J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q

It’s a busy week for yours truly. It started Sunday with a flight to Portland via Denver after starting this leg of the journey in OKC. Then it was the red eye from Portland after Raw Monday night to Chicago to connect to OKC at 6:45 a.m. arriving back in OKC Tuesday morning late due to ice at O’Hare (imagine that). This Thursday it is a 6 a.m. flight to NYC back thru Chicago for a Mick Foley interview in the afternoon followed by a Legends Round Table taping until midnight. Then Friday morning I’m participating in a DVD shoot about famous wrestling families which should be fun. Then it is an afternoon flight from LaGuardia to OKC thru Atlanta arriving home if all goes well around 8 or 9 o’clock Friday night. After a day vegetating on Saturday, I leave Sunday for Bakerfield, California from OKC which has a Phoenix connect both on small “regional jets.” Sitting in a seat made for a much smaller person for TWO legs of the Oklahoma to California flight is going to be torture. After one night in Bakersfield, enjoying room service and cable TV if I’m lucky, the King and I will leave Bakersfield after Monday’s Raw for the 108 mile drive from Bakersfield to LAX to catch red eyes back home. I will be back in OKC on Tuesday morning. Everything I am going to do, once I arrive on site, I will have a blast doing, but it’s the “getting there” aspect of this odyssey that is manageable but not a great deal of fun. I stay sane by using the time on the airplane to either prepare for the broadcast I am going to do or I work on WWE paperwork and our Bar-B-Q project which is getting more work intensive. And to top all the travel sagas that are on going, there is NO football on TV. I don’t care when pitchers and catchers report, thank you very much. I don’t watch the NHL because I don’t understand the rules and can’t even pronounce half the players names. The NBA gets good during the playoffs. Thank goodness for Poker on TV! Where is Roller Derby when a guy needs it?! I did watch some MMN stuff Saturday night on Showtime. I enjoyed the show even though I wish the producers had made me more familiar with the other fighters as in who they are in civilian life. I knew Shamrock and Gracie, but past that I needed help caring about the fighters because I did not know much about their backgrounds as “people” not as fighters. Bill Goldberg did a nice job on color commentary and seems to really understand what is going on inside the cage. Lately I have been reading Mick Foley’s “Hardcore Diaries” which I am thoroughly enjoying. It’s quite the manuscript and it must weigh that of a fair-sized holiday ham. Mick simply is a great writer and his writing sounds as if he is talking to the reader. Nice stuff. Buy the book. I don’t recommend every book out there, but this one is easy. Buy the book. Enough about me..Al Franken..on to some of your emails: Bakersfield this Monday for Raw still has tickets available. The event is doing well but has not sold out as I write this. It may well “be clean” by Monday at 6 California time. WWE personnel are accommodated well as it relates to “comp” tickets. When events sell out then “comps” become an issue simply because there aren’t any seats left and the wrestler forgot or neglected to request tickets while they were still available. It’s called time management skills. We usually get what we need, unless we wait too long to request “comps” for family and friends. I watched a little bit of WSX recently, but it was late at night as in a repeat broadcast. I thought the wrestlers worked hard but the pace of the show sort of had me scratching my head as to what I had just seen when the show ended. A slower pace would have suited me better but remember that I am not in this show’s target demo any longer either. Fresno fan… the Monday Night Raw is not sold out as of yet, but it sure looks like it is headed that way by the time the event rolls around. Fresno fans get loud and enthusiastic which makes everything work better. I’ll never forget the Mike Tyson-Steve Austin confrontation in Fresno a few years ago. That was an electric moment seeing it live! The difference in a play by play man vs. a color man is that a PXP person takes the lead in the broadcast and IDs holds, predicaments, and situations during a match while the color analyst adds information to the story being told. Some time the info is informative, entertaining, and sometimes even inflammatory. Color analysts should not do play by play while play by play men add some color analyst-like points from time to time. King, JBL and Tazz are the 3 color analysts in the WWE at this point in time. How well all broadcast teams function is called chemistry. Without any chemistry, a broadcast will suck pond water more often than not. The same thing occurs when announcers talk for the duration of their broadcasts about buying stuff. PPVs, merchandise, the old 900# number days we all had to do all are distractions that disconnect a viewer from what they are seeing. I have no plans for a myspace account. Today’s champions in the WWE do not have to put up a deposit when they become champion, as many of the old time champs did back in the day. At one point, the reigning NWA Champion, when the title was universally defended worldwide, had to pony up 25K to be put in escrow to insure the title holder would not go into business for themselves. Some did and got away with it, but the 25K generally kept potential problems at a minimum. I am not familiar enough with Vampiro, having seen him on TV a handful of times, to make a valid opinion on him. I do not know the gentleman personally, so I don’t know what type of man he is. I do know that I have seen him do some amazing things in the ring with his high risk style the few times I have seen him wrestle for any length of time. His style makes it challenging to remain healthy over long stretches of time however. If you read the top of this blog you can gather that I stay busier than most might have guessed because of so much travel. But I obviously love football, a great college hoops game, TV Poker, The Sopranos and Deadwood re-runs. I am a huge Curb Your Enthusiasm Fan, too, and I watch a little of the Food Network to try and “borrow” an idea or two considering that I am entering into the food world. I do like to read and subscribe to The