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JR's Blog: Philly RAW; JR Visits the ECW Arena, sort of; Billy Bob Thornton visits JR's BBQ for real; Stone Cold Checks In

Posted: Dec 10th 2008 By: mikeiles

Thanks for stopping by our site and it's good to be home after a couple of days on the road with stops in Philly and Bridgeport. Before we get to today's random thoughts, please don't forget to get your Holiday shopping orders in ASAP as in today if possible from our on line store so that we can insure that you get your orders in time for the holidays. We are trying to turn the orders around within hours of receiving them and I have enjoyed personalizing many items over the past few weeks. We have our gift ideas priced fairly and with being a small business, every order is important to us and genuinely appreciated. With that said....here's some random thoughts....

The 3 hour, marathon Raw in Philly was attended by over 11,000 fans Monday night. For me it was good to be back on Raw and doing more than just a cameo as the adrenaline rush one gets from broadcasting a live TV show like Raw becomes somewhat addictive. We did not know what bouts we were going to be involved in until after the show officially started so that added to the "rush" of doing live TV without a net.

As former Arizona Cardinal head football coach Dennis Green once said, sort of, "The Slammy's were what we thought they were!" They were a mixture of presentations including some that were serious and some that weren't.

Congrats to the ECW Announce team Todd Grisham and Matt Striker for winning the "Announce Team of the Year" Slammy that is known in some circles as "The Adamle."

Todd and Matt do a really good job with ECW and I hope and I feel that they will be around for years to come if they don't burn our or lose their sanity in the wacky business of rasslin.

I enjoyed the Punk-Morrison match Monday night and would like to see both men earn a more significant role on Monday Night Raw if that is going to be their permanent address of which I don't know. Young talents have to be thrown into the main event spotlight, even before some are totally "ready" and be allowed to either succeed or fail. For the record, that determination can't occur in just a week or three either.

It doesn't take a valedictorian to be able to understand how popular Jeff Hardy is these days. Helluva ovation in Philly for the young man who many feel is past due in becoming the WWE Champion. An argument that if it were up to the majority of the "paying customers" that come to WWE events that Hardy would win the WWE Title sooner than later.

Jeff vs. HHH on this Friday's Smackdown is a damn strong outing and that is not announcer hyperbole. Personally, I had a helluva lot of fun calling their match the airs this Friday than any I can recall on free TV in a long, long time. If you listen to our call of the bout this Friday night I think you will be able to hear the legit emotion that was brought forth.

What's up with JBL these days? He certainly seems to be surrounded by controversy. I'm simply wondering if he has a business deal with HBK or not. Something's up but I'm not sure what. I do know that the Philly fans did not like Michaels having any thing to do with JBL Monday night.

After the Philly Raw, "The World's Angriest Announcer", Tazz, drove me by the old, ECW Arena which I had never seen. I do remember that between stints in the WWE, Paul Heyman called me and wanted me to make a surprise appearance at the House of Hardcore but it never came to fruition. I don't think my surprise appearance would have been to announce as Joltin' Joey Styles had that responsibility well in hand. Whatever it was would have likely been fun knowing Heyman's unique, creative mind.

Tazz and I also stopped by Tony Luke's, which is near the old, ECW Arena, for an authentic, delicious Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. That sandwich, o.k. two sandwiches, was the highlight of my Monday in Philly. As a budding restaurateur and avid watcher of the Food Network, I had heard a great deal about Tony Luke's and getting to try it out was a very positive experience that I would recommend to any one.

I hit the road again this Saturday as we head to western New York where Buffalo hosts WWE Armageddon on Sunday on PPV. From the last I heard, Buffalo has over 9,000 tickets out which means that seats are still available for those contemplating attending the event live which I highly recommend. I hope to stop by another of my favorite restaurants, Illio DiPaulo's in Buffalo for some home made Italian food but my schedule is going to be tight or so it seems.

Speaking of tickets, the big, Supershow in Toronto on December 22 isn't sold out yet but it's "this close." This is a huge, double header where fans can see a live Raw AND Friday Night Smackdown be taped. Nice holiday fare, eh? Could we get treated to a "Trish Stratus sighting?" I can only hope.

Smackdown had another good week of TV ratings last Friday night on the show headlined by a strong Cage Match between The Undertaker and The Big Show. Approximately 3.7 million folks tuned in which lead to Smackdown dominating many male demographics on Friday night and earning #1 distinction in men 18-34, males 12-17, and people 12-17. The viewership for the cage match was just under 3 million households which is hotter than donut grease on the fledgling MyNetworkTV.

The Raw TV rating Monday night spiked, as usual, in the over run between 11 p.m. eastern and the sign off with a 3.5 rating headlined by the three Smackdown participants in the Triple Threat Match slated for this Sunday at Armageddon. Does that mean that Friday Night Smackdown's wrestlers and announce team stole the show? I'm just saying.

