- Jim Ross is back with his second blog this week over at jrsbarbq.com. As usual, here are some of the wrestling related highlights from this entry:

The biggest news to come out of the weekend was the surprising return of John Cena, who some WWE fans seemingly dislike as much, if not more than they did before John was injured and underwent pec surgery to repair a torn tendon. As I have said before, when fans pay their hard earned cash they can cheer or boo for whomever the hell they choose. This is certainly not to say that John Cena doesn’t have a legion of fans, because I can tell you from his merchandise numbers that John does. I was backstage at MSG pretty much all afternoon Sunday and NEVER saw Cena one time. I am under the impression that John did not arrive to the arena until after the event started, but that’s an assumption. When I talked to John on Monday he said he was feeling great and was healthy, that he had rehabbed extra hard for his return and was bench pressing around 400 pounds, which sounds pretty damn healthy to me. One of Oklahoma’s strength coaches was Cena’s coach in college and said that John was strong as a bull when he arrived on campus as a freshman and spent more time in the weight room than any other player on Springfield College’s football team. That doesn’t surprise me considering Cena’s work ethic.

Broadcasting the Rumble match with 5 other announcers is a challenging piece of business. Unlike the Money in the Bank Ladder match that multiple announcers did at WM23, the Rumble match is so long and diverse with 30 multiple entrants that it is tough to maintain continuity while hearing so many voices and trying to insure that everyone has a chance to “get in the game.” I would have been happy to have sat that one out if that decision had been made even though I thoroughly enjoyed the Rumble match.

From a broadcasters point of view, at least for me, the Elimination Chamber is challenging to broadcast because of the extreme uniqueness of the event and the nature of the structure, especially the sight lines. Thank goodness for the TV monitors. No participant comes out of the Elimination Chamber unscathed I assure you. The structure is far from being wrestler friendly.

Ring announcer, Michael Buffer, who strolled into the Garden Sunday to do one match for what I am sure was a handsome payday, was allegedly not overly approachable on Sunday, according to some. The King said Buffer was somewhat aloof when Jerry attempted to strike up a conversation with the accomplished ring announcer, but I never had the occasion to converse with Buffer so I don’t know if he is simply reserved, somewhat introverted, or was simply jet lagged.