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

Good to be back in Oklahoma after a 5 day road trip. The Mondays after a Sunday PPV are the toughest days for me now that I am not broadcasting Raw. Monday is now a travel day for me and I made my way from Indy to the Quad Cities on Monday.

BTW whoever won my cash in the Texas Hold 'Em tournament yours truly played in on Monday afternoon, don't spend it all in one place. My Aces and Jacks, with me calling an all in bet, did not hold up when a gentleman hit a 4 on the river to go with his pocket 4's and send me to steppin'.  

I did get to see Monday Night Raw from Chicago nonetheless as the All State Arena holds many great memories for me. No, I am not specifically talking about the infamous "Country Whipping Match", and I use the term "match" loosely,  that Jonathan Coachman and I had once upon a time. Chicago was the location where my induction into the WWE Hall of Fame was announced. It was one helluva moment for me and was overwhelming. I felt like Sally Field must have felt at the Oscars one year when she emotionally said, "They like me...they really like me."  Enough of that.

Stone Cold Steve Austin has said many times that Chicago was his favorite all time city in which to wrestle. One thing is for sure...Chicago has a hometown champion that they can be proud of in C.M. Punk.

Chris Jericho has become an easy man to dislike these days and looks to be the hottest antagonist in the WWE now that fellow Canadian Edge is vacationing in his condo in Hell. I hear it is nice there this time of the year even though it is the hurricane season.  

Jericho's accidental punch to Rebecca Michaels' mouth resulted in still yet to be confirmed damage to the young mother of two and the wife of HBK. It was obvious Sunday that her lip had swollen quickly immediately after she was struck by Jericho. This personal issue is arguably the most compelling matter in the WWE these days. 

Between the locals, the WWE fans in town to attend Summerslam, and the Trekkies who were in town attending a Star Trek Convention, downtown Indianapolis was quite the site Saturday night. Or so I am told as we stayed in Carmel, Indiana which is a fair piece from the Conseco Fieldhouse. The longer than normal drive allowed the King and I to have a good visit coming and going to Summerslam. 

If you haven't done so yet, check out our new JR's BBQ caps and two styles of T shirts all priced at $9.99 each. The shirts are Hanes, just like MJ wears, 6 ounce, cotton T's. These items and many more in our online store which never closes.  

I saw a photo of Jimmy Garvin, who along with fellow Freebird Michael Hayes, inducted Buddy Jack Roberts in to the NWA Hall of Fame in Charlotte, I think that is the name of that particular HOF, and Jimmy Jam has gotten damn near bald! His locks are a far cry from when I first met him and he was Terry Garvin's valet, yes men can be valets too or at least they could years ago (is that so wrong?), and the Garvin's teamed to face Cowboy Bill Watts in a "Loser Leave Town", Handicap Match that yours truly refereed. For the record, Cowboy won the match in the Mid South territory in an outcome that should come as a no surprise. Jimmy was an awfully good, young wrestler with great natural instincts and had a full head of hair back in those days. It was easy to see in the 70's that his valet or managing days would not last too much longer and that a successful wrestling career was in store for Jimmy. He left wrestling to become a commerical airline pilot for U.S. Airways. Ironically, the $2 steak tough Ronnie Garvin also was a pilot and used to fly himself and other wrestlers to their bookings way back when personal air travel by wrestlers was almost unheard of. 

Ric Flair refereeing? I read of this recent Flair news item and I'm not sure that I agree with this assignment. "Naitch" is and will always be "The Man' but "The Man" doesn't need to be refereeing any wrestling matches...at least in my view. Perhaps it's just me and the respect that I hold for Ric but the Nature Boy being a referee seems beneath Flair at this stage of his game.  But one has to assume that a nice payday awaits pro wrestling's greatest in ring performer. 

WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson told me that he loved the idea of the "Championship Scramble" coming up at Unforgiven in about 3 weeks. Patterson created the Royal Rumble concept and apparently Pat has visualized  the "Championship Scramble" and he feels certain that it will be exciting. Before critics damn the match perhaps we should allow it to actually happen. I am reserving my opinion until I see the match. The success of this unique attraction is all in the execution, as usual. Plus it is a chance for multiple wrestlers to shine. Someone we unexpect may have a jaw dropping performance. 

Is it a viable promotional concept to book Ozzie Osbourne to perform at the Affliction MMA event in Vegas on October 11? I think hardcore, ticket buying MMA fans could care less. Ozzie might even get booed out of the building by fight fans who want to see  fights and nothing else. I won't be watching this fight as I will be in Dallas attending the Oklahoma vs. Texas college football game which is one of the great sporting attractions of the year and is always on the second Saturday in October.

Our JR's Cookbooks are autographed and are only $9.99 which makes them a great gift idea for now or for the holidays. These books feature plenty of wrestling stories, wrestling oriented top ten lists, and idiot proof recipes. Plus, there's some easy to digest grilling and smoking tips. 

Last week on this very website we had visitors from 128 countries and territories. We thank all of you for that. 

Takeshi Morishima had a non televised match that I witnessed on Tuesday night before we taped Friday Night Smackdown. Morishima wrestles for the Ring of Honor organization which does a really nice job with their promotion for the record. When I saw Morishima in his wrestling attire I thought that the late Terry Gordy, who toured Japan many, many times back in the day, had fathered a "love child". Morishima's physique reminded me of the late Freebird in an crazy sort of way. If the young Japanese athlete can get to Gordy's level in the ring then Takeshi will have done something special because Gordy was extraordinarly special. I hope that WWE 24/7 highlights the tag team bouts that Gordy and Dr. Death had with the Steiner Brothers many years ago in WCW. These four gave the term Slobber-Knocker new meaning. 

Elite XC will likely get one more chance to make it on CBS when they have their next prime time broadcast in October. The last rating was an XFL-ish 1.7 in prime time on Saturday night (the night TV shows generally go to die) and obviously that won't cut it. We will all see how serious CBS is in building this franchise, or not, by the number of promos CBS airs especially during NFL games for this broadcast. Kimbo Slice is an attraction who must be carefully matched along with being promoted as an attraction and not a highly skilled MMA fighter. The mystique of Kimbo, the street fighting legend, should be emphasized because that is what is real. Fans generally like street fighters but Slice's  conditioning needs to imrove so that he can throw bombs effectively for more than a round or so. Gina Carano is the lovely face of Elite XC and is one of their most marketable entities. Carano is a star in the making who is athletic and combative but her ultimate future may be in other forms of entertainment such as action adventure films. Gina has "it" and should capitalize on "it" before mother nature and too many fists to the face take their toll. Carano fights are always entertaining and CBS needs to do all they can to make her a star. Will the fact that Carano was all over NBC's American Gladitor sway CBS's thinking?

As I write this we await the inevitable news regarding the condition of Walter "Killer" Kowalski who has been in a coma for a few days now. Walter was one of wrestling's greatest stars over multiple decades and wrestled in main events all over the world. Kowalski was a buzz saw in the ring and usually set a pace that made most of his opponents very uncomfortable. Walter, a vegan,  prided himself on his conditioning and stood over 6'6" and wrestled at one time at around 270-280 pounds. I have seen tapes from back in the day when Walter was known as "Tarzan" Kowalski and was a fan favorite. However Killer's claim to fame was that as a wrestling villian of which he was arguably one of the 10 best ever considering the number of places that he competed around the world. Our thoughts and prayers are with Walter's family and friends. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will check out our Q&A section of this site and participate. Be well. 

Boomer Sooner!
J.R.