Sporting News, ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and WWE Magazine. I also subscribe to OUInsider.com and Sooner Scoop websites. I love John Wayne movies and collect his memorabilia along with my boyhood hero and fellow Oklahoman, Mickey Mantle and various and sundry football stuff. I love listening to the Eagles. Plus, I like meeting my buddies at Louie’s Westside Bar and Grill in Norman for the occasional happy hour and football talk. And last but certainly not least, we have two granddaughters, one almost 4 and the other just turned 1 which we love to spend time with. Never a dull moment around the Ross Ponderosa. If you don’t see Stacey Keibler updates on www.wwe.com it is likely because her publicist isn’t sending the WWE the press releases with all the necessary info. I don’t think any one is overly angry at the other in this relationship. I sure miss Stacey and if she becomes a movie or TV star, then I will feel proud of one of our own. Life is truly too short not to work where one is happiest. My thanks to the Portland, Oregon crowd Monday night. You did the Rose City well. Thanks! No, I will not be at ROH on March 30, as Wrestlemania activities and all the various interactive fan functions I hope to be involved with will have me PLENTY busy Wrestlemania weekend. I hope you have a good time though. I have NO issue with fans expressing themselves on this site. No one should agree with my opinion just for the hell of it. However, we can all address our presentation skills from time to time. We are not discussing the war or one’s health, you know, really important issues in our lives. We are generally talking about wrestling. I love wrestling, but not enough to cause me to lose sleep or become physically ill. Been there, done that. With that said, I like John Cena and have no issues with him being WWE Champion. I know him differently than most of you, I am assuming, so I should have a different point than some of you. That’s no big deal. I respect your opinion as I hope you do mine, but if I don’t disagree, it doesn’t mean I think you are goofy as a pet coon or let an opposing opinion frustrate me for long. That’s how I feel sometimes when I read some of the more spirited emails we receive, but I usually don’t try and answer them until I am on a “even keel.” Criticise all you choose, but I am sticking with Cena on this particular matter. Monty Brown, now known as Marcus Cor Von, has great natural athletic abilities. I see no reason why Cor Von can’t be a huge star, if he will dedicate himself to thoroughly learning his craft and making sure he gets better every day. For this athlete it is all about the mental side of the game and that matter can only be addressed in time. Cor Von, not unlike any young WWE Superstar, cannot reach his goals, however devoting only 4 days a week to his vocation. That means watching tapes and DVDs of the greats when one is off the road. Study, Study, Study. Danny and Doug Basham are both excellent wrestlers in my opinion. Where ever they ply their wares will be a better place with The Bashams on their roster. More often than one might assume, this business is all about timing. Their time may come again in the WWE. Who knows?? Doug and Dan are good men. I don’t look for Rey Mysterio to come to Raw upon his release from doctor’s care after his ACL surgery, but it seems as if it is inevitable that Rey will be on Raw somewhere down the road. But soon…nah. The Undertaker’s 14-0 record at Wrestlemania’s is one of the greatest records in the entire WWE. I honestly can’t think of another record that resonates with me more than being 14-0 at the biggest event in the business. To appear, much less win 14 times at this event, is amazing! I think this is my 14th ‘Mania now that I’m thinking about it. Taker’s ‘Mania record is HUGE and will NEVER be equalled. That’s why Taker’s match at Wrestlemania against Batista for the World’s Title is so big. If I knew who was definitely going to headline Wrestlemania in 5 years, I would be living in a gated community and flying my own jet. There is no way for me to speculate that far in the future. It is a great question though and one all young WWE wrestlers should be asking themselves daily. I do know this, I plan on being around to see it in 5 years if all goes well. I wonder what the over/under is on that one? I am told that DirecTV technically cannot handle WWE 24/7, but please don’t ask me the technical question as to why. I can’t even program my VCR. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever and I would bet you a free Bar-B-Q Dinner at J.R.’s Bar-B-Q in Norman, Oklahoma that the UK/WWE fans would eat 24/7 up! This is great programming if you care about the heritage of the business and UK fans definitely do. I don’t know the timeline, but I do feel WWE 24/7 would do famously in the UK. We broadcasters talk over some matches because we are fed info in to our headsets with instructions to distribute this information. We do as any announcer and provide the audience what we are provided. Some times it fits and some times it doesn’t. That’s simply live TV. Would it be better to keep the matches “pure?” It would be for me, but younger fans with shorter attention spans might not “dig it.” All of us can pick our spots better when providing non match information. Good point. Howard Schnellenberger was the OU football coach one year and went 5-5 and was asked to take his leave. Howard is a pipe smoking, gravely voiced, Bear Bryant disciple who over sold his plan for OU’s future and then so terribly under delivered that he was essentially relieved of his duties. I met Howard on a handful of occasions and found him to be a fascinating personality who enjoyed a social ****tail from time to time but perhaps was living too much in the past. Howard was a great coach in his time and is still a great conversationalist and personality. I would not trade Bob Stoops for 10 Schnellys, however. For those of you that are now cooking with our sauces I thank you. I just had the honey mustard on a turkey sandwich today and it was awesome. My wife made a meatloaf with the Chipotle Ketchup last week that was an award winner. Nonetheless, you get the picture. We appreciate your business and for telling others about our products. Take care and we will hopefully talk again before I depart for Bakersfield on Sunday. J.R.