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

I spent most of last two days answering approximately 350 questions from many of you that will become the beginning of our new Q&A section of this site and will be added a handful at a time over the next several days. With our webmaster and yours truly being the sole providers of content here, we are working diligently to keep content fresh and to respond to the comments we receive that merit responses. Some questions have been asked multiple times and those have largely been deleted. Other questions are simply some people’ssmart ass attempts at being cute and defiant. Many of those, too, fell by the wayside. Also, if the comments and feedback read like a novel, bye-bye. We are looking for intelligent, succinct, and entertaining feedback. We are not looking for manure spreaders who hide behind screen names and simply want to bitch about “creative direction”, “glass ceilings”, someone's “push” and a seemingly endless string of perceived problems that I can’t solve or care to waste my time addressing. There are plenty of sites that will welcome all the negativity they can acquire so take your overtly negative and repetitive baggage to those locales who will welcome you will open arms. Whew…damn I feel better.

BTW…keep those questions and comments coming.

Not the greatest week to be Roger Clemens, as he and his former trainer were questioned by the federal government for several hours on Wednesday, in our nation’s capitol. I remain steadfast that Clemens is innocent until proven guilty, but without question either “The Rocket” or former trainer and NYPD cop Brian McNamee were not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth Wednesday. I never have understood the logic of why Roger wanted to testify before Congress when it was his decision to do so. Perhaps just being competitive, which Clemens is known for being or was it bad advice from his seemingly publicity starved attorney, Rusty Harden, who also represented the J.Howard Marshall estate against Anna Nicole Smith once upon a time. Rusty is a BTP (big time player) who has got to be charging Clemens big bucks for the barrister’s services. What was really settled in the ballyhooed hearing? Beats the hell out of me, but Clemens’ name will unfortunately never quite be the same.

I’ve said it before, all entities who have athletes who look to gain an unfair advantage thru illegal or dangerous drug abuse should simply enact a zero tolerance. I find it somewhat ironic that Congress is raising hell about HGH while another branch of the federal government, the Food and Drug Administration, long ago approved the manufacturing of HGH and seemingly have turned their heads on how the drug is dispensed by AMA licensed physicians, which is a long way from treating dwarfism, for which HGH was originally approved or so I hear.

Perhaps these hearings will serve some good if they can remind young people that there are truly no shortcuts and nothing can supplant hard work, excellent physical conditioning, the pure love of what one’s doing, a little luck, and some God given ability. The “how I look in an 8X10 publicity photo shot” days in wrestling need to be put in the same heap with wool tights.

The WWE has not released any names that will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame next month but one can assume that the roster of inductees will be released on a weekly basis after No Way Out this Sunday on Pay Per View. With WM24 being in Florida’s Citrus Bowl, one could assume that there will be a Florida flavor to the proceedings, which speaks to my ringing endorsement of the late Gordon Solie, arguably the greatest play by play voice ever in the business, and Jack and Jerry Brisco who left this home in Oklahoma in the 60s to make Florida their home and both went on to one of the most distinguished careers, both as singles wrestlers and as a team, in the history of the business. Plus, if one talks about Florida Championship Wrestling, how could promoter Eddie Graham be omitted from this class? It will be interesting to see who is inducted and who will be honored as presenters for the event that sees tickets going on sale on Saturday March 1 for the event that will be held at the Amway Arena in Orlando the night before Wrestlemania.

Big weekend in Vegas for yours truly with No Way Out on Sunday at the Thomas and Mack Center on PPV, while I will also be attending the Kelly Pavlik (32-0) vs. Jermaine Taylor (27-1-1) Catchweight battle Saturday night. I will be attending with a large contingent of Youngstown, Ohio Kelly Pavlik fans, including OU Football Coach Bob Stoops, who I am traveling to Vegas with on Friday.

The WWE has been literally all over the world the past several days drawing some huge crowds on a variety of foreign soils.

Honolulu, not on foreign soil for the record, was a successful night for the WWE Superstars Wednesday, as the arena was close to capacity and had significantly more fans attending than the last Honolulu event in the same old arena. Santiago, Chile was totally sold out with over 12,000 fans cramming the facility. Earlier in the week Guadalajara and Quito, Ecuador both were complete sellouts, plus the two dates in Japan grossed over $1.3M. The global growth of the WWE is nothing short of amazing. I admire the men and women who have logged thousands of air miles since I last saw them in Austin, Texas.

