Brian Last had a conversation with Jim Cornette about the Vince Russo situation and uploaded it to the Arcadian Vanguard YouTube channel. Cornette discussed Vince Russo serving him an Emergency Protection Order. The video starts off with Cornette describing the two officers coming to his house. Cornette claimed that he “popped” right in front of the officers when they informed him that Vince Russo had filed for a protective order against him. Cornette went on to say that his wife then joined him in sharing a laugh over the situation.
Golly, VOLDERMORT just filed a Emergency Protective Order on me. I can't hang out with him anymore! pic.twitter.com/jSx9CEFj0F
Cornette described the 9 page document that Russo filed and the boxes he checked off in the Emergency Protective Order. Jim Cornette sarcastically stated that he thought he and Russo were just “bros” doing podcasts. Cornette stated that he would never disobey a court order and that he will stop “stalking” (one of the boxes Russo checked) Vince Russo. According to Cornette, Russo accused Cornette of stalking him since 1999 in five different states in the EPO.
Cornette stated that he will make sure that he stays away from his house that he has never been to and he will stay away from Russo’s wife that he has not seen since 1997. Cornette then read from the document and vowed to never “commit acts of domestic or family violence, stalking or sex offenses against Vince Russo or his household members”.
Jim Cornette said that he felt horrible that Vince Russo was “laying awake at night and quivering” over the statements he made on his podcast. Russo filed for the EPO on the same day that Cornette jokingly admitted defeat after Russo issued his sarcastic apology video. Cornette claimed that dozens and dozens of people emailed him during that week with all Russo’s address and information.
Brian Last jokingly said that he guesses that Russo’s offer for Cornette to be on Vince’s podcast has been rescinded and Cornette stated that he doesn’t think that would even be legal now. Last also pointed out that Russo said that Cornette and Bischoff “don’t have the balls to say anything to his face” and then decided to file for the Emergency Protection Order. Cornette stated that these past few weeks have pretty much confirmed everything that everybody has said about Russo in the past. You can listen to the entire interview in the video below.
Former WWE, WCW, and Impact Wrestling writer Vince Russo has filed a restraining order against former co-worker Jim Cornette. Russo and Cornette have a longstanding bitter feud that escalated in recent weeks.
The restraining order was filed on June 16th, one day after Jim Cornette’s response to Russo’s “apology” to him, which he used as a platform to hurl insults at Cornette. In this response, Cornette stated that he had a ‘surprise’ for Russo when he next saw him, which Russo apparently took at a threat.
Cornette received the order from local police at his home in Louisville, Kentucky on the evening of June 21st, and it decrees that Cornette must stay away from Russo, Russo’s wife, and also Russo’s home and place of employment. Upon receiving the order, Cornette posted the following photo on Twitter along with his comments.
Golly, VOLDERMORT just filed a Emergency Protective Order on me. I can't hang out with him anymore! pic.twitter.com/jSx9CEFj0F
Back in 1986 at NWA Starrcade The Road Warriors defeated The Midnight Express in a Skywalkers Match, but it ended with a nasty fall from the top of the scaffold by Jim Cornette. After the match ended, Paul Ellering chased Cornette up the scaffold before he was left hanging on to it for dear life from the bottom. Big Bubba Rodgers was supposed to catch Cornette during the fall, but that didn’t happen as he was way off target with where he was standing.
Cornette suffered a severe knee injury as a result of the fall, as he landed very awkwardly on the canvas. During his recent interview with Hannibal TV, Road Warrior told his side of the story and called the event one of the ‘funniest moments in wrestling’:
“One of the funniest moments in wrestling! You got to understand the story man, it’s funny as hell. God rest his soul too, Boss Man, right? Boss Man and Hawk were like this (crosses fingers), they road together – and I say that in a sense cause those guys rode with the smokers. They loved to get high. So they got high the night before the Scaffold match. Boss Man got high as a kite. Nobody could tell because he had sunglasses on. So I’m holding on to Cornette, and I give Cornette props, he’s afraid of heights. Definitely afraid, he doesn’t fly. He drives everywhere or takes a train. He holds onto the Scaffold and I say ‘Jimmy you got it?’ He says ‘Yeah, I got it.’
