Fans can expect the heated verbal feud between The Young Bucks and Jim Cornette to play out inside the squared circle as Cornette has joined Global Force Wrestling.
Cornette has said that the animosity from the Bucks stemmed from his review of their match at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in January. Following a dust-up on Twitter, he was briefly blocked by the tandem on the social media platform.
“They blocked me on Twitter! They blocked me! I’ve never been so insulted,” Cornette joked on In Your Head Wrestling Radio in January. “No… I’ve been in riots. I’ve had a couple dozen people in my life try to kill and the Young Bucks think they’re going to hurt my feelings because they blocked me on Twitter.”
Jim Ross recently updated the Q&A section of his official website, JRsBarBQ.com to answer questions from fans on a variety of subjects. Below are some highlights.
On the “Kiss My Arse” match at Extreme Rules: “I don’t know the rules but it fits the ‘extreme’ theme one has to think.”
On WWE dropping first-names of NXT stars when they get called up: “I don’t know the rules but it fits the ‘extreme’ theme one has to think.”
On possibly doing a “shoot interview” with Jim Cornette: “I would love to do a show with JC any time and anywhere.”
On possibly doing some announcing for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) again: “I am open to broadcasting more NJPW events if they were to come my way. I have heard nothing of doing more since January.”
To read more questions and answers from the WWE Hall Of Famer, visit his official website at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online, which I’ve tried personally and would highly recommend (especially the beef jerky), visit WWEShop.com.
– Steve Austin is the guest on the latest edition of Jim Cornette’s “The Cornette Experience” podcast. You can download the show right now by clicking here.
– Austin is also one of the guests, along with “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and comedian Will Sasso, on this week’s edition of Roddy Piper’s “Piper’s Pit” podcast. That show is available right now at PodcastOne.com.
– Lana posted the following in-character tweet on her official Twitter account, warning John Cena about Rusev:
Longtime WWE Superstar Kane recently did an in-depth interview with The Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast, talking about a lot of the big moments throughout his career. Below are some highlights.
On memorable thoughts reflecting on his participation at WrestleMania: “My most memorable WrestleMania ever was my first; At WrestleMania 14 in Boston against The Undertaker that was a huge high point in my career and an absolute highlight of my career. The next year I wrestled Triple H when DX was breaking up and that led to me and Xpac becoming partners and that was a really great time, after that was WrestleMania that was in Anaheim and I was teaming with Rikishi against X-Pac and his partner, which actually is terrible of me but I can’t remember who his partner was. Then the next year it was against Kurt Angle and after that another match with The Undertaker, there has been a lot of stuff.”
On his favorite WrestleMania match: “For me personally it was WrestleMania 14 against Undertaker. I believe that the story of Undertaker and Kane was some of the most epic storytelling WWE he’s ever done. It was something out of Greek Mythology and of course that was the culmination of that whole story and for that reason it made it very special. As for my favorite match as a fan, I would have to say that was Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25. If I were to tell anyone, that would be the match that I would point them to. In my opinion it is the greatest match in history and it is just incredible what those two guys did, two absolute icons of our industry and they put on a spectacular performance.”
On wrestling Undertaker at WrestleMania 20: “That one was special because Undertaker had just come back after a hiatus a it was the first time he had been seen and it was completely different than the first WrestleMania match. That was two supernatural figures duking it out essentially and leaving a path of waste wherever they went. Whereas WrestleMania 20 was a little more conventional and that you had just a bad guy versus a very popular good guy so in that respect the build was different and certainly my character was different so if you ask is it one of my favorites? I would take WrestleMania 14 over WrestleMania 20.”
On if he was always a wrestling fan growing up: “I grew up in rural Missouri about two hours north of St. Louis and if the wind was blowing right on a Saturday night I could catch All Star Wrestling out of Kansas City which was run by Bob Geigel and some of the stars there were Bulldog Bob Brower and Ray Candy. Harley Race was based there but Harley was often World Champion so he didn’t wrestle as much there. Once a month though we would go down to my grandmother’s house in St. Louis and at the time in question Wrestling at the Chase was one of the most popular promotions and shows in the country, so once a month I’d get to see all the stars that came through there like Harley Race, Ric Flair and the Von Erich’s. Actually, Baron Von Raschke stands out in my mind because he was such a great villain. Unfortunately, this was before cable TV so I fell off for a while and into high school because I was doing athletics of my own and all that sort of thing but I got back into it at the end of high school and in college. I remember it was at the height of Hulkamania in the late eighties and I still remember going downstairs into a lounge in my dorm room and they were watching Savage vs Steamboat from WrestleMania 3 and I thought it was really awesome. Of course Hogan was on top of the world he was one of biggest things in entertainment and you had the crossover going on with MTV so the WWF was extremely hot and I was always a fan after that. I’ll never forget their first live event I went to at the old Checker-Dome in St. Louis and when Hulk Hogan came out and 10,000 people just lost their minds and I thought to myself that would be really cool to do that and have that sort of impact on somebody. I always thought that it was great athletics and great drama combined into one and I am a fan of both of those.”
On how he broke into the wrestling business: “I was playing college football and I hurt my knee very badly my senior year and I didn’t want to get a real job. I am a fan of the wrestling stuff and because it was pretty hot at the time, I said I am going to go try that (wrestling). I was still trying to play football and at the time the now defunct “World League” was still around but my football future looked very dim and I got involved with a local (wrestling) group and probably didn’t learn great stuff but things that would hamper me down the road as far as the business actually works. But nevertheless, through networking that’s how I met Dutch Mantell (Zeb Coulture) at an Independent show in Southern Illinois and he helped me out. I ended up going to The Malenko Wrestling Academy which was run by Dean (Malenko) but Dean wasn’t spending much time there because he was in Japan but I had the great fortune of being with Larry Simon (The Great Malenko) and I actually got to live with him for about six months. That helped me out tremendously. Eventually, I would go back and forth to Japan for Fujiwara Gumi which was a shoot fighting organization and from there Dutch called for me one day and said that he’d like to bring me to Puerto Rico, so that was my first full-time job and that was in 1994. I spent about nine months working for Carlos Colon and then Dutch was able to get me in with Jim Cornette and Smoky Mountain Wrestling.”
On working with the Rock N’ Roll Express in Smoky Mountain Wrestling: “I learned so much from those guys, especially Ricky Morton. As far as being one of the greatest baby-faces of all time, Ricky Morton is and he really taught me a lot. All those guys who had been around so long like Tracy Smothers, Tony Anthony and Al Snow learning from them the inside the ring performance aspect of the business is not something you can learn by going to a wrestling school.”
On working for Jim Cornette: “Jim wasn’t spending a lot of time with us; he was up in the WWF with the Heavenly Bodies. So it was sort of hit or miss. Jim has a great mind for the business and I think his absence really hurt Smoky Mountain Wrestling because he just wasn’t there to do it every day. At that point he had other fish to fry, but nevertheless you are talking bout a guy that understands especially that particular area and that particular crowd, the “Southern” wrestling, Jim gets it and Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a great example. The motto was “how it ought to be and how you like it” and Jim certainly understood that. But it was a lot of fun working there and a lot of fun working for him.”
On taking his mask off: “Actually, it was my idea because I did feel it was at the point where the mask was restricting what I could do. People ask what the advantages are of wearing a mask and the first thing of course is the mystery people don’t know exactly what Kane is thinking. Taking it off, it also made me a much better performer and that really is what our business is all about. What do you do with the emotion of the audience? Do you want them to you empathize with what you’re doing if you’re the bad guy? You want them to hate you. If you are the good guy, you want them to have sympathy for you. It could be thought of as a form of communication in that respect and because I didn’t have my face, which is how we normally show emotion. I had to rely a lot more on body language and I think that really helped me because I had to concentrate on that and had to think of different ways to be able to betray that emotion without using my face. But then I’m thinking it became a hindrance because at a certain point the novelty is gone and at a certain point it’s time for us all to move along and I think that the most successful characters and most successful people in WWE have been able to reinvent themselves. We see that with Undertaker. He has always been able to reinvent himself and tweak his characters or sometimes change it entirely or Shawn Michaels. The Shawn Michaels that we see today or the one right before he retired is not the Shawn Michaels from 1995. Triple H is that way, John Cena is that way. It is just the nature of our business. Eventually, the novelty is going to wear off. The only people who are behind that decision probably were the only two people that counted and that was Vince and I. Everyone else is of the opinion if it isn’t broke don’t fix it but I think Vince had enough confidence in me as performer that he knew I could pull off and I knew that I could pull it off as well. Not to say there was some trepidation because it is true that if you have something successful you don’t want to mess with it. To me it wasn’t that huge deal because you know you could always put the mask back on, which we would eventually do. At the time it was a pretty big risk and what it did actually was gave me an entirely new career and an entirely new character. It allowed me to do things that I had not been able to be before. Which always makes my job a lot more fun.”
– Alberto El Patron is suffering from a torn quad, an injury he suffered Wednesday night while wrestling a match in Mexico. He did, however, work a match again on Friday night in Waterbury, Connecticut for the Northeast Wrestling promotion, but that does explain why there was a change in the card and why he was so limited.
– The folks at Newsday.com have photos up from this weekend’s Jim Cornette tribute show.
– WWE announcer JBL is teasing that he will reveal the new co-host for his “The JBL (Not Cole) Show” web series on Monday. He tweeted the following teaser this weekend:
Jim Cornette recently spoke with the folks at In Your Head Wrestling Radio about having heat with The Young Bucks tag-team, differences in the South and Northeast wrestling crowds and more.
Below are highlights from the interview.