Rumor has it that former WWE Superstar Chyna, one of the individuals currently appearing on VH-1’s trainwreck known as Celebrity Re-hab is looking to possibly hook up with New Japan Pro Wrestling. There might be nothing to this rumor, but I do wonder if New Japan would endorse Chyna wrestling their male stars in today’s marketplace? That wouldn’t be my call.

It seems as if it will take a miracle for former Oklahoma men's basketball coach and current Indiana Coach, Kelvin Sampson to keep his job with the Hoosiers after Sampson’s latest issue with the NCAA and their text messaging rules. Sampson was a popular figure here in Norman, a quiet, gentlemanly sort of guy, but one has to think that former Indiana coach, the newly “retired” Bobby Knight, might just be taking a little pleasure out of his old school’s current misery.

So, one of Reggie Bush’s associates allegedly was packing “heat” (a weapon) when recent depositions went down regarding Bush and his alleged dealings with a marketing agent while Bush was still an amateur at Southern Cal. The depo ended abruptly…DUH. That sounds like some of the old clandestine wrestling promoters’ meetings way back in the day, where suggested solutions for perceived problems were often, let’s say, abrupt and extraordinarily illegal.

Long Island Tazz sighting…..Tazz reportedly wore his “I’ve Got Big Nuts” T shirt from our website to his little league baseball draft. You can get one too, if you dare, along with a great deal on some selected flavors of Beef Jerky in our online store that never closes.

The “Great One” aka to movie fans as Dwayne Johnson is not only making an incredible mark in the movie biz, much as he did in sports entertainment, but The Rock, if you will, is also a fan of J.R.’s Family Bar-B-Q Sauces®, Chipotle Ketchup, and Jalapeno Honey Mustard and will be receiving another shipment within days. I am so impressed with Dwayne’s accomplishments in a tremendously challenging genre, that often times changes people and not for the better, but more impressed that he hasn’t changed from the down to earth, humble human being that he was the first day I met him.

Another loyal customer for our products is actor W. Earl Brown who starred as Dan Dority in the HBO classic series “Deadwood”. Earl is a Beef Jerky man and I think we have him “hooked”. I hope to see Earl in Anaheim Monday night for RAW.

Props go out to HHH for joining the WWE tour in progress after his family’s tragic loss, when he could have easily opted out of the trip and simply came to Las Vegas for No Way Out. Yours truly will undoubtedly be accused of kissing ass here, but the simple fact is that from my experience over the years managing the WWE talent roster, that many superstars would have opted out of commitments such as a lengthy international tour for far less legitimate reasons than “The Game” had.

If any one has any suggestions or ideas for some cool, wrestling collectibles that would fit nicely in our new J.R.’s Family Bar-B-Q® please email us the info/link to it. We are especially interested in vintage wrestling event posters, 8X10’s, old magazines in great shape and any authentic gear that wrestlers may have worn in the past. We have a ton of items accumulated, but are always looking for more as we hope to eventually build 6 or so restaurants in Oklahoma before we evaluate our franchising opportunities, out of state to owner/operators.

The great Danny Hodge is available for wrestling fan conventions, amateur wrestling clinics, etc and I will make sure Dan gets the info if you email us here at the site. If Hodge isn’t America’s greatest living wrestler, I don’t know who is.

Insiders tell me that Brock Lesnar is going to fight again in 2008 and perhaps as early as this summer. I predict that Lesnar will rebound from his loss to Frank Mir, without question. That’s what world class jocks do that have pride and are stubborn. If Lesnar continues to learn the unique nuances of MMA, the UFC has a gold mine on their hands, but I think they already know that and they also know that Brock needs to win his next fight.

The Elimination Chamber bouts this Sunday at No Way Out are more likely than not to injure multiple participants inside a specially built structure that is certainly not wrestler friendly. It seems to me that injuries inside “Satan’s Structure” are inevitable and that is not announcer hype or me shilling just for the hell of it. The Elimination Chamber may be a great marketing tool and exciting for WWE fans to watch, but the way it is erected and the structure of the match lends itself to injuries and other situations of a graphic nature. I sure hope I am wrong on this morbid prediction, but after watching previous Elimination Chamber bouts, this week too many guys that have dodged bullets that they shouldn’t have and people only get so many second chances. Multiply that times two this Sunday and the odds double that the EMTs and Doctors may have their hands full with the 12 combatants that will enter the two Chamber matches.

hope to see you Sunday in Vegas and Monday in Anaheim. Life is good and let’s all continue to count our blessings.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.