“I told Boss Man, I yell down and go ‘Hey, you ready?’ I’m thinking ‘How is Boss Man going to catch Cornette?’ If he does catch him, Cornette is like a 250-pound sack of crap, he’s going to kill him. Then I tell Boss Man ‘You ready?’ I said ‘Okay,’ and I said ‘Go!’ Boss Man standing like this, and he’s three feet off and misses Cornette. Cornette falls and hits – both knees went ‘POP!’ like a big two-by-four, you hear them both go. He blew out both knees in that one deal. He was screaming! And Hawk and I are belly laughing on the Scaffold. He’s lying in pain, but it was so funny, you had to see Bubba standing there like this, and then staring like this watching Cornette hit. You had to be there and be involved in the match because it was so funny. We laughed our butts off at that.”
The heat between Jim Cornette and Vince Russo doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It all started when Cornette took to the WWE Network special Table For 3 to claim that Russo has been emailing Vince McMahon regularly “begging” for a job back with the WWE. Russo responded on his podcast by inviting Cornette to come on the show and settle their differences.
Cornette then took to his own podcast, The Jim Cornette Experience, to respond to Russo’s request, but instead of taking him up on his offer he challenged him to a fist-fight with $5,000 on the line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HErBP9e6H9A
“But here’s the rules: no cops, no guns, and no knives and we both come alone. And what happens, happens. Nobody makes a dime off of it, nobody gets any publicity off of it, nobody’s even gonna know it’s gonna happen until after it happens when nobody hears from you anymore”
“So not only will I come to you, not only will I meet you in a neutral location with no cops, no guns, no knives — just the two of us. But I’m gonna have $5,000 in cash with me because I got that Vince unlike you. You don’t have to bring anything. You don’t even have to bring a ham sandwich. I’m gonna have $5,000 in cash with me and you can have it if you can take it away from me”
“But I’m making you a legitimate offer. I swear on my mother’s grave if you give me a date, a time, and an address I will meet you there and I will bring five grand in cash. As long as the rules are no cops, no guns, and no knives and what happens, happens!”
Earlier this week, Vince Russo revealed he has been in contact with Vince McMahon regarding a return to WWE. According to Russo, Vince was not enthusiastic about the idea however, and he is not expecting a job offer from the company.
Jim Cornette, a longtime Russo critic, reacted to to this news on his most recent podcast. He posted his comments on his YouTube channel earlier today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAyE7PVRss
Cornette’s Critique of Vince Russo
According to Cornette, Russo contacts WWE on a weekly basis, critiquing Raw and possibly looking for a job.
Cornette and Eric Bischoff appeared on a recent episode of “Table for 3”, where Russo, and their complaints about him, were a topic of conversation.
We’ve got some more newsworthy quotes from Jim Cornette’s recent appearance on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. Below, can you can read what Cornette said about where he stands on Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Kenny Omega and Joey Ryan.
The perception that he does not like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn:
“Once again everyone said that Cornette must be hanging himself in his closet and slitting his wrist because they are so successful. Which is ridiculous. Kevin Steen (Owens) and El Generico (Sami Zayn) were both pains in the asses to deal with. It was the 80/20 principle where you spend 80% of your time dealing with 20% of your talent’s problems. Part of it is that they are French Canadian and I’m sorry but French Canadians in wrestling have always been pains in the ass except for Pat Patterson.
But part of it was we are paying them to play professional athletes on television so Steen, we’d like you to lose some weight, f*cking buy some new clothes and f*cking trim your beard up and look a little neater. El Generico a television company has just bought the promotion you work for so we’d like you to be able to do interviews instead of being a mute and we’d like you to take the God damn mask off ( I didn’t even broach that with him) because OH MY GOD it would have been like I sodomized his f*cking mother if I would have said take the mask off. But you’ve got a French Canadian muslin with red hair trying to play a Luchador and nobody understood it.”
“When people that are paying you ask you to do and get a long a little better and son of a gun we just found out that Ring of Honor wasn’t paying them enough money because when somebody comes along and pays them more money they do what we asked them to do and as a result they are tremendously successful. I never said that they were f*cking horrible wrestlers. We made Steen the World Champion for a f*cking year, we tried to sign Generico to another contract but that is when he had the WWE sniffing around him so he wouldn’t do it so we didn’t use him. Everybody said ‘oh God damn’ Cornette has run these guys off…well no. I just wanted them to be more accessible to a wider audience. Now when they have done everything I had asked them to do they are now superstars, imagine that? Wouldn’t you know who won the pony.”