On having heat with The Young Bucks over their Wrestle Kingdom 9 match: “They blocked me on Twitter!…I’ve never been so insulted. I’ve been in riots, I’ve had a couple of dozen people in their life try to kill me, and The Young Bucks thought they were going to hurt my feelings because they blocked me on Twitter…I gave a review of the show on my podcast…and theirs was the first match, the first one I reviewed…Their match, it was a four-team/eight-man match to open the Wrestle Kingdom show, to give the United States fans that are watching, at least from my perspective, the first look in English language at this great promotion, but nobody really is going to know who any of these guys are except for the hardcores that are going to be watching anyway. You couldn’t tell who was whose partner, nobody got over, it was a mess. They had to go out there in fifteen minutes; eight guys did every move they’d ever known and ever learned to each other; nobody registered it; you couldn’t tell who was on whose side; you couldn’t tell who was going to try to win this thing; it wasn’t even a tag match it was just a mess; and the Bucks also did this move to this guy where one picks him up like he’s going to give him a tombstone piledriver and the other one leaps to the top rope, leaps off the top rope, does a front forward somersault, grabs the guy’s legs, and they give him a spike piledriver. Boom! Cover him 1-2-somebody breaks up the pin, and they all continue the match and the Bucks didn’t even win. And so I made the comment that if somehow two guys had given that move to another guy on a show I was responsible for, and that guy left the arena under his own power, I would fire all three of them…I just gave an opinion; the Bucks got mad; I’m sorry, but it’s true and a lot of people in the business think so. It’s just that they look visually like small children, and they have to make up for it (they think) by doing all this devastating stuff, but the stuff isn’t devastating if you don’t beat people with it. Then you’re just going out there exposing the business because you can do a bunch of moves but you can’t ever actually whip somebody. It’s skewed thinking in my opinion.”
On differences in being a manager in the South versus the Northeast: “Yeah, somewhat, because to be quite honest, and I knew this going in, managers were never put in the place of importance in the WWF as they were down South in terms of the live event and the overall angle/program, because they had the tradition in the Northeast that the managers really just talked for the guys at television and then maybe they’d walk to the ring in the Garden, and down South the managers on the show and the manager with the heel were an intricate part of the whole thing. So, I did basically a lot less. It was a whole lot easier working in the WWF as a manager than it was in the NWA because half the time nobody would even get to me. Literally, in the NWA, in every house show match we had unless it was just something for us to get over the babyfaces were going to get a hold of me, or I was going to take a bump, or I was going to work interfering…and a lot of times with Yokozuna I just walked to the ring and cheered him on and that was it. And I wasn’t going to do stuff they didn’t want me to do, that I wasn’t being told to do, so I just hung out and watched the matches a lot. It was a whole lot easier. It wasn’t as much fun, but it was a whole lot easier.”
Check out the complete interview at IYHWrestling.com.
– There are some rumors going around NXT that Kalisto of the Lucha Dragons may be getting called up to the main WWE roster in the near future. It remains to be seen whether WWE keeps the team together, or if he’s brought in as a singles star.
– Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette is the guest on the latest edition of Roddy Piper’s “Piper’s Pit” podcast. The official description for the show reads as follows:
PP-Ep42 – Jim Cornette
“Yeeee Hawwwww! Jim Cornette crashes into Piper’s Pit like a Level 5 Tornado, tearing apart everything you thought you knew about pro-wrestling. Why did Vince McMahon think Lex Luger was going to be the next Hulk Hogan? Who was tapped to run the WWF when Vince McMahon thought he’d be trading in his designer suits for prison stripes when the wrestling titan was an ass hair away from going to jail? You can only find out by downloading the latest episode of the best wrestling podcast in the whole damned world! Baby Jesus!”
The following are highlights of a new interview with Magnus:
His current status with TNA: “I haven’t….I’m still under contract. There’s been no discussion of any of that. I already knew I was booked for the (UK) tour. I think I was one of the first names advertised when the dates were first booked. I think it was just one of those things where when they did the finalised line-up. There’s…..as of now, as of right now, I still have a contract. That’s about as much as I’m willing to discuss.”
How Sting went to bat for him in a situation with Jim Cornette: “Jim Cornette – who I have a lot of respect for and get on with and now – he was not necessarily on ‘Team Magnus’ when I first showed up. And with good reason! I didn’t fucking belong there! I didn’t know a fucking headlock from a headlight!….Jim Cornette looked at me and was like “Alright kid, keep your mouth shut and your ears open and maybe we’ll get through this!” Sting kind of reprimanded him a little bit and was like “Actually, Jim, he’s got some really good ideas and I pretty much want to do the match that we’ve already discussed.” He was like “Eh, ok…alright then” It ended up being a good piece of business and Cornette was happy.”
