Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette was recently Kevin Kellam’s guest on WrestleZone Radio while promoting his upcoming appearace at C2E2 in Chicago.
Cornette gave his thoughts on today’s wrestling business, All Elite Wrestling, the WWE Network, and whether he believes he will ever be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The full interview and highlights can be found below:
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On The Changing Wrestling Landscape & Its Impact On Promoters:
It depends on what side of the fence you’re on because right now, if you’re a wrestler, it’s great because people are throwing around stupid money that they wouldn’t have thrown around a few years ago because it wasn’t worth it and we may find out it wasn’t worth it now. If you’re a wrestler, it’s great. If you’re a promoter, it’s starting to get sticky. Even though wrestling is getting more popular – wrestling being more popular than it was five years ago is like being the nicest guy in prison, it’s not a huge compliment, but it’s still taking place. Wrestling costing more is good for the wrestlers, but bad for the promoters. The WWE is fine. They can afford to not only sign anybody they really want, but they can also afford to sign people just to keep them out of the talent pool that everybody else has. They can afford to buy some people and eat them. Sort of like the National Enquirer approach: buy it and kill it…..that means that guys are still gonna get contracts and probably gonna get signed, and probably gonna get a little bit more money than they would have normally, if there wasn’t this bidding war, but All Elite Wrestling (the new kid on the block) has a lot of money and it going to throw some things out of whack, so the wrestlers are gonna get more money, but the promoters are gonna pay more money. Like I was saying, the WWE are fine. They can afford anything. It hurts the Ring of Honor’s, and the IMPACT’s and some of the other companies that are in the hunt, but don’t have unlimited resources. It’s good for the boys. It could be bad for the promoters.
Cornette On All Elite Wrestling:
I’m pulling for All Elite Wrestling (or anybody) to challenge the WWE. That’s why I worked for TNA for three years, for God’s sake. They were the closest thing to it, at one point. We know what happened there, but that was because of bad leadership and bad creative, but if some of the people who are involved with All Elite Wrestling have had a habit and a history of being too silly, and too cute, and being the fun wrestling group, and that’s not gonna draw any mainstream money. I hope they haven’t lulled themselves into thinking that because they have this incredible devoted sub-cult, which is huge for the indie level, that that is gonna translate to the people in Iowa watching a weekly TV show of people having fun. That’s not what wrestling is about. They’ve got the funding. They’re gonna throw the contracts a little bit eschew for the other promoters, but ultimately their success or their failure is going to be determined on whether they are serious enough to hook the people who don’t watch wrestling anymore because it’s not serious enough and that, as we just mentioned, is a much bigger group than the group that watches wrestling now.
On The NWA:
I’m impressed with what the NWA has done, what Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana and those guys have done, establishing the NWA title to mean more and have more interest again. Nick Aldis is a great champion. He looks like a professional athlete. He dresses like one. He carries it well. They’re trying to put a new coat of paint on old traditions. For example, The Crockett Cup, for which I will be doing commentary on April 27th in suburban Charlotte. The Midnight Express, The Rock ‘N Roll Express, Nikita Koloff, the legends of The Crockett Cup are there for a special VIP event, but then The Crockett Cup 2019 is with new talent and new tag teams from Ring of Honor, and Mexico, and Japan, and from around the world, and the best teams they could put together from the indies. They’ve been treating wrestling very seriously. Everything I’ve seen, the Ten Pounds of Gold series. That’s why I’m involved with them.
Before I book myself these days on anything involving wrestling, I have to ask, ‘Is this a wrestling show? Are they gonna break out into a dance routine? Is one of the competitors gonna be a grade school child or an inanimate object?’
I did the 70th anniversary event in Nashville with Joe Galli and Tony Schiavone was there for the main event. This time I’m gonna be working with Joe and Ian Riccaboni of Ring of Honor. They’re presenting a serious athletic oriented product that you can take seriously. It’s not slapping you in the face. I think, at this point in wrestling, that’s all we can hope for these days since everybody seems to know everything. That’s why fans like the podcasts, and the websites, and the behind the scenes news best because they know that’s what’s real.
Read More: Jim Cornette Explains Why Tag Teams Aren’t Valued In WWE
Cornette will be hosting The Jim Cornette Experience Live presented by C2E2 After Dark, a separately ticketed event that gives attendees an exclusive way to interact with Jim through photo ops, personal engagement and more.The Jim Cornette Experience Live will function as an extension of his podcast, The Jim Cornette Experience.
Readers may listen to Kevin Kellam’s interview with Jim Cornette in its entirety below:
