Exposing The Hypocrisies of Jim Cornette

Exposing The Hypocrisies of Jim Cornette
April 21, 2016
By Ryan Porzl

Jim Cornette is a legend in the wrestling business and has been involved in the business for four decades while becoming sort of a messiah to the internet wrestling fans largely for his entertaining shoot interviews and DVDs where he unleashes his verbal venom on certain targets. However, Cornette shown also be known for being hypocritical as well as very outdated. In the last ten years, he's burned one bridge after another all the while talking about the death of wrestling and whining about one thing after another. Don't me wrong, I can find Cornette entertaining as he can be funny and is never boring but after the same thing for 10+ years if not more, it's old. What's even worse is that Cornette and old school wrestling isn't pure as snow. Like a lot of people, Cornette views the past through rose colored glasses but it's gone too far for so long. I probably should've wrote this a long time ago but I finally decided to call Cornette out on his BS as I'll go through his talking points and debunk them while showing he & old school rasslin isn't any better than the wrestling he despises today.



What better way to begin then to talk about the very thing Cornette hates so much and probably considers one of the things that's been the bane of pro wrestling: Sports Entertainment. Cornette is a supposed traditionalist who likes the old school ways of wrestling instead of the flashy, colorful, sports entertainment styles but his actions say otherwise. When you look at Jim Cornette's character, he's more sports entertainment than wrestling. Most old school managers can be simple by either wearing regular suits like "Playboy" Gary Hart, Mr. Fuji, and JJ Dillon or was someone who maybe wore a colorful jacket. Instead, Cornette initially started wearing regular suits but later started wearing tacky colorful suits in which he mixed up colors and wore stuff that didn't match which made him look like a clown and the times he occasionally wrestled, he wore a ridiculous red and black bodysuit. His weapon of choice was a loaded tennis racket (he even had a Santa Claus version during the holidays). What kind of an old school manager would use something as ridiculous as a tennis racket? Most would settle for occasionally using their shoe or a cane. His promos were him spending time trying to be funny than selling a match to the fans and a lot of times, he overacted or overreacted to things. Overall, he seemed to fit more in the WWF or WWE environment.

He also spent twelve years employed by the WWF/E. As of writing, Cornette is 54 which means he's spent more than 1/5 of his life working for an organization that represents everything he abhors in the wrestling business. What's even more interesting is that Cornette began his WWF at a time when he was promoting Smoky Mountain Wrestling as an old school promotion that harken back to the 1970s where things were more simple and not flashy. To say the least, the two companies were oil and water but with SMW not being successful after nearly two years in business and having burned his bridges with WCW, Cornette was desperate enough to enter a business deal with The WWF as they would exchange talent while Cornette would serve an on-screen role on WWF TV. Speaking of exchanging talent, Cornette brought in WWF wrestlers to make appearances in SMW and while some were guys that would fit in like Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Lex Luger, The Steiner Brothers, and The 1-2-3 Kid, some were guys who, while talented, had cartoonish sports entertainment gimmicks. Three examples were The Big Boss Man (who was gone from the WWF when he appeared), I.R.S, and The Undertaker. Now, all three were very talented and would be a treat...for the most part. The problem is that Boss Man, I.R.S, and Undertaker were all sports entertainment gimmicks as Boss Man was a police officer, I.R.S was an evil tax man, and Undertaker was an undead zombie powered by manager Paul Bearer's urn. Sure, all three are great but why would Cornette bring them in when he's supposed to be against sport entertainment and is promoting an old school wrestling promotion? The Big Boss Man was the most interesting one. When Boss Man made appearances for SMW in the summer of 1993, he was out of The WWF. Yet, for some reason, Cornette still brought him in as The Big Boss Man. Why didn't Cornette bring him in under his Big Bubba Rogers gimmick which was a bodyguard instead of his sports entertainment gimmick?

Cornette has also shown to seemingly despise hardcore or death match wrestling but does he really? Not quite. See, Cornette grew up with Memphis Wrestling which is famous for it's bloody brawls that would spill to the concession stands. He worked for promotions like Mid South Wrestling, World Class, and Jim Crockett Promotions where they had barb wire matches, street fights, bull rope matches where wrestlers hit each other with a cowbell, ladder matches, dog collar matches, and chain matches all the while wrestlers would bean each other over the heads with steel chairs. Not only that, but Cornette also booked countless hardcore matches in Smoky Mountain Wrestling ranging from Texas death matches to street fights to barb wire matches to chain matches to no disqualification matches all the while wrestlers bled like stuck pigs and hit each other with steel chairs to the head. For a guy that criticizes hardcore wrestling, he sure didn't have a problem booking matches that almost guaranteed blood and plunder.