“I never said that (once again) they were bad wrestlers and they couldn’t get over. I said they ain’t getting over unless they do certain things and tweak what they’ve already got. They’ve done that and they have been successful. They’ve never embarrassed the business by beating up grade school children or having matches with blow up dolls. Kenny Omega (I’ve said this about him) I don’t care if he discovers the cure for cancer in his spare time, brings Lou Thesz back from the grave and stretches him in a shoot..he is still a piece of sh*t that should never be in the business because he had matches with nine year old girls and blow up dolls. I don’t care how good he is. I don’t have any time for him, don’t want to look at him, don’t want to hear about him and if I had complete control over pro wrestling I would have Dan Severn go and beat the f*ck out of him and leave him laying in a f*cking ditch.
Why he still has such strong feelings about the wrestling business and how comedy spots hurt the industry:
“He (Omega) embarrassed his profession and he embarrassed everybody that has ever been in it. Steen and Generico never did that. They just had misguided ideas of the facets of their gimmicks and their personalities. They didn’t do phony spots with their d*ck like that f*cking idiot Joey Ryan. He just blatantly does phony bullsh*t because he is an underneath guy that doesn’t have the talent to compete with the major main event level wrestlers so he does this sh*t to get attention.
Everybody says that Cornette says all that stuff because he wants people to listen to his podcast and how can he take wrestling that seriously. Well I do! I’ve made several million dollars off of wrestling and not only because it has been my profession but it has been my favorite thing in life as a hobby since I was nine years old. So yeah I do take it that seriously and Joey Ryan is an embarrassment to it and so is Kenny Omega. At least Omega has a job on top and Joey Ryan is still working ‘outlaw’ shows in front of 400 people shaking his d*ck because that is all he can do.”
Legendary manager Jim Cornette returned to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast this week to discuss his unexpected return to the WWE during WrestleMania weekend, inducting the Rock N’ Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame, burying the hatchet with certain people and turning the corner on previous views he has had regarding members of WWE management. Here are some highlights of what Jim Cornette said about:
Mending fences with Eric Bischoff as part of WWE’s Table For 3:
“Eric did not remember why we had only spoken once in twenty-four years. At the top of the Table For 3 I reminded him of that and we did a little jousting back and fourth and then we got onto other topics and Michael (Hayes) was an excellent moderator. We talked for an hour and a half and I understand that that program goes about half of that time so I don’t know if it is going to be a two parter or I don’t know if it is going to be cut up or what and I really don’t know when it is going to air. There was some tension but at the end Eric and I managed to bond over our mutual hatred for the biggest idiot in the history of wrestling, Vince Russo. So the enemy of my enemy is my friend and Eric and I were able to come to a agreement regardless of what we thought of each other in the past neither one of us begins to be as big of a sh*t-stain as Vince Russo is. We bonded over that.”
Are there anymore WWE Network projects in his future:
“There is and we didn’t go into this thing saying okay we are just going to do this once and never again and that I’m not going to speak to you people after this. If Connecticut was closer to Louisville I’m sure there would be a lot more things I’d be open to. I don’t know if they wan to pay me as much money as it would take to get me to drive to f*cking Connecticut on a regular basis. I don’t fly. Not only do I not fly United Airlines, I don’t fly any airlines because you don’t have any rights in an airport anymore and I don’t like being in a metal death-tube five miles in the air with some drunken f*ck that has probably had a fight with his wife and is now in charge of my life. If something was to come up there are two things I enjoy and that is going back and examining and talking about the old footage of when wrestling was actually wrestling and training the next generation which I did in OVW for quite some time (John Cena, Randy Orton are a legacy of that). If it is something to do with that than yes I am entirely open, not saying we are going to do it and I’m not saying we are not. I’m open to the suggestion and to be honest there is nothing I am going to be doing full time for anyone but myself.”
What is it about the Undertaker that made him have such great longevity:
“Where do I start? Who else is drawing that much money? Who else has had that many great matches over that long a period of time? Who else has never brought bad publicity either in the ring or outside the ring? Who else has been a locker room leader and a true professional? Who else has never sh*t on the wrestling business by going out and doing asinine childish things or curtain calls or exposing the business? By any measure or any yard stick you can use, The Undertaker has been not only a true professional but an incredible gate attraction and made money for himself and everybody he has ever worked for or worked with. That right there if you can’t respect The Undertaker than you don’t respect anybody ever in wrestling.”
Will we ever see anyone like The Undertaker again?
“I think it is going to be tough. Especially with unfortunately the way that things have gone and the styles of work these days and the things that the guys are expecting to do I don’t know how anybodies body will hold up for twenty-seven years again.”
