Let’s do a little house keeping before we launch into this particular blog.

In the USA, we can ship our sauces to you and are shipping more and more each week. If you are leery of buying things on the internet, don’t be. You will have zero issues here and we do not share our mailing list with anyone. We are in the final stages of testing our international order system, which is really encouraging. We hope to be able to ship our new Beef Jerky line abroad as well as in the States and will know more about that matter in a week or so. We have been working diligently on our line of J.R.’s Beef Jerky and being a beef jerky lover, my dad made homemade jerky when I was a kid, we have developed what I honestly believe is great jerky. I can’t stand dry, chewy jerky with little flavor and ours will compare favorably with any you have tried. Keep an eye out for it coming soon. We are also shipping a great deal of autographed caps which is an affordable item that can make a great gift or keepsake. Check out our online store and as always we sincerely appreciate your business. Our Bar-B-Q eatery is opening in Norman is scheduled for late April or early May, as it now stands, but I will keep everyone apprised of that much anticipated development as info becomes available. Thanks for your interest.

These are some of my thoughts and personal opinion on some of the subjects that seem to be topical these days.

The Art of the Promo- This issue is not rocket science. The audience must believe the speaker not only because of the speaker’s delivery, passion, and body English, but also the content of the interview must be believable. Most viewers these days seem to have short attention spans. You probably watch TV with the remote in your hand or near by, so the speakers should be quick to make their point and then build on it. Less is usually more…and better when it comes to wrestler verbiage. This is not to say that some, very few actually, wrestlers today have the ability to do a longer promo if need be. I don’t think wrestlers need to yell all the time either, nor should they attempt to memorize “their lines” if they ever really want to perfect this aspect of their craft. Verbal skills are perhaps more important in today’s marketplace than at any other time in the wrestling business. Being able to talk well has always been important, but when TV shows went from being one hour, regional telecasts to multiple hour national/global broadcasts, every aspect of the presentation accelerated, including the verbal aspect of the game. The more “natural” a talker can be perceived, the better because if the viewer/fan feels he or she is simply receiving lip service, the fan usually “tunes out” what is being said. There is a difference in “hearing” and “listening” to any verbal presentation, whether it be in a class room, business meeting, or doing a wrestling promo.

Adding Titles- I am personally not a fan of more titles. I feel today’s business has many more significant issues to address, i.e. main event talent depth, quality training of young wrestlers, more thorough character development, talents taking ownership of their future and not blaming others for every facet of failure they may encounter, etc. than adding more “watered down” titles to any roster. Fewer titles mean more in my opinion and I would rather see the IC Title, US Title, and Cruiserweight Titles, for example, continue to be built than add new titles that would have little chance to ever reach their potential.

Tough Guys in Wrestling- There have been and are plenty of them. Virtually everyone in the business is “tough” or they couldn’t or wouldn’t last. If one is simply talking about who could win a bar fight, etc the list gets a little shorter. Since the late 1880s there have always been men known to be “policemen” or designated problem solvers. Most of the men with amateur wrestling backgrounds usually would make this list. Thesz was a tough man who did not always give the public that impression. Lou was a classy representative for the business and fans saw Lou’s class before they knew he was an expertly trained “Hooker” meaning he knew now to break bones and damage joints systematically. Danny Hodge may have been the baddest of them all as Hodge was a two time Olympic wrestler and a National Golden Gloves Heavyweight Boxing Champion, who also could break bones simply by using his grip. In later years, or say over the past couple of generations, guys like Haku, Dr. Death, a young Andre the Giant, Harley Race, The Briscos, Ernie Ladd, Wahoo McDaniel, Blackjack Mulligan, Bill Watts, Ole Anderson, Gorilla Monsoon, among so many others, could handle themselves in any environment. This particular list could include literally 100s of men and a few women one would never want to cross.

I NEVER said Lilian Garcia was involved in a car accident, but this is another example of websites going into business for themselves and embellishing a story. I think Lilian bumped her head on some staging in a darkened area at No Way Out. Nothing major.

I have always been a fan of Junior Heavyweights and of today’s Cruiserweights. That is not at the expense of the bigger wrestlers either. I am a believer in utilizing EVERY asset at one’s disposal and if that means doing more with the Cruiserweights, then I say let’s go! A wrestler’s will/desire to be great and to perform at a high level cannot be simply measured by their size alone. I cannot speculate as to why more isn’t being done with the smaller wrestlers out there other than it is simply a personal or philosophical issue.

