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JR's Blog:WM25 Ticket Sales...Dory, Jr....Monday in Dallas...Just Say No...Watts fines HBK...Benoit, etc.

Posted: Mar 30th 2009 By: mikeiles

As I write this Norman, Oklahoma is experiencing thunderstorms with SNOW on the way tonight. It will be a good night to catch Friday Night Smackdown and to watch NCAA Hoops action (thank goodness for DVR's). Let's get this show on the road.....

Wrestlemania 25 has now sold over $6.4M in ticket sales. Select seats are still available as I was told that some more tickets were released a few hours ago after some TV production matters were finalized.

The WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is "this close" to being a sell out at the Toyota Center on Saturday night April 4. Less than 500 tickets remain for one of the highlights of the entire WWE year.

As I understand it those of us that are introducing 2009 HOF'ers will handle our business in 3 minutes or less and the inductees will likely make their acceptance speeches in somewhere under 10 minutes. I think both these times are manageable and will help keep the show moving. One can can assume that the TV aspect of the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame show on USA will center around Stone Cold Steve Austin and perhaps Ricky Steamboat considering Ricky is directly involved with WM25 in the "Legends Match" vs. Chris Jericho.

My most viable suggestion regarding the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is to expand it to a two hour show next year on USA Network. Doing it live would be an adventure but recording it on Friday night could be an option.

Some fans emailing this site have said that they are looking forward to the HOF Ceremony more than they are Wrestlemania itself. I see that as the HOF brand building every year and I can certainly say that we get as many emails regarding the Hall of Fame than any single entity that we address.

Wrestlemania 25 is a uniquely, structured event with so many unknown variables including virtually every match that is going to be hard to predict at least it is for me. Some Internet experts may have every thing already figured out but if one finds one's self with all the answers please don't share them with me as I like to enjoy the show and to be surprised.

One fact that was brought to my attention recently as I was organizing my thoughts for my Cowboy Bill Watts introduction that I will be doing, is just how amazing Dory Funk, Jr. was when he was the Globe Trotting, N.W.A. World's Champion. When one stops and thinks of the actual raw number of opponents that Dory faced while he was the N.W.A. kingpin, it's amazing. However, when one breaks down the caliber of opponents and the variety of styles that those challengers brought to the table, Dory's "run" as the World's Heavyweight Champion is particularly impressive. Some of Dory Jr.'s opponents were inept, unskilled, and did not deserve to be in the ring with the Champion. I refereed a near 60 minute Dory vs. Harley Race match for the N.W.A. Title in Tulsa once and never heard either one of them say a word to each other during the bout but damned sure heard the various forms of impact that each delivered. Young wrestlers/wannabes have no clue how good Dory and Harley were and as I have said before these future wrestling "stars" likely spend more time playing video games than watching DVD's of the legends of the business. I know that I sound like an old school, fanatic and that I have made this point before but one cannot navigate the future unless one understands the past and men like the Funks, the Briscos, Race, Watts, Steamboat, Flair, Rhodes, and others did fundamental things so much better than the vast majority of talents earning a pay check today in the wrestling business.

This Monday in Dallas at the American Airlines Center, it will be all hands on deck for the three WWE brands. Raw looks to be shaping up to be a red hot, live show that will air between 8 p.m. and 10ish p.m. Dallas (central time). Chris Jericho vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler is a match that particularly interests me personally. The King will make a great accounting for himself and will especially fare well if this match breaks into a brawl in my view. This will be the last Monday Night Raw prior to Wrestlemania which one would assume would raise everyone's level of execution just 6 days before the biggest day of the year. This Monday's event at ACC in Dallas is a near sell out as i write this and will likely be completely "clean" by show time Monday.

As I understand it, between 7-8 p.m. both ECW and Smackdown will record a few bouts for airing on Tuesday and Friday, respectively. The balance of Smackdown will be done at WWE Fan Axxess which will consist of some on cameras, perhaps some interviews with some of the superstars, highlight packages, and some live event action that will not be on the Friday night TV show. Tazz and I will call the bouts for air and other broadcasters and their guests will handle the business at Fan Axxess. Bottom line is that the doors will open Monday around 6 so don't be late if you are attending the mega show in Dallas.

Since Andrew "Test" Martin's untimely passing of what is expected to be from a drug overdose although that has not been confirmed as I write this blog pending the results of an autopsy, so much speculation regarding drug use in wrestling and sports has been written. We all likely have friends that we have grown up with and most probably some of them do drugs and, hopefully, most of them don't. I have friends that were big party guys in college who did their fair share of drugs. Some of those guys, even now that they are in their 50's, still seemingly live to get high. Others who ran in our same group decided to live their lives in another way and simply say no to illegal drug use and the abuse of prescription medication.

