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

After getting my BBQ chores handled and getting back home about 7:45 p.m.,  I had the opportunity to sit down in my favorite chair and watch Monday Night Raw like the wrestling fan that I am. Often times people in my position can get too close to the product but I purposely watched this broadcast knowing as little about the show as possible including purposely not reading the advance lineup info on WWE.com (sorry Joey). Here are my thoughts on the broadcast without the use of notes and in no particular order. 

The goal of this program was to obviously sell this Sunday's Survivor Series featuring the return to the ring of John Cena. Without question, Cena's return is the featured component of Sunday's PPV in Boston. Every PPV needs a clearly defined focus and Cena's return is definitely that for Sunday's event. 

With those two things said, the WWE did a solid job in creating awareness of Sunday's event and foreshadowing the chaos that can potentially occur in the 10 man elimination tag bouts.

Do the elimination tag bouts have the well developed back stories as to why certain teams are formed? Not as they once were in the past. The reason is the plethora of pay per view events makes these important nuances challenging.

For the record,  the number of pay per views likely isn't going to lessen any time soon. Creative would most likely be all for it but the accountants definitely wouldn't. In a publically traded company with budgets to meet and with pay per view comprising such a vital part of the bottom line,  the bean counters win. 

The John Cena vignettes have been extremely well done and certainly illustrate what can be done via vignettes for other talents if utilized in a comparable method. I'm even interested in knowing more about some of the guys in the Cena vignettes including John's brothers and friends who did a great job in providing telling sound bytes on John's behalf. Without coming off as too much of a sycophant, the WWE TV folks do a helluva job with pre-produced packages ala the Cena vignettes, etc.

Manu gave us a glimpse of what might be in his future as Wild Samoan Afa's son had a really good outing with Batista. Manu is genuinely athletic and seems to have natural timing and instincts. My only suggestion to him would be to watch what he eats and how he trains therefore keeping his weight under control. Bottom line is that Manu has the potential to be a significant contributor down the road. 

The announcer assignments, which most people could care less about, should be interesting considering that there are so many tri-branded elimination tag bouts featured at the Survivor Series. Some of us preparation freaks like to know what bouts we will be responsible for but there is a good chance that info might not be available until Sunday or Saturday at the earliest. My philosophy has always been to prepare as if I am calling all the bouts and take it from there. 

Who knows, perhaps all three announce teams will be called into duty simultaneously for the matches that have talents from all three brands competing.

I would enjoy reuniting with The King for the Raw vs. Smackdown Diva elimination tag and having some fun calling it with my old partner. 

Mike Knox has a unique look, sort of an old school Bruiser Brody starter kit, and is a raw boned, rugged and aggressive young man who has a chance to be good. It will depend on how hard Knox works to improve his overall game and how well he picks up the nuances required of being a top flight antagonist. In the old days, Knox wold have been given a hot manager which would have automatically raised Knox' stock.  

I am pleased that the WWE did not forget about exciting, young Evan "Air" Bourne while the likable young man is recovering from ankle surgery. I casually suggested the "Air" nickname for Bourne one Tuesday night several weeks ago and I am happy that it stuck for the high flier. 

It was surprising to see Matt Hardy wrestle Monday night considering he is having knee issues but Matt wrestling gave me cause for hope that his knee isn't in as bad condition as once thought. Or it could be that Hardy is simply going to try and get through the Survivor Series before addressing his wheel. 

The Batista-Orton business is interesting because they spoke of their history and therefore the all important "personal issue" between the two exists and is understood by the fans. Nothing is more important when booking matches than putting individuals together that have a history or are developing one which then equates to the "personal issue" that gives consumers the motivation to make an emotional investment in their matches. 

Miz pinning HBK was a surprise but I am not one that "hated it" as HBK is a made man and is only an interview away from restoring his luster while Miz, and Morrison as well for that matter, are in the building process and need a few successes on which to hang their proverbial hats. What happens in the follow up of Monday night's shocker is what is key in this process. 

At times the Atlanta crowd seemed to be into what they were seeing  and occasionally they didn't. Occasionally, and not all the time, too much talking or seeing "cold" bouts can disconnect the audience from the presentation. There is no magic, never fail formula to solve this problem in today's wrestling world of shallow talent rosters unfortunately. 

The one thing I can say that most will agree with is that after being on such a long, international tour, the Raw and ECW wrestlers need some rest and the opportunity to re-charge their batteries. In spite of the fatigue factor I did not see any one phone any thing in Monday night which is a credit to the individuals' professionalism. My hat is off to them because I can relate to how they must be feeling after being abroad almost two weeks.

Our FREE SHIPPING and PERSONALIZED AUTOGRAPH offers in our on line store are really working and I ask you to check them out. We have many holiday packages for under 20 bucks which is affordable in these challenging economic times. 

I am relived to see that Reid Flair is holding off on making his pro debut for whatever the reasons may be. Reid is a special kid whose Dad casts an immense shadow and my take on it is that Reid needs several months of training before he is thrown out in front of the paying customers in a well promoted event where he will be asked to be "good" from day one.  There should be no hurry in launching Reid's pro wrestling career. 

I am anxious to see or hear of a short list of potential WWE HOF'ers for the 2009 class simply out of curiosity. One would think that this group will be wisely utilized at the WM25 Fan Axxess event in conjunction with WM25 in Houston in April.  We all have our "lists" and there are few events during the entire year that I enjoy attending more than the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. I wish that the event would start around 5 or 6 p.m. the night before 'Mania 25 so us old timers could celebrate with the inductees and their families and still be ready to rock on Sunday night in Reliant Stadium. 

You would not believe the excitement of living in Norman, Oklahoma this week as the Sooners prepare to play #2 rated Texas Tech this Saturday night here for a college football game the American sporting world is seemingly talking about incessantly. #5 ranked OU is a 7 point favorite which amazes me. This is one of those "personal issues" I referred to earlier and I can assure you that I am damn sure "emotionally invested" in this contest. 

I expect that many MMA fans are not overly pleased about my comments regarding new UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar and the pro wrestling bias with which he has to deal. The irony of this matter is that I am a huge UFC fan and none of my comments were critical of the sport or the organization. As I have said before and in the immortal words of Sgt. Hulka from the film "Stripes", "Lighten up, Francis."

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.