His impressions of what WWE and Triple H have done to change aspects of its wrestling presentation:
“I’ll tell you this. I didn’t like Triple H for fifth-teen years because of the curtain call. I thought he was a piece of sh*t for exposing the business along with his butt-buddies. He was the junior member at the time and Michaels and Nash were the ring leaders and Ramon (Hall) but by the same token now Triple H and remember when I said the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Triple H is now responsible for NXT which is the most pro wrestling like, pro wrestling promotion on a big budget level in the world today so people can change and things change. I would be a stubborn prick (which of course, I am) but I’d be a stubborn prick if I didn’t say well he may have done some bullsh*t before but now guys like The Revival wouldn’t have a chance, The Revival is the best tag team in wrestling and I love The Briscoes in Ring of Honor and I was huge fans of Chris Hero (Kassius Ohno) and Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) when they were the Kings of Wrestling. I thought they were the modern day version of the Midnight Express but right now The Revival is the best tag team in wrestling and NXT has the best pro wrestling presentation of big budget wrestling, Ring of Honor being a close second in the business.”
“When I walked into the TV hotel in Orlando at first I saw Ric Flair than I saw Sting, I saw The Rock N Roll Express and I’m like “my God, it is a Crockett pay per view”. In the same weekend Jim Ross, Kurt Angle and Jim Cornette return to WWE television. This is like the bizarro world, I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Ten years ago, would Jim Cornette have stayed with the WWE if they had this current model in place:
“No, I would have gone to NXT (laughing). I still wouldn’t want to be on the main roster and I’m definitely not going overseas except for an obscene amount of money (which I’ve been paid a couple of times) to go to England. I would have been interested in NXT because that is why I was interested in OVW and that is why I was interested in Ring of Honor. I wanted to impart some wisdom and also preserve and perpetuate professional wrestling instead of sports entertainment. I’ve always over the last fifth-teen years been more interested in the new talent and training guys to get over for the new generation than I can about ringing everything I can out of the previous generation. I would have definitely been interested in working with NXT because myself, Jim Ross and Danny Davis invented the developmental program in the first place.”
The WWE recently posted an article and listed 5 people that could replace Mick Foley as Raw GM. Foley was fired from the position on this past week’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Here are the names included on the list.
Eric Bischoff
Bischoff has already played the role of Raw GM before. It didn’t end well for him, as he was fired and thrown into the back of a garbage truck. Eric Bischoff will be inducting Diamond Dallas Page into the WWE Hall of Fame during Wrestlemania weekend. Bischoff returning to weekly television as the Raw GM is pretty unlikely.
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold and Vince McMahon have quite the history. While it would be entertaining to see Austin, Stephanie McMahon Triple H have a power struggle on Raw every week, it most likely will not happen. Austin has a very successful podcast and hosts a reality show. Austin has been Co-General Manager with Eric Bischoff and even played the role of CEO for a brief period of time.
Jim Cornette
There is absolutely no chance in hell that this would ever happen. It is borderline miraculous that Jim Cornette is even a part of Wrestlemania weekend this year. Cornette also hosts a very successful podcast, in which he often mercilessly bashes the WWE product and the performers involved in the company. I think this would easily be the most entertaining Raw GM but this would never happen. Jim Cornette will inducting the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame. Cornette has often bashed the WWE Hall of Fame in the past and claimed that the WWE Hall of Fame is just another marketing creation by Vince McMahon. It will no doubt be must-see television when Cornette inducts the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express during Wrestlemania 33 weekend.
Edge
This one is intriguing. Edge would be an interesting Raw GM and would certainly challenge Triple H and Stephanie McMahon on their shenanigans. I can’t imagine that Edge would want to return to the weekly travel grind that is professional wrestling to play a fictional general manager. However, if he was to be the next Raw GM I think it would be a solid choice. Edge & Christian also have a podcast that launched today. Their first guest was WWE Universal Champion Goldberg and you can check that out by clicking here.
Kurt Angle
Out of all the names on this list, this one seems the most likely. Angle has made it known that he wants to wrestle again in the WWE and is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during Wrestlemania weekend. Behind the scenes, Angle and the WWE have had a rocky relationship over the years. The WWE might be hesitant to have Angle return to the ring right away and would want to make sure he is 100% healthy if they chose to do so. Angle as the Raw GM makes perfect sense because it introduces Angle back to the WWE Universe and allows the WWE to build a storyline that hopefully will lead to the in-ring send-off that Angle deserves.
Shinsuke Nakamura was recently interviewed by Sportskeeda and commented on which main roster brand he’d like to join.