So why are wrestlers any different than the "average Joe?" They're not. But the bottom line is that illegal drug use and specifically the abuse of prescription medication in wrestling should not and can not be tolerated. Wrestlers in question need to grow up, become men, and just say "NO" to what should be the simplest question that they are ever asked to answer. Please don't go to the soap box that between a wrestler's schedule and the physicality of their jobs that they can't help but be drug users. That even sounds more stupid as I write it.

I got an interesting email from a fan who purchased one of our autographed, "J.R.'s Cookbooks" who said that many of the questions that I don't address on this site are addressed in the cookbook. This cookbook is full of wrestling content and the recipes are straight forward, tried and true recipes that my family has used for years and years. I hope that you will stop by our store before you leave the site and know doing so is with our sincere appreciation.

So here's a list of some of the emails that DID NOT make the cut as we like to list these as much for information not to mention that some of you get a chuckle out of what "just missed" the cut.

*I don't know who will be inducted in the WWE HOF next year or any year nor do I know what the stock market is going to do in those years as well. In other words, my crystal ball is in the shop.

* I don't know what is going on in the life of "Macho Man" Randy Savage but he has a new website that his fans can check out. I hope Randy is in good health nonetheless. Yes, Savage is HOF worthy. No, I don't know if he will ever be enshrined. No, I don't know if he even gives a damn about that matter.

* I have no plans to retire any time soon. I am in good health, except for the case of pneumonia that I am recovering from, and fully expect to be able to negotiate a new contract with WWE when my current one expires. If I can't accomplish such then I have plenty to keep me busy with our BBQ branding, my family, Oklahoma sports plus a few other potentially interesting, wrestling oriented projects that I can explore. IF I were to "retire" I MIGHT write a book if I were motivated to do so. I don't want to half ass a book and to do one right it takes the proper mindset and an accurate set of dates and recall which I'm not sure that I have.

* Fans continue to email me about when I was a "villain" and became the "evil" J.R. I never really thought that particular matter ever worked or even got off the ground enough to even consider it as any thing remotely viable. To me, it never happened because it was so horrendously bad. However, for those of you who say you still "liked J.R." even when "you were evil", you have my thanks.

* I remain steadfast in not commenting about WWE creative. It's not going to happen. Forget it as those emails simply will be deleted. I am not going to comment on things that are so completely out of my reach and area of expertise. Creative in general is a thankless, tireless, never ending job. They are going to be damned if they do and damned if they don't. I don't envy any one who works in creative because it's a 24/7 life style that has "burnout" written all over it. Like former Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green said on his post game rant after the Chicago Bears came back to defeat the Cards when it looked as if Arizona had upset the Bears, "Creative is what we thought it was!" It takes a special breed of cat to survive in any creative venture notwithstanding a creative venture that never goes into "reruns."

* Chris Benoit. When is Chris Benoit going to be put back on the radar? When is Chris Benoit going to be treated like a regular wrestler who has prematurely left us? When will Benoit's "records be restored?" The answer is.....I have no idea. It could be never. It could be after X number of years after the family tragedy. Nonetheless there is nothing I or you can do to make this matter happen or not so your emails regarding this subject are bound for the delete button.

* Will Bret Hart ever appear at a WWE function again? I don't know but my best, educated guess is absolutely. Bret will forever be attached to several potential WWE HOF'ers and I would be shocked if he were not asked to induct people like his father Stu, brother Owen, etc. Plus, I would love to sit down and do a lengthy interview with Bret with him commenting on some of his favorite bouts and opponents. Yes, I'm going into business for myself and I would like to include that I would respectfully request that this interview turned DVD be conducted in Bret's 2nd home of Hawaii and that I will likely need a few weeks there to do the proper prep to do this project with the detail that it deserves.

* Yes, Bill Watts was the first man to fine Shawn Michaels who mistakenly did not attend a TV taping when all talents were scheduled to be there. When HBK did not see his name on the TV list he "assumed" that he wasn't needed but the large Cowboy "gently" reminded the young rookie that EVERYONE came to TV. Speaking of Watts, you should have seen the face on the announcers in Atlanta when Bill said that all announcers had to have many of the basic wrestling holds applied to them so that they would know how the holds felt and therefore could describe them better. It wasn't a good day for some of the guys to be wearing khaki pants.

I hear that the THQ Legends of Wrestlemania video game is garnering a great deal of interest. Remember, that this is the video game where the King and I go "old school" with our commentary which was a blast. This is also the video game that you can see the match that will never happen between Stone Cold vs. Hulk Hogan.

Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend. Oh, yeah....our store is open for your convenience. Thanks for indulging my obsessed mentions of our store but we have bills to pay just like any other ham and egger or any one who's trying to grow a business during these challenging times.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.

Tags: Jim Ross, WWE, Bill Watts, NWA, Brisco Brothers, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Jerry Lawler, ECW