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JR's Blog: Happy Fathers Day...Capitol Punishment Tonight on PPV..Strikeforce/Dallas..Order JR's From WWEShop.com

Posted: Jun 20th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there. Enjoy your day and hopefully some of you will be the benefactor of some great results from the grill. Let's go...

WWE Capitol Punishment is in Washington, D.C. tonight on PPV. Card looks solid on paper and after reviewing each scheduled match, there isn't any valid reason that I can foresee that should preclude any bout from being very solid if not much better.

Cena vs. Truth....WWE Title...Cena likely wins but if Truth upsets Cena as I mentioned earlier in the week the Raw deck is reshuffled considerably. Without question, this is Truth's biggest professional opportunity ever IMO. The newly minted villain has only one chance to make an impact in his first ever, WWE PPV main event. How Truth comes out of D.C. is intriguing.

Orton vs. Christian...World Title...might be the show stealer especially now that Orton has been cleared of concussion issues. It would be interesting to see Christian win (Sheamus??) as Orton feels as if he would be a nice fit to 'chase' Christian for the World Title. Bottom line is that these two have the potential to have a great match. I like this paring because it can realistically go either way.

Ezekiel Jackson vs. Wade Barrett...IC Title...long way from the days of Steamboat vs. Savage, among many others, for the IC Title. IC Title needs to be repositioned and it seems as if Ezekiel might be headed in the direction to attempt to do so. One can only assume that this will be one of the shorter bouts on the PPV. Its time for both these men to raise their individual bars. Good money awaits guys like Zeke and Barrett who transition from 'new guy' to 'main event guy' who becomes rooted in main events. They need to go for it within what they are able to do well inside the ring.

Ziggler vs. Kofi....United State Titles...much of he IC Title logic applies here. US Title has lots of clout from over the years but also needs some shine. Absolutely no reason that this can't be a super in ring bout considering the level of athleticism of each participant. Would love to see a true hunger in these two high level athletes to steal the show, enhance their reps and turn heads. Love them both as athletes but they, not any one else, must make me care about their in ring persona's.

Miz vs. Riley...this has been a nice, developing story. Miz seems Teflon coated, which is a good thing for an antagonist, and he is still one of the most viable, new main event talents in WWE while Riley 'spun out' from being aligned with Miz and is try to gain a foothold. I like Riley's aggression and raw athleticism. He seems to be headed in the right direction and a win tonight would be helpful but a loss doesn't kill A. Riley either. This match is another classic example of where WWE is in today's market; attempting to feature, highly athletic, big upside, young guys in hopes of them evolving into permanent, main eventers. Both these two performers are seemingly big parts of WWE's future growth.

Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk....looking forward to this bout as much as any on the show because I am a big fan of both men. Love the in ring stylings of each and they have a nice back story that can be told. Punk is arguably the best in WWE at what he does especially now that Edge has retired. Rey is so unique that no matter the outcome, if these two have the time, this will be a superb performance.

Big Show vs. Del Rio....Show is PO'ed...this story has been well told over the past few weeks...Show's absence from TV after the car incident helped better tell the story. Another match that likely won't go too long due to the circumstances coming into the bout. The fact that there is a clear cut reason for this bout helps one invest in it.

Professionally and from my former position within the business, I look at this PPV as extremely important for several talents to compete to impress tonight.

Again, much of this is so up to the talents themselves because the hungrier that they are and the more motivated that they are to become main event stars, the quicker things will fall into place. Some younger guys seem reluctant to speak up which is a far cry from where it was when the locker room was full of talented, main event level veterans who helped direct their own destiny.

Again, on paper this card on PPV tonight seems to be potentially an overachiever. I hope there are some logical surprises that get fans talking coming out of this PPV especially with another three hour Monday Night Raw following Capitol Punishment in 24 hours and the build to Summerslam needing to start taking shape.

I watched Strikeforce last night on Showtime and came away thinking the show was "o.k." and nothing off the page. I enjoyed it for the most part because I'm a MMA fan but when any event ends with a somewhat lackluster main event it doesn't bode well for the balance of the show. Overeem vs. Werdum closed Strikeforce and the contrast in styles and strategies made the fight only average IMO. Werdum wanted to engage on the ground, which makes sense for him, while Overeem only wanted to stand and strike. When one guy wants to only stand and the other wants to only fight on the ground, there's going to be issues.

The Dallas crowd, perhaps still on a Mavs hangover, did not do the show any favors or at least that's how it felt watching at home.

Strikeforce shooting empty ringside seats was a no-no. However Strikeforce did a solid job with some of their video packages and pre fight interviews which helps with the story telling.

Josh Barnett had a nice outing using the Karl Gotch/Billy Robinson 'catch wrestling' style to win his quarterfinal tournament bout. Barnett cut a pro wrestling like promo after the match which wasn't as good as his Dusty Rhodes like promo that he did earlier in the week. Nonetheless, I'm pulling for the controversial albeit talented Barnett to win the tournament. Barnett has issues with some athletic commissions so where he is going to be able to fight going forward is still somewhat up in the air.

MMA purists/internet geeks who enjoy damming my opinions about their beloved sport largely because I'm a 'wrestling guy' will someday realize that the MMA fighters who are organically able to verbalize will have a better chance to become big earners and it won't have any thing to do with 'cutting pro wrestling promos.' Muhammad Ali did it quite well for many, many years although he was comfortable enough with himself to admit that watching pro wrestling as a kid helped him mold his in ring persona.

Ali once told me that he realized he could earn more money getting fans to buy tickets to see him lose than to see him win. That changed later in his career but in the formative years Ali was as hot a 'bad guy' as there ever was in his sport. Ali knew his role, how to execute it, create personal issues and, therefore, how to maximize his income. Seems as if that's the bottom line in a nutshell for stars in MMA, boxing or pro wrestling. In ring talent over comes most any deficiency but when talented fighters can talk in a believable, organic manner that doesn't sound scripted or they don't come off as a bad actor, there's usually money to be made as a result of their verbal skills.

We hope to open our on line store in a few weeks. No date has been established but it won't be next week for sure. We'll keep you posted and encourage you to check out WWEShop @ http://www.wweshop.com to order our products at this time. They have a new package that will interest you. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Please follow us on Twitter @JRsBBQ.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.