“Either brand is okay,” he said, “Raw has Joe, Finn. So much NXT talent that it’s comfortable for me. SmackDown has AJ Styles, Randy Orton, John Cena. I want to wrestle all of them. So either!”
Whether he winds up wrestling on Monday or Tuesday nights, Nakamra thinks he’s proven that he deserves a spot in WWE. “”I’ve done a good job this year, but I still want to go to the next WrestleMania. Before WrestleMania, there’s Takeover, and I need to prove myself again. Then, I want to go up as soon as possible.”
When asked about his dream WrestleMania opponent, he named AJ Styles. You can check out he entire interview at Sportskeeda.com.
– John Cena (a/k/a Lance Catamaran) thanked fans on Twitter for the tremendous response to Southpaw Regional Wrestling, the 4-part comedy series about a fictional 1980’s wrestling territory. Cena instructed fans to tweet at the creator of the show for more episodes. In case you missed it:
Meanwhile, Jim Cornette was asked if he had checked out Southpaw Regional Wrestling. Cornette is a staunch supporter of classic professional wrestling, a bygone era parodied in Southpaw. He replied:
To put an end to these requests–do not intend to watch this horseshit, people who ask me to are wasting their time. https://t.co/0KQbjIbq8X
While Evolve’s Gabe Sapolsky initially tweeted that he wouldn’t be commenting further on the firing of Joey Styles as the promotion’s play by play announcer for making a crass reference to the Donald Trump “hot mic” recording, he followed up further late Sunday morning:
The show, hailing live from La Boom in the Woodside section of Queens, New York, was Evolve’s first as the flagship promotion on FloSlam, FloSports’ pro wrestling streaming service. The FloSlam Twitter account, currently operated by FloSports Managing Editor Jeremy Botter, tweeted support for Sapolsky’s decision, later adding that the show is being edited before it’s uploaded for on-demand viewing. As of Sunday morning, @FloSlam is tweeting that not just the required editing, but also slow hotel Wi-Fi in New York is delaying the availability of the on-demand version of the show.
Evolve has another show scheduled tonight in Joppa, Maryland.
There’s a new promotion in the WrestleMania weekend indie show mix, and it’s a surprising one. WhatCulture Pro Wrestling, the new UK-based promotion, announced on Monday that it will be running a show in Orlando on the afternoon of April 1st.
That’s the day before WrestleMania 33, and if past years are any indication, WCPW will likely be running shows opposite WrestleCon, WWE Fan Axxess, Shimmer, possibly Evolve, and probably various local promotions. Announce so far are Joseph Conners, Joe Hendry, Martin Kirby, El Ligero, Grado, Primate, Drake and “Many more yet to be confirmed!” In other words, WCPW’s core wrestlers are committed but not any outside talent as of yet.
WCPW got a lot of attention for an internet pay-per-view a few weeks back that included very expensive fly-ins like Minoru Suzuki, Kurt Angle, Bret Hart as a surprise, and the commentary team of Jim Ross (during college football season, no less) and Jim Cornette (who never flies except for offers he can’t refuse). The response was mixed, in large part due to streaming issues on the WCPW side (FITE TV’s stream was unaffected).
Analysis: WrestleMania weekend is already a crowded space, to the point that this only makes sense if a lot oft he costs (staff flying in for WrestleMania weekend, the wrestlers working other shows and having promoters split the costs of flights, etc) are already taken care of in large part. Maybe this will have a unique appeal to the throng of British fans in town, but they also could decide they’d rather see different wrestling if they’re traveling abroad.
Ah, the old wrassler question. I am going to say what I’ve said before which is I am a trained wrestler. I trained at both FCW and NXT. In Tampa and Orlando respectively. YES I have trained with my husband. Yes. I have wrestling boots. Yes I have more gear than some of the female wrestlers that are currently on TV (the whole “always be prepared and never look anything but the part on TV”…that’s in me). I was hired as a wrestling talent. Things went a different way. When I got hired in 2011 they were looking for different things. I was an athletic model…there were more of us than independent girls. Now that’s changed quite a bit. So maybe I don’t fit into this current crop of talent? But I never say no, because I don’t like to put my foot in my mouth. I don’t make those decisions though. We all express that and people still don’t seem to understand that a lot of things are not in our control as talent. All I can do is make suggestions and work really hard on ideas which I have done many times already. I am a jack of many trades. Someday maybe I’ll share some on camera work with you guys. But not today. So I guess, that answer will have to do for now. Check back with me in a little while though. You never know what might happen.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens took a subtle dig at Jim Cornette on Sunday, resuming their longstanding public feud.
