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JR's Blog: JR's SB45 Thoughts..UFC126 Review..Naitch Calls..Gino Hernandez..Custom Made JR's Beef Jerky..

Posted: Feb 7th 2011 By: CMBurnham

We hope that everyone had a happy, Super Bowl 45 weekend. Lots of ground to cover so, as UFC's Mike Goldberg would say, "Here We Go!"

Wife Jan and I enjoyed attending the Super Bowl in Arlington, Texas Sunday. It was a long day with us driving down from Norman early Sunday morning and getting back home at 2 a.m. late Sunday night/early Monday morning. It was a 20 hour day but we 'slept in our own bed' which, upon driving home north on a desolate I-35 sounded good 'on paper.'

(It's funny but when one is looking for tickets to events such as SB45 via 'friends' and business associates, how many forget to return calls when the chips are down. I realized I have too many pretenders and sycophants in my phone directory of which I have no one to blame but myself. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.)

The SB45 drive was like making a booking for the large Cowboy back in the Mid South days....lots of miles and not much 'profit.' We paid more for two tickets to SB45 than was actually paid for my first home as an adult, a mobile home in the early 70's.

However, the investment provided a life time of memories that money can't buy.

Our Steelers lost but made a contest out of it and I'll continue to support the Steelers in the NFL largely due to the Mrs' Pittsburgh roots.

Congrats to Green Bay as their fans are akin to Steeler fans in that they are loyal, passionate and football smart. Vince Lombardi was one of my boyhood heroes so the Lombardi Trophy going back to Wisconsin is fitting.

Businesses in the metroplex lost millions of dollars thanks to Mother Nature. Many pampered, cry babies within the national media screamed like pigs caught under a gate because the weather affected their party time. Boo hoo.

I'd suggest that you folks change diapers and get over it. If you think that the weather was unusually dicey in Texas, wait until you get to Indianapolis for SB46. BTW the event isn't about the weather, is it? I thought it was about the game but that's me....just a dumb, Oklahoma redneck, non hip, football fan.

Yes, the blotching of the singing of the National Anthem had folks rolling their eyes. Wrong choice of singers in hindsight. Bad booking IMO.

The half time entertainment was too long for the athletes but the show was good. The Blacked Eyed Peas, who we saw in person when they opened for U2 here in Norman a year ago, were very good, high energy and fun. Slash making a surprise appearance was cool but not so much for Usher's 'run in.'

Football wise we sat just off the GB end zone in the lower level, corner and our seats were excellent. The world's largest video board makes every seat worthwhile I assure you. We were about 14 rows off the field near the Steelers entrance to the stadium.

I can easily see Vince McMahon and Jerry Jones collaborating some day to set a Wrestlemania attendance record in Cowboys Stadium.

Enjoyed watching UFC 126 on Saturday night at home. The Vegas fights shortened my Super Bowl eve sleep time but UFC 126 was an event that had sound hype, a great card on paper and a no brainer in which for me to invest.

The show was good...solid...but not off the hook like I perceived the July show in Vegas headlined by Lesnar-Carwin.

Anderson Silva, like him or not and I'm not wild about the guy, is arguably the best MMA fighter than I've personally ever seen. Anderson can win striking or submitting and his long, strong body type is perfect for the sport. It would be interesting to know what Silva weighs at fight time as he is a huge, middle weight.

Silva plays the late Giant Baba 'me no understand English' card (except when talking about money) when those in the know say Anderson speaks English well enough to conduct interviews, etc. Hearing Silva being interviewed by the talented Joe Rogan, who knows he's being worked by Silva, reminds me of some of the infamous Sammy Sosa interviews when tough questions were asked of Sosa during his baseball scandal days.

Vitor Belfort seemed to be intimidated by Anderson Silva's presence or at least that's how it came across on my TV set. Belfort likely knew that it would take a miraculous performance to beat his former teammate/training partner.

If UFC ever gets to the much anticipated Silva vs. GSP 'Super Fight' I would highly suggest that UFC take that one to a dome and the dome I just left a few hours a go might be a great location. Cowboys Stadium is centrally located in the USA and with DFW being an American Airlines hub, fans could fly in from virtually any where in the world without issues. The Southwest Airlines hub at Love Field is also an asset for travelers.

Toronto would also be a viable host city for the dream match pitting GSP vs. Anderson Silva. Let's see how well TO does with their first Dome, UFC event that's upcoming.

Without question, UFC can build a brand around Jon Jones much like they have with St. Pierre. It's refreshing to see a well spoken individual with natural, not manufactured, charisma and w/o a myriad of tattoos (tat's make many people look too similar), who seems to be in the low risk character category and should be major sponsor friendly.

