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JR's Blog: Denver Debacle...ESPN Wise Asses...Monday Night Wars DVD...BBQ Biz is Booming!

Posted: May 22nd 2009 By: mikeiles

BBQ'ed Random Thoughts and a few gratuitous mentions of our BBQ products available right now in our on line store.

Interesting week. The "Debacle in Denver" has had many people buzzing including some aloof, talking heads on ESPN SportsCenter who seem to get orgasmic when they get the opportunity to utilize witty banter to knock the genre of wrestling and its fan base. For the record I am NOT referring to my friend Jonathan Coachman.

I feel badly for the fans in Colorado who lost multiple WWE events because of the scheduling snafu at the Pepsi Center. Most know what a "Lewinsky" refers to so I wonder if arena scheduling issues might be referred to as "Kroenke's" in the future?

Denver Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Phil Kroenke likely won't be treated too kindly this Monday night on Raw by Mr. McMahon. Kroenke's image may make Mr. McMahon's treatment of Ted Turner back in the WWE/WCW Monday night war feel like Ted was a blood relative of the McMahon's.

With Jerry Lawler wrestling in Monday's main event, I wonder if 'Ol J.R. will get to join Michael "Oh, My" Cole at the announce desk on Raw? I enjoyed sitting in with Cole in Louisville even though some folks are wondering why I was so "conveniently" available Monday night.

As Cole would say, the answer is simple and "vintage."

Seriously it is a good question and we should have explained it. When Smackdown doesn't have Monday live events we are going to record the SD WWE Superstars bout that airs on Thursday night on WGN America. This will be prior to Raw unless it is a west coast Raw and then one would assume our Superstars bout will be recorded after Raw. For those that need to know, ECW's Superstar bout will still be recorded on Tuesdays.

Nonetheless I plan on being in Los Angeles both Monday and Tuesday nights just to warn you. I'll be in the "bullpen" if needed.

My friend Earl Brown who played Dan Dority on the HBO classic program "Deadwood" will be coming as my guest on Tuesday night just to update my name dropping, stat sheet.

Speaking of "Deadwood" could Mr. McMahon be considered the "Al Swearingen" of WWE?

Did You Know...that one can break their arm patting themselves on the back AND that I know the difference between a metacarpal bone and a metatarsal bone. I actually aced my college courses in Human Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology which should provide some of you with ample cannon fodder for the message boards.

However, I did mispronounce those two terms during the Matt Hardy vs. MVP match on Monday night. My college professor, Dr. Dan Fuller, would not have been proud of me for butchering the terms and inferring that I don't know a hand from a foot.

My foot, by the way, is what I have put in my mouth many times over the years.

All the WWE events in Mexico are sold out and as the late Gorilla Monsoon used to declare, "the SRO signs went up early!"

Speaking of sales, our business at J.R.'s Family BBQ, exit 109 on I-35 in Norman, Oklahoma is doing gang buster business. We have had two of our biggest weeks in quite some time the past 14 days as it seems that folks are seeking family priced, comfort food of which we do better than most any one. If you're traveling this summer and find yourself on I-35 just south of Oklahoma City remember that we open 7 days a week at 11 a.m.

It was a unique week as far as broadcasting was concerned for me. Sitting back at ringside for Raw in the color commentator's chair was different but fun. Raw is such a different animal than is SD. SD is more in ring, action oriented while Raw is more verbally enhanced. I think my style fits SD better but I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy working on a live, live show without a net such as RAW.

It felt that Todd Grisham and I had one of our best Friday Night Smackdown's that we have been able to put together for the show that airs this Friday night from Cincy. The opportunity to help make the SD brand more viable within the WWE corporate structure and, more importantly, the opportunity to help enhance the development of young stars on SD makes working on this show particularly fun.

As I said I think my skills (no jokes please) are better suited for Friday nights considering the way the WWE TV shows are produced and no one is doing old school, play by play any longer any way. The philosophy of announcing has changed significantly over the past few years to where the role of "play by play" man is essentially history. Play by play has been replaced with "story telling." Plus, announcers are implored to not scream or yell at the viewer and keep themselves under more control. I have heard some announcers on TV who yell for the hell of it which is akin to crying wolf. I know that I have been guilty of getting a little carried away on more occasions than I like to recall.

If one listens to my "play by play" work from the mid 70's through the early 2000's it stayed somewhat consistent, depending on the quality of the product we had to work with, but it's an entirely different presentation today.

I am a fan of tag team wrestling even though some of my remarks on this website have been misunderstood. I never said that there wasn't "room" for tag teams in wrestling. I have been fortunate enough to have broadcast more great tag team bouts than any broadcaster working today and I readily acknowledge that there are some excellent tag teams competing in the biz. My point has merely been that due to the lack of overall depth in the business that there aren't enough great tag teams to keep tag team wrestling positioned where it should be. When is the last time on a major PPV have two, full time teams headlined? I rest my case.

One last thing on that, if folks are going to invoke my name on their promo's please give an Okie a break and mention the BBQ brand with a gratuitous plug....BROTHER!

The WWE produced Monday Night War DVD set for release soon should be a dandy. I hear that Jim Crockett was awesome in his interview. The former head honcho of Jim Crockett Promotions has been off the radar for years and I will be very anxious to hear his comments. I also think WWE got comments from David Crockett, Harvey Schiller, former TBS Executive, Kevin Sullivan, and Bill Goldberg among many individuals who had plenty to say about the WWE vs. WCW rivalry. This truly should be a super DVD and one that will no doubt create controversy which equates to cash.

I did a lengthy interview for a Batista DVD this past week in my spare time. Just kidding about that spare time thing. Batista is an interesting individual to talk about as his life's journey as been extremely unique. Dave is lucky to not be either dead or in prison the way his younger years unfolded.

Thanks for the recent spurt in business in our on line store. We thank you sincerely and hope that you will continue to consider us for a variety of affordable gift ideas and some of the best sauces available any where. Our Original Sauce will be available in our new plastic bottles perhaps as early as next week. We are still a few weeks away from having the HOT sauce in plastic bottles along with our delicious, Chipolte Ketchup.

Thanks for stopping by and check back here soon. I will also be updating our Q&A section over the next few hours as time permits.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, WCW, Jerry Lawler, ECW, Bill Goldberg