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JR's Blog: Thursday Update...Dream in Big D..Big Beef Jerky News..TV Ratings, No Panic Necessary..We Want Your Business!

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 By: CMBurnham

Hope everyone is having a great day. It's an awesome day weather wise here in Norman. I can't wait to get to Dallas for OU vs. Texas but first....

Thanks to all the well wishers regarding my heart procedure on Monday. I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers but I know all will be well. If one plants positive then one grows positive. Simple formula. I'm more concerned about OU beating Texas and particularly OU's defense playing well in the Cotton Bowl Saturday.

Beef Jerky update....very soon we will be changing our packaging for our 97% Fat Free Beef Jerky going from a 1.75 ounce bag up to a 2.5 ounce bag so you 'll get more bang for your buck. I think we only have about 3 cases left of the existing packaging. Beef prices are edging up and there may be a price increase to some degree so if you are a Jerky customer you might want to consider cleaning us out of what we have left. My jerky maker has been making Beef Jerky full time since 1969 and is a national award winning smoker/jerky guy so our Beef Jerky is as good as you will find any where. The new stuff will be available next week if all goes well. Our Jerky would sell for $4.95 a bag in most convenience stores for the record.

Lots of talk about Monday Night Raw's last couple of TV ratings and them being lower than normal. There are two primary reasons for this matter, in my opinion. Monday Night Football provides immense competition on cable TV on Monday nights. ESPN/ABC has a huge investment in the NFL and they spend countless hours promoting each Monday Night Football contest. MNF on TV is a right of passage in America. ESPN battles with the USA Network for ratings supremacy and popping big numbers on MNF is the key to ESPN's success from September thru January. The flexible scheduling is much more amenable to strong football ratings and that did not exist years ago. Bottom line is that football has seemingly become America's game of choice and MNF still has significant cache as a brand.

Secondly, and this is the old promoter coming out in me, if the attractions are spot on and personal issues are hot enough to create 'water cooler talk' then more viewers are likely to tune into Raw. After doing approximately 600 episodes of Monday Night Raw, we knew we always had to battle MNF and even Nitro back in the day. We always strived to create compelling TV and to earn our share of the marketplace. We were fortunate that we had a deep roster of talented, experienced athletes who, in one form or another, clicked with the audience. WWE has some very talented individuals performing on Raw and some are involved in thought provoking storylines. But the biz in general needs new stars to become established 'box office' sensations and that simply doesn't happen over night and honestly for some performers it will never happen.

Personally, I see WWE going through somewhat of a transition period as it relates to the development of new, top talents. I still enjoy watching Raw each week to see how quickly these younger guys evolve and accept the personal responsibility and challenge of becoming a main event star that draws ratings and sells tickets and pay per views. I've said many times in this space that the journey from debuting on TV until a talent makes it to the next level, if they do make it, is 3-5 years and particularly starting from scratch and with little or no experience.

Not having viable wrestling territories where a talent could ply their trade under a variety of philosophies and gain invaluable experience is a determent in today's wrestling world when developing new stars. Does that mean that new stars can't be developed? Of course not, but I do feel that the process to get from inexperience rookie to a PPV headlining main eventer is longer and more challenging.

I'm very excited about many young, WWE talents and feel with confidence that some will be headlining major events in their career. The question that I can't answer is exactly when that will occur but until then I will remain patient and continue to enjoy Raw and any other program WWE produces including Friday Night Smackdown which moves to Syfy and emanates from OKC this Friday night. We're talking a TV show here folks that airs first run about 51 weeks a year and producing a 'hit' every week isn't possible. Can all programs be better? Certainly? Should wholesale changes be implemented? Not in my opinion. Rebuilding a roster takes time.

Bottom line is that I'm not nor do I encourage any one to consider pushing the proverbial panic button but I do feel that the lower TV ratings will motivate everyone in the process to try logical and different things while utilizing different people in unique scenarios.

It will be interesting as to what sort of 'spin' many wrestling websites put on what I have said about the TV ratings topic.

BTW...there will be no video of yours truly from the hospital on Monday. I'm not smart enough to Tweet video.

You can follow me on Twitter @JRsBBQ. We're well over 60,000 now and growing. I wish just half of those following us on Twitter would place an order here on the site. Hey, we're not a non profit organization BTW.

Our Q&A's are updated as we speak on this very site. They, like this blog, are free.

Want to read some football stuff I wrote this week? check out http://ouinsider.com/news/story.php?article=5133.

Unlike former President Bill Clinton I have not committed to going vegan on what is perceived to be a clogged artery in my heart but I cut WAY back on red meat long ago.

Why do I dislike short title reigns so much in the unpredictable world of pro wrestling? That and 'stripping' someone of a title is a turn off to this fan.

My latest Ross Report at www.wwe.com is on the home page under WWE News. Please read it and if enough of you do perhaps Joey Styles will give me a raise. :)

We should have an update on our new mustard project next week.

Wife Jan and I will be hooking up with WWE HOF'er Dusty Rhodes and his much better half in Dallas for the Red River Rivalry this weekend. Needless to say, Dream will be cheering for another team than Ol J.R.

Don't forget that we want you to make our sauces, Chipotle Ketchup and Beef Jerky your personal favorites and I'll ship 'em to you free of charge if you live in the USA. If there is something that we are not providing please let me know at Contact Us on the home page of this site. Nonetheless we appreciate everyone's support of our home grown brand.

Be well and continue to count your blessings.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Dusty Rhodes