What he didn’t enjoy about being part of AJ Styles’ last match in TNA: “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful – but I don’t know if it was as much them having faith in me or…or if I was an easy person to have the heat on, at least. There were some very unfortunate circumstances around the AJ thing….I suffered a concussion when I won the title in the match with Jeff…I was pretty much on auto-pilot. I was in a bad way….I’ve never had one since…..That then meant that we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do with AJ. It’s my understanding that we were to do a straight up match, but that wasn’t possible. They did the best thing they thought they could do…..It wasn’t wrestling. It was just an angle.”
His love of U.K. television in the 1990’s: “(Gladiators) was part of that Saturday night line up….Friday night was swimming, fish and chips and ‘Top of the Pops’. Saturday was football practice or a game, and then that night it would be ‘Blind Date’, ‘Noel’s House Party’ and ‘Gladiators’.”
Growing up as a wrestling fan: “When I was a kid, like a small kid, we didn’t have Sky. We didn’t have satellite TV. But I was still completely familiar with the WWF and that’s really a testament to how incredible their marketing is. Even though I never really had access to it because I couldn’t see it on TV, u still knew who everybody was. …For me, Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart was held on a pedestal with superheroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and stuff….He was like a real hero….Probably around 1996/97 was when I started to get back into it when Shawn Michaels and HHH started doing DX….That was where the first time it started to pique my rebellious teen interest…From the age of 13 it was formulating in ny head that that was what I wanted to do.”
– TNA and Dixie Carter have yet to officially comment on the news that Impact Wrestling is not being renewed by Spike TV, however Sunday afternoon, when Dixie likely knew about the news, she did post this Impact-related tweet. When she or the company comment on the subject, we will post an update.
Thanks to everyone for all the amazing feedback on #ImpactOnSpike. I'm trying to respond directly, if I miss you… THX DARLIN!
– Jim Cornette posted the following tweet, pointing the cryptic finger at Vince Russo while addressing the TNA/Spike TV news that broke late Sunday night:
Apparently the person who runs the Wendy’s restaurant Twitter account is a longtime pro wrestling fan. The official Twitter account of the fast-food chain offered to settle the beef between long-standing rivals Vince Russo and Jim Cornette with a “Baconator on a Pole Match.” Russo and Cornette responded. Here’s how the exchange went down on Twitter.
Vince Russo: “I’d love to have peace with Jim Cornette. But, I can’t do that alone. Maybe one day he will open up.”
Jim Cornette after a Russo fan chimed in: “Please keep your “fans” at the kid’s table, they’re bleeding over into my adults’ conversation–”
Russo: “Speaking of adult conversations. Why don’t we have one so we can end this foolishness. Life is too short, Jim.”
Cornette: “Some people’s are not short enough–”
Russo fan: “Irony here is Jim is eating a @Wendys triple with cheese while he typed that.”
Wendy’s: “We could settle this with a Baconator on a pole match. ;)”
Cornette: “I might do it for Wendy, but she changed her meat!”
The following are highlights of a new Undisputed Wrestling Show interview with legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette:
On TNA Director of Creative Writing David Lagana: “It’s like they are on f—ing acid. I know Dave Lagana, I like Dave Lagana, would never let him close to the f—ing book. He doesn’t know how to book wrestling because the only experience he had was booking ‘sports entertainment.'”
On TNA Vice President of Television Production and Director of Talent Relations John Gaburick: “The f—ing goof they hired to be the head of their creative, the Big John character (Gaburick), was an out of work friend of Kevin Dunn’s who gave a pity job to to produce Tough Enough. He’s never booked a f—ing fart after a dinner at Taco Bell.”
On TNA Creative Writer Matt Conway: “Matt Conway is the guy who Dixie (Carter) put on the creative team when it was Jeff (Jarrett) and Dutch (Mantel) and (Vince) Russo, I’m sorry I threw up a little in my mouth, because they weren’t telling her what was going on. So she took some stooge who worked in the office, he’s a fine kid, but he don’t know shit from apple butter about how to f—ing book wrestling. She put him on the creative team so he could stooge to her about what they were talking about behind her back.”
On TNA Ring Announcer and member of creative team Christy Hemme: “I can’t say this without laughing out loud! They just put Christy Hemme on the f—ing booking team! What the f—, she couldn’t book Lassie at a pet shop! She’s a nice girl, but what the f—!”
On the state of wrestling today: “If I stop to dwell on the state of wrestling today, it was literally making me an insane person. That is why I just ignore it for the most part. If you care about the business and if you want to see the business succeed, the things that people do that are the people who are in charge will drive you insane.”
– The Rock recently noted on Twitter that the trailer for his upcoming “Hercules” film was the number one most popular trailer on all of YouTube. “The Brahma Bull” tweeted the following:
The following are highlights of the latest Jim Ross blog:
On the current and upcoming Ross Report podcasts: “This week’s Ross Report podcast is going great guns with guest @TheJimCornette as we essentially solve all the ills of today’s pro wrestling genre. Seriously, it’s one of the best discussions that I have ever participated in regarding the business that many of us still embrace. I hope you will check it out at podcastone.com or via iTunes.”
