In an interview with Ring Rust Radio, Jim Cornette discussed his favourite role in professional wrestling, his opinion on the current state of TNA Wrestling, using honesty in wrestling today, his one man shows, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and so much more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On his favourite role in professional 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 “hey, this is the greatest team in wrestling” and they proved it. Then I had a second career when I got into booking and matchmaking and I actually had a third career as a TV announcer that I very much enjoyed as the lead announcer for Ohio Valley Wrestling 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 current state of TNA Wrestling: “At this point, can you f*** TNA up any more than its already f***** 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 a**. They have the television, they have the roster, they had the money behind them, yes Dixie doesn’t know s*** 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 s*** about “we’re going to do a worked shoot” that’s come along recently or s*** that nobody gives a s*** 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 an 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 waht 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, so 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 believeable, then get two guys who can carry it off on the microphone and in the ring; that’s how you draw money.”
The interview is available in full at this link.
