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JR's Blog: Super Bowl Sunday Update...Random Thoughts Galore

Posted: Feb 8th 2010 By: CMBurnham

I'm excited about watching the Super Bowl later today as I have picked the Saints +5 in "the big game."

Today would be a good day to place your orders, yes indeed a shameless, totally shameless, plug because orders received today should be shipped tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.

Our drive thru at J.R.'s Family BBQ in Norman will be rocking today as will other to go orders. Our telephone # is a cool one, 405-360-4BBQ, and I'm sure that it will be busy. I may even drop by myself prior to kick off.

An emailer if I was a passenger in what he referred to a famous Jim Cornette incident at a Dairy Queen and the answer is no. I thought it was a Wendy's as JC always liked to order a triple with extra cheese and extra mayo. I did see something on the 'net to where he cut a classic promo on some poor soul working the drive thru at Wendy's many, many moons ago. That would have made a fantastic, stand-up comedy routine and, of course, Jim Cornette is a walking reality show.

JC and Ron White could rival each other with their "blue," southern humor. He must be going crazy with all the weather disrupting the ROH tapings in Philly the past few days. Mother Nature always gets her hand raised.

I did see JC snap at a Lincoln Continental that he was driving at the end of a long, long day of travel that included a delayed cross country flight from Newark to Seattle and then a car trip from Seattle to Vancouver. First of all, Cornette HATES air travel and his timed, medically induced stupor was disrupted due to us sitting on the tarmac in Newark for about an hour or so which meant that he became coherent about an hour or so before we landed in Seattle. Not a good thing for someone who has a bona fide fear of flying and is sitting next to you. By the time we got to Vancouver we had been traveling all day, JC was more frazzled after our unnecessary "search" at the Canadian Border and finally "snapped" when a pedestrian walked in front of our vehicle in Vancouver while Jim was attempting a right turn on red. Corney assaulted the steering wheel with fists and feet in one of the most out of control frenzies anyone has ever witnessed particularly against an inanimate object.

We have a blog up here that I wrote a few hours ago and only a few minutes after enjoying a less than great UFC 109 Saturday night.

Some have inquired about my umpiring background. I went to Bill Kinnamon's Major League Umpire School in 1976 in St. Pete. Current MLB ump Tim McClelland was a classmate and has been a great friend of mine ever since. Tim finished first in our class of about 120 guys while I finished 7th as I recall. I never made it to the pro's but I umpired in the then Southwest and Big 8 conferences not to mention hundreds of JUCO and small college games and 7 State Championship games in Oklahoma high school action. When we sold Watts' UWF to Jim Crockett and I moved to Dallas, I stopped officiating.

Another asked what I thought the night that Raw finally beat Nitro in the Monday Night Ratings. I don't recall any one having a celebration, celebrations are unfortunately rare in most wrestling circles, and it was essentially business as usual. We thought that we had been producing better Monday night shows for a good while even though the ratings indicated otherwise for 83 weeks. I never got too euphoric for the great ratings or too low on the bad numbers because when there is no season and one is doing live TV 51 weeks a year there is simply no time to "bask" in any glory or to feel sorry for one's self when the ratings aren't what one wants.

Also, on our Q&A section someone asked me to clarify what I meant that I wished that Dan Severn would have had a better experience when he was on the roster that I managed. I signed Dan thinking that we could work to a situation with Ken Shamrock and Dan in a pro wrestling storyline. I don't recall what occurred to prevent such but I think that both men still were of the mindset that each had unfinished business to attend in MMA and would only be in pro wrestling for a short time. Bottom line and the reasoning for my statement is that I liked Dan and felt that he brought a great deal of maturity and character to our locker room. Dan Severn is a good man and for what ever reasons things did not work out as well as I had hoped for him when we signed "The Beast." Dan had a truck load of steak and not as much sizzle and in a previous generation would have likely been a huge, pro wrestling star.

The Super Bowl pre-game marathon seems longer than the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. Plus it truly exposes some broadcasters who have to ad lib for much longer than they or their producers would ideally want.

I'm watching UFC 109 again before the game via DVR and rolling right into the game after my daily trip to the gym. BTW the "Darce Choke" that I saw on display Saturday night on UFC 109 would make a devastating pro wrestling finish hold.

Got a "thx" text message back last night from my friend Jeremy Shockey who plays tight end for the Saints. Jeremy has be be game planned for in any game as he is too fast for many LB's to cover and to big and strong for many DB's to handle. Jeremy Shockey would be awesome in pro wrestling by the way.

Dream Match...WWE's Howard Finkel vs. UFC's Bruce Buffer after they had been on a long car trip with each other and made many stops for coffee.

Former NFL player John Randle is going into the NFL Hall of Fame and the charismatic and disruptive former defensive tackle has a wrestling connection or two. First he used to wear an Austin 3:16 T shirt under his pads on occasion and he had some infamous battles on the gridiron against JBL when John was the starting offensive tackle at Abilene Christian. Plus, Randle painted his face ala a Road Warrior or Ultimate Warrior more often than not as well.

I Tweeted last night that I thought that New Orleans Saints Owner Tom Benson carried himself like the late, wrestling promoter/executive Jim Barnett who truly was the "Truman Capote of Wrestling."

I invite you to follow our Tweets at http://twitter.com/JRsBBQ.

One can expect a slew of wrestling people to attend the Thursday services of Jack Brisco in Tampa. Jack helped many, many individuals get their foot in the door in the business, including Hulk Hogan who one would assume would be attending the service, and many others that Jack helped get booked in either Florida or Atlanta. We are going to "celebrate" Jack's amazing life and I am excited about the opportunity to speak about what Jack Brisco meant to a fellow Oklahoman, country boy also with Native American blood who was passionate to a fault about pro wrestling.

This opportunity is much more important to me and more nerve racking than my own speech when I was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

Jerry Brisco and I spoke at length on Saturday and Jerry finally got a decent night's sleep Friday night but has so much on his plate that my friend needs rest. I hope that Jerry can relax today, doesn't have to answer a zillion phone calls and questions, and can enjoy the Super Bowl.

BTW to better prepare for what I'm doing at Jack Brisco's services this Thursday I read his book, "Brisco" again and finished in at 3 a.m. Saturday morning. Bill Murdock and Jack did a great job on this project that I strongly encourage any and all fans to read. Totally honest and a compelling read.

We hope to update more of your Q/A's ASAP. I have had significant interest of late in me penning a book and I've even thought of getting my writing groove going by doing something creative with all the old blogs and Q/A's that we have archived here on the site of which you can read here any time. Several publishers are interested, apparently, in me doing a major book but I'm still reluctant to commit to what I perceive to be the only autobiography that I ever write until other business oriented matters are addressed over the next month or so.

I'm sticking with the Saints +5 but will also admit that I would not wager a bottle of sauce on that pick. I hope that the Sooner-laden Saints win it but beating Peyton Manning in "the big game" is a daunting task. Manning has to be physically harassed because if the Colts offensive line has a great day then this one becomes academic.

BTW...New Orleans folks were yelling "Who Dat" at the Junkyard Dog about 30 years ago so, again, the NFL attempting to claim ownership of that saying is bogus. The NFL needs to focus on making sure that we have football in 2011 and not fixate on T shirt sales.

Have a great day and we expect to hear how some of you used your J.R.'s Sauces and Ketchup today. Be well every body.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.