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JR's Blog: Flair Calls....Lesnar-Couture....Cowboy Joins Roundtables....Eddie Movie....Over Sized Booking Committes Do More Harm Than Good

Posted: Nov 16th 2008 By: mikeiles

Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend. My Sooners are off this weekend as they prepare to face Texas Tech on ABC's National Game of the Week next Saturday night in Norman of which I will attend before taking a 6 a.m. flight to Boston for the Survivor Series on Sunday morning. Random thoughts....we have plenty...

Ric Flair left me a message this week while I was in the UK and sounded upbeat and in a great mood. He had just finished shooting a pilot for a reality show that producers are interested in and he said the TV people were a little overwhelmed with what they saw but in a good way. It was probably just another, regular day/night with the "Naitch" and friends. As many of you have read on the internet, "Naitch" is likely preparing to endure another divorce but he never mentioned a negative word about it to me. Conversation regarding college football was more the order of the day on the long message. Ric is a life long pal who I have great respect for and my only advise to him would be to "save your money" and "never marry again." Ric Flair, for some reason, reminds me of what I perceive Jack Nicholson to be like, a guy who loves his children but that would rather not be married or, perhaps I should suggest, shouldn't be married. I'm just saying...

The talking has almost ended regarding the upcoming Lesnar-Couture UFC PPV fight this weekend from Vegas. This fight will be nice promotion for amateur wrestling, both Couture and Lesnar are former NCAA Champions, which can definitely use the marketing boost plus will provide some MMA purists, an oxymoron if I ever heard one, and die hard amateur wrestling fans an extended forum to knock pro wrestling which is akin to comparing apples to oranges. Pro wrestling is entertainment with physicality while MMA is a pure, physical sport that is entertaining to many of us. I remain a slight Lesnar "lean" especially in light of this week's news items regarding Couture's most recent legal issues which seem to be potentially distracting. I also read where some in the amateur wrestling world look at amateur wrestlers going into the pros as "selling out" which is magnificently ignorant. I suggest that the great Dan Hodge never sold out as he had a family to feed and pro wrestling helped with that task quite nicely back in the day. BTW, amateur wrestling's top award , their Heisman Trophy, is the Dan Hodge Award so obviously all amateur wrestling aficionados don't throw their own under the bus for migrating to pro wrestling to earn more money than they might in another vocation.

Can Couture avoid an overabundance of Lesnar's physical takedown's Saturday night? Will Brock be able to avoid Randy's effective strikes? Can Couture exploit the smallest Lesnar mistake and turn it in to a tap out win? Will Couture be able to deal with Lesnar's significant weight advantage which will be likely in excess of 50 well conditioned pounds over 5, five minute rounds? Will this fight even go the scheduled 5 rounds? Lots of questions with the answers will be provided in a few hours. Even if I was in Vegas I would be hard pressed to put down any serious cash on this one that has too many unanswered questions for me to invest in a serious way.

Cowboy Bill Watts is set to be a panelist on the next round of the WWE Legends Roundtables to be produced in December. Watts is an intelligent and well spoken individual and was a major player in the wrestling business first as a main event wrestler in many successful territories and then as the owner of a viable territory, Mid South Wrestling which morphed into the UWF. Watts also had short stints in Turner's WCW and in the WWE. However,r Bill Watts lasting legacy will always be highlighted by his in ring wrestling career and with his writing and producing an exciting, one hour weekly wrestling TV show of which he had few peers. Watts also developed some amazing talents within the wrestling business, many of who are currently in the WWE Hall of Fame. Bill has always been outspoken, sometimes to a fault, and his no holds barred remarks on the Legend's Roundtable should be quite a treat for long time/ hardcore fans. For those of you that haven't seen these Roundtables, I encourage you to check them out and I even hear that a new DVD release of these free wheeling discussions will be made available soon.

Speaking of DVDS, the Eddie Guerrero DVD currently available is a wonderful look at Eddie's career and features some of his most amazing bouts. Plus, I think you will sincerely enjoy the individuals who speak from their hearts of the late, Latino Heat. I strongly recommend this DVD and after watching it I can't help but think that Eddie's life story would make a great movie. The problem is who would be cast as Eddie Guerrero? Do movies about wrestlers lives have to be dotted with an abundance of in ring wrestling footage? Eddie's life, for example, was as much about what occurred outside the ring than inside in my view.

Matt Hardy is nursing a sore knee but is working through it as many of you will see Friday night on Smackdown. Hopefully, the injury is more of a "tweak" and nothing overly serious.

The WWE was in Z?rich, Switzerland a few hours ago and grossed close to 3/4 of a million bucks at the gate. The event was "this close" to being a total sellout with only a few, single seats left in the arena.

Glasgow and Aberdeen, Scotland are both sold out in advance which seems to be the trend on this lengthy, European tour. Berlin, Germany is already north of $1.1M at the gate which speaks to the fact that this WWE international tour is going to be a huge, financial success.

As the WWE's international TV's mature and become established one can assume that the international aspect of the WWE's business will continue to grown tremendously which the performers love as they are able to make a great deal of money in a short as in a two week or so window of opportunity.

This is off the subject of successful international biz but I read where various wrestling organizations have large, or seemingly so, booking committees. When a company produces one TV program per week and tours in somewhat of a part time basis, why do they need booking committees with so many members? It reminds me of the politics of Washington D.C. regarding the constant partisan politics we encounter out of our nation's capital. I guess it comes back to "politics" in general in wrestling too. Too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the soup as the old saying goes and I'm old school enough to believe that most wrestling company's can function quite well with a creative group consisting of 2-3 people with none being active wrestlers. Over sized booking committees breed unhealthy, wrestling politics, unnecessary insecurities within the talent roster, personal agendas being played out, and usually a lack of unity coming out of the booking room. Just one guy's opinion.

Please check out our holiday specials which are reachable on our home page or in our store. Many of these personalized, autographed items also feature FREE SHIPPING and we have kept them affordable and family priced. I have been signing a ton of items and we certainly appreciate your business. Thanks.

Don't forget to check out my blog on www.wwe.com and click on to the Smackdown page.


Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

P.S. With no OU game this weekend and no travel, I will be answering your emailed questions and thoughts on our Q&A section of our website.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Ric Flair, Danny Hodge, Bill Watts, MSW, UWF, WCW