he had the Media Player-esque screen effect. But if you notice the screen often stalled during his entrance, sort of like it was buffering and someone was too excited to wait for the video to fully load. A nice touch to the entrance, it’s a shame he doesn’t use it any longer, I rather miss the random factoids such as: “Matt has never locked his keys in his car.”

JP: Every time I see Matt I wish he’d go back to V1! I miss that entrance so much!

Third off, and this I am really rather shocked about, is that no one has pointed out that the hand gesture that Big Daddy V uses is none other than the Vulcan Salute hand sign from Star Trek (Which is also a Jewish hand blessing). Maybe Big Daddy V is Jewish?

JP: Didn’t I tell you that Big Daddy V was my long lost half-brother? Why do you think I talk about him so much! Unlike my other half-brother Keith, who just likes to go shopping for toys:

I found a Hidden Highlight in an unexpected place: the toy store! Specifically, a Boscov’s near where I live. They were selling a two-pack of figures: MVP and Kane. What made it a HH was one of the weapons in the pack, placed directly next to MVP. It was a fire extinguisher!

A while back during their feud, the two had an Inferno Match that saw MVP being set on fire and extinguished. Apparently MVP, or at least his action figure, has learned what he needs to have handy if he’s going to deal with Kane again!

JP: Oh that is too much! Can’t say I miss Boscov’s though. Take that Pennsylvania! And no Michelle, I will not move back there.

Wilcox: Sorry but I have to call you on that last one – the weapons they put in the figures ain’t Hidden Highlights. Like when you get a two pack of Matt and Jeff Hardy, you’re guaranteed to get a ladder – it’s just common sense. Now if you had a trio pack of Paul London, Brian Kendrick and Triple H that came with a miniature shovel for burying, you might say that’s a Hidden Highlight.

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… readers just like to know!

JP: We’ve reached the end of the issue and we are back on track! I’d like to thank this week’s guest co-host Dan Wilcox for being a very good fill-in, especially at the last minute with the way things worked out this week. So thanks again, lackey!

Wilcox: You’ll regret calling me lackey when I do eventually take over from Larrold and have you demoted to doing Heat Reports.

JP: Oh lordie, nothing could be worse than that!

Small: Oh, you’ll pay for that one!

Slimmer: Damn straight!

Small: Hey, does that mean we are teaming up again?

Slimmer: Only if you don’t go on another 12 week vacation.

Small: That’s it, we’re feuding again!

JP: Boy, am I glad that one resolved quickly. I wouldn’t want to cover HeAT and we’ve got weeks of Hidden Highlight adventures planned.

In the meantime, be sure to catch my very own Saturday morning news report: The Hamilton Ave Journal. The Hamilton Ave Journal is the only wrestling news report focused on the business of wrestling. JP Prag: changing the way you view the world of Professional Wrestling since 2005.

Thank you for reading the 113th ISSUE of Hidden Highlights! Be sure to drop a line with all the other Hidden Highlights not covered this time around and everything you catch in the week to come.

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