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JR's Blog: Q&A's Updated Monday...Hot Raw Monday Night...Coach Promoted...JBL/OVW...Jackie Gayda...UFC Thoughts

Posted: Mar 10th 2009 By: mikeiles

Thanks for stopping by and visiting our site. I hope you will take the time to do more than simply read this blog as we have just updated our Q&A Section of the site plus we have some great deals available in our on line store. Here's some random thoughts on wrestling, MMA, and other things of interest.

WWE Monday Night Raw is in Jacksonville, Florida tonight for their weekly, live broadcast which should continue to build on the stories leading to WM25. I expect tonight's show to really get fans talking and I look forward to watching it like any other fan from the comfort of my easy chair. Because we will be following the primary Raw issues closely on Friday Night SmackDown, I will be be playing particular attention to the HHH-Orton saga not to mention any activity involving HBK and the Undertaker. Interesting development evolving here as it relates to the announcers as these are both multi-branded bouts and I will be curious to see what voices get the nod for these bouts at WM25. Nonetheless Monday Night Raw should be particularly interesting tonight from Jacksonville. When I think of Jacksonville, I always think of the late Don Curtis who was a great wrestling star in his time and ended up being the promoter of Jacksonville for Eddie Graham's Florida Championship Wrestling. Don and Mark Lewin were a superb tag team once upon a time and Don found success in singles competition in Florida later in is career. I just saw a live event bout with a one camera shoot from Jacksonville recently on WWE 24/7 between Ernie Ladd and Dusty Rhodes where "The Big Cat" won "The Dream's" Florida Heavyweight Title. Don was a native of Buffalo, New York which has quite the old school wrestling heritage plus that is where Beth Phoenix is from.

Interesting main event in Tallahassee, Florida over the weekend when John Cena and Rey Mysterio took on Randy Orton and Edge. No shortage of egos, and talent for that matter, on the bad guy's side. FSU fans who live in Tallahassee needed some entertainment as their football program just got hammered by the NCAA.

Thursday night after the Bob Stoops Bowling Tournament for charity, a fellow attendee told me that he lived in Frisco, Texas and was friends with Charlie Haas and his wife Jackie. This fellow also said that he saw photos of Jackie about two months after giving birth and she looked as if she was in good enough physical condition to run a marathon and that the photos were off the hook. Charlie and Jackie have wisely opened their own business in Frisco and with that establishment being build and with two young children at home one would have to doubt that we will ever see Jackie Gayda full time again in the ring but seeing her one more time or occasionally would be great. Oklahoma native Haas did well in the marrying department or, as we often say, Charlie out punted his coverage.

ABC and ESPN's #1 play by play broadcaster Brad Nessler enjoyed dinner Friday night at J.R.'s Family BBQ in Norman with the wife and me. Ness is an old pal who was in town to handle the play by play for the OU-OSU Bedlam Basketball game Saturday afternoon. Ness and wife Nancy attended WM24 last year in Orlando with my wife Jan and I to specifically see Ric Flair get inducted into the WWE HOF. Yours truly got a little cameo on the ABC hoops broadcast on Saturday with a BBQ mention which is always nice pub.

Former WWE broadcaster Jonathan Coachman seems to be on the cusp of leaving ESPN News full time and moving on to addition ESPN gigs such as NBA Tonight and hosting SportsCenter. Coach is really happy at ESPN and finds it less challenging than working at WWE. The last time that I spoke with him he sounded like a different man but having a new baby girl can attribute to that too.

Speaking of ESPN, former Jets and Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards is a bright addition to the ESPN lineup of talking heads. Edwards has already mastered the must have "soundbyte" and he cuts to the chase when making a point. Edwards will without question be back in the NFL, likely in 2010, but will be fun to watch during the 2009 NFL season.

The NFL's best running back, Adrian Peterson, was in Norman over the weekend and I attended a charity dinner with him on Saturday night. I also purchased a canvas painting that AD signed as we were photographed together. It is of AD carrying the football against the Sooners' arch rival Texas. AD's speech to the attendees was with his Bible in hand which certainly is a pleasant departure of the controversies of the NFL that seem to plague the league more often than not. AD and I have known each other since he arrived on the OU campus and even chatted about him attending the WWE Dallas Super Show on March 30, schedules permitting.

Oh, by the way, congrats to the Buffalo Bills for signing Terrell Owens. TO is all yours and expect headlines to tie TO to TO (Toronto) in some shape, form, or fashion sooner than later. Owens can still play but he needs to simply keep his mouth shut and enjoy his blessed life of earning millions playing ball for a living and refrain from feeling compelled to draw attention to himself seemingly on an on going basis.

The UFC was smart to not substitute another fighter for Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar for their previously scheduled May 23 fight. Mir got his knee 'scoped and will now fight Lesnar on July 11 at UFC 100 which immediately made that milestone event feel bigger. Unless the nation's economy continues to bottom out, this event should be huge on PPV for UFC including larger than normal DVD sales. Plus, one has to know that Las Vegas, which is enduring challenging times as well, will love this event right in the middle of summer.

One thing about the proposed upcoming Rashard Evans vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson fight on May 23 is that there will no shortage of soundbytes from the pair of talkative fighters going into this battle. These men will pull a page out of the Muhammad Ali promotional play book which he borrowed from pro wrestling to add plenty of hype to this title fight.

I read on the internet where JBL has purchased an interest in Danny Davis' OVW operation. If one assumes that WWE can't efficiently train all the young prospects that they would ideally like in only one facility, then one could also assume that other training grounds might be able to take up the slack and eventually "graduate" their students one step closer to WWE fame and fortune.....for a nominal fee of course. No one can ever say that JBL isn't big picture thinking, multi-tasker. JBL's business deal with OVW intrigues me. Training wrestlers is tough and having too many "students" in the "class room" sometimes becomes a challenge that cannot be overcome. With that said, I think based on what I have personally seen that the WWE facility in Tampa is ideal but, again, they can only train so many athletes at a time and do it correctly.

Upon doing some research for my introduction of Bill Watts at this year's WWE HOF, it is absolutely amazing the number of individuals Cowboy either "discovered" of provided their major break in the business. At least 5 WWE HOF'ers can thank Watts for providing them with an opportunity to display their wares early in their respective careers. I still don't know how much time that I will have to intro Bill but I assume it will be 2-3 minutes. Watts track record for talent development may be non paralleled in the wrestling business with arguably Verne Gagne right there too.

So it is a big night for WWE with their flagship show coming into crunch time for the build to Wrestlemania and I am looking forward to Monday night's broadcast which should be in front of a near capacity crowd of, hopefully, loud and enthusiastic fans. I have started feeling the angst and anticipation for WM25 already which I perceive to be a good thing. If one isn't nervous or somewhat apprehensive about preparing for Wrestlemania, then they shouldn't be allowed to participate in the event and damn sure don't deserve to earn a payday from the biggest event of the year.

Thanks for stopping by and we will have more blogs and Q&A's here on the site before I fly up to Connecticut on Wednesday. I have to hustle back so I can take in the Big 12 Basketball tournament just up the road in OKC. Thanks again for stopping by.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Mark Lewin, Ernie Ladd, Dusty Rhodes, Beth Phoenix, Charlie Haas, Ric Flair, Bill Watts, Verne Gagne