• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

JR's Blog: UFC on Fox, Terry Gordy, Henry Godwin, Jerry Brisco, The King, Penn State, JR's Products for the Holidays

Posted: Nov 10th 2011 By: mikeiles

Beautiful, earthquake and tornado free day in Oklahoma. Want to say thanks for stopping by and especially say thanks to all those that have checked out our new PACKAGES that just went up at WWESHOP.com. Easily to order, quick delivery, safe and secure site at http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss.

I'm going with Champion Cain Velasquez this Saturday night in the UFC debut on Fox TV vs. Junior Dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Title.

Interesting points to ponder about this fight:

-Neither man has ever been knocked down in a UFC fight.

-Combined, both men has spent less than sixty seconds on their back in a UFC fight.

-Dos Santos has never been taken down in a UFC contest.

-Cain is 15 of 22 in take down attempts.

Keys to the fight: Cain's striking defense, Junior's takedown defense, and, with it scheduled for 5 rounds, cardio conditioning which likely favors the Champion.

Brock Lesnar is a part of the broadcast presentation Saturday night on Fox which has seemingly been kept an under promoted secret for some unknown reason. Lesnar still equals TV ratings and he likely has more main stream name identity than either Velasquez or Dos Santos.

Mark Canterbury aka Henry O. Godwin (HOG) is recovering from a serious car accident earlier in the week in which he sustained a broken femur, largest bone in the body aka thigh bone, at least 12 broken ribs, had his appendix and spleen removed and is currently in ICU. Tough hand dealt to a legit tough man.

Mark was thrust on the WWE radar after an impressive TV bout vs. The Undertaker back in the day. His efforts albeit in a losing effort turned heads and as I have said many times here, the talent maximized his minutes.

Yours truly even got slopped in a Hog Pen Match at an In Your House PPV that originated from Hershey, Pa that featured HOG vs. HHH. Ah, the good old days. Please keep Mark in your thoughts and prayers. He's a sweetheart of a guy.

My close, Oklahoma friend and WWE HOF'er Jerry Brisco is undergoing multiple tests this week at a high level medical facility to attempt to determine what has been causing the former mat great to have a series of strokes. From what I gather, there has been positive news on that front. I expect to talk to Jerry soon and will keep his fans apprised.

Unfortunate situation at Penn State with the scandal involving former, long time Nittany Lion coach Jerry Sandusky which has resulted in coaching icon Joe Paterno being fired Wednesday night via telephone. I think no matter the circumstances of the firing that JoePa deserved to be told in person and not on the telephone but I also feel that the PSU higher ups did what they had to do in removing JoePa from the team. I expect there to be a complete house cleaning at Penn State which means that every coach on the football staff will likely be out of work in a matter of weeks. One disturbing aspect of this story, thanks to non news outlets like ESPN, is that this tragedy was largely made to be a football matter when the allegations of child abuse are far from such.

We got a Twitter question, @JRsBBQ, about Terry Gordy memories. Gordy was the best teenage wrestler that I ever saw in our business. Bam Bam was a natural and had amazing, organic timing in the ring and never played the role of a pro wrestler. What you saw in the ring was who he was. Unfortunately, as so many in the business have experienced, starting out so young and with all the curves in the road, Terry made some bad decisions during his career that shortened his life. That's another reason why I am of the belief that it is much better for an athlete to have completed their college degree or developed a secondary skill before embarking on a career as challening as wrestling/sports entertainment.

So, no, I am not for teenagers attempting to break in to pro wrestling full time.

Not surprised to see Jerry Lawler do an interview at NYC Comic Con where he said that he would rather wrestle than commentate. I've known that for years and it should come as no surprise to any long time fan. Great ball players had rather play the game that they love than to broadcast it. Jerry has proven time and time again that he can still deliver inside the squared circle and I personally feel that his matches with Miz several months ago were some of the best outings that Miz has had in the building of his body of work. Lawler is so talented that he can deliver at the announce desk better than any one in WWE while we all know that his heart will always be in the ring. King's in ring psychology is still top shelf.

Another question we received concerned what match would I have liked to have seen that never occured. I could likely write book about this topic as I've been around since 1974 and many matches, due to politics, basic timing, injuries, etc, that were big money matches never occured. One obviously is Austin vs. Hogan but Austin vs. Lesnar would have been special as would Austin vs. Goldberg. As I said, this topic has numerous bouts that would fit the bill.

We are still getting great feedback on the Rivalries: Bret vs. HBK DVD which is always nice to receive. I'd love to do more of these types of sitdown, no holds barred interviews with a variety of talents and not just rivals. Verbally going one on one with the greats of the business is compelling to me.

Our JR's Cookbook, which is personally autographed, is now available for worldwide shipping via one of the new packages at http://www/wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss. Not only does this book have many 'guy friendly' as in novice cook recipes but also includes tales of the road and many 'Top Ten' lists that wrestling fans will enjoy. BTW the recipes are largely made up of recipes we found at my late Mom's home after she passed away.

An emailer to this site's Q&A section asked about my 'troubling times' while at WCW. For the record, I never had any inordinate amount of negative experiences at WCW and leaving their was the best professional move that I ever made. Going to WWE in 1993 helped make my career without question. The truly good things in life don't come without a struggle or a challenge and it's up to us to either rise to the challenges that face us or decide to embark on another road. BTW that 'other road' isn't without challenges either. It's called life.

WCW was chaotic at times with so much mismanagement that included upper management people and agenda laden decision makers within the wrestling side of the business but I had many more enjoyable days working in Atlanta than bad ones. Being taken off the air because I was 'too Southern' still ranks, in my egocentric opinion, as one of the poorer thought out decisions of which I've been a part.

I am ticketed and ready to fly to Boston this weekend to make sure I'm not late for Monday Night Raw and the long awaited and still unknown Michael Cole Challenge in Boston. I have no idea what the 'Challenge' is but one has to figure that Cole has something unique planned for yours truly in Bean Town. Raw starts an hour early for this three hour special that will be highlighted, arguably not by the Michael Cole Challenge, but the return to live, WWE TV of @TheRock.

The Q&A section of the site has been updated as of Thursday afternoon. Did your question make the cut or did we address a question that you may have?

Follow us on Twitter as we are currently over 266,000 friends and growing daily @JRsBBQ.

If you are thinking of ordering one of the new packages from WWEShop for the holidays don't let shipping issues get you. Ordering early would be my suggestion but the mere fact that you check out our products at http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss is appreciated.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.