Hidden Highlights 11.26.07: Issue #117

Hidden Highlights
By JP Prag

Issue #117

Hello everyone looking to go back into that turkey coma, and welcome back to Hidden Highlights!!

Hidden Highlights, they are about the little things that make the product great. They are about showing the positive motions all those involved in wrestling do to make a better show. William Regal may bend his opponent’s hand backwards just a little bit harder to dish out the pain. Christian Cage may reference a piece of obscure history. Tazz may bring realism to the product by describing an abdominal stretch in detail. The camera operator may take a low shot looking up at the Great Khali to make him look like a true monster. These are all examples of what Hidden Highlights is about.

Every week this article spotlights Hidden Highlights from the biggest shows on television (RAW, ECW of SciFi, iMPACT, SmackDown!, and a PPV or television special if there is one), delves into the past to find the ones never recorded before, and goes beyond to small shows, live events, tapes, and the indy scene to see what no one else sees. This article may have an author, but it is just as much written by the readers and true fans of professional wrestling—those who love what they watch and want to tell the world what they have found.

I am JP Prag, and I bring you Hidden Highlights with one goal in mind: to appreciate all those little things that make a huge difference.

JP: Boy things are moving fast and furious in my life, even as I’m trying to slow them down. Where does one find time to write the most positive article in the IWC? That is why there are all these guest co-hosts, no matter who they may be. This week we have the author of the Impact Crater, Custom Made News Report, DVD reviewer, and all around lover of Shimmer, ROH, and most anything from the indies, Ryan Byers. Ryan?

Ryan: It’s good to be here, oh Prag-matic one. Trust me, you’re not the only one struggling to strike a balance between the real world and your duties at 411 . . . but I’m certainly ready to give 110% to some HH action.

JP: Yeah, and you do write a lot more than I do. I don’t know how someone like Larry does it and not have his wife divorce him. Now I mentioned this when you first signed up, but you didn’t seem to think so. I said that our styles are quite different. The way I read you, you seem a lot more critical than I am and more into the non-mainstream stuff. I’m not saying that can’t work out, but I’m not sure how well that will translate to THE most positive article in the IWC (and Randle, for the last time, you did not win that title. All you won was a tainted debate… by 1.5%!). You are here, so what do you think about that?

Ryan: I suppose that depends entirely on your definition of critical. A lot of people seem to envision me as a guy who watches wrestling hunched over a pen and a pad of paper, rewinding tapes several times so that I can record minor flaws and use them to blast the promotion. However, that’s really not the case. Everything that I write in a review of a particular show is something that pops in to my head during the course of watching the program for the first and only time. I don’t even take notes. I don’t call that being critical, I call that being honest with the thoughts I have while watching the show. It’s not as though I try to spin anything in any particular way, be it negative or positive. I’m just writing from the heart. As far as enjoying “non-mainstream” wrestling goes, that’s certainly true. What most people don’t realize, though, is that I also enjoy many of the things that WWE is doing these days. I just don’t get a chance to talk about it much due to the formats of the columns that I write for the site.

JP: Fair enough; I guess we’ll see what happens! I’m excited to see how this issue unfolds, so let’s get on with the Hidden Highlights!

Sunday, November 18, 2007 by the Readers via JP

JP: Ok, I have no idea if this Flash banner by Dan Hamilton worked at all. I have no experience in putting Flash into HTML, and the site tool doesn’t support everything. If you can’t see it, I have no idea what to tell you except to click here and see what Dan has done.

In the meantime, much better work for this PPV readers. Keep them coming like this for all PPV because it looks like the Pats are going to be playing every Sunday night that they are not playing on Monday night.

(3) A new tradition:

This one comes from regular and contest finalist Trevor Alexander:

I was watching the WWE Survivor Series Preview and I noticed that this will be the Fourth year straight that HBK and Randy Orton will be facing off at the Survivor Series. In 2004 Randy Eliminated HBK (After A Batista Bomb and RKO) to be the last man standing. In 2005 Randy pinned HBK to be the last man standing again, and in 2006 HBK super kicked Randy into elimination (& into a pedigree) to be part of the last “team” standing.

Now where’s my check!

JP: If only the WWE followed continuity as much as we do!