Now I'll really show the biggest hypocrisies of Cornette. Don't get me wrong, the first two examples are bad but these are downright embarrassing. One thing Cornette notably complains about these days is how people can't take wrestling seriously. Cornette always loves to whine and complain about this person or this company exposing the wrestling business and how it's not treated like a serious sport anymore but Cornette is one to talk. While running Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Cornette booked many embarrassing matches (mostly involving Chris Candido) including "Loser sucks a baby bottle", "Loser eats a can of dog food", "Loser has to wear a diaper", and "Loser wears a baby bonnet". In the latter case, Candido not only lost a match where he would have to wear a baby bonnet but he then wrestled another two episodes of SMW TV while wearing a blue baby bonnet. I would love to ask how does this make wrestling serious? How does anyone take wrestling seriously when you have Chris Candido vs. Tim Horner in a "Loser Sucks a Baby Bottle" match, Candidio gets disqualified, and then forces a baby bottle in Horner's mouth while he's tied up? How does wrestling look when Chris Candido wrestles for two weeks on TV while wearing a baby bonnet? How does anyone take wrestling seriously when you have Al Snow cutting a promo about Ricky Morton being a cross-dresser while holding lingerie? How does someone take wrestling seriously when you have The Dirty White Boy stripping Buddy Landel down to his underwear. These things all happened in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and all on Cornette's watch. I've already mentioned Cornette himself wears suits that don't match, carries a tennis racket, and cuts promos that sometimes sound like he's at a comedy club instead of a wrestling show. Safe to say, Cornette is one to talk about people not taking wrestling seriously. I should also like to point out that Cornette is also the same guy who took on Paul Heyman in a tuxedo match at the Great American Bash 1989 pay-per-view which resulted in both guys rolling around while trying to rip each others clothes off and strip the other to their underwear. How does this help people to take wrestling seriously watching that? He also wrestled Sensational Sherri in 1993 where the loser would be spanked. Yes, spanked.

Plus, wrestling has been cheesy and silly at times for decades. It's not like wrestling was always serious until 25 years ago. In fact, you would have to go back a century to the days of Georg Hackenscmidt and Frank Gotch to find super serious wrestling. No matter what company you talk about whether it be "sports entertainment" companies like WWE or more serious wrestling like the NWA, Mid-South, World Class, Championship Wrestling from Florida, etc., they all have had silly and ridiculous things that many non wrestling fans wouldn't take seriously and even things fans can't take seriously. For decades, we've seen many storylines where wrestlers lose "loser leaves town" matches only to come back shortly afterwards with a mask and new name all the while fans, commentators, and authority figures play dumb despite the wrestler still walking the same, talking the same, and wrestling the same. We've also seen Terry Funk pretty much attempt homicide by trying to suffocate Ric Flair with a plastic bag at Clash of the Champions VIII. We've seen wrestlers agree to hair matches where should they lose, they get their head shaved bald in the middle of the ring. We've seen wrestlers like Ricky Steamboat coming in the ring to strip Ric Flair to his boxers. Even supposed serious wrestling companies like Mid-South/UWF and World Class have had ridiculous moments with Ted Dibiase and Jim Duggan having a bloody coal miner glove, steel cage, loser leaves town while wearing tuxedos in Mid-South. We've seen respected wrestling legends like Terry Funk either announce a retirement or have a retirement match or a retirement show only to come back for more. It's gotten to the point that despite being respected, Funk has also become a punch line because of it. Japanese wrestling legend Atsushi Onita has been dubbed "Mr. Liar" by the Japanese press and fans because of false retirements. Nobody takes retirements in wrestling seriously because wrestlers never truly retire. In fact, it's one of the biggest lies ever pulled in wrestling. I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from too.

