From wearing a dress in Mid South to plummeting 20 feet from a scaffold at Starrcade, Jim Cornette certainly had a memorable run during his heyday in the pro wrestling business, which led to him rising to the position of possibly the second greatest manager of all time, behind only the legendary Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. That's not a jab at the former leader of the Midnight Express either, as Cornette himself yields the top managerial spot to "The Brain." Cornette quite literally grew up in the wrestling business when he started as a ringside photographer at the age of just 14 in Memphis in the 70s."Momma Cornette," who was mentioned frequently in early promos actually drove him to the matches to take pictures since he started snapping shots before he was old enough to drive. After six years of visually documenting the Memphis mayhem, Cornette traded the camera for a tennis racket and began his legendary career, infuriating the rasslin' fans with a preppy attitude and proclamation that Momma Cornette bought him the wrestling stars he would manage to success.
As time went on, Cornette became one of the best talkers in the business and when he was eventually paired with The Midnight Express, it was a perfect combination. Bobby Eaton, who is considered to be one of the nicest people in the wrestling business, was tremendous in all of his in ring work, (bumps, technical skills, etc.) but the Alabama native had such a strong accent that he was nearly inaudible in promos. Dennis Condrey, another great in ring talent and a solid heel, wasn't exactly going to talk the people into the building either. So, Jim Cornette would show up attired in outrageous mismatched outfits and use his gift of gab to sell the feud for his team. It could be Memphis, Mid South, World Class, or the Jim Crockett territory that provided the platform and Cornette generated enough heat to motivate fans to buy tickets to see the heels get hammered. After Condrey abruptly left the wrestling business, (and actually didn't resurface in a wrestling ring until about a decade ago for a Midnight Express reunion) Stan Lane was added into the Midnight equation, but the trio didn't stumble at all. After Ted Turner bought the NWA and changed the name to World Championship Wrestling, Cornette worked as a manager, commentator, and a member of the booking committee. Within a year, "The Louisville Slugger" quit the organization after becoming frustrated with former Pizza Hut executive Jim Herd, who had a cup of coffee running WCW. After his departure from Turner, Cornette founded Smokey Mountain Wrestling, a throwback to the territory days and many notable stars spent time there.
After three years and in the middle of the decline of the business in the early 90s, SMW closed its doors. By that time, Jim Cornette was working with the WWF in a variety of roles and remained there for several years, eventually taking the opportunity to step away from the national stage to work with the Ohio Valley Wrestling league that had a developmental deal with WWE. A slap to the rookie Santino Marella sent Cornette down the road in 2005. In recent years, Jim Cornette had disputes with TNA and Ring Of Honor, but began to become known for his shoot interview appearances, where he would verbally dropkick a variety of figures in the industry including former writer Vince Russo.
Cornette made many valid points about the former magazine editor, who booked such infamous angles as David Arquette as WCW heavyweight champion and Judy Bagwell on a pole. There was also the "fire Russo" chants for some of the more ridiculous angles that were written for TNA television. Vince Russo has definitely earned a lot of the criticism he receives. However, the level of hatred that Jim Cornette has shown towards Russo seems unhealthy and pollutes the interviews where Cornette offers tremendous knowledge.
When Cornette quit ROH, (he had more valid points about the company as well) he essentially disappeared from the wrestling business for nearly a year, but resurfaced with a podcast on the MLW website. Listeners get a weekly dose of Cornette's entertaining verbal skills, but depending on your perspective, his analysis of the industry is misguided.
Before I discuss the next topic, I want to note that I think Jim Cornette is one of the greatest talkers in the history of pro wrestling and most of the historical interviews I've watched are extremely insightful. A few weeks ago, Cornette took to the MLW airwaves to give his opinion on Lucha Underground, the El Rey Network's spin off of AAA that has garnered a cult following. He shredded the program and criticized the lack of its resemblance to an actual pro wrestling show. I'm not a fan of most of the pure lucha style because of the lack of psychology and only vaguely follow LU because the backstage segments seem a little too tacky. That being said, the athletic ability displayed is spectacular and if fans enjoy it, it's good to see another alternative product for the wrestling business. Granted, LU isn't my cup of tea, (Actually, I don't drink tea, but I have an energy drink as I'm writing this so let's go with that) but I can certainly recognize that clearly they are doing something right to generate the type of buzz the show has, even with it's limited TV clearance on a smaller network. LU is selling a rock star, but I would rather get an AMP (sadly, I didn't get royalties for mentioning either of those energy drinks) so I'm not the demographic the El Rey network is focused toward. Still, if fans enjoy their product, there are more options and in my opinion, that's a good thing. I wrote a column previously where I discussed the possible finical limitations of the LU business model and according to Dave Meltzer, the group might have to raise funds before a fourth seasons is secured.
