The first three people I saw when I walked down the hall in the locker room area of the Pepsi Arena Monday afternoon were three Mid South Wrestling alumni, Steve "Dr. Death" Williams, Ted DiBiase, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, having a friendly conversation. In their prime, each of these men brought something different, but special to the table. Doc was a natural, as far as the physicality goes in the wrestling business, and started working for Bill Watts between Doc’s junior and senior year in college at Oklahoma. I saw Doc’s college wrestling coach, Stan Able, Tuesday afternoon following our friend Jack Mildren’s funeral services and Stan said Doc, a former 4 time All American heavyweight at OU was the most loyal athleteS Stan ever coached and at times the most frightening.
Duggan was a brawler along the lines of Bruiser Brody and Mick Foley on their best days, and the former SMU Mustang football player is a former state high school champion wrestler from Glens Falls, N.Y. After the Junkyard Dog abruptly left Mid South Wrestling for the greener pastures of the WWE, Duggan carried the ball for Watts and replaced JYD as the territory’s top hero.
Duggan and Doc, both legit bad asses, have been blessed to have each beaten cancer.
DiBiase, whose 241 page autobiography is one that I highly suggest that you read, was arguably the most well rounded performer of the aforementioned trio and Teddy’s Million Dollar Man persona was one of the WWE’s best and most viable personas. (more…)
I would like to tell you about my week, which started Sunday by flying to Detroit then to Tampa on Tuesday then to OKC on Wednesday and doing Monday Night Raw media Thursday and Friday in OKC before catching another flight Saturday to Omaha to prepare for Sunday’s Judgment Day PPV and then driving the 180 miles from Nebraska to Kansas City on Monday for Raw…but, I won’t because it would come off as "poor me" (Gosh, I miss "The Sopranos") and, quite frankly, I’m healthy and having a great week. I actually like staying busy because, as my Dad used to say, it sure as hell beats picking up rocks and digging post holes.
Tuesday and Wednesday saw yours truly spend a whirlwind couple of days in Florida visiting Florida Championship Wrestling’s new facility and observing the WWE Developmental talents wrestle on Tuesday night and do ring work on Wednesday. Both days were positive experiences and the facility in Tampa on Dale Mabry Blvd is going to be state of the art once the construction is completed. In my personal opinion, I don’t think the WWE has any aspect of their business that is MORE important than the development of new stars. Problem is, stars don’t grow on trees. Athletes either have "it" or they don’t and "it" can’t be manufactured. As time goes on, we will all see how many of these hard working young kids discover if they have "it" or not. Nonetheless, the WWE has some exciting, young people working diligently to learn their craft in hopes of some day being the main event at Wrestlemania. That’s how I look at this process. If one is wanting to make it to the Promised Land of one of the three rosters, with the opportunity to earn big cash, appear on weekly TV and their goal is NOT to want to headline ‘Mania, then they need to update their resumes.
The Bottom Line…thanks Stone Cold…is I like what I saw. (more…)
By GREG OLIVER - Producer
SLAM! Wrestling
To hear Jim Ross talk about the art of smoking meat just right is to have one’s mouth water. Just as he is an expert on describing what’s going on in a wrestling ring, he’s damn good at explaining what makes his barbecue joint so special.
"Smoking is kind of a lost art in the restaurant world, ostensibly because it’s so darn time consuming," he explained to SLAM! Wrestling recently. At his restaurant, J.R.’s Family Bar-B-Q, located on 353 Interstate Drive in Norman, Oklahoma in a refitted Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop, a few employees arrive at 4 a.m. to get the outdoor smoker started each morning. The pulled pork, for example, made from pork shoulder or pork butt, is a 12-hour process. (more…)
After reading what some people have said regarding the three primary United States Presidential Candidates appearing on last Monday’s Raw and the fact that now these eligible voters now are NOT voting is incredulous to me.
The price that our forefathers paid to insure that all Americans had the right to vote was a steep one and to declare that one isn’t voting because the candidates briefly appeared on Monday Night Raw is "box of rocks" stupid. That’s akin to the outrageous Howard Stern saying he would never vote for an individual for President of the United States who watches wrestling. I have heard other "reasons" as to why some candidates won’t get some folk’s votes including, "I would never vote for a woman"…."I would never vote for a person of color (or variations thereof of that ignorant statement)…or "I would never vote for a person who is 72 years of age".
When I hear this logic employed, the old cliche of "Pet Coon Goofy" becomes applicable. Please vote if you are eligible and don’t be adumbass. (more…)
The KOR Tourney Monday night in Greenville, S.C. certainly had its moments that featured a strong first half of the bracket and a perplexing second half of the tournament bracket. KOR winner William Regal is arguably one of the more underutilized talents in the biz and even though Regal can definitely talk, which all General Managers must obviously be able to do, he adds a valuable element of experience and expertise to any bout in which he is involved. In the immediate future one has to wonder if Regal is likely to continue to be the Raw G.M. or will Regal focus more on his wrestling career now that the U.K. native from Blackpool, England is the reigning King of the Ring?
Howard Stern says he would not vote for a President of the United States that watches wrestling. Seems like a strange thing for Stern to say. Apparently, Stern has a very low opinion of the wrestling business. Now that’s irony coming from Stern, who is one of the last guys I thought would have an antiquated, wrestling bias.