“Next Tuesday pm our conversation with the amazingly talented and beautiful Gail Kim drops and we explore Gail’s career, the major differences in working in WWE vs. Impact Wrestling, Gail’s overall take on women in wrestling, her future, the delicate balancing of her career and her marriage to celeb chef Robert Irvine of the Food Network and much more. Gail is dead on honest about every topic and her candor was extremely refreshing.”
“This past Tuesday night I talked for almost two hours with Shawn Michaels and it was the most compelling interview that I’ve done to date as HBK shares what it was like to to sitting at the Gorilla Position at WM30 specifically when the Undertaker’s Streak abruptly and shockingly ended. It’s a perspective that can’t be replicated and that Ross Report Podcast is excited to premier on Tuesday May 6. Shawn’s openness and straight talk makes this one of the most riveting and informative podcasts ever.”
“This week I also confirmed Lance Storm and MVP for future Ross Report Podcasts as we keep cranking them out and hope that we can continue to build our audience by producing and recording some stout shows.”
On Daniel Bryan losing fans: “Amazing that some ‘fans’ are jumping off the Daniel Bryan bandwagon now that the highly skilled star has won the WWE World Title and the reason is that they feel that the ‘chase’ is over and therefore DB has no more challenges ahead of him. Has anyone noticed that Bryan is STILL smaller than virtually everyone he wrestles and is STILL an underdog even as the champion? Keeping a fan favorite in varying levels of jeopardy or peril works….it always has and always will. It has worked in films and in main stream sports since their beginning, which is why they keep score, keep track of the standings, and play for something at the end of the year. If Bryan can continue to amazingly overcome the odds and retain the WWE World Title in non fluke wins, when the time comes for him to lose the championship, to Brock Lesnar would be my suggestion, say at Summerslam or even in November at Survivor Series, DB won’t fade away. The best pure wrestler in the world isn’t going to disappear unless he is removed from TV or he suddenly forgets how to perform his craft.”
“The Daniel Bryan situation as it relates to going forward this year is seemingly being ‘over thought’ by many fans who have WAY too much free time on their hands.”
On narrarating an upcoming FOX Sports 1 boxing documentary: “My narration of a @FoxSports1 feature on the young, boxing son of the late Tommy Morrison airs Monday night on FoxSports1. I will tweet more info when I receive it. Morrison was a distant relative of John Wayne, defeated George Foreman for the WBO Heavyweight Title and died much too young at age 44. The native Oklahoman was also a star high school football player at Jay, Oklahoma and I officiated some of his games when he played there back in the day. It’s a really cool feature on Trey Lippe Morrison who’s looking to impact the heavyweight division in the world of boxing.”
Check out the complete blog online at JRsBarBQ.com. You can also order JR’s Bar-B-Q products online at WWEShop.com.
– The latest edition of Jim Ross’ “Ross Report” podcast, which features an interview with Jim Cornette, is now online.
The official description for the show reads as follows:
TRR – Ep10 – Jim Cornette
“JR has plenty to discuss with Jim Cornette including The Undertaker’s defeat at Wrestlemania 30, CM Punk’s departure, Daniel Bryan’s future, the best fast food joints around the country, lucky horseshoes , successful heels in the WWE, and whether or not Midnight Express should be in the WWE Hall Of Fame.”
– Also new at PodcastOne.com is the latest edition of Chris Jericho’s “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, which features an interview with William Shatner.
The official description for the show reads as follows:
TIJ – EP32 – William Shatner
“Intergalactic star William Shatner joins Chris in-studio…and he LOVES wrestling even though he was boo’ed at the WWE Hall of Fame! Hear that… along with tales of UFOs, ghosts, Captain Kirk, Star Trek films, dealing with hecklers & haters, and of course a tour of ‘Shatner’s World.'”
Jim Ross took to Twitter to answer some questions from wrestling fans. Among some of the questions asked where who JR feels should be the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion, as well as questions regarding Daniel Bryan and SummerSlam. Below are some of JR’s tweets.
“@Kyriacou352: @JRsBBQ who should be the next @WWE Heavyweight Champion coming from your good self?”
Lesnar..now cue the "part time" debate
– As previously reported, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin appeared as a surprise guest at Jim Ross’ “RINGSIDE” stage show in New Orleans on Thursday evening. Austin appeared at JR’s second show, while legendary manager Jim Cornette served as the special guest for JR’s first show.
– The Tampa Tribune has a new article up with comments from Big E. and Hulk Hogan. The piece mainly focuses on Big E.’s rise to stardom, as well as his involvement in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX this Sunday in New Orleans. You can check out the article at TBO.com.
The following are highlights of a new Baltimore Sun interview with Colt Cabana:
On what happened between he and Ring Of Honor: “They were bought by a corporation and the owner wasn’t aware of a lot of the wrestlers of the past. So when new management came in and wanted to shuffle some people out the door, nobody was really aware of my past history with the company so it wasn’t a big deal to them, and I wasn’t asked to come back.”
