Tuesday’s announcement that William Regal has been suspended for 60 days from the WWE is regrettable on many fronts. When I was in charge of the WWE talent roster a few years ago we sent Regal to drug rehab as he struggled to overcome his issues. Regal eventually became a success story as he cleaned himself up and got on with his life and career. In recent years, Regal has been a hard working, reliable and viable member of the talent roster. As a talent perhaps even to the point of being under utilized in the eyes of some. I do not know the details of his recent 60 day suspension but I do not think that Regal has "fallen off the wagon" and retreated to his misdirected ways of years gone by. Nonetheless, something went awry and the WWE Wellness Program, which is more thorough and organized than ever before, dropped the hammer on the talented Brit. With no pay for 60 days, two strikes against him and a family to care for, Regal finds himself in a challenging position. Some weak minded individuals could "poor me" it and say to hell with it and revert back to those aforementioned issues, but, I do not think Regal fits into that category.
This should be a great lesson for every one on the roster….be careful of every thing one ingests, including over the counter supplements that might contain even traces of banned substances. Education again becomes a key term in this issue as it is incumbent on each individual with which this program applies to know what is banned and what is not. (more…)
It was not really a major surprise that lovely Torrie Wilson was released from the WWE this week, as Torrie’s chronic back issues were becoming problematic. Torrie has had an outstanding run in the business and came along in a timely fashion and had some really nice years financially with WCW and WWE. Torrie was a tomboy at heart and was much more athletic than many fans realized. I remember booking a live event card once in her home town of Boise, Idaho and thanks to Torrie’s efforts doing media, the live event over achieved. She was a great interview and there wasn’t a male DJ in the world that didn’t love having her as an in-studio guest. Torrie had a great physical presence in the ring while her Playboy experiences were some of the hottest that any WWE Diva ever did. Torrie was always a good sport and worked diligently for the WWE during my days in the corporate tower. She even endured the TV storyline of her father, Al Wilson, and all that entailed. Finally, she was the first to remind me that her Boise State football team spanked my Oklahoma Sooners in the famous Fiesta Bowl that has been replayed seemingly a million times on a variety of media outlets. Was I angry at her remarks? Are you kidding me? Who could stay angry at one of the nicest ladies ever in the WWE? Sure as hell not me and especially not over a football game. Whenever Torrie decides to settle down, some lucky man is definitely going to "out kick his coverage".
Gregory "Hurricane" Helms did the smart thing by not over reacting to a negative situation that occurred in, what I understand, a sports bar after 1 a.m. recently. Gregory is a very bright young man who is still on the mend, but he used common sense in not getting involved in any physicality, even though the other guy probably deserved to have his ass kicked. The "nothing good after midnight" rule applies here, but I do applaud Helms for using discretion as the media would have loved to have had another negative wrestling story to headline the TMZ’s of the world. (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…)
It was a long travel day Tuesday, but American Airlines got yours truly home safe and sound and on time. It is always fun to travel to the UK and I keep telling myself that on some of these international tours I am missing a great opportunity by not traveling a day or two earlier and enjoying the sights more. I am sure one of these days I am going to look back at all the trips I will have made abroad over the years where I essentially flew in, worked and left. As usual, the UK fans were awesome and they are so knowledgeable. For the record, I watched "No Country for Old Men" twice on the plane and still don’t "get" the ending. Helluva movie though.
The WWE’s international growth is pretty amazing, especially when one has the occasion to meet many of the ever evolving "business partners" the WWE is establishing around the world. I could see broadcasting many more Monday NightRaws outside the USA as times goes on, which will be important to global brand building. (more…)
I’m taking powerful eye drops (a form of a steroid…gasp) every hour that I am awake that should have me good to go by Monday night’s big 3 hour RAW, that will most certainly have Wrestlemania 24 implications. I’m just thankful I’m not driving from Oklahoma to Milwaukee this week or that would be an adventure.
I’m looking forward to seeing our old pal Gordon "Red" Batty and his son in Milwaukee. Red is the equipment manager for the Green Bay Packers and is honoring me with a signed Brett Favre Packers jersey that we will hang in our newest J.R.’s Family Bar-B-Q, which we hope opens in mid April even though my money is on May 1.
Speaking of Favre, did you see the Sports Illustrated piece comparing #4 to the "Nature Boy" this week. Fun piece and it was obvious the author was a Flair fan at some point in his life. Of course, the expected and obligatory dig from the legit sports guy was present but all in all it was a fun read. Check it out on SI.com. (more…)
I just wanted to let all of you know that if you have posted a comment and have yet to see it posted, don’t panic, we have them, but are understaffed at the moment. J.R. will continue to post his blogs and we encourage you to continue to comment on them and we will post as we can. We are trying to get some new things in place to help manage everything and would like your feedback on how to implement.
