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

From under the custom-made, black hat, it has been a busy week for the WWE’s resident Oklahoma Sooner loving, barbecue restaurateur with appearances on Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

The news that former ECW announcer Mike Adamle was named the General Manager of Monday Night Raw certainly was a shocker to most who follow sports-entertainment, notwithstanding those men and women who still earn their paychecks on the Raw brand … many of whom were legitimately dumbfounded with Adamle’s announcement Monday from Washington D.C. I do know that my old broadcasting partner, who I will reunite with on NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, Jerry “The King” Lawler, is on edge regarding Adamle becoming Raw’s chief executive. King can always “drown his sorrows” by gazing at page after page of lovely WWE Diva’s featured here on WWE.com. (By the way, I hear that “The Fink” has some rather provocative Polaroids of Hall of Famer Mae Young. I wonder just where the illustrious Mr. Finkel obtained the alleged pics.) As King always told me, “one can’t grieve forever” and now perhaps he will have to practice what he preaches.

It’s much too early to tell how effective Adamle will be as the Raw General Manager, but the former NFL running back may have a better “feel” for the administrative aspect of WWE than he had for announcing matches … but time will tell. I say give the guy a chance to see what he can do before he is indicted, convicted and sentenced as a failure. Some could argue that Mike Adamle has as many qualifications to be the General Manager of Raw as a couple of folks have that are running for president of the United States.

My personal pick for Raw G.M. would have been WWE.com guru Joe E. Styles because of his product knowledge and his nifty, flat-top haircut. How long has it been since a guy with a flattop has been the head honcho of Raw? Plus, Joe E. has plenty of Paulie Walnut-like black suits to fit the role.

In any event, Adamle will still be governing the No. 2 brand under the WWE umbrella as Friday Night SmackDown has just taken over the pole position in the race for No. 1 in WWE.

By the way, this week’s Friday Night SmackDown ended up being one of the most emotional broadcasts that yours truly has been involved with on any WWE TV event in recent memory. It was even more emotional than my being “drafted” from Monday Night Raw … you remember … the time when I was squealing louder than a pig caught under a gate … BUT I did recover from the heartache (poor me), and have lived happily ever after on Friday Night SmackDown since.

Read the rest of J.R.’s column at WWE.com »