Jim Cornette's lucha tirade, which included calling the talent "questionable," prompted many fans to defend the aerial show. Cornette is a legend so I'm not going to claim to have more knowledge, but at this point, you have to ask, "is there any company that Cornette doesn't criticize?" First, WWE was "killing the wrestling business" and then there was the TNA debacle that resulted in Cornette getting a legal letter, and he had disagreements with ROH. Now, LU is the target so what product is Cornette approved?
The common criticism is that Jim Cornette is too far behind the times and that seems to be the case. Professional wrestling has evolved along with society and in an age when images of war are broadcast on news networks, can a heel really get heat for using the ropes to win a match? The dreaded roll of coins to KO a babyface just isn't going to get the same reaction it once did when the TV viewers can see air strikes while flipping through the channels. Can pro wrestling still work today? Absolutely, the Daniel Bryan push is proof that if the fans rally the babyface, the competitor can become a star. But, Cornette's examples of what worked in the 70s in Memphis sometimes doesn't translate to 2016. There was also the subject of wrestling drawing less money today than in years previously, but it really depends on what numbers you look at. While there aren't a dozen territories running five shows a week, the WWE makes millions of dollars from ad revenue so essentially, the TV side of the industry has replaced the house show business. Are less people making a living in wrestling? Yes, but you can't necessarily knock the "sports entertainment" business model when it makes more money than some of the older eras of the industry. For example, as much discontent that the WWE audience has with the current product, Vince McMahon touted record revenue during a recent conference call. Basically, old school pro wrestling has a niche market today, but sports entertainment attempts to target the general public.
Don't get me wrong, I would rather see a product today that has a more old school type element, specifically when promos aren't completely scripted and the programs don't seem so manufactured. Another point is that it's disappointing to see finishers completely overused and have almost zero effect to building the drama of a match. Keep in mind, a false finish is not just a two count, an actual false finish is a point in the match where the audience believes it's possible that a scenario could be the conclusion, but the match continues, hence the reaction during a near fall. The aspects of the business such as lack of selling and too many high spots are something I can completely agree with Cornette about because it's rare that there's a believable false finish in 2016. This is just my two cents, but where I disagree is the mindset that an evolved product is somehow automatically less than the "Memphis rasslin" era. Again, society has evolved and if the infamous "foreign object" was used to win a match, viewers would roll their eyes and change the channel. I would guess that there can be a balance between pro wrestling and sports entertainment. For example, Stone Cold Steve Austin is the top drawing star in the history of the industry and many of his antics, such as driving almost anything with wheel on it to the ring, was very much sports entertainment, but it generated record ratings. At the same time, when the bell rang, Austin could go in the ring and produce an action package pay-per-view main event. Perhaps the key to another wrestling boom is the balance between pro wrestling and sport entertainment for the product?
So again, I will ask, what does Jim Cornette think is "good" wrestling? Among his many public disputes, he has criticized Kevin Owens, who received praise from both Stone Cold and The Rock prior to his WWE debut last year. Cornette has also discounted The Young Bucks, who are regarded by many to be one of the best tag teams in the world so it is possible that he won't acknowledge anything that he doesn't enjoy watching? As I said early, I'm not a fan of the pure lucha style, but I will give LU credit for generating a following when it's tougher to do now than in years prior. I guess what is most disappointing about the whole Cornette/LU disagreement is that it's another example that Jim Cornette has almost become known more for ranting about his hatred of sports entertainment than his legendary career. Vince Russo has as much of a chance of winning an Emmy for best writing as he does at winning a verbal battle with former leader of the Midnight Express. Cornette wins and it's no contest so it's to the point where the rants about Russo are somewhat overwhelming, and dilute the knowledge the SMW founder could offer. Finally, you have to ask the question, is every current major company wrong or has Jim Cornette just burned many bridges in the industry? That's not a question to imply an answer, but just something to consider because there are fans that agree with him.
I want to reiterate that I have a lot of respect for everything that Jim Cornette has contributed during the multiple decades that he worked in the wrestling business and I agree with some of his observations so this column isn't an attempt to trash him, but rather a look at his sparring session with sports entertainment during the past decade. More specifically, it's an attempt to evaluate if he's actually too far behind the times or if sports entertainment became too honky to draw money? The answer depends on perspective, but I will say that it's disappointing that Cornette, who is one of the best minds in the history of wrestling, can't work with some of the major promotions to offer his vast knowledge to many of the stars of the next generation.
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