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

Thanks for stopping by today and thanks to all that have sent their positive wishes on my birthday...but enough of that....because, as the King would say, one can't grieve forever.  I've saved today for my "cheat day" on my diet but I haven't decided what to indulge in but it could be some hickory, smoked ribs from a BBQ place that I like. 

 The details on Steve "Dr. Death" Williams' services should be made available tomorrow (Monday) but it looks as if the celebration of his life will be this Friday afternoon in Lakewood, Colorado. When I get the information I will pass it on and hopefully those that can will consider contributing a fund that is being set up for Doc's teenage son Wyndham's college fund. I do plan on attending Doc's services.  

Cowboy Bill Watts called me yesterday and we laughed together at a few "Doc stories" especially one Bill told me that I had forgotten about Doc and the Road Warriors. The Warriors were not too enthralled with the creative of a tag match that involved Doc and felt that they should be positioned much stronger until Watts told them that there was no problems and that he would just go tell Doc what they said and the two teams could "take it from there." As Watts started to leave the room suddenly, the LOD changed their minds, called an audible and all went well in the match. Very few men ever wanted to challenge or disrespect Steve Williams...at least the one's with a brain didn't.  

For some reason we have received many emails regarding a rumor that Randy Savage will be appearing on Raw Monday night in Dayton. I have no idea the origins of this particular rumor but I do know that this weekend the rumor mill seems to be working over time with a ton or rampant speculation.  I have no idea who will or will not be appearing on Monday Night Raw but I am looking forward to it being a great show. 

I would love to be sitting at ringside broadcasting Raw in Dayton Monday night but unfortunately that's not in the plans. I will do the next best thing and will be watching from my La-Z-Boy at home in Norman drinking a Coke Zero.

What an exciting life I lead!

Football note... Stanford's Heisman Trophy runner-up Toby Gerhart is the real deal and should make a solid NFL player if he can hook on with the right team. The Cardinal stud is an honor student and also plays baseball for Tiger Woods' alma mater. I got to see Gerhart up close from the field at the Sun Bowl and he's a powerful, down hill runner. I'm told that Toby will opt for the NFL Draft this spring.

We have updated our Q&A section of this site as of January 3. 

Just an opinion... title bouts on wrestling shows are only meaningful if the titles themselves mean something and when the title bouts are promoted in advance or happen in a combustible fashion and spontaneously. In the old days, title bouts were rarely held on TV so when they did occur they mean more to the viewer. Now, with wrestling seemingly on every night of the week, Title bouts on TV have ceased being overly special. 

Will 2010 be the year that companies look closer at the possibility of providing wrestlers with family health insurance opportunities? Unfortunately, many independent contractors are so personally unstructured that they haven't obtained adequate health insurance for their families not to mention establishing independent pension/retirement funds and making nice with Uncle Sam and his tax people. 

Would some wrestlers take a smaller downside guarantee to compensate for the opportunity to participate in a group health program? It might be a situation where companies might want to consider protecting talents from themselves and their lack of overall financial planning which obviously includes health insurance and retirement funding. 

Certainly, young wrestlers who are breaking into the business and are in the infancy of their careers need to understand as much about their own financial issues as they do on how to execute a headlock. 

Speaking of 2010 and what might happen...will 2010 be the year that fans see new, fresh main events? "New" is good and is always worth a try because no matter how many people think that they are experts within the wrestling business the fans will always make the final decisions as to what they like and sometimes things work that some "experts" never envisioned.

I often remind myself that the decision makers within the biz rarely purchase a ticket to their own events so shouldn't the consumers have a major say in what is presented to them?

I have been on a "football feast" the past few days including making the quick trip down to El Paso for OU's Sun Bowl victory over Stanford. I love the bowl season but do feel that the two overachieving teams in Monday night's Fiesta Bowl got shafted. Boise State and TCU are both undefeated and it is too bad that they couldn't have played some of the perceived "big boys" in bowl games. I missed the infamous Boise State vs. Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl a few years ago as I was in Miami broadcasting the John Cena vs. K-Fed instant classic.

Cena is in Arizona as the Fiesta Bowl Parade Marshal and will be handling the coin toss for the game Monday night. I like TCU by "this much" in this one even though Chris Peterson, the Boise State head coach, is a super guy that I met last year at the Bear Bryant National Coach of the Year banquet.

The BCS National Title game this week featuring Alabama vs. Texas is going to be hard for me to emotionally invest. Some Okies say it is sinful to ever root for the Longhorns plus I'm not a big fan of Nick Saban although he is a heck of a coach. I need to ponder this one before I make a prediction but I am a 'Bama lean as we speak. I don't gamble on the games any longer and don't even know the point spread.

Have you checked out our Facebook site? I hope that you will and that you sign on with us. It can be easily found at http://facebook.dj/jrbbq/. 

Another 2010 resolution that I hope comes to pass....if I never see a TV wrestling storyline that remotely touches on religion or politics I will be elated. Same for anti Gay 'humor." Do any of those topics sell tickets, ppv's, merchandise, or increase ratings? Not from where I sit but then, again, I could be wrong. 

Plus, while I am standing on the soap box and offering personal opinion, wrestling announcers are the last one's who should even remotely think of espousing their political views on TV unless they are guests of a news show where discussing politics is the order of the day. 

Thanks for your business in our store. your feedback regarding how much you love our BBQ Sauces, the awesome Chipotle Ketchup (addictive) and our 97% Fat Free Beef Jerky is greatly appreciated. We are also still offering the personalized, autographed JR's Cookbook for only $19.88 and that includes not only the personalized autographed but the shipping to you as well. Thanks for being a customer of this site as that's what keeps us in business.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.