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

It's that time of the year again and before packing and heading to the airport for the short flight from OKC-Houston on Thursday, I thought I would throw another blog at you to cover some WM25 thoughts and to address some random thoughts and general house keeping. 

Business in our store has been brisk lately and for that we are thankful. I hope that before you bolt from the site today that you will make a quick stop at the store and look around. Your business is needed and valued I assure you.

The lat I looked the WM25 live gate was north of a whopping $6.5M for Sunday's Reliant Stadium event that starts at 7 Eastern/6 Central/4 Pacific on PPV. I am encouraging my many friends that are attending to come early and enjoy Wrestlemania Axxess Sunday afternoon and then ease into the stadium for the 4 hour live event.

Hey, I'm loving all the promotion for the Legends of Wrestlemania video game but scratch my head why the King and I have been completely left out of the mix. King's old school commentary is really entertaining as we took it back to the day when we would bicker and debate each other on air. As Shakespeare once said, "the plays the thing" so perhaps the story tellers aren't that significant a marketing issue. 

Speaking of the King of Memphis, a headline earlier in the week in the Louisville paper stated "King of Memphis Heading to Lexington?" referring to Memphis coach John Calipari ditching Memphis for the higher profile, head coaching job at Kentucky. I don't buy all the hyperbole from Calipari's camp about the reasons for leaving have SO much to do with the acknowledged heritage of UK hoops but more or at least as much to do with his HUGE pay increase. It's all about the "Benjamin's" as has been said and I have no issues with that philosophy in a general sense but be truthful. The bread was too much to turn down.

Do other wrestling company's have an inherent advantage of not being a PG friendly product? Evey one has an opinion and the defiant fan wants more risk programming but I really feel over the long haul it won't make a hill of beans. Not PG content usually takes the form of poorly acted, poorly written Howard Stern-ripoffs or a trendy "American Pie-like" film (I actually liked the original American Pie) just for the sake of adding gratuitous T&A to the a show. Now, more aggression in the ring I do like but I don't think that a PG rated show completely limits that aspect of a wrestling show's presentation. The use of blood is a common sense issue especially if you and your family are sitting at ringside as I would not be overwhelmed to get someone else's blood splatter on me at an entertainment event especially considering the world in which we live.

I read a nice press release from Sci Fi regarding their network's growth and ratings successes. Congrats to them. However, I found it to be another head scratcher as to why ECW's success was omitted. Perhaps human error. Let's hope so. 

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will introduce Steve Austin this Saturday night at the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. I'll take the "over" on the Chairman going over his allotted time of 3 minutes. Seriously, how does one adequately take only three minutes to intro a man who revolutionized an industry and, with attitude and passion, who lead a company to the Promised Land? I hope McMahon takes as long as he wants and I will be most interesting to hear Vince's personal feelings of Stone Cold. 

Some fans are over thinking time restrictions regarding the HOF inductors and inductees but there is no way that the focal point of this event, Steve Austin, will be rushed for time. Let's also remember that Steve is the kind of guy that has always told someone what time it is as opposed to how to make the watch. Let's just hope that the HOF live audience has enough respect for Steve to not start with the "What" routine. 

I am elated to see the Oklahoma Womens Basketball team make the Final Four to be played this weekend in St. Louis. My wife and I are season ticket holders and have made the all important "emotional investment" in this outstanding group of young ladies who love JR's BBQ and we love them. Coach Sherri Coale is just the absolute best and I wish them the best that most pundits feel UConn will win almost without breaking a sweat. We'll see.

I hope Plaxico Burress learns something from his gun totting experience that has jeopardized his dream job in the NFL. The G-Men need a team oriented, controversy free Plaxico. The guy deserves a second chance but he must first pay for his sins. The wrestling business doesn't have the franchise on "knuckleheads."