On Jim Cornette’s recent A.M.A. chat comments about him: “Yeah, a lot of people tweeted it towards me. I think he is entitled to his opinion. You can’t fault people for having an opinion. Luckily for me, I’ve never been put in a position to hire and fire people, and he was in that position and he can’t hire everybody. I’m one of the people that Jim Cornette didn’t want. Obviously the people that he didn’t want aren’t going to be happy about it. That’s life. I could hold a grudge, but I don’t. I understand that you have to hire and you have to fire and the ones that you fire aren’t going to be happy. It’s about going on and moving on. Luckily, I’ve done way bigger and better things since leaving Ring of Honor. Maybe it was a mistake by them for letting me go, and maybe it wasn’t if they’re happy with the direction that they’ve gone. I don’t hold any grudge against Jim. I’m almost kind of thankful that I was able to go on to better places in my career.”
On what happened between he and WWE: “Well, it didn’t work out because management said creative didn’t have anything for me. Then I went out and did a web series mocking the answer that they gave me. It was maybe with the big corporate structure that I got lost underneath the pile of people (laughs), that doesn’t sound good, piles of people. But I spent two years under contract with WWE. After about a year and three months I was brought up to the main roster [in 2009]. When I was brought up, I wasn’t brought up in a predominant role at all. I was kind of brought up as a guy really to lose matches. Which was weird because they don’t have contracted enhancement wrestlers, for the most part every contracted wrestler they have is “a superstar.” Of course, that’s an interesting fact when some of the guys like myself and Gavin Spears and Ryan Braddock are just kind of brought up to lose. But that was a different time back then and now I think they’ve seen the errors of their ways from that generation. A lot of us took a bullet but I’m glad that because of the way they handled developmental at that time that they have a good grasp on it now. You can see the great things their doing with some of the guys and the way they bring people up with the NXT talent. So maybe we were part of an experimental process in developmental. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be one of the guys on NXT or whatnot, but luckily enough for me, because of my past, people are able to succeed in that system.”
– The official WWE website has added new sit-down interview with Michael Cole speaking to John Cena. You can check that out at WWE.com.
– Steve Austin’s 100th episode of the “Steve Austin Show” podcast is now available. You can check that out at PodcastOne.com.
– Also new in the podcast world is a new episode of Jim Cornette’s “The Jim Cornette Experience,” with his special guest, Lisa Marie Varon (aka Victoria/Tara). You can check that one out at MLW.com.
The following are highlights of a recent Ask Me Anything Reddit chat with legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette:
On if he’s spoken to Ed Ferrara since his “Oklahoma” parody character on Jim Ross: “I saw him in Nashville in 2002–I had promised the promoter I wouldn’t punch him, but I didn’t promise I wouldn’t try to get HIM to punch ME first–I told him what I thought of him for doing that to JR and I spit in his face in front of 30 witnesses, and the gutless pussy did nothing. That’s what he deserved for making fun of a near career-ending disability suffered by a guy who has more talent in his finger than Ferrara in his whole body, he should have never been allowed in our business in the first place. If anyone sees him, tell him Jim Cornette STILL says he’s a gutless sack of shit.”
On his thoughts on Colt Cabana: “Colt is a fine mid-card wrestler, an average look and an oK at best promo, he was perfect for WWE and I have to assume he pissed someone off there–he was NOT a fit for ROH as we were trying to present an athletic, serious, credible style of pro wrestling and funny doesn’t draw money. We didn’t offer him a contract because he didn’t fit those plans, and he has made a big deal out of it, we never said this publicly until he made it an issue-personally, I don’t think his comedy is funny and I don’t think anyone trying to make a career in pro wrestling should make fun of it at the same time, a la his bullshit “$5 wrestling” with the asshole who runs Highspots. I have no use for that type of horseshit.”
On why Kevin Steen hates him so much: “Because I got him a raise, a contract renewal, Visa paid for, a 9 month undefeated run with the World Title and tons of TV time, even after he refused to lose weight to get the spot, so you tell me.”
On his thoughts of WWE deciding to air Chris Benoit footage on the WWE Network: “He was a great talent, a wonderful friend and a fine human being who for some reason or combination of reasons went insane and did horrible, unforgiveable things in the last two days of his life–you can’t erase him from history, but if anyone would confront it we might learn something to prevent it from happening again.”
On Kevin Dunn: “I don’t think about Kevin Dunn, the wrestling fan’s worst enemy, so I can sleep at night–I take comfort in the fact that ebveryone else who knows him hates him too.”
On the worst booking decisions ever: “The Brawl for All tied with Austin hugging McMahon at WM17 that led to the collapse of the entire business.”
Check out more of Jim Cornette’s A.M.A. chat at Reddit.com.