(2) That clashes:

Up next is Corey Overby:

I’ve got a hidden highlight from Survivor series with Cade and Murdoch. Ever since the whole Mickie fiasco of a couple of weeks ago, it doesn’t seem like the dervish have been on the same page. Well during their match with Bobcore Rhodes, Cade had on their usual trunks with the Cade and Murdoch emblem on the back but Murdoch was wearing his Texas trunks. I am not sure if this is something they usually do or not but I thought of hidden highlights when I saw it.

JP: Changes in clothes and appearance are a great subtle way to show a split coming. I think about the Steiner Bros. split years ago in WCW. It took months and month of little changes in Scott Steiner’s appearance before he became Big Poppa Pump. Still, the WWE needs Tag Teams, so I’m not sure why they’d break up Cade and Murdoch.

(1) What’s my name:

Sticking with clothes is Chris Finch:

Its so hard to look for them in the middle of the night, and all I could find was The Miz wearing “Mizuno” gloves or something around his hands. I really can’t imagine he “just” chose them because he liked them-it had to be because of the name.

JP: Oh, that would be such a Miz thing to do that I’m sure it is true!

Ryan: You know, with all of the talk of clothing, I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m a guest on Hidden Highlights or TLC’s What Not to Wear.

Monday, November 19, 2007 by Ryan Byers

Ryan: In reading fans’ reactions to this show over the last six days, it appears that it has really garnered a mixed reaction. However, you can put me firmly in the camp of folks who enjoyed it. Between Santino, an excellent Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga match, and a good (though not awesome) Jericho promo, it garnered an easy thumbs up from yours truly.

(3) Just in time for election season:

I never want to see her do that 450 splash again, but, aside from that, Jillian Hall has been a great addition to the Raw women’s division. She is perhaps the best female mic worker that the company has ever had, and I’m including Trish Stratus in that ranking. Her promo this past Monday night was particularly entertaining, and it contained a subtle touch of character continuity, although we can’t be entirely certain that it was intentional. For those of you who don’t recall Hall’s time on Smackdown, she was paired for quite a while with John Bradshaw Leyfield, who was a parody of neo-conservative politicians in the United States. This included a rather staunch opposition to immigration, though of course JBL’s character took that legitimate political viewpoint and turned it in to outright racism. Hall, who during that period of time could been seen as the Anne Coulter to Bradshaw’s Bill O’ Reilly, gave a bit of a nod to her old persona when she told singer John Secada that nobody in Florida spoke his “Mexican speak.” Was the line politically incorrect? Sure it was, but heels aren’t supposed to be upstanding people, and it played off of Hall’s WWE background perfectly.

(2) A different kind of false finish:

You’ll be hard pressed to find wrestling fans who enjoy matches that end in disqualification due to a run-in. We got one of those this past Monday on Raw, but at least it was something a little bit different. The closing moments of the Jeff Hardy/Umaga match saw Hardy force the reigning Intercontinental Champion from the ring, which he followed up with a fat pescado. Fans actually seemed to believe that Jeff was going to procure a count out victory over his opponent (I certainly did), but then Gene Snitsky ambushed the Hardy Boy. Though you could argue that this generated the “wrong kind of heat,” I don’t think that you were going to come up with a situation in which fans were going to buy Jeff Hardy pinning Umaga as a potential finish to the match. They DID buy Umaga being counted out as a potential finish, which made them all the more angry when Snitsky ran out. Sure, Hardy could have simply gone in to a lateral press after stunning Umaga with the Twist of Fate, but everybody would have assumed that the Samoan was just kicking out anyway. The whole point of a run-in is getting fans angry at the guy who interfered, in large part because he prevented the fan favorite from succeeding. For the audience to give that kind of reaction to Snitsky, there needed to be a situation in which they perceived Jeff as ACTUALLY being screwed over as opposed to being saved from eventually being pinned by Umaga. In that regard, this finish hit its target.

(1) Does the “O” in RKO stand for “observant?”:

Of course, the one thing that everybody is talking about coming out of Monday Night Raw is Chris Jericho’s return to WWE. I’m not here to talk about Jericho’s performance in his return promo, though. I’m here to talk about Randy Orton’s performance during that promo. After Jericho was several minutes in to his spiel, it became clear that the WWE Champion wanted Y2J to get to the point. As such, he asked Jericho, “What are you here to ‘save us’ from?” This is interesting because Jericho had yet to actually use the words “save us” (or any variant thereof) in his promo. This means that, in kayfabe terms, Orton’s use to the phrase would have been inspired by his own viewing of videos hyping Jericho’s return. This made the videos and thus the Lionheart’s comeback as a whole seem more important, because apparently at some point even the WWE Champion was taking time out of his busy schedule to watch them. You can’t expect fans to consider things as being important unless the wrestlers are portrayed on camera as considering them important, and, in scripting that line for Orton, the WWE writing team stumbled upon some subtle gold.