Been reading a great deal about JBL getting back into TV announcing. Last I looked JBL was the intercontinental Champion. Even if JBL were to lose Sunday at WM25 to Rey Mysterio who has proven in the past that he may have JBL's number my sense is that JBL has zero interest in adding announcing to his already manic schedule as he works diligently in  a challenging economy to build his own business. If any one can relate to that matter, it's me with our brand building of J.R.'s Family BBQ Restaurants. Many of us like to multi task but at some point common sense takes over and we all have to budget our time to be able to occasionally stop and smell the BBQ sauce....or roses if you prefer.  I am not saying that JBL isn't a talented broadcaster or that he will never broadcast wrestling again but I just don't see it at this time. Those who have reported that JBL is in talks to broadcast wrestling again are either lying or hallucinating.

I had a great talk with "Big Cowboy"  Bill Watts last night and he is jacked about attending his first Wrestlemania as much as he seems to be about going into the WWE HOF of which he is very proud. Watts broke in the business in 1962 while playing in the International Football League in Indianapolis and by 1965 was main eventing Madison Square Garden. Think about that one. Bill had four main events in MSG vs. Bruno Sammartino and one was the all time attendance record for the "old" Garden that stood forever as the arena was razed not that long after. Nonetheless it was a night the Fire Marshall was absent and the Garden swelled well past capacity. Watts was a 6'3"-300 pounder who benched 585 naturally when that sort of weight was freakish.  According to Bill, Sammartino was even stronger. 

I hope to see those attending Wrestlemania Fan Axxess on Thursday evening as I will now be there from 6-8 pm. 

Some idiots on the 'net put up a completely phony Undertaker/Wrestlemania shirt and falsely reported that it was on WWE Shop and abruptly taken down when it wasn't and no such shirt has even been manufactured. Why these irresponsible things happen are completely beyond me and are embarrassing for those sites who do try and tell the truth and verify their stores.

Here are a few WrestleMania predictions that I go into more detail on WWE.com and my Smackdown blog so please check that out. Any way here goes:

Thanks to Randy Orton seemingly playing multiple trump cards on a highly personal level on WWE Champion HHH and with The Game looking to maim Orton perhaps more than even retaining the coveted WWE Title, I am going not with my heart but my head and predicting an Orton upset of HHH for the WWE Title. This contest is the most heated, personal issue I can remember in WWE in years.  

John Cena has guaranteed his fans that he will regain the Heavyweight Championship of the World and John has always been a man of his word to me so with that transparent reason said, I see Cena winning the Triple Threat match. If not, Big Show will be hard to handle unless he makes a costly mistake. 

The match I look forward to the most, on a personal level, is Undertaker vs HBK, Icon vs. Icon, future Hall of Famer vs. future Fall of Famer. I think these two have been thinking about this match for years to be honest with you. If any one can beat Taker and end his 16-0 streak it's Michaels. No one rises to the occasion on the big stage like HBK. BUT...until someone does it, I am hanging my black hat on the Undertaker to stay 16-0 but a shocking in match development could see my prediction become beguine in a hurry. 

Hardy vs. Hardy has the chance to be awesome but for some reason I see Matt Hardy doing something dastardly to win the match. I will be honest, I am pulling for Jeff as I am a huge fan and supporter of his but for some crazy reason I can see Jeff's "black cloud" linger which might necessitate another Hardy Brothers crash and burn extravaganza. I hope I am wrong with this one as it may simply be the guy who hits the biggest offensive move and that can remain non-ambulatory that will win this Extreme Rules affair. 

Unique pairing for the Jericho vs. Legends match. I am anxious to see Steamboat vs.Jericho and let's not fail to account for "The Naitch." Flair might well be the difference in this one as Jericho could take a long awaited trip to the woodshed but if he doesn't Jericho's stock will continue to rise as it has over the past several weeks. 

I am looking forward to manning the ringside broadcast table with the King and Michael Cole on Sunday as all three of us no doubt feel honored to be a part of this historic event. To those of us who earn a living in the business this obviously isn't just another day at the office. It's getting near kickoff time folks and I can't wait.        

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for those that have sent get well wishes during my round of pneumonia. I am feeling better and expect to be full of P&V come Sunday.  That is, unless I decide to phone it in and you many of you know that "could" happen. 

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.