Jones was highly sought after by the University of Iowa as a JUCO Wrestling Champion but personal situations derailed 'Bones" from attending college in Iowa City. For those that know, merely being recruited, much less coveted, by a wrestling powerhouse like Iowa is a huge accomplishment.

The smaller guys from WEC did themselves no favors Saturday night in Vegas. The PPV's opener Saturday was NOT what a promoter ideally desires but it did look like sound booking on paper going into the event. Torres freakish reach advantage really made this fight a clash of styles and not in a good way.

Forrest Griffin's always been one of my favorites and it was nice seeing him return after over a one year layoff to win at UFC 126. Forrest looked to be 10-15 pounds bigger than Rich Franklin, another warrior, at fight time. I don't know the physical diagnosis but looking at Griffin after the fight one could tell that he suffered multiple injuries coming out of this return to the Octagon.

On a side note, I would love to see UFC utilize 'crawls' at the bottom of the screen to promote upcoming PPV's, etc than the obtrusive 'box' that they fly on the screen. Perhaps a mixture of both.

Side note #2....all MMA broadcasters need to realize that every one listening to them and watching a broadcast isn't a hardcore fan. If broadcasters are going to throw around names of trainers, styles of fighting, training camps, past events, etc, then it would be advisable to provide a one sentence explanation of their insider info so that casual fans, who want to become insider/hardcore fans, can 'get it.'

WWE had well over 7,000 fans on hand in Philly Super Bowl Sunday afternoon for a live event. Biggest Super Bowl matin?e event for WWE in a good while.

I am not a fan of using religion or politics in any TV wrestling storyline and not I can add exploitation of children to my personal, banned list. This is just one guy's opinion and I don't buy the "it's fiction" argument. I realize what's fiction and what isn't.

Nice work by Booker T on his first outing on Friday Night Smackdown at the announce desk. Booker will advance even farther when, or if, the SD announce team is perhaps Booker and Josh Mathews, who has improved more than any WWE announcer IMO over the past year or so.

For those who have asked on Twitter @JRsBBQ, we aren't looking at doing another cookbook at this time but the one thing that might change that is doing one on the various ways folks use our products which would spawn a whole new presentation.

An emailer asked why Hollywood can generally keep secrets on the cliff hanging closing episodes of various TV series and pro wrestling storylines seemingly are constantly being leaked. I don't know the exact answer but those within the biz seemingly love to talk, perhaps feel that they need an outlet to express themselves plus there are a limitless list of sources who touch the product internally in a variety of ways. I'm still not a fan of 'spoilers.'

18 year olds who want to go into pro wrestling at 18 won't get any advice from me other than go to college, learn a trade and/or a degree, and then embark officially on a pro wrestling career. Remember, the vast majority will NOT make it in pro wrestling and it's imperative to have career options.

My sense is that most fans will be very impressed once the Tough Enough trainers are all announced. Reason...TE is a huge priority for all involved especially now that Steve Austin has been tabbed as host.

Emailer...Yes our jerky is hand cut, and old school made by a Okie with over 40 years experience who's won national awards in his field. I'd put our jerky up against anyone's but we still get emails from those who are "thinking about ordering," etc. Look, if someone orders something from us that they simply can't stand or feel that they made a bad investment, if you'll simply email me at Contact Us here on this site I will personally do all I can to make things good for all involved. How fair is that?

We need your business which is merely the bottom line and, more importantly, the truth.

Ric Flair called me last week and at the time he wasn't sure if he needed rotator cuff surgery imminently or not. He's had similar shoulder problems in the past. Ric was trying to help me find SB45 tickets and we were trying to get hooked up with GB linebacker coach and former wrestler Kevin Greene. We missed two, regularly priced tickets ($900) by "this much."

Hard to believe that Gino Hernandez died 25 years ago this week. Gino, a Houston native and long rumored to have been a 'son' of the late, Houston wrestling promoter Paul Boesch, BTW I'm leery of that rumor, was a '10' in the ring. If Hernandez was in his prime today he would be printing money because there isn't a villain in the biz any where that possesses Gino's natural skill set. Gino never played a 'role' and was genuine to the point that his life style essentially destroyed his professional and personal life due to allegedly abusing drug. I remember Gino making a live event booking in Tulsa, wired to the max, and then flying with an older gentleman who adored Gino to Vegas where Hernandez was spending the weekend partying with the late Farah Fawcett under the watchful eye of Gino's older, male chaperon. Interesting arrangement to say the least.

Thanks for dropping by today and be sure and check out the Q&A's which I update regularly.

Remember to follow us on Twitter @JRsBBQ.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.