JP: Compliments to the WWE writing team and Randy Orton in one sentence over praising Chris Jericho? I am impressed.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 by JP

JP: Is it just me, or can CM Punk make anybody in the ring look like they are a top class athlete. Not comparing Punk to a Ric Flair level performer, but Punk does have that Ric Flair-like quality to make you believe that anyone in the ring stands a chance with him. It worked better when Flair was a heel running around the country making everyone believe their hometown hero was going to dethrone the champ, but the skill is still there.

(3) Shout… shout… let it all out:
Speaking of CM Punk making all his opponents look good, he took on Hidden Highlights favorite Kenny Dykstra in the opening contest. About halfway through the match, Dykstra had put on some impressive offense that Punk was selling like a beating from Andrea the Giant. Dykstra then went for another pincover and Punk kicked out at about 2 and 7/8ths. At that moment, Kenny let out this pure guttural scream that can only be described at pure frustration. He didn’t argue with the ref, he didn’t start pounding that mat, he just screamed. That sold his frustration so perfectly and was not completely over the top that it only added to the match.

(2) Push that button:

The next match of the night saw SmackDown!’s Jesse and Festus take on SmackDown!’s Deuce and Domino. During the match, the WWE Tag Team Champions the Miz and John Morrison were once again in the announce booth. At one point in the match Cherry was leaning over at ringside to cheer her brother and boyfriend on. While sticking her… uh… rump out, the camera came in and panned in on her. At that moment, John Morrison said on mic, “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm”. It was so subtle that I almost missed it and was much funnier than the Miz’s blatant remark afterwards.

(1) Keep the cream flowing:

Later in the evening, Lalya El came out to let everyone know what she was thankful for, which mostly consisted of not being Kelly Kelly. Can’t say I can her for that one. This, though, brought the wrath of Kelly Kelly and degenerated into a food fight. As the fight got underway, Kelly Kelly went over to try to open a bottle of whipped cream but was thwarted by the safety cap. Too often in a segment like this, the recipient of such a device would stand around looking stupid until they got hit. But Layla El here did the absolute right thing. After waiting for about half a minute and realizing her punishment was not coming, she quickly switched ahead started throwing Turkey pieces at Kelly Kelly. Kudos to Layla for showing she had some live on camera smarts to know when to move ahead.

Ryan: There’s some joke in here somewhere about Kelly’s age and her being “thwarted by the safety cap,” but I’m not that much older, so I’m probably not the right guy to make it.

Thursday, November 22, 2007 by Ryan Byers

Ryan: Well, here it comes . . . the real draw of this column. I’m forced to go against every fiber of my being and say nice things about TNA. Of course, the week that I got this assignment just had to be the week that I watched what I considered to be the worst Impact of the entire calendar year, but I will persevere. I will make it through this.

(3) AJ sneaks a peak:

TNA’s attempts at comedy usually fall flat, but AJ Styles actually managed to get a laugh out of me on Thursday night. No, it wasn’t at one of the Angle Thanksgiving dinner skits. It occurred after AJ had been pinned in the finals of the Turkey Bowl tournament and was forced to dress up like the venerable holiday fowl. Kurt Angle hit the ring not long after AJ finished putting on his turkey suit, and what was the Phenomenal One’s reaction to the TNA Champion walking down the aisle? He lifted the headpiece of his costume in a manner that PERFECTLY mirrored the peak from under his hoodie that he does during his ring entrance. In literally two seconds, Styles got me to laugh more than I had in the other one hundred and five minutes that comprised Impact.

