Kayfabe! Timeline The History of WCW 1989 As Told By Jim Cornette

KAYFABE!
Timeline The History of WCW 1989 as told by Jim Cornette

If nothing else, this shows how much of a virtue that patience is for the KC team. This was shot at the same time as Cornette’s ‘Breaking Kayfabe’ interview, and they managed to sit on it for a year and half, rather than rushing it out. As far as the interview goes, it’s an entirely different Cornette. It seems like the Breaking Kayfabe interview was able to get all of the venom out of his system, and we’re left with Jim giving his thoughts and memories about the time that many consider to be the glory days for WCW, and not even memories of Jim Herd are able to rain on Jim’s parade. Much like Jim’s WWF Timeline interview, he’s armed with more than just his memory from twenty four years ago (this was shot in 2013). He’s got records books, TV formats, memos, and the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette 25th Anniversary Scrapbook (available at jimcornette.com). And, since Jim doesn’t have the ability to stop talking, after finishing up 1989 they go into 1990 a little bit, as far as talking about Clash X and Flair finally having enough and resigning as booker. As expected for the Timeline series, every major (and minor) happening is covered, from Flair vs. Steamboat to WCW being sponsored by Roos footwear, with Jim giving his memories and accounts of it.

The interview itself doesn’t really bring out any shocking revelations. In short, WCW was a horribly mismanaged company. But, Jim goes into the details as only he can to explain exactly how bad things were. One of my favorite quotes was when he asked if Bob Glass (a live event promoter who jumped to WCW from the WWF) had given away any inside secrets from the WWF, Cornette replied that it was probably a secret to him where he lived, because of how clueless he was. He booked Greensboro (one of their best towns) on a Wednesday night, because they felt they needed save the weekends for the big towns. When Jim pulled out his books to show exactly how profitable a town it was, the only comment he had was that he had no idea about it. They were also booked in San Antonio, TX on Easter Sunday and did no business. The booker for a short time was George Scott, who didn’t want to give the upcoming Clash of Champions special, featuring Flair vs. Steamboat, any TV promotion because he was afraid that it would kill the house shows where Flair and Steamboat were headlining. Clash VI did a lousy rating, and a whole 5,000 people in the 70,000 seat Superdome, and George Scott was sent on his way. He actually pretty much leaves Jim Herd alone except to talk about the Ding Dongs, contract negotiations, and Flair’s battles with him while he was on the booking committee. And, instead of yelling, swearing, and using various metaphors to describe him, he limits himself to just doing a pretty funny impersonation.

It’s not an interview with Cornette about 1989 without talking about the Midnight Express, and how far from a banner year that this was for them. WCW didn’t like them for the big contract they had with Crockett that TBS had to honor. So they were booked as a lame duck team for pretty much the whole year, and the fans supported them as much as ever. The whole reason for the Midnights/Dynamic Dudes program was because the Dudes were the only team Herd hated more than the Midnights, so it gave them both something to do. This leads to a story about Shane Douglas taking himself too seriously (a trend in his career), when he didn’t want to do a match with Cornette where he got blinded by powder, and had to sell for him. Jim told him that while he was a junior member of the booking committee, Douglas was a junior member of the roster (zing!) and he wasn’t going to be telling Jim what he would and wouldn’t sell, especially when Flair and Kevin Sullivan were going to tell him to do it anyway. Shane went over Jim’s head to Herd to get it changed, and Jim (the only person on the committee interested in using the Dudes at all) washed his hands of the Dynamic Dudes after that. When it came time to re-negotiate contracts, Jim told Herd they were willing to take a pay cut in order to prove they were behind the company, and Herd gave them a huge lowball offer that Jim turned down, so he kept offering Jim more money, and Jim kept telling him that the Midnights needed at least $150,000 or they weren’t going to re-sign, and if they didn’t, then Jim wouldn’t either. Suffice to say, Herd hasn’t yet released contract negotiations for dummies. Flair insisted on wrestling Bobby Eaton on NWA Main Event, and their match did the highest rating since the show started in 1988, and Herd didn’t like the fact that they had the match, so Flair did it again a few weeks later and that show got the highest rating since their first match. Jim also tells an awesome story about the Freebirds deciding to be bad asses and not sell, despite Jimmy Garvin being smaller than Cornette, and how it came to a head in a six man between all three Freebirds and the Midnights and Doctor Death, with Doc beating the shit out of Garvin, and Bobby Eaton losing his temper and yelling at the Freebirds in the locker room.

I’m sure there will be people wondering how this compares to the Vince Russo WCW Timeline, and, in short, it doesn’t. Three plus hours of great stories, with unprecedented details given, and all sorts of documentation to be found, versus three plus hours of same shit different day from Russo “It wasn’t my fault, it was someone else’s idea.” To no surprise at all, this is easily the best of the WCW Timelines up to this point, like pretty much every other KC release that Jim has participated in.

10.0

The final score: review Virtually Perfect

The 411

It's business as usual for the tag team of JC and KC. This edition of the WCW Timeline series is interesting, informative, and entertaining.