Greetings from college football crazed Oklahoma, from your BBQ selling, SmackDown talking, Unforgiven prepping, resident Okie – who is ready for Friday Night SmackDown – and for the kickoff of the college football season in Norman Saturday night.

Random thoughts from hither and yon….

Friday Night SmackDown arguably offers the best in-ring wrestling of the week on WWE TV, headlined by a Champion vs. Champion bout between WWE Kingpin Triple H and United States Champion Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin has shown flashes of brilliance in recent weeks and it will be exciting to see him pair up with The Game in a WWE Championship Scramble preview. No one in the WWE is more athletic than Benjamin, and I mean no one, which has been serving Shelton well in recent weeks.

I have said many times that Triple H reminds me of WWE Hall Of Famer Harley Race. Interfacing the physical with the mental part of the game was one of Race’s greatest traits, in addition to being able to recuperate faster than most athletes from injuries. Triple H has demonstrated many of those same qualities over his illustrious career. The 12-time WWE Champion may be an underdog at Unforgiven, but what reigning champion isn’t in those unpredictable Scrambles?

We announcers have driven that point home relentlessly, haven’t we?

Great to visit with John Cena Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, just a few hours after his surgery. As you know from reading WWE.com, Cena’s surgery was successful and John “might” be back in action down the road.

It seems like it has been so long since we all last saw Edge inside Hell in a Cell at SummerSlam, that I expect his face to show up on a milk carton at any time. I hope he is still enjoying his condo in Hell, but seriously, friends and neighbors, I hope Edge is back on Friday Night SmackDown Sooner than later. The newly battered and fried Canadian is one of the most talented Superstars on any WWE roster. Somehow though, I don’t think we will be seeing the Rated-R Superstar any time soon.

What if Edge’s estranged wife, Vickie, still Smackdown General Manager, offers up Edge for a trade? One has to assume that the multi-time champion would bring a heck of a bounty. Personally, I hope that doesn’t happen.

Undertaker doesn’t apparently have pleasant thoughts for Vickie Guerrero and one has to wonder what would the Demon of Death Valley do to extract retribution from the G.M.?

I assure you that Friday Night SmackDown will be more exciting Friday night than will any political convention you might stumble onto on TV.  But wait…there’s more. There’s another political convention next week with MORE professional politicos making empty promises without promising to balance America’s checkbook.

R-Truth makes his debut Friday night vs. Kenny (Don’t call me Lenny) Dykstra, who thinks that he is being grossly overlooked. R-Truth, not to be confused with R Kelly, is a talented and athletic young man who has served time in prison, but is looking to make a fresh start for himself on Friday nights. I say more power to Truth as every one deserves a second chance.

Well, almost every one.

We have autographed copies of “J.R.’S Cookbook” which is packed with easy to prepare “man food” items, grilling and BBQ tips, and a ton of wrestling content as well, on sale for only $9.99 at www.jrsbarbq.com.

WWE.com did a really nice job of staying on top of the Cena surgery story with timely information before it was reported anywhere else. John told me that they used a small piece of bone from a cadaver to fuse his neck. John is lucky in many ways: young, single, big star, wealthy, and now healthy, which is the most important of all those matters. John is also fortunate to have the vision to recognize that his body was telling him something and that it needed to be fixed immediately.

My body tells me things from time to time as well but this isn’t the forum to discuss such “Blazing Saddles” type issues.

Does Friday Night SmackDown and the WWE in general have too many beautiful blondes? What a minute…I just had “a moment” and lost my sense of reasoning. Anyway, Maryse thinks so. She’s French Canadian you know. OH MY GAWD…I just had this incredible urge to shriek CATFIGHT!! I must be channeling my inner Dr. Joe E. Styles of my youth. I do have all the dot com guru’s trading cards that go nicely with my Mickey Mantle collection.

By the way, “Stone Cold” called me recently to check up on John Cena and Steve has probably caught up with Cena by now. If anyone knows about serious neck issues, it is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

Get a load of the Jeff Hardy, or Harvey if you choose, bout Friday night against MVP. It’s a big time match, without question, between two men who are rapidly establishing their places in main event land.

Having new athletes in the main event mix on any brand is a good thing. Wrestling fans like any one else like “new”.

With that said, who all wants to see The Fink vs. Harvey Whippleman at Wrestlemania 25 wrestling in only socks and jocks with a Speedo on the pole? You don’t have to make your decision right now but ponder the visual. On second thought, never mind.

Tazz is allegedly angry that MVP is the highest paid man on SmackDown. Apparently Tazz feels he is on MVP’s level in many levels of sports- entertainment. Wait, this just in: Tazz is not just angry at MVP but Tazz is angry at….everyone. I’m sure glad we cleared that one up.

You should get a load of Tazz giving ECW’s Matt Striker “pointers” from time-to-time on Tuesdays. All they need is to be sitting in a woodshed.

Personally speaking, Striker and Todd Grisham are doing an excellent job of broadcasting ECW every Tuesday night on Sci Fi as their youth, matinee idol /SportsCenter anchor good looks, and witty repartee bodes well for them. 

Big Show, who looks amazingly like Captain Insano, told me in Pittsburgh that he hasn’t had an overabundance of title opportunities since Vickie Guerrero took over for Teddy Long as Smackdown G.M. If I were Mrs. Edge (how could that be?) I would suggest that she make some sort of amends with Show as she really doesn’t want to have to deal with both Undertaker and Big Show at one time. A peace treaty needs to be reached by the G.M. soon or Friday night’s could get a little chaotic.

Perhaps Vickie can enlist the help of Vice President Cheney who will be looking for work this fall.

We have a new batch of answered questions from fans up on our Q&A section of www.jrsbarbq.com.

It would be great to see a half a dozen or so hot tag teams challenging Hawkins and Ryder for the WWE Tag Titles. Who’s the better young team, Hawkins and Ryder or Raw’s Rhodes and DiBiase?

Will the potential WWE Title changes in the WWE Championship Scramble be entered into the record books, or just the final pin or submission prior to the 20 minute time limit expiring?

HBK’s deeply personal issue with Chris Jericho in the eyes of many continues to be the most compelling matter currently being featured in the WWE. These two will have a classic fist fight at Unforgiven that will likely steal the show whether they intend to or not. These are the types of matches that broadcast teams live for. 

Just so you will know where I stand, air travel sucks pond water, unless of course one is lucky enough to fly most of their miles on a private air craft as many of my friends in Oklahoma’s oil business do. Crowded planes with unseasoned travelers and crying children, and those who are unable to turn off their cell phones when asked, are tough even for veteran travelers such as yours truly. For my own sanity thank goodness I finally learned how to download music in my iPod.

No iPod oriented wise cracks please.

Yours truly is headed to St. Louis EARLY this Sunday morning to tape Friday Night SmackDown on Sunday night, which will also  see Monday Night Raw taped prior to SD. The fans in attendance in St. Louis, home of “Wrestling at the Chase” at one time, will see two, WWE broadcasts taped in one sitting. The city of St. Louis has a magnificent wrestling heritage as it was the city that Lou Thesz hailed from when he debuted in the wrestling biz.

Be well everybody and have a save holiday weekend for those of you that are going to be celebrating Labor Day. 

BOOMER SOONER!
J.R.