Greetings from under the 200X, black Resistol hat from the WWE's resident Okie, who is happy to be back in the sunny and warm Sooner state after struggling through Monday's three-hour Raw while battling the flu. For the record, the flu won and is still wearing me smooth out. But here is some sage advice to live one's life by: "It's just as easy to be sick at work as it is to be sick at home." (Or so I have been told.) Nonetheless, we will gear up and head to south Louisiana for the next to the last Raw prior to WrestleMania XXIV. Gumbo time!

Apparently John Cena and WWE Champion Randy Orton will form a tag team and take on the entire Raw roster, so said the man who will be in charge this Monday in Lafayette, La., Triple H, just prior to Raw's Gone With the Wind-like exit from the air in Milwaukee. That declaration deserves a Sgt. Schultz-esque "very interesting" (yes, I watch TV Land occasionally), and it will be intriguing to see how this one is pulled off Monday night. 

Ric Flair is getting more air time these days than in recent memory in WWE, which is a good thing for us fans of the "Nature Boy." My pal, ABC and ESPN broadcaster Brad Nessler, is coming to Orlando, Fla. to see "Naitch" be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and to attend WrestleMania. Ness is broadcasting the ACC Tournament and is the college game's best football/basketball play-by-play man. It seems like only yesterday when we used to do play-by-play in wrestling, but I digress. If you are guaranteeing your pals that Flair is losing to HBK at WrestleMania XXIV, be careful. 

I have no issues whatsoever (well, none that I care to discuss in this forum at this time) naming the Raw Superstar of the Week. It is so easy that in fact I will name two. They are my Oklahoma brethren and the newest inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame, the legends from Blackwell, Okla., Jack and Gerald Brisco.

The Brisco Brothers were an amazing tag team who did not have head turning, body builder physiques, which might have made it hard for them to get in the wrestling biz these days. But they were simply the best brother combination in the game for my money. Both Briscos, who were raised without a father around, were multi-sport star athletes who earned all state high school football honors before going on to Oklahoma State University on full athletic scholarships to wrestle for the Hall of Fame coach Myron Roderick.  Jack was also the NWA Champion when the NWA kingpin wrestled more than 300 days a year around the globe in a succession of one night stands, taking on the best the local territory had to offer.

Jerry has been a loyal WWE employee for more than 20 years, which is an amazing accomplishment in itself. I consider the Brisco Brothers like family and have as much admiration and respect for these two men as I do for anyone in the wrestling business. With Jack and Gerald Brisco going into the WWE Hall of Fame, that makes three native Oklahomans who will be inducted this year as Johnnie Mae Young is another Oklahoma native.

Undertaker is a genuine, bonafide badass and his new finishing maneuver is a Gogoplata, a jiu-jitsu-like maneuver that is an offshoot of the triangle choke used in mixed martial arts. It was good to see the "Conscience of WWE" back on Raw, even if it was for just one night. 

Paging soon-to-be former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer: Please come to baggage claim. I feel a Dr. Phil or Oprah booking coming up. But if Spitzer is a real man, he will do his obligatory crying on CNN's Larry King Live.

In case you missed it, Finlay sent JBL a message Monday night of what the Belfast Brawl might be like at WrestleMania XXIV. Sorry "Kennedy-Kennedy," but you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, yours truly was in the right place at the right time Monday night as our pal and equipment guru of the Green Bay Packers, Gordon "Red" Batty, presented me a signed Brett Favre #4 jersey to frame and hang in our second J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q Restaurant, which looks now as if it will open in June. Red is THE man!

Chris Jericho is the Intercontinental Champion for the record eighth time after beating the now-suspended Jeff Hardy in Milwaukee. It was a great night for Jericho, and hopefully we will see plenty of the Intercontinental Title on Raw in future weeks. But it certainly was not a good night for Jeff, who will be gone for a minimum of 60 days without pay for violation of the WWE Wellness Policy. Perhaps Jericho can return title to the level of prominence it had with the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, Honky Tonk Man!

In all due respect to Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, I was pretty happy to see Jillian Hall Monday night, enhanced lips and all -- not that there is anything wrong with that. If Lilian, er Jillian, had not interrupted the proceedings, we might have actually seen a match that had been 24 years in the making between Sheik & Volkoff and the U.S. Express. Whew! Close call … thanks, Jillian.

By the way, I went back to say hello to Sheik and Nikolai before the show but Sheik was napping.

One forgets just how good Kane really is until he is wrestling in "that very ring" just mere feet from your favorite announcing duo. Kane is amazingly athletic for a 300-pounder and gave the momentum-building Triple H a run for his money in cheese country Monday night. 

It was proven long ago that Santino Marella obviously "outpunted his coverage" when he started dating Maria. But has Playboy's newest cover girl finally seen the light and kicked Santino to the curb? Maria won't be lonely too long.

Here are random notes that you did NOT see from the tale of the tape comparing Floyd "Money" Mayweather to Big Show.  Reach: Floyd 72 inches, Big Show 84 inches. Neck: Floyd 17 inches, Show 24 inches. Shoe size: Floyd size 9, Show size 18 EEEEEE.  Big Show has a 282 pound weight advantage, if you are keeping score there at the house. Big Show enjoys J.R.'s Original BBQ Sauce as it has zero fat grams.  Show has legitimately lost more than 100 pounds.

The battle of the posses got frisky Monday night when Mayweather's crew and WWE Superstars representing Big Show allowed their inner selves to be expressed in the form of the dreaded alpha male syndrome. That was genuine Raw emotion in the post weigh-in melee. Or was it a donnybrook? Pier 6 Brawl? Nevertheless, it was good stuff and created a classic Raw moment. 

It seems like the Edge vs. CM Punk match just got started and then Hawkins & Ryder (which one is which??) kind of, sort of, got involved and the World Heavyweight Champion speared Punk damn near out of his Pepsi tattoo.

William Regal has the best hair of any general manager in WWE, and he's hanging his hat on U-MAN-GA versus Batista at WrestleMania XXIV. I think the GMs should make a nice side bet on this contest, don't you? 

John Cena and HBK had a physical outing in Milwaukee and the crowd was surprisingly hot considering that they had been sitting in the Bradley Center north of three hours. About the time of the main event started I would have paid $100 for a Port A Potty to be located nearby. But as The King says, one can't grieve forever.

I am waiting for WWE Magazine, which is a damn read good these days, to do an "ID these Derrieres" as I feel it would be challenging to determine Kim Kardashian's derriere from Rikishi's. The lovely and talented multimedia star, Ms. Kardashian, will be the hostess at WrestleMania XXIV. 

Check out the some of the most amazing Q&A's you've ever read now available on our Web site at www.jrsbarbq.com, which is also where our online store is located. See you Monday night in Lafayette, La., which is my old Mid-South Wrestling stomping grounds. Raw should be a hot show with the countdown to WrestleMania XXIV. Thanks and be well.

BOOMER SOONER!
J.R.          

Be sure to check out J.R.'s Family Bar-B-Q Restaurant at www.jrsbarbq.com.