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JR's Blog: Live Smackdown? Dolph Ziggler..Elimination Chamber..Real Life Stories on TV Wrestling..LOD Book..Hawk/Dr. Death Fight..Sauce?

Posted: Feb 20th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Beautiful Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma as we get this short blog up before the day gets away from us.

Oklahoma women play Texas Lady Longhorns today in the annual pink out game to help raise funds for a breast cancer cure. Sooners women were humbled a few days ago by the UConn husky women in Hartford and need to get back on a positive note by playing more emotional, tougher, and with a heightened sense of urgency.

Considering that a Longhorn is a castrated bull therefore a steer then what is a female version of a steer called? Just curious.

Speaking of college sports, what about that psycho Alabama fan who actually poisoned trees at rival Auburn's campus? What an idiot. That goes beyond being a fan but does fit within the 'I may be an in bred Crimson Tide fan who names my kids Bear and Crimson' sort of goof.

Every college, including my Sooners, have their share of idiot fans but it's a black eye for college sports when an incident such as this occurs. The late Bear Bryant likely would not be proud of this 'Tide moment as Alabama is one of college football's most storied programs.

No...I don't ever see Friday Night Smackdown going live, full time IE weekly. It might happen occasionally but it isn't cost effective or travel friendly to do live TV on Mondays, Fridays, and some Sundays and still try to do live event touring. Makes no sense.

Don't know the exact number of days a year that a WWE superstar works but under normal circumstances the tours are four days per week but not every week. There are the occasional exceptions but suffice it to say that today's wrestlers travel a great deal less frequently than did their predecessors. Some wrestlers that do travel a full time schedule will bitch and moan about their schedule especially if they are not in main events while others who are sitting home more often than not will bitch and moan about not having enough bookings. I do know that wrestles earn MUCH more money today than ever before and that the schedule is much more talent friendly than in year's past.

Based on today's road schedule, does that mean that all talents shouldn't have regularly scheduled periods of time that they are off the road entirely? No, not at all. All travelers should be booked 'off' the road at various times of the year to recharge batteries, heal from aches and pains, and to achieve a degree of normalcy that most that choose a profession that requires tremendous travel often times don't enjoy.

Yes...all the perceived top, current WWE superstars are playable characters in the new, WWE All Star video game which will be released soon. While doing the voice over play by play for the new game it brought to mind how many different scenarios one could play especially with 'Dream Matches' that never occurred. I am extremely optimistic that this game will be a hit.

We inch closer and closer to 100,000 Twitter followers @JRsBBQ. Please follow along and encourage others to do the same. I enjoy reading the Tweets and answer as many as I can...or at least the one's that make sense. :)

Not a big fan of some aspects of real life being played out on a TV wrestling show...never have and never will. Some real life stories do work without question. Montreal '97 served to create some intriguing storylines over the years based on the 'evil Mr. McMahon' TV persona. There are many examples of real life events/situations that fit well into the world of pro wrestling story telling.

I've always thought that wrestling deaths, religion, and politics (excluding nationalism storylines IE the Iron Sheik vs. Sgt Slaughter type storylines) should not be a significant part of on going broadcasts.

Neither should those afflicted with illness including Bells palsy victims but that's old news and used to be a sore subject around our house but is now water under the bridge.

An emailer asked me what I thought about recent TNA storylines involving Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Jarrett and their children. I'm not a regular viewer of TNA first of all but what I have seen of this storyline that's allegedly based in reality isn't my cup of tea. I could care less what the adults do in their storyline but having minor children involved doesn't personally work for me. TNA isn't my hill to die upon and I harbor no ill will toward them but I find it challenging to believe that some individuals actually think that this is effective, episodic TV.

Lastly, I'm sure that no one at TNA cares what I think, nor should they, but I'm merely addressing a question from one of our regular emailers. However, as Pink Floyd sang "Leave them kids alone."