(2) Traci Brooks plays well with others:

Speaking of the Angle Thanksgiving bits, I knew on Thursday that I would be guest hosting this column, so I tried to scan them for hidden highlights as I was watching the show. However, picking out any gems proved to be difficult because 90% of the segments involved EVERYBODY IN THE ROOM YELLING AT THE SAME TIME. Because I couldn’t hear anything that was going on, I wasn’t going to get any auditory material for HH. Thus, I had to rely on visuals, and there was one thing that caught my eye. Did anybody else catch where Traci Brooks was sitting throughout the meal? Yes, she, along with Eric Young and six year old Kyra Angle, was one of the three individuals who made up the TNA kiddie table. To the best of my knowledge there was never any on-camera explanation as to why Brooks was given that seat, but one can only assume that it had something to do with Bobby Roode, the employer that has been mistreating her for so long. Though they could have done a better job of making the point explicit, it remained a nice way of showing Traci’s subservient status in relation to Roode.

Also, for a web-based hidden highlight involving this angle, check out the MySpace page of Rain, the woman who has recently been seen in the Impact Zone as Bobby Roode’s number one fan. There are some interesting notes in the “Calendar” and “Who I’d like to meet” sections.

(1) If only they could book their World Title this well:

Over the last several months, one of the redeeming qualities of TNA Impact has been how they’ve booked their women’s division. It’s the only part of Impact where I can count on seeing decent wrestling combined with storylines that are serious and based on the concept of pro wrestling as a sport. That trend continued this past Thursday, when ODB pulled out a victory over the recently renamed duo of Angel Williams and Talia Madison. Though the majority of folks probably just saw the match as pointless filler, I think that it does a rather good job of setting up ODB as a future challenger in the women’s division. We’ve got Gail Kim vs. The Amazing Kong signed for a Women’s Title match at the next pay per view, and logic would dictate that Kong takes the belt so that Kim can chase her all the way up to a third match in their series. TNA has been smart in not doing the Kim/Kong title match as soon as it was possible. Instead, they held it off for a couple of months by establishing the championship in a non-singles match and then giving Gail something else to do for her first title defense. If this past booking is any indication, they’re also not going to rush in to Kim vs. Kong III the month after Kim vs. Kong II. Instead, there will more than likely be a gap of a month or two that allows Kong to kill women in title defenses. The three way this week perfectly planted the seeds for ODB, one of the most over female acts in the company, to be one of those interim challengers for the belt.

JP: If you were watching the Angle Thanksgiving, I’m surprised you didn’t pick this one up: Sharkboy had food stuck in his “teeth”. The first time I saw it they were all sitting down at the table. But several minutes later (as everyone was walking out the back door), Sharkboy had even MORE food stuck in his “teeth”. Pretty hilarious there!

Friday, November 23, 2007 by JP

JP: SmackDown! was highlighted with the amazing, hugely anticipated main event of Torrie Wilson vs. Victoria!!!!! Nothing against Victoria (maybe a couple against Torrie Wilson), but that’s really not what I would consider a main event. And if you follow the live crowd, the main event for them was Kane vs. Big Daddy V and Matt Striker, which was just a rehash of the match they saw two hours earlier. Yep, it was definitely Thanksgiving week. Thank goodness Jamie Noble beat Chuck Pulumbo; that was absolutely the right move after how much they’ve screwed with that guy.

(3) The power of the punch:

If we learned anything from William Regal it is that there is a lot of power in a punch… if you have a metal object attached to the end of that punch. During the opening promo on SmackDown!, JBL presented MVP with the first ever US Championship Ring. Rey Mysterio then came out to interrupt this historic occasion, and MVP gave him a good shot across the mouth for showing no respect. But did you happen to catch what hand he hit him with? That right: the one with the ring on it. And to Rey’s credit, he noticed he was hit with the ring and sold it like a champ.

(2) It’s the hometown throwdown:

Also during this segment I noticed that MVP was wearing a “3-0-5” necklace around his neck. For those who don’t know, back in DSW MVP used to reference his hometown of Miami-Dade County in everything he did, which happens to be area code 305. And who else always references their own area code? Why none other than Mr. 619 himself Rey Mysterio. I thought this was a pretty cool foreshadow of what was to come and a nice shoutout to MVP’s past.

(1) He can get away with everything:

At a point later in the night, Mr. McMahon was in the locker room area and came across Finlay. The two had a conversation and Mr. McMahon seemed… cautious in comparison to his more boastful nature. It was pretty obvious that even Mr. McMahon fear the man who loves to fight and doesn’t want to rub him the wrong way. That is why Finlay, to all his credit, was able to call Mr. McMahon “Vince” not once, but twice! Anyone else would have found themselves in handicapped match with The Great Khali, Umaga, and Mark Henry. But Finlay knew he could get away with it and rubbed it in Vince’s face. You could even see Vince cringe a little and hold back on saying something about it. It was a perfect testament to Finlay’s character.

