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JR's Blog: Who Shot J.R.? U2...Flair/Hulk...Captain Lou Passes...FREE SHIPPING Days Continue

Posted: Oct 15th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Good to see you stop by for a visit to our ever growing website. Please tell a friend about us and let them know that we have great products in our on line store developed by the Ross family that include FREE SHIPPING on many specials that include our Original BBQ Sauce, Hot BBQ Sauce, Chipolte Ketchup, and 97% Fat Free Beef Jerky.

Here is some BBQ'ed Random Thoughts.....

Many folks have gone into business for themselves regarding me taking a rare, off day from the Smackdown TV taping this week in Lexington, Kentucky. I guess because I had not requested a personal day off in my 16 years in WWE and never before in my career with WCW or any one else that this became a bigger deal than it should have on a slow, "news day." I wanted to properly celebrate my wife and my 16th Wedding Anniversary...plan and simple. Any one who is reporting any thing other than this is exposing themselves as being affiliated with a lame website and are inept, gossip mongers.

Some message boards have even proclaimed with certainty that I will never be back on WWE's air and that I will be "shocking" the wrestling world by appearing on another company's event on Sunday. Let me make it clear where I will be this weekend. I will be attending the OU-Texas college football slobber-knocker in Dallas Saturday and then will drive back to Norman where we live to take the Mrs to the U2 concert here at OU's football stadium Sunday night. Yeah, that U2...the one starring Bono who Mrs J.R. would leave me for in a New York minute. :)

Furthermore, I wouldn't miss the OU-Texas game for any thing I can think of including being a part of Todd Grisham's wedding this Saturday in Pennsylvania. BTW congrats and good luck Todd and be sure and say hello to Jonathan Coachman for me when you see him this weekend.

So, regarding my professional status, any thing else you read other than what I have said here is manure. I don't break commitments and I am smart enough to not violate the terms of my contract with whomever I'm employed. My WWE contract expires in December, I don't even know the exact date, and I expect to sign a multi year deal with WWE when schedules permit for us to sit down and to hammer out a deal that is a win/win. If we don't hammer out a deal, I have no issues taking the holidays off, focusing on Family, BBQ and Football and then reassessing other career moves. The only thing that I can say is that "retirement" is NOT an option as there is still plenty of fuel left in my tank and that I can assure one and all.

I appreciate the "Vintage" Raw announcer Michael Cole for taking my "spot" on this week's Friday Night Smackdown. I can assure you that It won't be another 16 years before I ask for another week off of travel for family reasons.

I addressed this matter more at www.wwe.com on the Smackdown page on my weekly blog.

Sorry to hear about the passing of Captain Lou Albano, WWE Hall of Fame Manager and former member of the Sicilians tag team with Tony Altimore. Lou was a true "character" who was a decent wrestler but gained huge fame in the WWE explosion of the 80's as a manager. Lou appearing in a Cyndi Lauper music video back in the day was nice exposure for Lou and WWE and put Captain Lou into pop culture awareness. Lou had many stints in WWE but always "came home" and we wish his family and friends our utmost condolences. The Good Lord has his hands full keeping the Captain in check in Heaven.

The Ric Flair, original NWA Title belt issue is still on going or so it seems. Apparently there are multiple bids for the coveted, collector's piece of over $75K. Hopefully this matter will be resolved amicably and to everyone's satisfaction but from a fan's perspective there is no pro wrestling collectible any where that I can think of that I would rather have in my personal collection. I think a creative mind could literally write a screen play about the travels and experience of this "trophy."

Speaking of "Naitch," some emailers have asked me my thoughts regarding the Hulk and company tour of Australia coming up soon. Why would I have any issues with it? I am for all wrestlers to earn the best income that they can no matter where it may be. I would love to see Hulk and Ric tag rather than wrestle each other but that's simply one guy's opinion. If wrestling fans are entertained and the talents earn a fair wage, then who loses? I wish them success.

Have you checked out WWEClassics.com lately? Take a look at it when you have the time as it is pretty awesome if you love the classics and wrestling as it used to be.

The advance ticket sales for the WWE's upcoming tour of Europe in November are freakish as in massive. However, there are a few tickets still available in some markets so I suggest that if you are interested in attending that you check directly with your local arena. I do know that there are tickets, no many, still available for the TV shoots in Sheffield.

There are some tickets still available for "Bragging Rights" in the friendly city of Pittsburgh, also.

Emailers have asked me about if I think the Von Erich children will get in the wrestling biz. I assume that these questions are about the sons of the Von Erich's as Kerry's daughter is now in TNA but I have not seen her on TV nor do I know her long term wrestling goals. I do know that Kevin, who now lives full time in Hawaii where he is a farmer, has a son, Ross, who looks a great deal like a "young Kerry" and has expressed some interest in getting in the family business at some point. I don't know where all that stands as I've been out of the talent relations biz for a good while now even though I still closely observe it and readily offer feedback and help youngsters get tryouts down in FCW.

I hope to be able to help Jesse White, the son of Vader, when Jesse graduates from OU in May.

It's a troublesome Saturday for my Sooners taking on the powerful Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. UT is ranked 3rd in the nation and are talented and healthy. OU is ranked 20th after two, one point loses this season and are banged up. I'm not tapping or waving a white flag but my team is the definitive underdog. That's why many of us travel down to Big D on Thursday so as to make sure that we're "ready" and that we don't miss any thing including a corn dog at the Texas State Fair.

I've been updating our Q&A Section of the site on a regular basis and there are new updates there now.

Thanks for your business and we appreciate it as it keeps this site rolling along.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Ric Flair, TNA, Kevin Von Erich, Vader