Then, there's the worst for last and the biggest hypocrisy of all: Cornette complaining about people exposing the wrestling business. For many years, Cornette has argued about wrestlers and people who work in the business exposing it to audiences and removing any mystique the business still has. In actuality, Cornette only hates when people that he doesn't like like Vince Russo and members of the Kliq (Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Triple H, and Sean Waltman) break kayfabe. When it comes to friends of his or people he likes participating in interviews for WWE DVDs or Shoot Interviews or internet shows or question and answers or hosting their own podcasts, he really doesn't have a problem with it. One of the best examples of Cornette's hypocrisy on this issue is none other than Dave Meltzer. Meltzer, who founded the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, is perhaps the biggest perpetrator in exposing the business than anybody else. Through the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer was among the first to talk about behind the scenes issues and drama at a time when magazines like Pro Wrestling Illustrated and The Wrestler were still covering wrestling with kayfabe and treated it like everything was legit. Meltzer has also been responsible for helping to create the smart marks or smark fanbase who pride themselves as hardcore fans and bigger than the casuals because they follow the behind the scenes stories, rumors, and gossip while liking matches because of "workrate" and using wrestling slang. However, Meltzer is not alone as many others over the last thirty years have followed in his lead, creating newsletters which became websites, and also exposing any dirty laundry that fans aren't supposed to be aware of. Yet in spite of that, Cornette doesn't have any problem with Meltzer. In fact, he seems to hold Meltzer in high regard and has done interviews with Meltzer since at least the 1990s. Seems really strange and odd for Cornette to do interviews with the man perhaps most responsible for pulling the curtain back in wrestling.

Of course, if you read between the lines, Cornette has no problem with Meltzer cause he and his readers are his biggest fans. You need to look no further from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's year end awards to see who butters Cornette's bread. In the last 30 years, Cornette has won nearly two dozen awards from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and their readers who vote. The Manager of the Year is the award that clearly shows their man crush to Cornette because out of the fourteen years the award was active (1983-1996), Cornette was voted Manager of the Year an absurd twelve times (1984-1990, 1992-1996). Yes, twelve out of fourteen years Cornette won the award and it should be pointed out that the only years he did not win for was 1983 (Jimmy Hart won) which was before Cornette got his big break and 1991 (Sensational Sherri won) which saw Cornette between promotions. Keep in mind, there were plenty of legendary managers during this period including Bobby Heenan, Mr. Fuji, Skandor Akbar, Slick, JJ Dillon, Gary Hart, Paul Heyman, Paul Ellering, Paul Bearer, Lou Albano, Freddie Blassie, Colonel Robert Parker, and past winners Jimmy Hart & Sensational Sherri. Yet, other than Hart and Sherri, none of these legendary managers won the award while Cornette literally won a dozen times. However, that's not all as Cornette also won Best Talker five times (1985-1988, 1990), Best Booker three times (1993, 2001, 2003), Best Non-Wrestler once (2006), Best Book with his Midnight Express 25th Anniversary Scrap Book (2009), and was one of the inaugural 120 inductees in the WON Hall of Fame in 1996. The latter one is also interesting as Cornette was one of the first inductees while managers like Jimmy Hart, JJ Dillon, Mr. Fuji, Gary Hart, Colonel Robert Parker, The Grand Wizard, and Paul Ellering are still not in while Lou Albano didn't get in until 2012 and you can argue that all them had legendary runs as managers as well as some being successful in other areas of wrestling. To this day, Cornette benefits heavily from Meltzer and the same Internet Wrestling Community that he shouldn't like as they have painted this myth of Cornette that doesn't exist. They more or less think of him as a misunderstood genius who should be running a major wrestling promotion despite the fact that Cornette has never had memorable moments or brilliant ideas despite sitting on numerous booking committees and creative teams. His run in ROH was so bad that the hardcore fanbase turned on the product and were ready to go after him with pitchforks and torches. His time as an owner of a promotion was a failure as Smoky Mountain Wrestling only lasted four years despite a brief working relationship with WCW and a two year working relationship with The WWF.

Then there's Cornette himself who is also exposed the business many many times. In the last fifteen years, Cornette has done countless shoot interviews, DVD projects, Q and As, and even hosts his own podcast where he's uses real names of the wrestlers, told behind the scenes stuff, talked about dirty laundry, and threw out wrestling slang. Cornette also currently hosts the Back To The Territories series from Kayfabe Commentaries where he is joined by someone as they discuss a certain legendary territory from years gone by and they feature Cornette and his guest bringing up behind the scenes stuff and throwing out slang all the time. It's ridiculous how Cornette can complain about people exposing the business just as he's making money pretty much doing the same thing. I know some will defend it saying that wrestling is already exposed and most people know it's predetermined but the problem is that you can't criticize people you don't like for exposing the business just as you're doing the same exact thing. Like "Macho Man" Randy Savage once said, "Where money lies, honor dies" and Cornette shows it by having no problem offering backstage passes to a puppet show so long as the price is right.

Now, Jim Cornette has a right to his opinion and I don't have a problem with that. However, he shouldn't give soapbox speeches when he is just as guilty of the things he claims to hate about wrestling.