411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: Creative Committee (Hayes, Cornette, Bischoff)

411’s WWE Table for 3 Report: Creative Committee

-Original air-date: 05/29/17

-You can thank the Stanley Cup Final for me getting to this one late. Speaking of which my Pens were dominated for 53 minutes or so, but scored 5 goals in the 7 minutes they played well and that equals a 1-0 series lead. Kudos to whoever hid a catfish on them for that long to get it on the ice. That takes some serious dedication even if it didn’t work.

-This is another one filmed around Mania weekend and Cornette mentioned this episode was coming on his podcast a few weeks ago. This one has some buzz because we don’t get much in ways of interaction between Bischoff and Cornette.

-Hayes starts things out and is happy to be here as this is the first time Eric and James have ever spoken to each other publicly. Cornette says that they have always been on opposite side on things and he was trained to think Eric was the devil. He mentions the only time they had talked was SuperBrawl in 1991 as he was running a SMW invasion angle with Bill Watts. He says that he had birds in WCW that said Eric edited out a lot of the comments with the angle, and Eric has no recollection which Cornette has heard.

-He next hired Ole’s son and was asked by Ole to stop by the Power Plant. They shot interviews in the parking lot and after 30 minutes Eric Bischoff showed up in a corvette. Cornette says he picked his nose and wiped a booger on it when Eric took Ole inside. When he left he never said a word to Jim and drove off in the car. He then fired Ole the next day.

-Eric gets his chance to respond as this has already been fantastic. Eric says that he wasn’t in control during Bill Watts era and says Cornette is misinformed. He says the stooges were telling Jim wrong information. Cornette wants to know why he never said that and Erich said he never felt he needed to. Now Cornette feels like they missed out on vacations and the chance to become best friends. He does say that they have bonded over one thing: their hatred for Vince Russo. Yep, you knew that had to be coming at some point. That leads to a toast between the three of them.

“I just want to say for the record that we have bonded over something right before we sat down at the table. Bischoff hates Vince Russo almost as bad as I do, so this is historic. The reason why we just have butterknives at the table is because they were afraid, but, actually, when I heard that Bischoff didn’t like the Archbishop of Talentbury also, I started to see Bischoff in a new light.”

-Hayes brings up the Power Plant, and Bischoff says that it was there to help fill the roster. They wanted to develop in house talent and not really solely on a shrinking territory system. Bischoff says he probably would have worked with SMW, and Jim covers they were able to find guys who weren’t famous, but didn’t need to be trained from scratch. Cornette gives Bischoff credit for knowing more about wrestling than the guys that came before him like Jim Herd, and they laugh over if that is even a compliment.

-Hayes talks about how hard it is to explain an idea to a talent and get them to but into it. Cornette says that sometimes the talent spends too much over thinking things. They talk about how guys had to learn on the fly with their promos and had to have misses until they learned their craft.

-They all agree that the athletes are much better today, but don’t have the psychology. Jim says he is the only one that can get the crowd pissed off at him instantly which takes talent. Eric says he is starting to love Cornette. They again bond over hating Vince Russo.

“The concept has changed from the most important thing being presenting a believable simulated conflict that the people can buy as a fight to a performance of awe-inspiring, athletic moves. And I think the problem is they think they’re going to do the moves and that’s going to get them over and they’ve put the cart before the horse. Now, it’s hard for anybody to really work up a good dislike for a heel or hero-worship and idolatry for the babyface.”

-Hayes continues as he asks Eric what he feels is his greatest creation. He says it was Nitro and talks about sitting down with a notepad to write how he could do everything he could to be different from RAW. Being Live, Reality Based, etc. He brings up the surprise debut of Luger and giving away what was happening on RAW since they were taped. Cornette feels weird because he agrees with Eric. He also wanted more adult stories as he feels the WWE went too far the other direction at first. He brings up how DX changed the dynamic of the heel/face line in the WWE, and it can screw up the dynamic of the match.

-Hayes brings up the nWo angle, and he says that some WWE guys felt Vince sent Hall and Nash down there to take over WCW. Bischoff brings up that people felt McMahon sent Russo down as well to sink the place, and Cornette says he never believed that because he knew what Russo was doing was the best he could create.

-Cornette’s greatest creation with the run with The Midnight Express. They could validate every word he said about them. In the 90s he loved announcing with Jim Ross and brings up that he was the co-host for the pilot episode of WWE SmackDown. His legacy will be the guys he had a hand in finding and getting on a platform to perform.

-Hayes says he lives vicariously through today’s stars and helping them create a great match. The best time he had was the first Taker/Shawn match at WrestleMania XXV. Vince hated Hayes’ idea of having it be heaven vs hell, but then it ended up being just that. He loved the build, but the match far surpassed it. I was there in the crowd and words can’t describe what it was like being there through that match. Obviously the greatest match I have ever seen live (I was there for the rematch a year later as well). Hayes says that he enjoys the journey as much as the destination now.

-Hayes asks what match they would book for Mania next year. Cornette jokes that a Triple Threat with him, Russo, and Bischoff is off the table which gets a laugh from everyone. He wants a submission match between Brock and Samoa Joe. He has been pushing for Joe/Brock for some time now and you have to think it’s going to happen at some point. Bischoff thinks Reigns is going to find his inner heel by Mania next year and he wants him against AJ Styles. Hayes loves that idea and says that Reigns has the same dynamic as Cena. He says that women and children cheer while the men boo, but everyone pops for the ending. He says they always thought they should turn Cena, but never did it. He wants to see Cena vs Reigns next year.

“It’s somewhat of the Cena dynamic and what I mean by that is, especially at live events, the kids like him, the girls like him. You hear that high-pitched positive vibe. Then, you hear the negative vibe from the men, the deeper voices. But eventually when he hits his finish and he wins, everybody pops.” Hayes continued, “and we always thought we should’ve turned Cena, but this guy has gone longer than anybody. Think about that. Anybody with that much consistency, with that much longevity on top, and still works that hard and still loves this business.”

-Cornette says that Bischoff wasn’t as bad as he thought he would be, and Eric says to give him time. They all toast each other again and we are out for this episode.

-This was a lot of fun with some interesting stories. It was kind of short at only 19 minutes and I wonder what they left on the cutting room floor. Hayes did a great job of moderating, but staying back enough to let Cornette and Bischoff do their thing. Cornette kind of dominated with the talking, but obviously that was kind of expected.

-Join me tomorrow for the weekly Talking Smack Report.