For those who are unfamiliar with their issues, Cornette has been very outspoken about Owens in the past, criticizing virtually everything about him, including his appearance, his in-ring style and his defiance of management (they worked together in ROH).
WWE was in ‘Cornette Country’ on Saturday night and Owens took some pride in the fact that he was defending his championship gold in front of a packed house:
The always-outspoken Jim Cornette gave his thoughts on Wednesday’s Lucha Underground Season 2 premiere and well .. he’s not a fan. The following is a transcript (typed up by @GolazoDan) from the latest episode of the Jim Cornette Experience podcast at MLWRadio.com (click the text below to enlarge):
Joey Ryan recently spoke with AfterBuzz TV’s Christian Rosenberg for a lengthy interview about a number of topics, including his infamous penis spot during a match, his issues with Jim Cornette calling him gay and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview, which you can watch in full above.
On his famous penis spot during a match (as seen in the video below):
“Someone sent me a link to the match and I was watching it, and rarely do I pop for my own stuff or ‘oh I could’ve done that better/this better’, but I was watching it and I genuinely saw that part and it kinda made me laugh. I was like ‘alright that’s pretty ridiculous’. So I cut that 27 seconds out and I threw it up on Twitter like ‘eh let’s see how it goes’ and people really took to it.”
On his “Twitter War” with Jim Cornette:
“I probably shouldn’t have replied to Jim Cornette. It doesn’t bother me when people aren’t fans of my work cause I get that not everyone likes comedy, not everyone likes the character stuff not everyone likes every wrestler, that’s the fact of life. But I don’t care if you don’t like my wrestling, but when you try to throw ‘gay’ as an insult to me, I just feel like homophobia sets wrestling back far more than any comedy spot. So it just irked me a little bit that he insinuated that I was gay because I did this or that I enjoyed him grabbing me or whatever it was and he tried to use gay as an insult and I just feel like that is…that doesn’t belong anywhere in the world. Much less wrestling.”
For those who haven’t seen it yet, below is a video of Joey Ryan’s infamous “penis spot” referenced in the above interview that he performed during a match.
– Jim Cornette is getting some heat after WYMT-TV posted a 30-year old wrestling promo from Cornette where he mocks people buying their Thanksgiving meals with food stamps. You can check out the promo above.
– WWE appears to be going forward with a feud between The Wyatt Family and The Dudley Boyz following the attack angles on this week’s RAW and SmackDown shows. WWE.com posted the following teaser for Monday’s RAW:
“We don’t want to imagine what Thanksgiving is like in the Wyatt compound, but The Eater of Worlds and his cruel kin gorged themselves on destruction this past Thursday on SmackDown, where they destroyed D-Von Dudley and sent his brother Bubba Ray through a table — using The Dudley Boyz’ own pine-splintering pastime against them.
Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman have twice obliterated Dudleyville’s favorite sons since Survivor Series, but something tells us the macabre quartet is just getting started. What sinister plans do The Wyatt Family have for Raw?”
The Madison Square Garden “curtain call” incident happened at a WWE (then WWF) live event on May 19, 1996 when Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash all broke character in the middle of the ring and hugged. Jim Cornette says if he was in charge of the company, Triple H would have been fired that same day.
The subject of the Kliq’s kayfabe-breaking incident at MSG recently came up on Cornette’s Corny’s Drive-Thru podcast on MLW Radio, and Cornette says he would have handled the incident a bit differently than Vince McMahon did.
With Kevin Nash and Scott Hall leaving the company for WCW immediately after the incident, he would have had to deal with Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Cornette says he would have dealt with the lowest wrestler on the card first. Back in May ’96, this was current WWE executive and now Vince McMahon’s son-in-law Triple H.
“Yeah, I would have fired [Triple H], because he was a(n) … underneath mid card guy at best, that wasn’t necessarily really getting over at that f*****g point like gangbusters,” said Cornette. “And why the f**k that he would think that he had the status in the community just because he hung around with these guys and rode in a car with them and liked him being around because that way they could preserve their pecking order … There’s a hundred – a thousand other wrestlers who would love to be in Madison Square Garden tonight. And you think that you’re a special motherf****er after being here only a year or 18 months that you can go out … and expose the business?”