I was saddened to hear of 42 year old Mike “Awesome” Alphonso dying in his home near Tampa. Allegedly, Awesome committed suicide and had been apparently embroiled in a marital issue. Mike was an extremely athletic big man who was surprisingly agile for his size. Mike’s best work was in Japan and in the old ECW. I did enjoy his match at ECW’s One Night Stand PPV, as well. I did not know Mike well, but when we did see each other he was always professional around me and seemed to be well liked by his peers. I seem to remember when ECW was reinstated, that Awesome was approached about coming aboard, but he was seemingly “burned out” on the business and did not appear to want to commit to a full time schedule. Injuries and other issues may have contributed to that mindset. Our condolences to Mike’s family and many friends.

The WWE’s recent tour of New Zealand has started off with a bang! A near sellout the first night in, from what I am told. Great crowd response to the Smackdown/ECW Superstars.

Savage- I received an email from someone who calls them self Tommy Gunn who questioned my honesty regarding Randy Savage and the never ending story of The Macho Man going into the WWE Hall of Fame. I said I have heard “zilch” about Randy being inducted. That is true. Obviously, I heard of Hogan’s radio interview with, not Vince McMahon’s secretary as Mr. Gunn indicated, but John Laurinaitis’ secretary. It was at that time that I heard the so called short list of 2007 HOF nominees for the first time. The new inductees that we announce on Raw are not even listed on the TV info we receive for that night. Sorry to burst many of your bubbles, but I am really trying to be up front here. Some people don’t appreciate or can’t handle the truth. So as it relates to Savage, believe what ever your little heart desires and direct your comments, which have been made abundantly clear about Savage in the HOF, elsewhere. I can’t induct him, I can’t nominate Randy, in other words, I can’t do a damn thing to get Savage in or out of the WWE Hall of Fame. This subject has been rode hard and put up wet. Can we move on?

My wrestling broadcasting role model, Gordon Solie, never was the voice of Mid-South Wrestling even though we used some of his voice overs for talent coming into our territory. I just wanted to clear that one up plus Mid-South had zero to do with Continental Championship Wrestling in Alabama. Mid-South’s voices were the late Boyd Pierce and usually Cowboy Bill Watts. Reasor Bowden, local KTBS-TV booth announcer, was the studio interviewer and ring announcer. Then, yours truly came along and Joel Watts joined the mix to form the broadcast team and Boyd Pierce with his wild suits was made ring announcer. I also did some ring announcing in the early days in addition to refereeing and working on the ring crew. Later on, I promoted live events, and then built the UWF’s TV Network from 13 stations to over 100 stations which was essentially what Jim Crockett Promotions bought from Watts. Crockett’s NWA acquisition of Watts’ UWF was potentially one of the most lucrative storylines ever and it was a lost opportunity essentially due to obscenely poor decision making, professional jealousy, and non objective creative. Crockett could have had his own “Super Bowl,” but the UWF was watered down and finally dissolved. Then Crockett got in financial trouble and had to sell his family’s company to Ted Turner who turned it into WCW. With Crockett’s TV syndication added to Watts’ list of stations, Jim Crockett Promotions utilized well over 250 TV stations to air his various one hour syndicated wrestling programs. This is not to mention the national overlay of TBS which the UWF wrestlers barely got a cup of coffee on.

MMA-Mixed Martial Arts is an interesting genre that I enjoy from time to time. It has gotten so fragmented that it is hard to keep up with all the players, who are the stars, etc, but all in all I enjoy it when I have the opportunity to watch it. Is MMA competition to the WWE on PPV? Certainly. Any PPV offering is competition to the WWE as most families only have so much disposable income for PPVs, etc. That would also include the NFL package on DirecTV, etc. MMA seems to be more of a threat to boxing than to sports entertainment, but if the attractions are all in place, then there is plenty of room for everyone to earn a nice buck or two. But to answer a direct question, yes, in my opinion, Mixed Martial Arts is a PPV competitor to the WWE or any entity who presents their products on PPV.

Vince Russo- Not sure why so many are asking about Vince Russo, former TV writer at WWE and WCW and now working in TNA, but we seem to have more questions about Russo than normal. Yes, Russo was a significant part of the WWE’s success in the late 90s with the ushering in of the attitude era and the Howard Stern type of confrontational/shock TV. To hear some say that Russo was the sole reason the WWE was so successful during that period of time, however, is insane. Russo had unique visions of the product, which often times lead to some great TV. His most visible flaw, in my view, may have been at times over writing the shows which often times caused content overload for those watching. I used to broadcast those shows and often times could not remember everything we did a few hours after the show ended. I am a firm believer than most TV viewers can only retain a certain amount of information. On a personal note, I have taken exception that in the past that the talent roster that was featured in the WWE during Russo’s tenure was a pretty strong assortment of wrestlers and performers so Russo wasn’t selling goods out of an empty wagon. Nonetheless, Russo had viable, creative skills when it came to vignettes and certain aspects of character and storyline development. Plus, for those who love the “dirt,” we buried “the hatchet” years ago for the record and I wish him absolutely no ill will.

