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JR's Blog: Lance Cade...Vegas...Johnny Knoxville...Laredo, TX...Tazz's Driving...Hulk Hogan...MMA

Posted: Oct 16th 2008 By: mikeiles

Nice to get back from Vegas even if it was on a packed Southwest Airlines flight and I had a center seat next to a lady who had never flown before in her life and was as nervous as a lady of the night in church. Let's get rolling starting with the Lance Cade story.

As many of you know, Lance Cade was abruptly released from his contract this week much to the surprise of many of us. I have always thought that Cade had a wealth of physical potential and he was always a polite young man in my dealings with him. Like many fans, I too did my share of arm chair quarterbacking as to why Cade was not featured in a more prominent role on WWE TV programming. However it seemed that in the past several weeks those issues were being addressed even to the point of Cade defeating HBK on a recent Monday Night Raw.

The story that I have read on many internet sites about the reason for Cade's sudden dismissal isn't accurate. Many punhdits speculate that Cade was dismissed because of a bad performance in a recent TV bout against DX on Raw which is absolutely untrue. Lance's dismissal had zero to do with his in ring performances or his lack of ability.

Lance Cade was dismissed from the WWE because, like many humans, he made a major league mistake while utilizing bad judgment that cost him his job. This included Lance having a seizure on an airplane and having to have emergency medial care. Luckily, Lilian Garcia was on the same flight and was instrumental in helping Lance get taken to a hospital where a battery of tests were run that luckily determined that there was nothing seriously wrong with the young man such as a brain tumor, etc.

Everyone makes mistakes, Lord knows I have made plenty in my career, but in this day and time some mistakes just simply can't be condoned. To some fans, Lance Cade will likely still be perceived as the victim in this matter and his punishment too harsh.

Under the circumstances of the situation, I don't know what other decision the WWE could have made. I'm just relieved that it wasn't me in my former role that would have had to address this matter. I really like this kid and hope that he continues to follow his dreams. Second chances are not foreign in the wrestling business so perhaps that could be in Lance's future but that's just a personal observation.

Lance Cade is a talented young man whose best days should be ahead of him and I wish him nothing but success. Lance has been knocked down and now it is up to him to get off the canvas and get back in the game. I'm damn sure pulling for him.

Let's hope Lance's peers are paying attention to this situation.

The wrestling internet is "spoiler" crazy. the next thing they will be adding to their coverage is food reviews at the concession stands.

Las Vegas, which is getting hammered by the economy, had a bout 6500 fans in attendance for Tuesday Night's ECW show and the taping of Friday Night Smackdown. Raw the night before in Anaheim had about 8500 fans in attendance.

Yours truly had a religious experience for my first car trip, all of about 6 blocks, from the hotel in Vegas to the Thomas and Mack Arena with the World's Angriest Man, Tazz. Aggressive driving doesn't adequately describe the driving style of my broadcast partner. I do know that Tazz doesn't particularly care for foreign cab drivers and that I learned some new curse words while in "Sin City." The King and I had some driving adventures too especially at night when Jerry wouldn't wear his glasses and was talking on his phone to "Baby" while searching the radio or a Cleveland Browns or Indians game all at the same time.

Not bad ratings for Friday Night Smackdown last week attracting 3.4 million viewers on a hard to find network, MyNetworkTV. The network has got to be loving the ratings success but what about a little love to the broadcast team. What's a guy got to do to get in the show open, get an enhancement of some sort? Tazz, you go first.

Happy Birthday to one of my favorites, Stacey Keibler, who just turned the ripe old age of 29! Stacey is one of the sweetest young women that ever worked for the WWE in my opinion. She's also on the cover of the newest maxim Magazine. I'm getting my copy. A hot, signed photo from the lady with 41" legs adorns the walls of J.R.'s Family BBQ in Moore.

Pacman Jones needs to grow up and stop taking his life for granted. A young man playing in the NFL and blowing it simply because he wants to be "cool" and attitudinal. Wrestling needs to follow NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's lead and make sure that the business doesn't become dotted with perennial trouble makers. I predict that Pacman will soon go into alcohol rehab which, if he needs it go for it, perhaps will save his career if it is salvageable.

Is it just me or is there any thing worse on TV than seeing badly performed comedy on a wrestling show? I personally can deal with bad wrestling matches if the individuals are trying better than watching untrained wrestlers attempt to be comedic performers and fail.

Did you ever wonder why in all the years he has been around that Jerry Lawler has no merchandise at the merch stands at WWE events?

I'm anxious to see Bobby Lashley's first MMA event which is scheduled at this time for December 13 in Miami. I am equally anxious to see Lashley's "look" and what he will weigh come fight time. Lashley was a strong amateur but as we have seen with other top amateur wrestlers in the MMA there is more to the game than being able to take someone down. I'm pulling for Bobby Lashley to be a hit in the MMA and eventually migrate to the UFC and earn some big paydays.

Yours truly is counting down the days until the November 15 Brock Lesnar-Randy Couture fight in Las Vegas on PPV. I'm told that 8,000 tickets have been sold with over 6,000 left to be sold. Some folks say that the tickets have been priced a little steep for some but something tells me that come fight time that the arena will be "clean." The last few week's push for this "dream fight" will likely move the remaining tickets. I'm still leaning towards Lesnar but I'm not over confident nor am I going to place any wagers. Couture is a master strategist who will be in race horse physical condition not that Lesnar won't be. The question is if the fight goes the 25 minutes how will the 280 pound Lesnar hold up physically against a master who knows he only has a handful of matches left in his brilliant career?

Bottom line about ticket sales, it isn't necessarily a reflection on the attraction or the event but somewhere along the way everyone has to admit that the economy is truly in the toilet.

Wow...I had sort of forgotten about Johnny Knoxville, if that is his real name, until I saw him on Raw Monday night. Knoxville did a decent job opposite Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) in "Walking Tall" which I throughly enjoyed.

I will be doing more "Legends" video game voice overs this week which should pretty much finish the project as far as my end goes.....Brother!

Nice segue to hoping that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff's new TV show on CMT will be a hit. The more wrestling oriented programming/movies, etc that do well the better the overall business will do. "The Wrestler" and Norman Leer's new project are exciting for those of us in the biz.

Looking forward to heading to south Texas next week for the Tuesday night taping of Friday Night Smackdown. The weather will be warm in Laredo and the Mexican food will be delicious so by adding a cold beverage, or two, this should be a sweet trip.

It's good to see that many WWE fans can now participate in the Cyber Sunday voting via www.wwe.com which will allow fans from around the Globe to get in on the voting for selected bouts. I am told that the text voting has been strong and will only get more prominent as we draw closer to Cyber Sunday in Phoenix.

Yours truly will be around both our restaurants a great deal over the next several days including from 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Thursday in our Moore store just west of I-35 at exit 119. Also we will be hanging out at J.R.'s in Norman after the OU-Kansas game Saturday which will be televised by ABC. Drop by and say hello if you are in the area.

Thanks to all of you who shop with us as it is greatly appreciated and the reason we work so hard on this website.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, ECW, Jerry Lawler