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JR's Blog: Big Weekend...Random Thoughts...Great Time to Order JR's Products w/ FREE SHIPPING

Posted: Sep 19th 2010 By: CMBurnham

Here's hoping that everyone is having a great weekend. Busy one for me but having a blast. Random Thoughts are on the grill...

It's game day in Norman and the tailgating started Friday night for my friends and me. I'm heading to the stadium for more tailgating and visiting with friends prior to Saturday's game against a dangerous Air Force team that runs an exotic and rare triple option offense. I will be on OU's sideline, black hat and all, so check out Fox Sports Southwest for the 2:30 pm central time kickoff.

The legendary tough guy Billy Robinson, one of Wigan's toughest 'hookers' and submission specialists is celebrating a birthday this weekend...#71 as I hear it. I met Billy for the first time in Charlotte at the NWA Fanfest this year and enjoyed visiting with him, Dan Hodge and Jerry Brisco....all three noted shooters. One night in Australia, Billy and the late, great Jack Brisco had a legit wrestling match that lasted, off and on, all night. Great story. No winner....but both guys were so beat up that they damn near debilitated each other and both missed their flights to the next city in which they were scheduled to compete. Promoter Jim Barnett was not a happy Gucci shoe wearing man.

Watched an advance copy of the Chris Jericho DVD and I REALLY liked it. I hope that you check it out when it's released in a little over a week. It's got some awesome, rare footage on it and isn't a match compilation that's just thrown together. The near 20 year vet is one of the WWE's very best, arguably the MVP of the talent roster as he is seemingly unbreakable, and will no doubt be a future WWE Hall of Famer. I still remember Jerry Brisco and me putting the full court press on Chris to sign with WWE in a meeting at the Bombay Bicycle Club in the Tampa area years ago.

Wrote a Ross Report for www.wwe.com on their home page under WWE NEWS with some Night of Champion predictions. The 6 Pack Challenge is dicey to call. Sheamus retaining would throw me off the scent, so to speak, but certainly could happen. Edge winning would be a shocker. Barrett winning his first major title would floor me. Cena winning wouldn't be a total surprise. Jericho getting the nod would be effectively different. Orton, with his Attitude Era persona, winning the WWE title would likely be a popular choice. This main event is a tough one to call with lots of viable possibilities which should make for an interesting PPV Sunday in Chicago.

My flight from OKC to Chicago leaves around 6 a.m. in the morning....yikes. Short night.

One more thing about the 6 Pack Challenge....Miz still possesses the MITB contract, a point we shouldn't forget.

Our Twitter account, @JRsBBQ, is over 60,000 followers! Thanks.

I visited the Mid South/Universal Wrestling website recently and it's really slick. If you are interested in the Mid South Wrestling, Power Pro Wrestling, or Universal Wrestling material from the old days then check out www.universalwrestling.com. Can you believe that I have very little of that material which was arguably some of my best work.

Emailers...I like the direction that Michael Cole is headed even though I do not know his eventual destination. If Cole becomes an antagonist PXP man then he will be the first of his kind on national TV. I'm anxious to see how he evolves in that role as he seems to be more natural in that persona and his work with Josh Mathews on NXT has been some of my favorite wrestling TV over the past several weeks.

Emailers...those looking for 'dirt' on Matt Hardy need to look elsewhere because this is a dirt free zone when it comes to Matt because I do not know his status or his future plans. I can draw the same conclusions that most can via what I read or see but I also can honestly say I do not know all the details nor do I want to. This is not my hill to die on any longer but at the end of the day my most important thought is that Matt's healthy and happy. Life isn't 100% about our jobs, especially the wrestling biz, but it can absolutely engulf one if one allows it to. We all need balance in our lives and this is from a guy who is speaking from experience.

Wrestlemania 27 tickets for the Georgia Dome go on sale on November 13 as I understand it and tickets for WM27 I am told start at $22. Plus, there are some $1000 seats.

Yours truly broadcast the first event ever held in the Georgia Dome in 1992.

My weekly OU football column is at http://ouinsider.com/news/story.php?article=5086.

Emailer...No I do not believe that pro wrestling will ever become seasonal because of the massive TV rights fee deals that require first run programming on essentially a weekly basis. However, I do see how talents could be rotated in a structured way to allow them more down time to rest and recover. I think structured sabbaticals are attainable but I didn't say that it would be an easy plan to accomplish especially in the outset.

One thing that many wrestlers can do to make their existing schedules better is to make smarter decisions while on the road. Speaking from experience and personal observations, many wrestlers use their road time to stay up later than needed and to use the excuse of being on the road to think that they have to 'let their hair down' on essentially a nightly basis in order to 'survive the road.' I agree that the schedule for this profession is daunting but it can be better managed by many if they simply made better personal decisions like simply getting more sleep, avoiding the bars, and hitting the gym on a regular basis.

Bottom line, I do agree that rotating talents in and out of storylines to allow them to the chance to rest and recover is a viable option.

I'm looking forward to seeing the WWE folks this Sunday in Chicago and watching the show from the locker room area. Being in the All State Arena brings back so many wonderful memories highlighted by the announcement of me going into the WWE HOF in 2007 and being involved in the ugliest 'wrestling match' in history, the Country Whipping Match between ESPN's Jonathan Coachman and me, back in the day. Ugh...I still apologize to fans for that debacle where I resembled a cow on ice. However, the leather straps striking one's skin certainly is an attention grabber. I think we actually pulled a nice rating that night which is a head scratcher.

If you place your orders this weekend in our on line store we will ship them out on Monday via Federal Express Ground and that shipping is FREE in the USA.

Thanks for stopping by and have a super weekend.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.