Ryan: My name is Ryan, and I love to watch Finlay. Seriously, we’ve known for years now that this guy is awesome in the ring, but he’s also recently proven that he’s got quite the set of acting chops for a pro wrestler. I’ve got to give a big thumbs up to the (northern) Irishman.

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: You keep writing, I keep printing, and no one wanted to talk about green logos (thank goodness). So, *GENERAL WARNING*:: some parts of the following Reader Write-in Hidden Highlights may be edited for grammar, spelling, and English translation…

We’ll start off where we ended last week with Pedro Rodriguez:

Hidden Highlights for RAW:

-I think J.R. has been reading your column because he said Jeff Hardy is FORMERLY known as The Rainbow-Haired Warrior.

JP: As you saw, I totally caught that myself!

-I found two hidden highlights in the 6-woman tag match.

1) During Melina’s tag to Jillian, you could see Layla lean under the second rope, trash talking at Kelly.

JP: Come on guy, it’s like you were reading last week’s column before it was written!

2) After the match during Mickie/Michelle/Kelly’s celebration, I noticed Kelly getting another good stomp on Layla, who was still down in the ring.

It was a nice touch by both of them to actually continue

JP: Yep, all stuff caught last week, but I’ll let you slide because you wrote this before the article was posted. How about some new stuff that still takes place in the past with Adam Poling (who I’ll spell his name any way I want! And for the record, JT made all types of spelling mistakes, so there!):

I got a hidden highlight from last week’s promo between Orton and HBK. At one point HBK made the statement he felt he was not a “one hit wonder with an axe to grind”. The hidden highlight is that line is also a lyric to a contemporary Christian song by a popular group called Casting Crowns. It is in their song “What this world Needs” on their new CD. It’s quite possible HBK or his wife is a fan and thought it made a good line.

JP: Given HBK’s propensity for being born again, I’m sure he’s familiar with some Christian rock. We at least know he’s familiar with Dora the Explorer. Just like regular (and proud of it) Chris Jacobs:

HH from the Jamie Noble vs. Punk match when Morrison and Miz were on commentary. When Noble got hit with the GTS, Morrison and Miz at the same time made the “oooohhhh” look and both sat back cringing when it happened. Would make sense, the move hurts BAD, and both have taken it, so they felt Noble’s pain, and sold it while doing commentary, lol.

JP: Yeah, I agree that they took away from the match, but the things they said and did were pure gold! Jason Bender doesn’t think I’m gold, though:

I’ve always enjoyed Hidden Highlights for pointing out the little things that make wrestling fun. However, in the 116th issue, you made a comment in the reader write-in section that bothered me a bit. You mentioned that move 494 [of Jericho’s 1004 moves list] is a “pinch sleeper hold”, then proceed to link to a page listing the 1004 moves. While 494 on that list certainly is the pinch sleeper hold, the problem I have is with the list as a whole. It can be understood that someone wanting to produce that list would (or could) fudge several hundred of the holds, seeing as the entire list wasn’t read on TV, but there are no less then 4 verifiable mistakes in the list, beginning as soon as move 5. Move 5 is listed as a back breaker, when Jericho said it was the Saskatchewan spinning nerve hold. I would expect that any self respecting list of Jericho’s 1004 moves would at least get the ones that where mentioned on the actual broadcast correct, and since that isn’t the case, it throws the entire list into suspect. As a wrestling journalist, I’d think that you’d check your sources before providing it to your readers and listing it as fact.

JP: Uh… yeah, I did a Google search and took the first one that came up because it worked with my joke. This isn’t Ask411 or even the Hamilton Ave Journal; sometimes I just make a joke and call it a day. Instead of complaining, I’d suggest compiling a list yourself from nine years ago and get back to me next week. Meanwhile, Brian Figueroa has this:

I’m surprised no one saw or mentioned this one. During the HHH/Umaga Lumberjack match, Jeff & Rey were wearing Hardy jerseys while Matt wore one of his usual shirts. What’s interesting to note is that when all three men stood next to each other, what letters were seen from behind? HHH. Nice little way for the guys to show support for the team captain while not being obvious about it.