Someone mentioned here that Steve Austin was “ducking” wrestling Hulk at Wrestlemania, which is a joke. Austin and Hogan are different breeds of cat. Both are legends and two of the absolute biggest stars to ever be developed in the WWE. I have great respect for each of their accomplishments. I also envy their respective bank accounts! I cannot or will not speak for Hulk, but as it relates to Steve, who I do talk to regularly, would want to wrestle for a few months to be properly prepared for Wrestlemania and a match with anyone, including and perhaps especially Hogan. With just wrapping up his first WWE Film and preparing to begin the 24/7 media blitz worldwide for “The Condemned,” there is simply no time to adequately prepare for a Wrestlemania match, as Austin is not going to phone anything in or simply go thru the motions in anything he does. Plus, Hulk needs another surgery, this time on his knee. This match was always a figment of the rumor mills, etc as Austin never seriously considered it, simply because he knew he could not be ready to wrestle with his existing movie schedule, which is the next phase of his life’s work. Whether we like it or not, the era of Steve Austin wrestling is essentially history. He has another job now and if I were advising him I would encourage him to NEVER wrestle again because of the risk of injury and ending up in a wheel chair for the rest of his days because of his neck condition. The risk isn’t worth any money or any “dream match” any of us may want to see. If anyone truly believes Austin would “duck” any challenge one simply doesn’t know Steve very well. Austin is a perfectionist who loves a challenge and that challenge now has manifested itself in his budding movie career.

I also get peeved that some people seemingly “damn” The Rock because he hasn’t returned to the ring recently. Hell, he may never return to the ring for even a promo, much less a wrestling match. Here is a guy who is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood and who is making his hay while the sun shines. Who with any brains wouldn’t do the same thing? Do I miss seeing the “Great One” in the ring? Hell, yeah. But I understand the deal. Rock has moved on to other ventures. There is not one wrestler I have EVER known who would not be doing the same exact thing if they could unless they were brain dead or were in desperate need to feed their massive and fragile egos.

I received an email that said I was rude to fans at No Way Out in L.A. Sunday. This one is also a little hard to believe inasmuch as I WASN’T IN L.A. SUNDAY! I honestly believe that I have probably signed more autographs and posed for more pictures than most folks inside the business and I do it because I am still a fan and respect others that are too. Have I ever been caught in a bad mood. Without a doubt. I rarely refuse to sign anyone’s autograph unless I am running really late and if I sign one I should sign them all or if I am smack dab in the middle of eating a meal.

For the record, the best way for fans to get autographs of the wrestlers is to catch them at baggage claim at the airports, or in front of the hotels they are staying. Some arenas are situated where if you arrive early enough you can get folks to sign, but remember that they are going to work and like many of us usually are running late. It takes a fair amount of luck, persistence, and planning.

Finally, some have asked if I would ever be interested in owning and running my own wrestling territory? Absolutely……not. Reason…..a local territory as was prominent in the old days will NOT work today. Fans want to see the stars they see on national TV and a promoter can’t make a living running 4-5 shows per week every week and produce a one hour TV show and actually get it on a viable TV outlet (cable access doesn’t count) and make a profit. I hope someone proves me wrong, but it won’t be with my cash or time. The territory days are dead as a hammer. Trust me.

Finally, I feel that some day the WWE Hall of Fame will be housed in a facility that will be much akin to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass, the MLB in Cooperstown, N.Y., etc. This has been talked about on more than one occasion and I do believe that it will become a reality in my lifetime. I am no longer in the corporate loop, so I don’t know what the disposition of this matter is today, but I do feel it is on the horizon. I think that a WWE Hall of Fame building would be great for all fans and the Hall of Famers themselves.

I will answer a few of your emails before I leave on Sunday for Fresno and Monday Night Raw which looks to be a helluva show with the tag team title main event. I hope you will check back with us this weekend. Also my Raw Superstar of the Week column gets posted on Fridays on www.wwe.com on the Raw page which is next to the witness protection section of the site.

Please stop by our store on your way out. Thanks!
J.R.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Wrestling, Personal, Website