In regards to Shawn Michaels, Cornette said he would have booked him to lose his championship and put over other wrestlers, before eventually getting rid of him. Here’s what he had to say about the Heartbreak Kid:
“I would have said, ‘Okay, his two f**king friends are gone to WCW and they’re going to have some influence because they’ve got these big money contracts.’ They’re going to be pitching him so they can all be together. My champion. His loyalty is going to be suspect because he’s never proven to be loyal anyway. So while I’ve got him under contract right now, I need to figure out who is going to carry the belt in his place, I need to systematically get that guy over and get him ready to take it off [Michaels] and then I need to start beating the f**k out of this guy to get some other people over on his way out and then get rid of that f**king mental case, too, and then I’ll have much more peace and quiet in my f*****g locker room.”
– WWE posted the above video of Maria Menounos interviewing The Miz and Paige to promote their new WWE Studios film, “Santa’s Little Helper” on E! News.
– The latest edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast, which features interviews with Jim Cornette and Magnum T.A., is now available. You can download the show today at PodcastOne.com.
– WWE confirmed the fact that Randy Orton got married this past weekend on their official website. They wrote the following about “The Viper” getting hitched in Las Vegas on Saturday:
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton married fiancée Kim this weekend. The newlyweds recently appeared together on Unfiltered with Renee Young, available now on demand, only on WWE Network. Join the rest of the WWE Universe in congratulating Randy Orton and his new bride on this exciting new chapter in their lives! Send your congrats to The Viper on Twitter by tweeting @RandyOrton.
– WWE posted the above preview for the new two-part edition of “Legends With JBL,” which as part of the special Undertaker Week on the WWE Network, features “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple H and Shawn Michaels talking about “The Dead Man’s” legendary career. Both parts are available on the WWE Network now.
– WrestlingDVDNetwork.com is reporting that WWE’s new “Owen Hart: Hart Of Gold” DVD and Blu-ray set will feature new and archived interview footage from Vince McMahon, Tyson Kidd, Natalya, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, Triple H, Mick Foley, Edge, Scott Hall, Chris Jericho, Lex Luger and referee Mike Chioda. WWE also shot new interviews with Owen Hart’s family members, including Bret Hart, Keith, Ross, Bruce, Alison, Diana, Ellie and Georgia. The set will not, however, feature any content from Hart’s immediate family, such as his widow Martha or his children, Oje and Athena, as Martha is not supporting the project.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Jim Ross’ weekly “Ross Report” podcast returns on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. EST. / 6 p.m. PST. at PodcastOne.com. JR will be joined this week by two wrestling legends, as Jim Cornette and Terry “Magnum T.A.” Allen are both scheduled for the show. The official description for the episode reads as follows:
“Join JR as he welcomes TWO guests in rapid fire conversation….the incomparable Jim Cornette talks with JR about a variety of topics and the Mid Atlantic Memories film and pulls no punches on any topic. Also joining JR will be Terry Allen better known as Magnum TA who chats about a myriad of topics concerning today’s product. So one one podcast you get Jim Cornette, Magnum TA along with JR with entertaining and informative talk.”
TNA color-commentator “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero (Elijah Burke) recently spoke to The Richest podcast about his early career as a boxer and his early days in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On transitioning from being a boxer to a pro wrestler:
“The transition from an amateur boxing background to wrestling was not that difficult, as far as showmanship and the entertainment aspect of it. It wasn’t hard at all because that my main reasoning for boxing was just to entertain. Of course, I trained and did as much as I could to be a good boxer so I could hold my own in the ring. I was more of a tough guy, more of a brawler, a slugger. I grew up fighting, so the boxing part wasn’t hard but my main concern was the fulfillment of that burning desire in me to entertain the masses. However, the only part that was indeed a challenge was restricting myself from throwing actual punches. When I would throw my punches or what not, I would have a hard time pulling it back a bit. So that was the main thing that I actually had to work on, which I did countless times by punching a dummy. I actually learned to throw my first actual wrestling punch from Jim Cornette. One of the ways that I learned to throw fake punches in the wrestling ring, without having legit force that would injure my opponent in the ring, was I would use a light bulb that would hang in the distance and I would do my best to hit that light bulb without damaging it, breaking it or moving it. So if I could throw a good enough punch to a light bulb without causing it to shatter, I think that’s pretty good. I think that as time went on, I felt more comfortable with it and I was able to incorporate my actual boxing strikes in the ring and be safe with it.”