JP: Well, I did mention Rey was wearing a Jeff Hardy shirt, but I guess I didn’t see the Triple H thing. Man, I hope it is Hardy who turns heel on Triple H down the road. A heel turn like Rick Landis and his following Hidden Highlights would be nice:

Although it’s happened countless times before, I first noticed this from Raw that aired 11/19. As Mr. Kennedy (Kennedy) and Shawn Michaels were fightin’ on/around the announce table J.R. made sure to grab the headset thing (sorry, can’t think of the name of it). It goes to show that announcers have to think about more than meets the eye. Just imagine if all of a sudden, everything went quiet.

JP: Oh if JR were quiet… what? Oh right, most positive article in the IWC. Right. Anyway, yes, the announcers have to think a great deal during their jobs and have to do so many little things to keep the broadcast flowing.

Just noticed that Jeff has went back to multi-colored hair, and J.R. was on his game and called him the Rainbow Haired Warrior.

Also, Jeff has a lip ring.

JP: JR has gotten better since he started reading Hidden Highlights, that’s for sure. As for Jeff Hardy? I never understood how anyone can wrestler with piercings as there is such a chance for them to get ripped out.

I used to date a deaf girl. She taught me a lil’ bit ’bout readin’ lips, and it’s helped out. After Styles pinned Lethal, Cage turned around and clearly said “fucker”. Mother proceeded it, but I only caught “fucker”

JP: Oh, I totally read it too! I’m not a perfect lip reader, but I recognize certain words. And man, I thought I had a hard time when I dated a vegan girl. Or the lesbian. Well, she was bi-sexual when we first started going out; I just sort of pushed her over the edge. I kid, of course, she was already there. Let’s just say that she was bad at EVERYTHING.

With the recent talk of wrestlers, their marital status, and how they show it. I noticed AJ Styles wearin’ a ring around his neck. I’m pretty sure he’s married, so I think that’s how he keeps his ring safe.

I don’t know though.

JP: It would make sense to me. And yes, AJ is very married. Sorry to disappoint you there Rick! Not disappointed is Adam Nelson:

When Melina was getting ready for her ring entrance on Raw, it looked like she crossed her fingers, which was understandable with her problem at Survivor Series.

JP: I didn’t see Survivor Series, so I hadn’t noticed that little one. On the same vein is R.B.:

Hi, it’s been a while so I thought I share a nice HH I saw Monday involving Melina. Right before she did the split part of her entrance can see Melina put 1 finger up as to I get it in 1 shot now. I think its great that she is will to shot that her botched entrance from SS was an accident and still be kinds bitchy at the same time.

JP: Hmmmm… I don’t know which one I believe. They both seem so good. What does Paul Kamo think?:

Jeff Hardy normally sets up the Twist of Fate with a kick. During the Hardy/Umaga match, on the first Twist of Fate attempt, Hardy missed Umaga but Umaga still sold the kick, which turned into a counter, if I remember correctly.

JP: Is it just me, or has Umaga lost A LOT of weight recently? Oh, maybe Sergio Socite doesn’t want to talk about that:

When Jericho debuted for the second time, did you notice the clothing? It was just about the same thing he wore for his first debut in 1999. Look at the debut on Monday and from 1999. He wore a silver vest and black pants. Neat Eh? Same attire as when he debuted against the Rock.

JP: It’s also the same outfit he was wearing in the leaked copy of WWE magazine. Now the question is if he’ll change his facial hair between every episode of RAW? I know Christi Csonka likes the new look, so I’ll have to take her word on it for all Women and Cook-kind. Someone who wouldn’t know is DeSean Blackwell:

I’m not sure how hidden this actually is but when Mickie James does her pose, Melina mocks her posing. The real hidden highlight though is seeing Mickie casually kicking her leg out at Melina as if they were in middle school.

JP: Those two have a LONG backstage history that goes back to their OVW days. Bottom line is that they do not like each other. Luckily, it usually translates to some hard hitting action in the ring. Stepping away from the ring we have Robert Davis with:

Just remembering something funny I caught on Raw last night – during the Cody Rhodes/Hardcore Holly match, JR said something about Cody getting his looks “from his mama.” A little bit later after some back and forth about it with King, he then muttered, “his brother isn’t very attractive as a woman,” or something to that effect. Thought that was a pretty funny little shot JR decided to take at Goldust/Black
Reign.