– TNA star Austin Aries was a guest at the Philadelphia Phillies spring training session in Clearwater, Florida on Thursday.
– Wrestle-1 will be holding a 20-man “Extreme Rules” Battle Royal tonight in Kyoto with the winner facing Sanada for the TNA X-Division Championship on March 22nd at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
– The Mid-South Legends website has a new audio interview up with legendary manager Jim Cornette. Cornette talks about the Mid-South Legends fanfest, among other topics. You can check out the interview at MidSouthLegends.com.
Jim Cornette appeared on the Inside The Ropes radio show this week and spoke about working with Kane in 1997/98, here are the highlights:
On Jim working on helping establish the Kane character:
“Glen Jacobs, Kane, was a special talent. I knew he had a great upside and potential when Dutch Mantell called me one time in Knoxville in 1995 and said “I’ve got this kid, he looks great, he’s huge, he looks wonderful, he’s sick of being in Puerto Rico and wants to come back to the states, his name’s Glen Jacobs and I think he’s got a great upside” So we made him Unabomb back in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. The Unabomber was hot back in those days. So we booked him, I did, against The Undertaker, for his first time, down in Knoxville at the Superbowl of Champions in August of 95 and Undertaker came in and wrestled him and that was my idea. Here’s a huge guy who can draw big money on pay per view against The Undertaker. That was my sole purpose for pushing Glen Jacobs. So Undertaker went back to Vince and told him “this kid’s gonna be great” so of course he went through his bad gimmicks that Vince wanted to give people and just right as they were about to fire him they said “hey you know we’ve got this idea, Undertaker’s evil brother” And I ran with that because Glen deserved it and was a great talent. They gave me the opportunity, for a while, to get a guy over, unmolested. Russo didn’t see anything in him, so he wasn’t gonna fuck with it. We gave Kane the opportunity and Russo truthfully wanted…. the match in October 1997, Kane interfered in the Hell in a Cell with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, that was my finish, that was my match, my idea. We were leading to the WrestleMania the next March. So then Russo says “how about we have him chokeslam Undertaker through a table next week on RAW?” and I said “No you fucking idiot, they can’t wrestle each other for six months, lets not blow it straight away, lets build it and have some patience” So for once, possibly the only time, I got my way, we were able to build it to WrestleMania, it was a great match and it established Kane and he has been one of the millionaires club, making seven figures a year since then, based on the fact he’s a tremendous talent, he had the look, the ability and the passion to sometimes overcome bad creative and make himself a star. I like the fact I had some part in establishing him but the rest of it’s been up to him.”
On the origins of the character of Kane:
“The thing that put Kane over the top is that he didn’t just appeal to the wrestling fan, he appealed to a mass audience because my original vision was….my favourite horror movie was Halloween, Michael Myers and that was my original vision for Kane when I was told that Kane would be the Undertaker’s evil brother who’s existed all this time. I thought what if he was like Michael Myers, the main character in Halloween, what if he was like the embodiment of evil. That’s the flavour that not just wrestling fans but everyone watching the show, they got. This guy is the embodiment of evil, he’s somewhat inhuman,he doesn’t feel pain, he doesn’t feel remorse. That was the thing that kicked Kane off and then later on we did the dipsy doodles with him but first and foremost it was that this is Michael Myers from Halloween come to life and everyone can identify with a spooky mother fucker that doesn’t feel pain and just seeks to destroy people. That was what I gave to him and everything else he’s done, there’s been some good creative, some bad creative but he’s a great fucking guy, he’s a great talent and he’s made the most of what he’s had to work with. But originally, it was that this guy is the star of Halloween, he’s a monster, he’s spooky and nobody knows quite how he got these powers. That was something that could appeal to everybody.”
To hear the full interview, check out other shows, upcoming guests and their VIP service, head over to http://www.insidetheropes.co.uk.
The following are highlights of a recent Ring Rust Radio interview with Jim Cornette:
On his favorite role in wrestling: “That’s difficult. My first love obviously was being a manager, and with the Midnight Express it was so easy because all I had to do was say ‘hey, this is the greatest team in wrestling” and they proved it. Then I had a second career when I got into booking and match-making and I actually had a third career as a television announcer that I very much enjoyed as the lead announcer for OVW for so many years. So managing was my first love but at the same time I haven’t missed for the last 15 or 20 years not getting beat up and thrown around. So managing was my first love but I loved everything I was doing when I was doing it.”
On the state of TNA: “At this point, can you fuck TNA up any more than its already fucked up? TNA, besides an inexperienced owner, had everything that they needed. Jeff Jarrett wanted the company to succeed and he’s grown up in wrestling all his life and the problem I had with Jeff is that he’s the one who hired Vince Russo, which came to bite him in the ass. They have the television, they have the roster, they had the money behind them, yes Dixie doesn’t know shit from apple butter about the wrestling business but she should have stayed out of it and let the people who knew what they were doing run it. The problem was that Jeff hired Russo. Russo gave them the TNA stench from the start that they have retained, they lost their chance to make a first impression which is a shame because no one will ever be that close to challenging Vince McMahon again.”