On training and developing in OVW and Dusty Rhodes helping him early in his career:
“Jim Cornette and Danny Davis. Danny Davis is the grandfather, the wizard, of OVW. Those two were very instrumental in helping me develop my character. Jim Cornette said just be you, just do what you do, the people love you. That was basically what it was. On the microphone? On the mic? The gift to gab if you will, that came along with the whole package with Elijah. That’s something that I’ve always done. That’s something that I hadn’t needed to really develop. If there is someone that I would attribute my ability to gab to, I would say my Pastor, Willie May Goodness, from down home southern Jacksonville, Florida. Where I grew up, in church, is where all that came from, The gift of gab and being able to talk on the mic and be comfortable with it.
“If there was anyone that showed me how to convey emotion and allow it to manifest into something more for the viewing audience, then of course that goes to ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, who I had the privilege and the honor to work with. He was my childhood idol during my time in OVW, prior to my time in ECW. Definitely, it was Dusty who was supportive. Dusty saw me and I went and introduced myself and he stopped me. He said, ‘I already know about you, daddy. You and I we going to have some fun’. I would do my promos and it would be awesome. They would have scripts but he believed in me so much that he would take the script or anything they wanted me to say and he would turn it down. He would say, ‘just do what you going to do, daddy. You let me deal with Stephanie and Vince. You just say what you’re going to say’. That was just so awesome because he believed in me so much. He knew that I could take what they wanted me to do and put it in my own words and hit a home run with it. That’s what we would do all the time.”
WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross fielded a few new questions in the Q&A section over at JRsBarBQ.com. He discusses how WWE is using the Dudleys, whether Jim Cornette should be in the Hall of Fame or not, and more. Here are some highlights:
On how WWE is using The Dudley Boyz:
I happen to like how the Dudley’s are being utilized. Building up the tag team scene in WWE is totally up to mgmt. They can do whatever they choose.
Why Shelton Benjamin never received a shot at the WWE Title:
I’d guess it was because we were never able to tap into Sheldon’s charisma because he was an amazing athlete.
If Jim Cornette should be in the WWE Hall of Fame:
Jim Cornette is a legit HOFer in any Hall of Fame. I have no idea who would induct JC. That would be his call.
Jim Cornette ripped apart Vince McMahon on episode 96 of The Jim Cornette Experience. He went into detail about his thoughts on why Vince McMahon makes amends with so many former talents who parted ways with him on bad terms.
“People sue him, people walk out on him, people f**k him, people say horrible things about him, and he brings them back, not because it’s best for business, but because it’s best for his f**king ego,” said Cornette. “Vince McMahon has the worst inferiority complex of anybody in history. I say that because he wants to prove that he will do anything with anybody. He will reconcile with anybody, supposedly if it’s best for business, but really so he can get them under his thumb again and he can work with them again. He can prove that they needed him.”
Jim Cornette featured on a recent edition of the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast where he spoke about a number of topics including Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
On the topic of Kevin Owens, Cornette explained that he always knew he had what it takes to be a success in the WWE because he changed how he dealt with his employer asking him to do certain things relating to his job.
The only thing he was concerned about Owens was his attitude and mentioned a few examples including asking him to lose weight, coming back with a different look and push or even asking him to do a match in a particular way.
Cornette explained with Owens, there was quite a bit of arguing and or refusal to do certain things and that worried him when he went down to NXT adding that “either he, the WWE, or both, would need a psychiatrist within 90 days.”
He went on to explain to Roberts that despite all of that, apparently Owens is now doing what is asked of him rather than going into the business for himself or arguing about anything whether it be inside or outside of the ring.
Cornette also spoke about Sami Zayn and how he “was the second biggest pain in the ass” next to Kevin Owens adding that it must be something to do with being a French-Canadian in wrestling and that most of them, with the exception of a few, have been the same way.
He explained that Zayn got mad at him because he had always spoken about his selling, how he was an amazing athlete and how he was such a great babyface in the ring but Cornette wanted him to ditch the mask and the “goofy gimmick.”
Cornette went on to explain that he told him that he had to learn to speak and take part in interviews, and even get a tan and then told him that “then you will find mainstream success” and that didn’t sit well with Zayn who as Cornette said “thought I was crazy.”
If you want to hear the interview in full, you can do so by clicking this link.
– WWE has announced that NXT Diva Becky Lynch will be returning to action on this week’s edition of NXT television on the WWE Network. Lynch last worked at the NXT Takeover: Unstoppable special, losing to NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks.
– Legendary pro wrestling personality Jim Cornette is the guest on the latest edition of Roddy Piper’s “Piper’s Pit” podcast. You can download the show right now at PodcastOne.com.
– As noted earlier today, WWE touted the fact that they have surpassed the half a billion follower mark on social media. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has commented on the milestone, as you can see in the following tweet he posted earlier today.