JP: Tee hee, that’s a pretty good dig. That’s like when he used to call Goldust the “grandson of a plumber” to completely skip out on Dusty Rhodes who was in WCW at the time. I think JR has his own running inside joke with that family. Much like the one Alex Levine has with himself here:

I just have to think– now that Shelton appears to be probably forming a tag team with Young Elijah– well you must be creaming yourself in anticipation.

JP: Ummm… I wouldn’t say creaming myself, no. Should be good fun, though! Maybe I’m just a little sad that Carlito is leaving the company. Thank goodness I still have MVP. I read that article where he talks about his time in jail and his tattoos… my god that was intense stuff.

Got one other thing… just watching ECW from this week, and when Jesse and Festus come out, Jesse is leading Festus to the ring as he always does, but Festus starts to almost veer off to the dinner table. Awesome!!!

JP: Oh goodness, Festus has been doing too good of a job since he premiered! Kind of like Chris Finch doing double duty here:

And then to the whole marathon runner/Jericho segment. Firstly, major props to the marathon runner, who when he ran in to the building had sweat on his t-shirt that he didn’t have at the start-but my favourite was that his running actually got more wayward, droopy and slow as he got worn out towards the end. Give that guy a job!

JP: Yeah, I thought they and he did a great job to make it look like the guy had run 27 miles. There were lots of little things that sold it for me.

To close, when Jericho was talking and the titan tron was still playing bits of code, one of the words that came up was “bookshelves”-surely referring to his new book. I wonder how long before he gets a real plug in.

JP: He better! I couldn’t believe we didn’t get one on Monday. And finishing us up this week is Chris Roberts proving how out of it he is:

I’m hoping this is the proper e-mail address to send this to, as my old contact for you guys is a bit different (I notice JT isn’t around much anymore). I haven’t been following WWE TV religiously as of late, so when I noticed Tony Chimel was doing the intros for the ECW Title match, I first thought that they replaced the usual ECW announcer. The hidden highlight comes later in the night when Justin Roberts, the usual ECW ring announcer I believe, was announcing the intros for the classic Survivor Series elimination match which only featured Big Daddy V from ECW. Making sure that the role-reversal for announcing wasn’t because Chimel and Roberts were just generic announcers who’d announce for any brand, Roberts sported a black and white tie that you could clearly make out the “CW” of “ECW” on all throughout his classic SS elimination match introduction. It’s a HH for me at least, letting me know that Justin Roberts was still the ECW announcer and not Tony Chimel, who did the ring announcing for the ECW Title match that evening.

JP: Where to even begin! Well yes, you got my e-mail address right. Apparently you’ve missed the last 17 weeks or so when JT left the article to take a new path in life. Check out Issue #100 (Part 2) to get the full details. Now, as for your Hidden Highlight, Chimel has replaced Justin Roberts on ECW for over six weeks now. I’m not sure what Roberts is up to as him appearing at Survivor Series seems rather new. Now, my question is this: how does one who is not watching too much wrestling end up ordering Survivor Series?

Ryan: Wait a second, you’re NOT JT~!? That throws my entire perception of this column out of wack. Had I known, I never would’ve agreed to do this.

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: Once again, thanks to Ryan Byers for filling in this week and bringing his style to the column.

Ryan: Thanks for having me. There are certainly worse ways to spend a Sunday morning than writing for Hidden Highlights. Hell, I could’ve been in church.

JP: Luckily, I’m a Jew and that is never a concern. Though now that Thanksgiving (my second favorite holiday) is over, we are in the worst time of year for me. Yeah, nothing better than hearing Christmas music in the parking lot shuttle at the airport at 5am on a Monday morning. How long until December 26th?

While I’m out buying earplugs, be sure to catch my very own Saturday morning news report The Hamilton Ave Journal: the only wrestling news report focused on the business of wrestling.

Ryan: And be sure to catch MY very own Sunday morning news column, The Custom Made News Report: the only wrestling news report on 411 that regularly covers the indies, Japan, and Mexico in addition to WWE and TNA. With Prag and I at the helm, you can make your weekends a one-two punch of unique content.

JP: Nice self-plug there. I am proud.

Thank you for reading the 117th 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!