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THE SPECIALISTS
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE - 6/19 WWE Smackdown: Chris Jericho's literary references, Edge and Morrison trade insults, Sneaking in a Harvey Whippleman reference

Jun 22, 2009 - 11:11:03 AM
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By Lee Stevens, Torch specialist

Thank you for joining me as put Smackdown "Under The Microscope." If you are new to the Microscope, this is not a complete recap of the show. This is simply a closer look at Friday's broadcast.

I am literally being figurative

If you were listening closely, but not watching, you had several moments which likely caught your attention, if only long enough to see if they were true.

Todd Grisham -- "The roof has officially been blown off here." Actually, the Roanoke Civic Center is still structurally sound. If you're looking literally, The Dallas Cowboys were the most recent team to feel the effects of their roof being blown off as 12 people were injured as winds ripped through the roof of their practice facility.

Jim Ross -- "Jeff Hardy has lit this crowd on fire!" Thankfully, Hardy realizes that wouldn't be the best way for to keep the fans on his side. Sadly, fans came close to having this literally come true as fireworks after WrestleMania XXIV entered the stands, injuring roughly 45 people.

Todd Grisham -- "You've gotta bend Melina pretty good to get her to scream." Okay, now the roof has been blown off.

Rey's Day

I enjoyed the attention to detail as Rey Mysterio got a small measure of revenge against Chris Jericho. Most of you remember when Jericho came out of the crowd several weeks ago dressed as a Mysterio fan to attack the then-Intercontinental Champion. Since then, Jericho has grabbed Mysterio's title and his mask, but Rey fought back on Friday in similar fashion. This time, it was Mysterio coming out of the crowd, dressed as a Mysterio fan along with two other men in the front row wearing the same outfits.

Mysterio got away with the attack because the referee didn't see it, the three identically dressed men created necessary confusion and possibly most importantly, Friday was June 19, or if you prefer, 6-19.

You forgot your name tag, didn't you?

The now friendly trio of Layla, Eve, and Maria turned their negative energy towards Dolph Ziggler this week, or as they called him, Zach Diggler, Don Zimmer, or Dick Ziggler. Zach Diggler and Dick Ziggler shall remain anonymous, but baseball fans should recognize the middle mistaken name. Zimmer is a former player, manager, and coach in the Major Leagues who now serves as a special advisor for the Tampa Bay Rays. Zimmer played with the Brooklyn Dodgers, managed four clubs, including the Boston Red Sox, and coached most recently with the New York Yankees under Joe Torre.

If you look closer, you will see that both men share a home state. Ziggler was born in Cleveland, Ohio and Zimmer was born in Cincinnati.

Pack your bags!

During Ziggler's match with The Great Khali, the announcers discussed Ziggler's problems with Khali and extended it to the big man's home country. Ross defended the area, insisting that "India's a great place to vacation." One of the most popular sites in India is the Taj Mahal, with a reported 3 million visitors every year. Khali's home did not make our list.

No, actually it didn't hurt at all

I also enjoyed the finish of their match as Ziggler picked through an old bag of tricks for the "when is a chair shot not a chair shot?" finish. Others may have done it before him, but I remember Eddie Guerrero enjoying great success with this ruse and I believe Chavo has borrowed the move at times too. I appreciated the change of pace and I'm sure the chair did too.

LA and M & M's

Perhaps I was looking too closely, but with Ziggler, Melina, and John Morrison having back-to-back-to-back matches, we had three in a row featuring a wrestler who was billed from Hollywood or Los Angeles. As mentioned before, Ziggler is actually from Ohio, while Melina and Morrison were actually born in the "City of Angels."

Melina and Morrison are obviously linked in other ways as they were and "M" and "N" in MNM, with Joey Mercury providing another "M." Mercury was also billed as being from Los Angeles, but actually he was born in Fairfax, Virginia.

While MNM was "from" Los Angeles, M & M's originated from Newark, New Jersey. One "M" stood for Forrest E. Mars Sr., founder of the Mars candy company, and the other M was for Bruce Murrie, son of long-term Hershey president William Murrie.

M & M's is a song off of Blink-182's debut studio album, Cheshire Cat. The band is from Poway, California, about a three hour drive from Los Angeles. Although the song is not about the snack, it does make a brief sweet reference.

You and I should get away for awhile.
I just want to be alone with your smile
Buy some candy and cigarettes and we'll get in my car
We'll blast the stereo and we'll drive to Madagascar.


Incidentally, Madagascar is off the southeastern coast of Africa, so it's well outside of Los Angeles.

Finally, Eminem is not from Los Angeles either, but he's also not from where you might think. Although the semi-autobiographical movie "8 Mile" takes place in Warren, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, the rapper was actually born in St. Joseph, Missouri as Marshall Mathers... M & M.

Bookmobile

Chris Jericho provided several literary references during his time on commentary, including his defense of recent actions against Rey Mysterio. "It's called strategy...the Art of War," Jericho insisted in an apparent reference to the famous book written by Sun Tzu. Although the book was was written in the Sixth century B.C., it is still considered an excellent reference for modern day warfare and tactics.

In addition to Jericho, it has reportedly influenced leaders from Napolean to Mao Tse-Tun to Douglas MacArthur. It has also inspired Tony Soprano, Stewie Griffin, and last August, The Brian Kendrick read from the book on Smackdown as he outlined his plans to win the championship.

The book obviously does not come with a guarantee.

Jericho went on to add "an eye for an eye", borrowing from Exodus 21: 22-25. "If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

"Eye for an Eye" was also a 1996 movie starring Sally Field and Kiefer Sutherland. The movie was filmed and set in Los Angeles. If you go back to our previous discussion, Los Angeles is as close as you can get to Los Angeles. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures, which also helped with the production of the animated hit, Madagascar. Ah, bringing the world closer together, one Microscope at a time.

The tiger knows

As Morrison and Edge traded insults, the question was asked "Which one are you - Siegfried or Roy?" Edge was obviously comparing Morrison to the flamboyant Las Vegas performers known for their long hair and outlandish costumes, often adorned with fur and feathers. Although Morrison may have been offending by the comment, it's quite accurate. Actually the only thing he appears to be missing is the tiger as Siegfried & Roy became famous for their performances with white tigers.

In October 2003, Roy Horn was bitten by one of his tigers on the neck and suffered severe blood loss and a stroke. In February 2009, the duo reunited for a final performance, which included the tiger from the 2003 attack.

As for Edge's comparison, Siegfried Fischbacher has blond hair, so we can only assume that the answer to his question is that Morrison is Roy.

Need it, got it, need it, got it, got it

Todd Grisham gave the Rated-R Superstar the proper respect by insisting that "Edge has won just about every conceivable championship WWE has had to offer." and Jim Ross added that it's "27 titles."

Edge can claim 11 World Tag Team Championships, 5 World Heavyweight Titles, 5 Intercontinental reigns, 4 WWE belts, 1 WWE tag team title, and a U.S. Championship, giving us the 27.

Looking at championships in the WWF/WWE since his debut in 1998, he has not held the European Championship, the Hardcore Title, the ECW Championship, the Cruiserweight belt, the Light Heavyweight Title, the WCW Heavyweight Championship, or the WCW Tag Team Titles.

Of course, he hasn't held the Divas Championship or the WWE Women's Championship either. Before you say I'm being ridiculous, Hervina, better known as Harvey Whippleman claimed the Women's Title in January of 2000, before it was discovered that he had a reason to be disqualified from that position. Technically, he had more than one reason.

Lee Stevens examines Smackdown and Raw with "Under The Microscope." You can leave comments below or e-mail him at GLStevens.Torch@gmail.com


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