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JR's Blog: Tampa Tryout Camp..JR's 1st Ever Spoken Word Tour of UK Update..Order JR's for Father's Day Gifts but Hurry!

Posted: Jun 10th 2013 By: CMBurnham

Good to be back in Oklahoma after three productive days in Tampa participating in a WWE tryout camp at the FCW facility. To read more about the camp, please continue.
Let's Grill!

Other than it taking me over 12 hours Thursday to fly from OKC to Tampa via DFW on American Airlines, the trip to Tampa was terrific.

This camp was primarily made up of amateur wrestlers that included several, multi time All Americans, a Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, a Pan American Games Gold Medalist, a couple of small college football players, and an active United States Navy Seal.

All in all, 15 men went through their paces over two days with Friday and Saturday being broken up into two, approximate three hour sessions each.

This was the best conditioned group of athletes that we've ever tried out and I'm fairly certain that WWE will offer multiple contracts to those that graded out the highest. I was hoping going in that we might be able to pick up two or so signees out of the 15 attending but that number could easily be doubled.

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Brisco did a great job in recruiting several of these men on what many consider a somewhat lean year in the amateur ranks for what we are looking for in WWE.

Several of the athletes also have college degrees ranging from sports management to finance to accounting which was impressive. Smart, focused, athletes who come from a structured environment and have been in a competitive environment for years adds to the developmental process.

The key will be can they learn to entertain at the same level that matches their athletic skills and intensity? For that answer, only time will tell.

It will be interesting to see who makes it to the new, WWE Performance Center in Orlando that opens in mid July.

I'd like to compliment the developmental staff that includes Head Coach Bill DeMott, Norman Smiley, Joey Mercury, Billy Gunn, and Jerry Brisco who scouts high and low the amateur wrestling ranks, and William Regal who is another amazing coach/mentor.

Staffers Byron Saxton and Rob Naylor were also a major help in taping the proceedings and helping with logistics.

Developmental talent Sawyer Fulton was invaluable demonstrating the drills to the prospects. Fulton was in one of these tryout camps just a year ago and is a 6'7"-280 pound ex-amateur heavyweight who is progressing excellently in the NXT system.

Tickets for my first ever, Spoken Word tour which will take place in late August in the UK are still selling very well. As a matter of fact, the VIP tickets for London sold out in day one, Manchester has only about 25 VIP tickets remaining with Glasgow and Cardiff having less than 100 each.

For event or ticket information or to purchase tickets simply go to [url=http://www.psievents.eventbrite.com/
]http://www.psievents.eventbrite.com/[/url]

If you hurry, you can still order and get JR's delivered for Father's Day from http://www.wweshop.com or in the UK and throughout Europe from http://www.americansoda.co.uk.

One of our hottest selling items is the All Purpose Seasoning which also doubles as an amazing dry rub and is honestly the only seasoning that you would need to put on burgers, chicken, steak, etc on the grill or in the oven. It's an amazing seasoning that many are raving about. This products really helps simplify grilling.

Bray Wyatt and Family were on the road for WWE this weekend and were getting some positive and approiate reactions. The series of Wyatt Family vignettes is working.

On this date in 2008, I teamed with Mick Foley to broadcast portions of the WWE PPV 'Night of Champions' that emanated from Dallas. We represented Smackdown if you're keeping score at home. This might have been the first PPV that I did for WWE after being 'traded' to Smackdown during a WWE Draft night from San Antonio. I'm actually not sure but I do remember that it was in 2008 when I left RAW on a weekly basis and that the Draft was help in San Antonio.

Read where there was some apparent chaos after a recent indie show for the same old reason....the promoter did not have the funds to pay the talent. Firstly, why do talents take dates with indie promoters without getting the bulk of their funds prior to stepping in the ring including a significant deposit before leaving home? Secondly, why do promoters not have the funds with them no matter what the ticket sales are going to be?That's like going to Vegas and saying I have to win at the tables in order to pay for my room and subsequently fly home.

I admire and respect the, seemingly, small handful of indy promoters including Michael O'Brien and David Herro for not stiffing the "boys" and for running quality events. These two gentlemen will never have to worry about me becoming competition as promoting wrestling shows isn't on my radar. Too many headaches and I'm too damn old and cranky to deal with the issues that come with that gig.

I was pulling hard for my Oklahoma Sooners baseball team in the Super Regional down in Baton Rouge but the Tigers were just too tough at home. Helluva run though for the OU Baseball team and the National Champion OU Women's Softball squad. Got to watch both games while in Tampa, one at my favorite, Lee Roy Selmon's Restaurant @LeeRoySelmons63.

I will be working on updated the Q&A section of the site ASAP. Got questions? Ask them there.

Please follow me on Twitter @JRsBBQ. We're over 800,000 and growing daily.

Boomer Sooner!
J.R.