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

Mr. McMahon's Million Dollar Mania begins this Monday night on Raw. I have no idea how this is going to be facilitated within the broadcast but it should be an interesting process and one that makes some lucky fans some serious cash. The only thing that I know or think I know about Monday night's show as this is being written is that Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel guest will be Shawn Michaels. The WWE live event Saturday night in Redding, California was a packed house in a small arena, around 2,000 fans, and some of the fans there left with some extra and unplanned cash a la the "Money Mania" as the guest time keeper and guest manager for the evening each left with $200 in cash each to go along with their opportunity to be involved in the presentation. Celebrity match of the week....Spike Lee vs. Clint Eastwood. I enjoyed the HBO presentation of "Recount" and encourage any history buff (don't call me Bagwell) to check it out. It sure makes one stop and think about the "process" of electing our President and was not a flattering look at American politics. Nonetheless a really well done film. The 43rd Annual Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion and Banquet is this week in Vegas and I will be heading there after the Monday Night Raw in Oakland (luv those Bay Area Bombers) and look for to seeing so many people that I have not seen in years and some older legends that I have never met. I will be presenting an award to Steve "Dr. Death" Williams on Wednesday night at the banquet. I hear that the WWE is sending a camera crew to talk to many of the legends and to document much of the festivities for WWE 24/7 and WWE.com. Nice touch. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is working in Vegas on his next film but I doubt if our paths will cross in the 48 hours or so that yours truly will be in town. I would like to say hello but if Dwayne is doing night shoots for the "Return to Witch Mountain" our schedules would be complete opposites. I will, however, spend some time "shooting the breeze" with Bret Hart and Steve Austin, among many others, with which I look forward. Apparently WWE employees can register to win $1,000, I think that's the number, during the McMahon Million Dollar Mania much akin to the big bread the WWE fans could win by watching Raw. Some basic drill for the employees as is for the fans. All WWE employees should e watching Raw any way, right? Do you like softball? I have mentioned my love of women's softball (see Jenny Finch) here on occasion but if you like media softball be sure and tune into the Larry King Show on Tuesday night as Hulk Hogan tells his side of the story regarding the media mess that has been created by not only the unfortunate automobile accident involving son Nick and John Graziano but the telephone calls that the media has been playing ad nauseum. Hulk's best defense is to admit that he and his family have made some mistakes and essentially ask for forgiveness as this society loves to forgive its celeb's but Hogan will further vilify himself and his family if he tries to justify what has been said, IE comments taken out of context, etc, even though they have been documented on tape. At the end of the day, this is a good "get" for Larry King but in my humble opinion Hogan should simply lay low and the kid should do the same and do his time. Youngstown, Ohio, the home town of my friend OU Football Coach Bob Stoops, has to be proud of Middleweight Champ Kelly Pavlik who looked dominate Saturday night in Atlantic City in a successful title defense. I attended Pavlik's last title defense fight in Vegas with the OU coach in February the night before a WWE PPV of which the head ball coach and his group attended as well. One thing caught my curious mind during the Pavlik bout and that is that Michael Buffer, perhaps the World's Most Dapper Ring Announcer, looked too comfortable standing closely behind the referee when the ref called the fighters to the center of the ring for their obligatory last minute instructions. :) I had an interesting conversation with former MLB pitcher David Wells at the Toby Keith fundraiser Saturday night that was attended by Roger Clemens and basketball great Nancy Lieberman among others. Nancy was cool to speak with as well and is a class lady. I was surprised to see "The Rocket" in attendance especially when the Texas Longhorn fan was wearing a black, OU polo shirt. Clemens looked to be in great shape as always and he has always been respectful of yours truly and has watched many hours of Monday Night Raw with his sons over the years. I read a Internet piece recently about wrestling champions wearing suits which started LONG before Ric Flair and actually long before Lou Thesz who won his first World's Title in 1937. When I worked in the wrestling office of Tulsa based promoter LeRoy McGuirk in the early 70's he had tons of vintage photos of him wrestling and of wrestlers from previous eras and most all the stars, champion or not, wore suits the vast majority of the time. The main stream media was a little more "wrestling friendly" back then and the athletes always seemed to want to enhance the business and make good impressions no matter the environment that they were in. Now days if one asks the wrestlers to wear business casual attire many of the individuals act as if they are being punished. I realize that these are different times we live in but the way some people dress within the business is embarrassing. The days of Zubaz pants and Gold's Gym T shirts need to be nothing more than a distant memory. Do you ever check out AM Raw? I watched it this weekend and I have to tell you that the one hour, fast paced, wrestling laden broadcast was time well spent. It comes on at 1 a.m. here in Oklahoma (central time) on the USA Network and I had forgotten how well it is put together. It is every bit as good as the two hour version. Speaking of matches, I am not surprised that I often read reports that WWE live event matches are very well received by the paying customers who are in attendance because when TV time restrictions are not a factor the majority of the wrestlers have a much better opportunity in having a fun and exciting presentation than not. Way back in the day, most TV bouts, especially when I was a kid, were all a 10 minute time limit (remember time limits?) which was the reason given for the faster pace on TV as opposed to live events. Nonetheless I still don't know who can enjoy a 2-3 minute match or who it helps over the long haul. What in the hell happened to Big Brown Saturday? I think his big mouthed trainer jinxed the winner of two jewels of the Triple Crown as the big horse did not look like the same, magnificent animal that we have been watching. Something was amiss that's for damn sure. Be well and get ready to resume the Q & A section of our website as I am promised that our site improvements are to be completed any day now. In the meantime, it is always appreciated when you visit our store and support our efforts here at J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q. Thanks! Boomer Sooner....JR