On using honesty in wrestling today: “The right kind of honesty but just the stupid shit about ‘we’re going to do a worked shoot’ that’s come along recently or shit that nobody gives a shit about or doesn’t understand because it’s ‘too inside’. Jerry Jarrett looked at it very philosophically; he had two top stars named Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. And while they respected each other they had problems with each other and were completely opposite people and there was a edge that you could feel even when they were partners. Jerry Jarrett always said with anything he did in wrestling he wanted to tell the truth and what people knew was the truth for as long as he possibly could. Then, when you throw in the work, then people say ‘well A was true, B was true, C must be true too’. But when you are just preposterous from the start no one buys into it because its preposterous or when they do these ridiculous ‘inside’ things almost as a rib on the talent, the fan doesn’t know what’s going on. Tell a simple story, tell it logically and make it credible and somewhat believable. Then get two guys who can carry it off on the microphone and in the ring; that’s how you draw money.”
The following are highlights of a new Wrestling 101 interview with Jim Cornette:
On working with John Cena in OVW: “”In OVW here in Louisville between 1999 – 2005 we were the developmental territory for the WWE. A lot of guys came to OVW who weren’t signed by the WWE but became signed by the WWE, because they came here to train and they got good and they ended up getting offered contracts.”
“John came from California, we got him really early on in his career but you could tell he was a natural, I thought he would actually be this generations version of a Ric Flair. He was a heel then, and he was so cocky, arrogant and good looking – he had the physique and the genetics, he could talk but they decided to go a different direction with him and he got over just as big on the other side.”
On working with Brock Lesnar in OVW: “With Brock I’ll be honest with you, he was getting paid about four or five times more than everyone else in the developmental program because of who he was. You don’t come across an athletic specimen like that who won the NCAA Heavyweight Championship everyday. However he was not a natural wrestling fan, not a natural wrestling student, he was a bit boring in the ring to be honest because he wasn’t used to being a showman. Also for a world class athlete I didn’t think he was trying five times as hard as his salary.”
“I paired him up with Shelton Benjamin who was one of the most natural wrestling school students we ever had, picked up things instantly and was exciting, so I made them a tag team. Shelton would do all the work, he would tag Brock and Brock would make a comeback and throw everyone through the roof. When he hit the WWE he became instantly exciting, remember the shooting star press he did at WrestleMania, he would do that for us and I would tell him he was crazy and to save it for the big show at the Louisville Gardens when the WWE agents are there and not in the high school halls. He did it in front of the WWE agents and they signed him directly because of that, the time he did it at WrestleMania is the only time I’ve seen him miss it.”
Check out the complete interview at Wrestling101.com.
Between The Ropes interview with Jim Cornette
Host: Brian Fritz
Interview available at Betweentheropes.com
On his place in wrestling history: “I would eventually like to be remembered as the second best manager ever in wrestling next to Bobby Heenan. If I could get that, I’d be happy.”
On having any regrets or being too outspoken: “I’ve been cranky with people in the past. I get cranky because I always place more importance on the quality of what I was doing because I was a fan and all performers are insecure I guess. I was always a wrestling fan. If I was allowed in this business, I wanted to get it right. I wanted to be noted for being a great whatever I was doing at the time and that was more valuable to me than money. It was never a job to me. So, I’ve probably short-changed myself but at the same time I would not have had as many of the wonderful experiences that I have had if I hadn’t pissed some of the people off I’ve pissed off.”
On why there is still typecasting in wrestling when it comes to size of wrestlers and that hasn’t changed considering all of the changes in wrestling over the years: “I don’t ****ing know what the people looking for talent are looking for these days. It’s almost to the point where I hate doing a wrestling school seminar because if I tell a guy ‘you’re great, I’d hire you in a second’ that’s the kiss of death. I look for drive and passion for the business and aptitude, a certain amount of look but a certain amount of potential also for a look that you might have. And a guy who is a natural performer in the ring. I don’t know. As I always say for the type of people who like that type of thing, that’s the type of thing those people like.”
On CM Punk leaving the WWE: “I can totally identify with CM Punk. His body is beaten up, he’s been on the road for ten years, he doesn’t live big and I’m sure he’s got more money than the federal government and he doesn’t like what they’re doing with him and he’s just tired of the whole thing and he wants to go rest. And he said at a comic convention one of these days he’s going to go buy a cabin in the middle of nowhere and we’re never going to see him again. You know, I wish I could have been like that. I said I’ve made six-figure incomes most of the last 30 years but I never made a million dollars. And guys these days can make a million dollars. If I had made a million dollars in one year, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’d be in the castle but no one would ever see me again. All in all, ****, Punk, good for you! Go home and don’t come back until you want to. I love that. That is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.”