In the future, we would like to manage comments in 2 ways:
The first is when J.R. posts a blog and you simply have a comment to make, we would like that to remain the way it is now and you simply comment on that particular post.
The second way is how we will handle questions. We would like a separate place on the site where you can ask J.R. a question and then your question will go into a different location. This way we can keep comments separate from questions and hopefully have a better format to access the information.
Once we get this set up, we would also like to have a user based system to help with our current spam issue. This way, you would create a user and if you wanted to post a comment, you would need to log in first. If we can get this going properly, the inappropriate comments (criticism is OK, but foul language and name calling is not necessary) will still go into moderation, but the users that have posted comments in the past that have followed the guidelines will post immediately. It would almost be a forum type setting and we may have that in the future, but until then, this would help with comment moderation.
We would like to know your thoughts on this and ask that you post any suggestions here. If you have another idea that might work, feel free to let us know. This is your site too and we would really like to know your thoughts.
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It’s nice to be back at home after a 3 day and change road trip to the northeast, that included stops in New York City, a whopping three hour car trip from MSG to Philly, and the second HD Monday Night Raw at the Wachovia Center before a large, but seemingly less than expected loud crowd in the City of Brotherly Love. No that’s not a knock on Philly, but the fans there are usually more boisterous, but perhaps they weren’t seeing what they needed to see to get them over the edge. Who knows the reasons, but there sure were a bunch of younger kids there, which works for any promoter.
The biggest news to come out of the weekend was the surprising return of John Cena, who some WWE fans seemingly dislike as much, if not more than they did before John was injured and underwent pec surgery to repair a torn tendon. As I have said before, when fans pay their hard earned cash they can cheer or boo for whomever the hell they choose. This is certainly not to say that John Cena doesn’t have a legion of fans, because I can tell you from his merchandise numbers that John does. I was backstage at MSG pretty much all afternoon Sunday and NEVER saw Cena one time. I am under the impression that John did not arrive to the arena until after the event started, but that’s an assumption. When I talked to John on Monday he said he was feeling great and was healthy, that he had rehabbed extra hard for his return and was bench pressing around 400 pounds, which sounds pretty damn healthy to me. One of Oklahoma’s strength coaches was Cena’s coach in college and said that John was strong as a bull when he arrived on campus as a freshman and spent more time in the weight room than any other player on Springfield College’s football team. That doesn’t surprise me considering Cena’s work ethic. (more…)
Ah, the glamorous life of a ‘rasslin announcer… Tuesday morning I left the Mohegan Sun at 3:45 a.m. for my trip to Hartford’s Bradley Airport to fly back to OKC via Dallas. A short night to say the least, but I got to watch SportsCenter like 3 times and catch up with LSU’s victory over Ohio State for the National Championship of college football’s most elite division. LSU is tough to beat, essentially at home, and Les Miles’ squad is talented and fast and proved too much for James Laurinaitis’ Buckeyes to handle. Laurinaitis is the son of Road Warrior Animal and the rumors abound that James will declare for the NFL Draft which remains to be seen. My take on that matter is that a kid has to take the big, guaranteed money IF it is there, but there is nothing better than the college experience if the large cash isn’t a guarantee via being a first round draft pick.
I met a bunch of fans after Raw Monday night at the hotel and did my best to sign all their autograph requests and then even took photos and signed some autographs Tuesday morning at 4 a.m. which should invoke some scary images. By the way, the crowd at the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena was hot Monday night – and that certainly helps any TV show, as the Raw fans went above and beyond the call.
Many fans were disappointed that Ric Flair was not on Raw Monday and I don’t know why he wasn’t but I do know that many fans are talking about the Flair retirement scenario wherever I travel. Hopefully “Naitch” will make an appearance next Monday when Raw originates from Mobile, Alabama. From what I can tell it would see that Raw goes full time HD in two weeks. (more…)
Happy New Year everybody and thanks to all who have sent birthday wishes our way. For the record, I was born on January 3, 1952 in Fort Bragg, California. That makes me 56 years of age NOT 63 as was erroneously reported on wwe.com this week and may still be on the Raw site at wwe.com.
The Mrs. And I had a blast spending New year’s Eve in Arizona with the OU team and staff as I flew to the desert from North Carolina on Sunday where we produced the final episode of Monday Night Raw on Saturday December 29. The Fiesta Bowl did not create the results that I wanted, but all the credit in the world has to go to West Virginia University who simply played harder and wanted the game more than my Sooners. Case closed. End of story. I am happy that veteran coach Bill Stewart got the head coach’s job at WVU, as the Mountaineers return a ton of good players who will most likely win the Big East again in 2008. (more…)
