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JR's Blog: Weekend Blog, Curt Hennig Memories, Toughest Wrestler, Best Match Ever, Trish or Lita, Angle or Sting, JR's at WWEShop.com!!

Posted: Feb 12th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Chilling day here in Norman for us Okies with the high only expected to reach 29 degrees. I'm headed to OU vs. Missouri women's hoops later today (Saturday) but let's get to this with some random thoughts and addressing some of your questions from our site and from Twitter @JRsBBQ.

WWE had a hugely successful three day run in Abu Dhabi with packed crowds of enthusiastic fans according to all accounts. Fans were more traditional, cheered for fan favs and booed the bad guys, which seemingly always helps the talents perform more naturally and more efficiently. Didn't hear of any significant injuries on this tour which is always good news. I wonder if any of the WWE golfers got in a round of golf on some of the beautiful courses there?

Fans outside the USA often ask when WWE is going to tour their country and the logical answer is that if their country airs WWE TV programming on a weekly basis that when the TV matures and earns solid ratings one can expect a tour in some shape, form or fashion if there are adequate, available facilities.

If you have business requests or questions regarding JR's Family BBQ, NOT wrestling questions you can contact us at info@jrsbarbq.gmai.com.

Did our weekly radio hit Saturday morning at http://www.yahoosportsradio.com and the podcast will be up later today. I hope you listen as we spend the first half of the show talking WWE extensively. I think that you will like it but you may not agree with my opinions.

The WWE is talking about making the Rivalry DVDs a series. I don't know if that means one or two annually but I do know that another one will be produced later this year, likely for a fall release. I don't have the details on the subject matter as several rivalries are being discussed internally. I do know that wrestlers who are under contract currently with other wrestling companies are NOT being considered for obvious legal reasons contrary to what some fans are suggesting.

Is my newly grown, gray goatee a precursor to 'JR' becoming a bad guy/villain? Not that I'm aware of as it's more of a function of not shaving regularly during the December holidays and giving my first ever goatee a 'test drive.' The jury's still deliberating on said facial hair.

Several individuals did interviews in OKC for the upcoming 'Top 50 Finishers' in wrestling DVD also scheduled for a 2012 release. There were some interesting candidates from a multitude of generations. Some will surprise you and, as always, the Top 50 type lists will invariably leave off someone's favorite and controversy ensues. The conspiracy theorists will come out of the woodwork without fail.

We are getting more orders now from WWE than we did during the busy holiday season which certainly means that business is picking up. We appreciate you supporting our labor of love and sampling some delicious products from http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss.

We've had a particularly busy run on our 97% Fat Free Beef Jerky of which we now have 5 flavors, our All Purpose Seasoning which is a main event level dry rub, and the stable of the line, JR's Original BBQ Sauce which is a homage to my late Mom.

Was I BS'ing or putting the hype machine in motion when I recently wrote that @TheRock and @JohnCena did not particularly like each other? Absolutely not. Let's just say that the two stars have philosophical differences, to say the least. It's the classic confrontation of a former offensive lineman (Cena) vs. a former defensive lineman (Rock) who will both bust a gut trying to one up the other at WM28 in a match that I expect to be stiffly physical.

@swamppeople debuted this past week with another new season and I loved it. They even have a 'Diva' hunting team and have brought in a 'heater' a former military sharpshooter to partner with veteran alligator hunter Bruce. Plus, many of the hunters purchased tons more tags which will make the final weeks of the season end with a great sense of urgency. The producers made some nice changes in this season's cast.

"What's your all time favorite bout to call?" Can't answer this one. Too many...too subjective...impossible to narrow it down. Perhaps I will try if I ever write a book or if WWE ever produces a DVD of my broadcast career.

"Who's the toughest wrestler I ever worked with over the years?" Another tough one and I am biased but if you ask many of the wrestlers themselves many will agree....Steve 'Dr. Death' Williams. Physically and mentally tough beyond compare and he had the athleticism and amateur wrestling background to back it up PLUS he was a skilled and willing street fighter with freakish natural strength and a destructive mean streak. We signed Doc past his prime, which I take responsibility for, but I was hoping to catch lightning in a bottle and get one or two viable runs out of him. His body was beat to hell from his Japanese experiences and his lifestyle but make no mistake about it, in Doc's day, bare knuckles/barroom brawling no one could handle him, again in my view, and that includes noted amateurs like Angle and Lesnar. Again, that's my opinion and, yes, I'm very biased and I'm not dissing Brock or Kurt, both of who I signed and have immense respect for. For those that only judge Doc by the ill conceived Brawl for it All, I suggest that you take a closer look at his career. Oh, how I loved Doc/Terry Gordy vs. the Steiner Brothers in WCW back in the day. Check him out on You Tube.

"Thoughts on the late, Curt Hennig?" Obviously, he died too soon. I loved being around him. He was the life of the party and made everyone laugh. Loved his approach to life as in making every day fun and, granted, some days he had too much fun. I've never worked with anyone more 'natural' than Curt Hennig as he had 'it' early on and just got better until a bad back curtailed his magnificent career. I've been around very few, as in one hand, that could wrestle as well as Curt, hero or villain, talk/promo as well as he could, manage, AND broadcast at the level he did without little training or preparation. Only Bobby Heenan comes to mind. Taking Mr. Perfect's total skill set into consideration, I'd confidently say that Curt Hennig was one of the top 5 all around talents ever in the business taking into consideration the aforementioned areas of expertise.

