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JR's Blog: JR's WM27 Recap..WWE All Stars Trending Ahead of Projections..Tough Enough..Grilling Season is Here..Order Today!

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 By: CMBurnham

We're back from Wrestlemania 27 and had a great visit in our one time hometown of Atlanta. Grilling time is upon us so let's get to cooking....

The overall experience at WM27 was outstanding. We got to see many old friends and met many new friends. The WWE fans who traveled from all points from around the world were a joy to meet except for those that wanted to pose for photos in the men's room. :)

Announcing at WM27 was an adrenaline rush but I'll admit that I was rusty and had plenty of pre-match anxiety as I would have liked to have been able to prep more. Plus, one never knows after a long absence from WM's just how one will respond in the heat of battle.

Being able to team with The King on Sunday night and Monday, for a few minutes anyway on RAW, made things easier for me. Broadcaster chemistry cannot be manufactured and the King and I were fortunate enough to have natural chemistry essentially since early on in our announcing tenure.

It was great to see many of the older, WWE HOF'ers who were on hand as one never knows when our paths will cross again. Nothing is guaranteed in this world and enjoying every life experience is good advice for all of us.

I was talking to ESPN/ABC's Brad Nessler at a WWE function when he saw Larry Hennig. Ness grew up in Minnesota and was a big AWA fan back in the day and vividly remembered 'The Ax' as one of his favorite TV wrestling stars. That's exactly how many of us respond when we see our wrestling heroes from the past.

WWE HOF'er Abdullah the Butcher needs a hip replacement. 'Butch' was very moved to be inducted into the WWE HOF. I hope he had a great week of business at his Atlanta restaurant during all the WM27 festivities. We never got to make it there but will endeavor to do so the next time we are in Atlanta. Terry Funk's induction speech, in its entirety, for Abby was excellent in my view.

So was the whole of Dusty Rhodes induction speech of the Road Warriors. Dream was in rare form and hit a base clearing homer while inducting the LOD to the WWE HOF. One would be hard pressed to say any wrestler of any era could match the Dream word for word and with such a unique delivery & presentation. The HOF'er can talk and most importantly Dusty makes one actually listen.

Seeing Larry Hennig and Harley Race visiting at Wrestlemania brought back memories of one of the all time great tag teams that often times never get the recognition that they should. These two were a big time team, trust me. Old school fans will attest, I'm sure.

The journey between now and WM28 in Miami could well be very compelling especially considering that a main event has already been tabbed, the Rock vs. John Cena. I have no issue whatsoever in dubbing a main event a year in advance because that provides fans with a destination and hopefully the journey to the destination will be full of twists and turns. The opportunity to build an amazing anticipation for this bout certainly exists.

The other main event at WM28 would, obviously, involve the Undertaker's Streak which is now such a part of the fabric of the event. The Streak is embedded in Wrestlemania and it is one of the most anticipated aspects of the biggest event of the year for me.

Congrats to Chris Jericho, @IamJericho, for advancing in the DWTS competition. Jericho is simply a winner and a great competitor no matter the task at hand and he will be in the competition until the end IMO. This experience on network TV will likely propel Jericho to bigger entertainment opportunities.

Overbearing individuals who endlessly yelled catcalls and shutouts during the WWE HOF Induction Ceremony were extremely annoying and, quite frankly, embarrassing to other fans who conducted themselves in a civil fashion. It isn't as if these defiant and ignorant individuals weren't warned of this matter prior to the event starting because they were.

The WWE All Stars video game is trending ahead of projections which is great for all the super people at THQ and WWE. The reviews of the video game are stout and I see plenty of TV spots on the game throughout the day. Hopefully, you gamers will give this one a shot as those that have and have provided us feedback have been very pleased with the game.

We now have over 120,000 followers on Twitter @JRsBBQ. I invite you to join us.

Remember that we do not ship outside the USA from this site but that http://www.wweshop.com does. Please help support our efforts via http://www.wweshop.com.

Thanks for all the great emails that we have received along with a ton of Tweets regarding my appearance at Wrestlemania and on Monday Night Raw. It was great being back in the saddle and sitting at the announce table where I feel very comfortable. It was like returning home, on a professional level, to me. I'm not sure when I will be back for another announcing appearance but will embrace any opportunity to do what I love.

My wife and I watched the premier of Tough Enough with Steve Austin over a late dinner at the Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta which, by the way, was a complete zoo for most of our time there. Just my two cents but Wrestlemania has gotten so big that allowing folks to come in the team hotel who aren't staying there during certain periods of time during 'Mania week is a recipe for chaos.

Nonetheless, I loved Tough Enough and I hear that the upcoming episodes are much more compelling that the first of which I throughly enjoyed. I'm happy and proud of @steveaustinBSR as he is a genuine star who carries himself big time on the reality show that I felt was extremely well produced and edited. Beginning Monday, TE will air on Monday nights leading directly into Monday Night Raw. I hope that you will check it out. I'm DVR'ing the entire series.

If you have time, please visit our store and thanks to all that support our efforts including those that bought product at WM Axxess.

Be well as we enter the official grilling season.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, WWE, Abdullah the Butcher, Terry Funk, , Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race