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JR's Blog: Happy Thanksgiving...Business has Picked Up!...Jeff Hardy..TLC...Homeland

Posted: Nov 26th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We should always count our blessings and here's hoping that your Thanksgiving Day is filled with great food, safe travels, and enjoying time with loved ones.

BBQ'ed Random Thoughts....

We received over 100 on line orders yesterday and they were all taken to Federal Express last night for shipping. Our little team of my sister in law and my wife worked tirelessly through the the day to get many of your orders out quickly and efficiently.

The FREE SHIPPING for many domestic orders is still in effect and if you check out all the great offers we have put together you'll agree that our products make affordable and unique holiday gifts and stocking stuffers.

Remember, that we have a December 12 deadline on our personally, autographed J.R.'s Cookbooks and our 1560 The Game Special offer. I have been busy signing your many books all week.

Oklahoma's 28 game home winning streak is on the line this Saturday, in Norman thank goodness, against in state rival Oklahoma State who has had a great year and a 9-2 record. Somehow OU is favored which I totally don't get. That's how I'll spend my Saturday in addition to hanging at JR's BBQ in Norman. I expect to hear plenty from the legendary Brisco Brothers especially if their alma mater, OSU, beats my Sooners on our own field.

At least I feel confident in saying that I won't encounter any obnoxious, embarrassment to his profession, state trooper like I did last Saturday just north of Lubbock, Texas who allowed Texas drivers to blow my doors off while he made sure and gave me a speeding ticket for being 9 miles over the limit. My Oklahoma license tag did me no favors nor did my Nike, OU sweatshirt. I'm paying the ticket and calling it a day.

How will Verne "Mini Me" Troyer "measure up" (sorry) this Monday on Raw attempting to follow the performance of WWE HOFer Jesse Ventura? Ventura raised the bar on what a guest GM can do on the WWE's top TV priority. Bottom line is that Jesse "gets it." I would bet a case of BBQ Sauce, good deal by the way, that Verne will meet the Bella Twins and Santino Marella but most assuredly he will interact with DX due to Hornswoggle's apparent law suit. I say "SETTLE" and move on DX!!

Speaking of Guest GM's on Raw, I am pleased that I will not be on the air in Dallas when Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban will be the guest GM in early December and be forced to have to say the obligatory "I love Mark Cuban" or "Mark Cuban is a great guest GM." Cuban may well hit a home run and I hope for the show's sake that he does. Cuban is without question an entertaining personality who loves the soundbyte, sports world and getting on referees during NBA games but he also tried to kill OKC's chances of getting a NBA franchise. The NBA's OKC Thunder helps the community in which I live and they do great things within the community for many, under privileged youngsters.

Check out all the things that I am thankful for as some may provide you with a laugh or two while others may end up in the "dirt." Check out http://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown/.

Our galleries page here on this site has a couple of images of what our JR's displays look like in the four, Norman area Homeland Grocery Stores. I will be doing some in store appearances at the Norman, Oklahoma Homeland stores on December 5 and 12. More info to follow.

The Jeff Hardy DVD comes out next week, a three disc set, and I am anxious to see the completed product. I sat for a long while being interviewed about Jeff and was extremely candid. I am anxious to see how many of my comments actually made the DVD. I expect this DVD to be excellent. Jeff Hardy is and always will be one of my favorite wrestlers. And no, I have no idea if or when he might return to WWE but Jeff Hardy is a star.

BTW...one thing that I said in my weekly Smackdown blog on www.wwe.com is that I was thankful that I was not booked to be a guest on the "Abraham Washington Show" but that I still find WWE HOF'er Tony Atlas's laugh entertaining.

This month's Legend's Roundtable Discussion topic is "Wrestling Managers." Joey Styles hosts, and did an excellent job BTW, while Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, J.J. Dillon, and yours truly discussed the lost art of wrestling managing. I read where someone wrote that Garvin had never been a manager which isn't accurate. He traveled with and managed the late Terry Garvin in the 70's. I remember refereeing a bout that was a loser leave town match between Terry and Jimmy Garvin vs. Cowboy Bill Watts from that era. Need I tell you who packed their U Haul? Check out WWE 24/7 On Demand which I get from my friends at Cox Cable in OKC.