When I broadcast with Curt, he wanted to learn and rarely made the same mistake twice. He simply 'got it' and was extremely competitive. Plus, we never had a cross word and laughed much more than any thing. I loved the days that we did voice over work in Stamford and regaled in his stories of the 'boys' and the practical jokes that he played on them. I'm honored to have been able to spend time with the 2007 WWE HOFer.

"Will the WWE HOF indcution ceremony ever air in its entirety on TV?" I'd say the best chance of that happening would be on the new, WWE Network but that's my assumption.

"Who's ready to be called up from FCW?" I'm working on my 2012 travel schedule now to begin returning regularly to FCW for the record but I do think that there are several talents who are in ring ready to be called up. Bottom line is that it matters not if there isn't a viable roster spot for the new talent and a long term gameplan established for them. It would be like a NFL team drafting a college star and not having any idea as to what position the draftee was going to play.

"Who's your favorite wrestler of all time?" Starting in 1974 I've made friends with many wrestlers. To single out one talent over all the rest is uncomfortable to me so I don't do it. The wrestling biz doesn't isn't one to produce that many truly close friends and I don't plan on adversely affecting a friendship to answer a Twitter question. My favorite wrestler as a kid and into adulthood was Danny Hodge....Google him.

JR's products, at this time, are available ONLY ONLINE unless you are in the Norman, Oklahoma area where we sell our entire line at the four, Norman Homeland Grocery Stores. They even sell our JR's Cookbooks.

"Was I born in Oklahoma?" No...Ft Bragg, California where my Dad was a logger but I grew up in Oklahoma and my ancestors came to Oklahoma long before statehood which was in 1907. Our family has property in Adair County Oklahoma that's been in our family since the 1880's. Yep, we own a 190 acre ranch that I seldom see.

"Is WWE going to do a DVD on the 'Rise and Fall of Watts' UWF?' Don't see how they can as WWE doesn't own the Watts/UWF library. WWE has tried to purchase this library, of which I personally think is exceptional, but no deals have been reached and it's not for a lack of trying. One can't do a DVD without owning the content that will appear in the DVD.

"What's a somewhat obscure wrestling book to read?" I loved Jeff Leen's Queen of the Ring. The Gary Hart book is also a sleeper. There are others that are off the radar too such as Stan Hansen's, among others.

"Can I choose between Trish and Lita?" Boy, that's a loaded question. I vividly remember meeting them both for the first time in my WWE office when I managed talent relations. Two, totally different women in many ways but with many similar traits as well. I wouldn't pick one over the other out of respect but I can say that no two women ever contributed more to the WWE at crunch time than Trish Stratus and Lita aka Amy Dumas. We had some outstanding 'Divas' during that period which helped the Diva division have vitality and significance. Lisa Marie, Jackie Moore, Ivory, Jazz, Molly Holly, Terri Runnels, Terri Poch, Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wislon, Sable, Chyna and many others that I'm inadvertently leaving out all contributed because they all were willing to get physical and raise the bar for their gender.

"Do I think that we will ever see Kurt Angle or Sting in a WWE ring?" Interesting question that only the talents themselves and WWE management can answer. Just a guess but I'd say not likely. Could I see both going into the WWE HOF? Without question. Could I see WWE doing a comprehensive DVD on both? Seems like a layup. Is it impossible that they 'could' have a final bout in WWE at a future Wrestlemania? Any thing is possible and WrestleMania is the only place to stage such an attraction in my view but that seems like a long shot.

"How do I like Twitter?" It's fun...and perplexing at times. Some fans bitch when I don't respond to them. With close to 350,000 followers I can't physically respond to all the Tweets we receive. Some followers complain when I respond TOO much. Some ask the same questions that I've previously answered some times just moments before. Rarely does anyone take the time to read the timeline to see what has been addressed. Others say I promote JR's products too much. With all that said, I intend to remain actively aggressive on Twitter @JRsBBQ and will talk about a variety of topics and not just WWE. I will also continue to promote WWEShop.com distribution of our family brand of products. We're trying to grow a business and I will admit that at times I'm too aggressive re: that platform. Bottom line is I throughly enjoy Twitter and invite you to follow us @JRsBBQ.

"Why does it seem that HBK is coming back to WWE just in time for WrestleMania?" Easy...to sell PPVs. @ShawnMichaels is Mr Wrestlemania so why wouldn't one have the WWE HOF'er involved at this time of the year? HBK has more than a vested interest in the seemingly pending HHH vs. Undertaker issue. Who better to address both men than Shawn Michaels? Plus, he adds star power to Raw and he's still one of the biggest stars WWE to which has access. HBK is a natural born Show Stealer....remember that as time goes on. That's all I'm gonna say on that topic for now but 'stay tuned' to Monday Night Raw.

Thanks for dropping by and please tell friends about our site and our blogs. If you have time to visit http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss and see what we have to offer, please know that it's appreciated. We don't sell 'gimmicks' but do sell great tasting BBQ Sauces, Beef Jerky and condiments.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.