I mentioned here last week that I thought it was a sound, promotional idea for the American Presidential candidates to appear on Monday Night Raw in some form, but I will admit that I was shocked when Clinton,Obama , and McCain all recorded messages specifically for the Raw audience. On the eve of the all important Pennsylvania primary, the Democratic hopefuls got the opportunity to be "regular Joe’s" as did McCain who looks to have the Republican nomination for President locked up. None of them should quit their day jobs and look for work in ‘rasslin, but they all seemed to be good sports in their recorded, cliche laden spiels. (more…)
The WWE begins a run of 20 events, including producing Monday Night Raw, ECW, and Smackdown Thursday night throughout the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland (that’s what we used to call Oklahoma back in the Barry Switzer days) and Portugal among other stops.
This Monday and Tuesday the gross ticket sales for the TV events are both close to $1.2M each night in ticket sales. Merchandise sales will likely be stout, as in serious money stout, for the 20 shows.
I would be willing to wager that the mere mention of John Cena, who, as best I know, will only be on the Monday Night Raw show in London in between filming a movie in New Orleans for the WWE, will flood arenas with boos, but at the end of the day Cena will still sell more merchandise than any other WWE Superstar who is on the tour in its entirety. (more…)
I love those 3 a.m. central time wake-up calls, to make an early morning flight back to Oklahoma, after broadcasting Monday Night Raw. Monday nights, getting 2-4 hours of sleep, are the "dark underbelly of wrestling". 
As amazing as it might sound, there were a handful of fans still hanging out in the lobby of the Crown Plaza Hotel in Albany Tuesday morning, EARLY, when I was checking out. That’s either dedication or insanity.
I received 3 phone calls from Ric Flair last week checking to see how I was feeling. Ric called me once from St. Bart’s, St. Martin, or Saint something, while there decompressing from the emotional Wrestlemania weekend. Ric Flair is a true, long time friend and those phone calls meant a great deal to me. One always remembers who calls when times are the toughest and who puts one on "ignore". Ric had a great time Sunday in New Orleans as a guest of the NBA Hornets’ owner GeorgeShinn for Sunday’s Hornets-Warriors game. There are lots of Flair fans in the NBA, including the Spurs’ Tim Duncan and former great player and current broadcaster, Charles Barkley. I already miss seeing Ric on TV, but I am happy that he is done inside the ropes at age 59.
Speaking of Wrestlemania and the next night’s Raw in Orlando, the Raw from Albany had huge shoes to fill and a tough act to follow, Monday night. Following Flair has never been easy…just ask many of the biz’s biggest stars. (more…)
Whether one thinks Monday’s LONG 3 hour Monday Night Raw was good, bad, or indifferent let me apologize for sounding a little "off" Monday night. If it had not been a 3 hour show and leading down the home stretch to Wrestlemania 24, I never would have left Norman and would have taken the week off. The blurred vision in my right eye notwithstanding, the flu bug stomped on me with both feet and I went to bed in Milwaukee Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. and woke up at 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon thinking it was much earlier. I don’t remember sleeping that much in years so I guess I was run down enough to merit staying horizontal for well over 12 hours. I thought I had dodged the flu bullet, but the flu bug is seemingly everywhere and now, of course, my wife is sick with the same thing. Hopefully, I will be a little more frisky this Monday night in Lafayette, LA at the Cajundome.
I remember working with the late Gordon Solie at a TBS Saturday night show taping while he was under the weather and we got him through the broadcast with him steadily sipping fresh orange juice….and vodka throughout the two, two hour shows we taped. It seemed like by the end of the taping "The Dean" felt fine as did his "side-kick" as best I recall. (more…)
I hope this short blog finds every one well and happy. This blog covers more than simply wrestling, so for some of you that are “all wrestling or not I’m not interested,” then you may feel compelled to move along. Or, you can read it and make comments on this website or other sites about how P.O.’ed you are when I actually express an opinion of something other than ‘rasslin.
Random thoughts:
We have a new Q/A section posted on the site as of Sunday February 10 that you might want to check out. We realize we are behind in answering your questions, but I can assure you that it isn’t for a lack of trying. As my Dad used to say, and that’s all a steer can do. As you may have read we are doing some upgrades here on our site and our webmaster is doing his best to continue to help make our site a fun one to visit and in which to interact. So bear with us as positive changes are on the horizon.
The new J.R.’s Family Bar-B-Q that will be located in Moore, Oklahoma will be approximately 5,300 square feet and will feature a separate sports bar area which our original store doesn’t have. Our new menu will be out this week, we hope to have it in the store on Tuesday, so please check out the site later on to take a look at the positive changes we have made to the menu. All for the better we hope. We are selling an amazing amount of our delicious Bar-B-Q Sauces along with our Chipotle Ketchup and Jalapeno Honey Mustard on this site which can provide you a little of the true flavor of J.R.’s Bar-B-Q no matter where you live. (more…)
It was a nice, easy trip from Norman down to Austin for the double header Monday Night Raw, with the first show airing at its regular slot, while the second show was taped and will air next Monday night. The Frank Erwin Center on the campus of the University of Texas was officially sold out, which deserves an attaboy to all the WWE fans in the Austin area. Monday night was a marathon in the arena as we rolled tape around 6:20 or so and I think we finished the second broadcast somewhere around 10:30 p.m. That’s 4 plus hours and I am honest when I say that I don’t know if I personally could have endured watching from seats for that length of time.
Next week’s Raw is highlighted by a really solid HBK vs Jeff Hardy one on one match. I think most fans of pure wrestling will like this particular main event. I know that after the show, while the King and I were sitting in the drive thru at Whataburger, the Hardy-Michaels match was one of the things we talked about, as it related to work.
Let me tell you that with the increased demands on wrestling commentary/story telling, doing two, 2 hour broadcasts in one sitting isn’t the easiest thing I’ve done lately. Poor me, but my Oklahoma ass was dragging when I got back to the hotel Monday night. (more…)
