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JR's Blog: Super Bowl Experience...Ric Flair Shouldn't Wrestle Again...UFC/Vaseline Chaos...Wrestling Documentaries

Posted: Feb 5th 2009 By: mikeiles

The Super Bowl experience for my wife, a native of the 'Burg & die hard Steelers fan, and me was a great one as we saw one helluva football game and saw a little NFL history made...all for only $800 per ticket. Don't get me wrong, I was and am eternally thankful for the opportunity to buy the Super Bowl tickets but the game has long passed the average fan with ticket prices such as this. The Super Bowl will continue to be a huge TV ratings juggernaut as long as the regular season doesn't go to pay TV which hopefully won't ever happen. My prediction last week about taking the Steelers but being wary of the point spread came to fruition as the Steelers were favored by 6 1/2 and won by 4. Perhaps I'm in the wrong business, as many have suggested, so, with that said, let's move on to some random 'rasslin thoughts and some other things that are on my mind.

Ric Flair will be making a special appearance on Monday Night Raw this week (you weren't naive enough to think that a huge star like Naitch would show up on Friday Night Smackdown for a special guest appearance would you?) As the past has taught us, retired wrestlers rarely make guest appearances on wrestling programs unless they are promoting something, like a book, or they are perhaps going to stick their toe back in the water in some form. I have no idea what is on Flair's agenda but I am certainly going to change my travel plans to Fresno so I can be there to watch Raw on Monday night prior to taping another Smackdown doubleheader on Tuesday. Flair is still an amazing personality who can verbalize as well as any one in the business today, past or present. As a fan I would pay good, hard earned money any time to hear the Nature Boy step into the ring and listen to Flair speak on any subject with the passion and emotion that helped make Ric famous. Ric Flair, veins popping, with his face beet red and eyes bulging is still great TV and will transcend young fans and their baby booming Dads and Moms.

The issue for me is that I don't want to see Naitch wrestle again not just one year after retiring. I think Ric keeps himself more special and his retirement, which was an entertainment and emotional work of art, special and an ever lasting memory in the minds of fans worldwide. To see Ric manage someone, be a guest Ref, etc works for me personally.

I would love to see Ric Flair have a role at WM25 in Houston because having the greatest wrestler who ever lived at the year's biggest event just makes sense. You wouldn't believe all the NFL greats that were at the Super Bowl on Sunday to be showcased by the National Football League to their loyal fans.

Ric Flair makes any event bigger and his star still shines brightly in my eyes but, simply as a fan, I would rather remember Ric Flair the wrestler, no pun intended, as he was and enjoy his antics and machinations in other forms at an event like Wrestlemania if that indeed is a potential destination for the incomparable "Nature Boy."

My GSP over B.J. Penn prediction was on the money and all seemed well in UFC land until the feared and deadly term Vaseline was uttered after the fight. Allegedly, someone in St. Pierre's corner "greased" GSP down specifically on his chest and back which could obviously impact a fight. From what I have seen, the Vaseline issue is a mute point as GSP dominated the fight. However, the UFC has an unwanted and unneeded controversy on their hands. The UFC is a new sports league and unlike any other new sports league they are going to be faced with situations like this that are going to arise and that they will have to address in a succinct and non knee jerk fashion. The corner men, if proved guilty, must be punished but is that a life time ban? Certainly not in my mind but this infraction wouldn't be a slap on the wrist either. The officiating and the judging in the UFC will continue to evolve one has to assume and the refereeing is an area that I have mentioned before that needs to have a strong internal training regime in place all the while training new referees for the future. The same small handful of ref's handling the majority of the fights doesn't seem prudent to me. Every pro league has a through training program for it's Ref's and the UFC shouldn't be any different.

I read where someone positively mentioned the documentary film "Lipstick and Dynamite" which I enjoyed and have seen numerous times. I am of the mindset that well produced, wrestling documentaries are money. This is notwithstanding the success of Mickey Rourke's "The Wrestler" but I think that the business has so many wonderful, untold stories that are just waiting to be told that documentary film makers are missing the boat on this particular subject matter especially for outlets like HBO and Showtime.

A WWE fan told me he was intrigued by Mike Knox and thought Knox had a nice upside to which I agreed. Then the fan, at the Tampa Airport BTW, asked me about Knox' background of which I did not have sufficient answers. Knox would be a prime candidate for a sit down interview or a series of short vignettes providing fans more info on the bearded bully who has reminded some old timers of Bruiser Brody.

A strong tag team bout headlines Friday Night Smackdown this week featuring HHH and the Undertaker vs. Edge and the Big Show. It is one of Smackdown's better main events since I have been on the Smackdown team which is what....20...30 years?

I have been to one event in Reliant Stadium in Houston, the home of WM25, and that was a Big 12 Title game a few years back between Oklahoma and Colorado. I can tell you that this stadium is really magnificent and will be a great setting for the WWE's biggest event of the year. From what I am told tickets are still available in a couple of price categories. I still don't know for sure what the plans are for Friday Night Smackdown that week but the rumblings that the show will emanate from WWE Fan Axxess still linger. I would love for it to go live but I don't know that MyNetworkTV is set up for that sort of thing or not.

Fan Axxess is going to be a really nice event that will be family friendly and star laden. It looks as if J.R.'s Family BBQ will not be there but that's not the final, final decision as of yet.

I visited the Florida Championship Wrestling facility on Monday and spoke to the athletes along with watching some bouts. The WWE doesn't have empty cupboards when it comes to potentially, outstanding wrestlers being developed there. There is some outstanding talent there but my biggest fear is that some of them will be called up too soon and one only gets one opportunity to make that all important first impression to today's discerning wrestling fans. The facility is first class all the way and far exceeds my vision as to what I saw year's ago when the WWE first launched developmental training camps.

Legacy seems to be getting on a roll on Monday Night Raw and remind me of the Horsemen days which means that Legacy might need one more body but only the right body. For some reason, it seems that fans are conditioned that a great faction needs 4 men to be successful even though there have been successful factions in the past that were comprised of a number other than 4. I have enjoyed watching the evolution of Legacy and am anxious to see their long term growth. If this group gets really hot, they could ignite Monday Night Raw.

Nice, solid, hard hitting match on ECW Tuesday Night between Jack Swagger and Finlay. Matches that have more bell to bell time seem to get me emotionally invested in the matches and they don't come off as a wham bam affair.

Rumor has it that Tazz is checking around Long Island for a fake ID for Manny Ramirez and is contemplating signing the jobless slugger for Tazz' Junior Ducks. Probably just another empty rumor.

Our condolences go out to Bill Moody aka Paul Bearer and Percy Pringle as Percy's wife passed away earlier this week after a long battle with cancer. Our heartfelt wishes are with the Moody family during this challenging time but their strong faith will see them through this.

Thanks for checking out our site....please don't print most of what is written on other sites and without linking to this site....for those of you that are kind enough to shop with us in our on line store we thank you....and finally we have answered more of your questions and addressed more of your comments on our Q &A section of this site which are there waiting for you. Be well.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody, ECW, Jack Swagger, Paul Bearer, Percy Pringle