Love the fact that Christian and Shelton Benjamin (thank goodness the man still has a last name) want to "steal the show" at the TLC PPV in December in beautiful San Antonio. This is not just TV hyperbole I assure you.

Condolences to the family and friends of the former wrestling promoter in Los Angles Mike Lebell who passed away this week. Lebell and his family had a tremendous, wrestling territory back in the day. The Lebell's knew their audience, generally kept talented, Hispanic wrestlers hot, and parlayed "personal issues" ala Freddie Blassie vs. John Tolos into big money. "Personal issue" development is becoming a lost art. Not to mention that there are, arguably, too many titles floating around out there and that they change hands much too often.

Seems like a cool thing that many younger fans got to hear a glimpse of the broadcast team of Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura Monday night on Raw. McMahon and Ventura had a great run highlighted by their exposure on NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event when SNME was much more relevant and a larger part of pop culture than it has been in recent years. "McMAHON" & "The Body" along with Monsoon and Heenan all played a huge part of the WWE's TV success back in the day.

In a totally biased and egocentric statement, I still feel the best broadcast team ever in WWE was The King and JR. Hey, I said I was biased so lighten up Francis.

I still think that it's a good thing to see Sheamus getting a shot at a PPV main event which will occur in a Tables Match for the WWE Title against John Cena. Some fans have written us that they don't like it and that Sheamus is the wrong, young guy to get this opportunity. I feel that Sheamus' "sizzle" is a work in progress just like every other young wrestler but I also know conclusively that Sheamus will bring the steak and physicality to his match with Cena. Do you think that Sheamus vs. Cena is going to close the show at TLC in San Antonio anyway? My guess is that it will be the TLC Match, duh, featuring Jericho and Show vs. HHH and home town hero Shawn Michaels. Fans need to give the Sheamus' of the wrestling world a chance to evolve and develop and not be so quick to rush to judgment. Cena vs. Sheamus will be a fresh match that will be physical and will feature two men who will work their asses off. Those traits work for me.

We've gotten tons of emails about when is WWE going to put new guys in main events and create new rivalries and then it finally happens but then some fans complain that it's the "wrong," new guys. Jeez.

Just so every one will know who seems to be obsessed with a few questions repeatedly sent to this site, I don't plan on answering questions as to how much money I earn, what my corporate insurance plan is, what all I do for WWE from my home office, my favorite finishing maneuver, my favorite match that I've ever broadcast, or lame questions about perceived, lame, creative issues. With that said, we are getting many more succinct, higher level of questions on an ongoing basis. For that, we are thankful as well.

It looks as if it will be 2010 before my future, broadcasting plans are addressed in more detail due to on going health issues. After recently being diagnosed with borderline diabetes, I have drastically altered my diet and my attendance at Happy Hours. Plus, I'm on the treadmill at our local gym several days a week. It's as if I had to be "scared straight" before I would do more things that were good for my long term health.

The facial nerve is still being stubborn but so am I and I know that it will regenerate in time. It has been usually taken around 4 months the other two times that I've had a Bells palsy attack.

Oh, yeah....someone sent me a link to a website that said that I was "angry" at a recent UK Sun interview with my friend Jerry Lawler saying that I would not be back in WWE until Wrestlemania 26. That's not true and no one has interviewed me or asked me that question so it is simply the author's interpretation of what he read. So, for the record, I am NOT angry about any thing and, to the contrary, am as happy as I can recall being in years.

Thanks for shopping with us and I hope that every one has a great Thanksgiving weekend. I will be updating this site over the next few days between food, football, a nap or two, visits to JR's BBQ and a few trips to the gym where my favorite treadmill awaits. Oh, and by the way, I have not stopped eating at JR's because of my diet as we serve smoked turkey and smoked chicken not to mention great, green beans and delicious, mayo free cole slaw....among other healthy items.

Our website store is open for your convenience.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Tony Atlas, Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, Terry Garvin 1st, Bill Watts, John Tolos, Jerry Lawler