Jim Ross has posted his latest blog entry, which you can check out at JRsBarBQ.com. Some highlights:
Ric Flair's WWE Return:: Ric Flair will be making a special appearance on Monday Night Raw this week (you weren't naive enough to think that a huge star like Naitch would show up on Friday Night Smackdown for a special guest appearance would you?) .... I am certainly going to change my travel plans to Fresno so I can be there to watch Raw on Monday night prior to taping another Smackdown doubleheader on Tuesday. Flair is still an amazing personality who can verbalize as well as any one in the business today, past or present. As a fan I would pay good, hard earned money any time to hear the Nature Boy step into the ring and listen to Flair speak on any subject with the passion and emotion that helped make Ric famous. Ric Flair, veins popping, with his face beet red and eyes bulging is still great TV and will transcend young fans and their baby booming Dads and Moms.
The issue for me is that I don't want to see Naitch wrestle again not just one year after retiring. I think Ric keeps himself more special and his retirement, which was an entertainment and emotional work of art, special and an ever lasting memory in the minds of fans worldwide. To see Ric manage someone, be a guest Ref, etc works for me personally. ... Ric Flair makes any event bigger and his star still shines brightly in my eyes but, simply as a fan, I would rather remember Ric Flair the wrestler, no pun intended, as he was and enjoy his antics and machinations in other forms at an event like Wrestlemania if that indeed is a potential destination for the incomparable "Nature Boy."
UFC's Vasaline Scandal: My GSP over B.J. Penn prediction was on the money and all seemed well in UFC land until the feared and deadly term Vaseline was uttered after the fight. Allegedly, someone in St. Pierre's corner "greased" GSP down specifically on his chest and back which could obviously impact a fight. From what I have seen, the Vaseline issue is a mute point as GSP dominated the fight. However, the UFC has an unwanted and unneeded controversy on their hands. The UFC is a new sports league and unlike any other new sports league they are going to be faced with situations like this that are going to arise and that they will have to address in a succinct and non knee jerk fashion. The corner men, if proved guilty, must be punished but is that a life time ban? Certainly not in my mind but this infraction wouldn't be a slap on the wrist either. The officiating and the judging in the UFC will continue to evolve one has to assume and the refereeing is an area that I have mentioned before that needs to have a strong internal training regime in place all the while training new referees for the future. The same small handful of ref's handling the majority of the fights doesn't seem prudent to me. Every pro league has a through training program for it's Ref's and the UFC shouldn't be any different.
** VIDEO from UFC 94: Did GSP Cheat To Win Using Vasalene?! YOU DECIDE! [>]