The King's and my friend, Travis Hafner, the slugging DH of the Cleveland Indians is not only a WWE fan but has become a big time Oklahoma Sooner football fan as well. Travis is considering joining us in Miami the first week in January for the BCS National Championship Game pitting OU vs. Florida.

Did You Know....that Jerry Lawler does not own a single suit and the attire he wore Monday night on Raw was thrown together at the last minute and ended up in the trash in the bathroom of the room were were using as a locker room? The King told me that if he had to wear a suit and tie every week on Raw that he likely would not be announcing. Surely he was kidding but the King is "too much" and is as entertaining off camera as he is on. A man of Jerry's distinction doesn't own one suit and the make shift outfit he wore to get by on Monday is probably now in a landfill near Philly.

Stone Cold called me Tuesday as Tazz and I were driving from Long Island to Bridgeport for Smackdown. Steve is on his ranch in south Texas deer hunting, or "harvesting" as the hunters call it, and said he had killed two "cull deer" thus far. That means that the now deceased deer aka cull deer were either undersized, sick or old.

Steve sent the Mrs. and me some of the caps he designed with his ranch's logo on them and they are awesome. The "Broken Skull Ranch" logo is on the money. We also discussed Steve joining us in Miami for the January 8 National Title Game but those plans are still up in the air.

My new traveling partner Tazz also has excellent, graphic design skills much like Austin had with his many successful logos over the years. Tazz is rapidly becoming the "Czar" of Long Island youth baseball, or the Tony Soprano of hard ball as I call him, and works tirelessly for his players and strikes me as a natural born coach.

I would suggest that the man formerly known as the "Human Suplex Machine" strikes fear in the hearts of youth baseball umpires. Especially when he charges the men in blue while wearing his orange towel over his head.

"The Wrestler" premiers in OKC on January 23. I'll be there that day or soon thereafter. Unless of course someone wants to treat me like a "big wheel" and facilitate a private screening also known as sending one a DVD of the movie. I won't hold my breath on that one.

For the record, my Dad once told me that a "big wheel" was something on which a dog urinates.

Allegedly the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight garnered over 1M PPV buys which is damn impressive if true. That's "serious money" from where I come from and is especially impressive considering the condition of our nation's economy. I have also read speculation that the Lesnar-Couture UFC Heavyweight Title bout of November 14 may come in around one million pay per view buys. I hope that's true for all involved. It's great to see people making money.

We just opened a nifty, new drive thru at our J.R.'s Family BBQ in Norman which is our original location. It has helped our business especially with the folks who are multi tasking and don't have an over abundance of time.

We had a special guest at our J.R.'s/Norman store this week when acclaimed actor Billy Bob Thornton dropped by with his band, "The Boxmasters", and enjoyed some "Q" and actually took a huge load of food to go for the band's bus trip back to L.A. The Mrs and our staff said Billy Bob was a helluva gracious guy and was legit digging our BBQ and even left wearing one of our black, JR's trucker caps which are available elsewhere on our site.

I had a couple of Angelina Jolie questions for Billy Bob but I was spending my Monday afternoon in Philly listening to wrestling gossip and thinking of a line from an old rock song that went something like "Paranoia runs deep...deep in your heart it will seep" or something to that affect.

I have my flights booked for Mrs J.R. and I for Miami and we will be able to spend several days in South Florida while will be attending the OU-Gator college football game for the National Title. We are taping two Friday Night Smackdown's in East Rutherford, N.J. on December 30 which gets me past the football game.

I remember one OU bowl game that I missed and it was the great Fiesta Bowl that saw Boise State upset OU. I had to be in Miami, ironically enough, to call the K-Fed vs. John Cena bout and I suffered through the 4th quarter and the OT in my hotel room with all my friends (alone) and died one thousand deaths. Damn I hated missing that game. Oh, well as the King would say, "one can't grieve forever."

Next Tuesday December 16, we tape Friday Night Smackdown in Baltimore that airs on December 19 and this might be one of the last, I didn't say the last, WWE events to emanate in Baltimore as I keep hearing that a new arena is going be be constructed. Then again, with the economy like it is perhaps those plans are on hold. I'm sure some one out there knows but the old Arena in Baltimore has hosted some amazing memories in wrestling and in the NBA, among other events. The Baltimore Arena is the site of a WCW PPV that I was working when I took ill and passed fragmented kidney stone particles at the bathroom breaks I took during the video tape packages during the show. Thank goodness we did the broadcast from the stage in the Baltimore Arena which made it easy to "sneak off" and take care of business. I went to the hospital right after the show which was the end of a challenging day.

In January there are two Smackdown double tapings, on the 13th in Omaha and on the 27th in Indianapolis.

Thanks for stopping by and for those of you that choose to do some shopping with us. Be well and have a great holiday season.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Jerry Lawler, WCW