A regular on this site responded to my thoughts on Taz's wrestling camp wondering how Taz could teach wrestling considering that Taz has had so many injuries and has a chronic neck condition. Obviously, Taz doesn't have to get in the ring full time and bounce around to help his students. Coaching is teaching and Taz is a great teacher. I judge the process on the results and I like the results that http://www.teamtaz13.com are achieving. Not sure what motivated this feedback to be honest with you but I wanted to address it in case others read as it was a part of the feedback of our last blog.

If I had been at the announce table Monday night on RAW, I like would have done just as the announcers did when Rock was introduced and that was to perhaps quickly react and then lay out and allow the crowd to sell the return of the 'Great One.'

Dolph Ziggler, if that is his read name, getting 'fired' on Friday Night Smackdown's 600th episode after having a cup of coffee as the World Heavyweight Champion is getting lots of play on Twitter @JRsBBQ and emails to our site. Ziggler has a definite upside, is a skilled mat wrestler and has one of the brighter futures of any athlete in WWE IMO. I don't know his long term status but I'm thinking that Ziggler is a keeper. I'm interested in seeing where this matter goes in ensuing days and weeks.

I'm anxiously looking forward to Sunday's Elimination Chamber PPV from WWE that emanates from Oakland. Obviously, and based on precedent, the Chamber bouts will occupy the majority of the ring time on this event but my focus is on the King vs. Miz bout for the WWE Title. Miz will likely see every trick in the wrestler's handbook in this one and I don't expect this title bout to be a marathon. It can't be a marathon bout if The King Jerry Lawler wants to win the WWE Title IMO. The 61 year old WWE HOF'er, who buried his 90 year old mother on Wednesday, needs to essentially tell us what time it is and not how to make the watch when Jerry looks to make history. Not only would Jerry be the oldest WWE Champion ever, or so I think, he would also be in rarefied air as a WWE Hall of Famer who wins the title after being inducted into the WWE HOF.

This is a good weekend to order from our store and get geared up for the soon to be upon us 'Grilling Season.' It's always grilling time where we live and nothing beats great food prepared on a grill and nothing works better on that food than our premium, home recipe products that are critically acclaimed.

Don't forget that our JR's Cookbook is only $18.88 personally autographed with whatever you select and shipped FREE in the USA.

Got some really cool ideas from folks using our Main Event Mustard on grilled steaks. I've got to try that one.

Stone Cold called me today to discuss of all topics, John Wayne. Steve had a question regarding the Duke. We did not address Tough Enough but Steve indicated it was 'going great' as the first week of taping is coming to an end. I think, not sure, that Tough Enough will tape for approximately 7 weeks. Information out of Tough Enough, as it should be, is very confidential. I'd rather be surprised when watching the program than know the 'spoilers' or the 'dirt' which adversely affects the way I watch enjoy TV.

Just got a copy of Road Warrior Animal's book entitled 'The Road Warriors: Death , Danger, and the Rush of Wrestling'. I haven't read it yet but plan to soon. I was interviewed for the book as I was around LOD for the majority of their career. They were a unique duo that was the most significant, tag team attractions in the biz.

I remember foolishly stepping in between Hawk and Dr. Death as they were about to fight one day at West Palm Beach TV in the early days of WCW. That would have been a helluva fight without question (My money would have been on Doc because he had that nasty, amateur background) but my actions would have gotten me reprimanded/fined/suspended or worse by the big Cowboy if he had still be in charge because he had a rule that NO locker room fights were to be stopped under any circumstances. Watts loved the law of the jungle where only the strong survived. For the record, the fight never took place.

Notwithstanding the Elimination Chamber on PPV Sunday, I fully expect that Monday Night's Raw will leave folks talking. The Road to Wrestlemania 27 is akin to the Dayton 500 in that anything can happen and likely will plus there will be wrecks and hurt feelings along the way.

Thanks for stopping by, for reading our updated Q&A's, but most importantly for your business in our on line store.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.