wrestling / Columns

411 EXCLUSIVE Interview 11.02.09: Jim Cornette, Part 1

November 2, 2009 | Posted by Michael Melchor

In all reality, the man really doesn’t need any introduction. He’s the Louisville Slugger, the former TNA Commissioner, and current RoH on HDNet Executive Producer.

In his almost 30 years in the business, Cornette has done it all. At least twice. He is a 411 Wrestling Hall of Fame manager with a Hall of Fame team. He managed (then-)WWF Champion Yokozuna. He’s been a promoter, booker, and television producer for both Smoky Mountain Wrestling and WWE’s first developmental system, Ohio Valley Wrestling (which produced stars seen on WWE television today like John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton). He’s been an agent and on-air personality for TNA until recently, when he returned to Ring of Honor.

So, what’s left for someone like Cornette to do in the business? In the e-mail I received from him agreeing to this interview, Cornette summed it up by saying, “I find participating in the corporate wrestling world is much less enjoyable than producing products on classic wrestling and/or trying to foster the growth of future wrestling.”

So, what does Cornette mean? How does he plan to accomplish all this? Read on – you’re about to find out.

(Author’s note: This interview was conducted 24 hours before it was announced that Hulk Hogan had signed with TNA. Since, like everyone else, we had no knowledge of it at the time, there is no discussion of it in here as well.)

Michael Melchor: I want to start, if I may – the differences with TNA and Russo, that story’s up on your website, you also told the story on Who’s Slamming Who, so that’s not something I’m going to beat to death.

Jim Cornette: [Laughs] Actually, that’s the reason I put it up on the site, because it’s such a long and complicated story to tell and explain and understand for people on the outside that I didn’t want to spend most of my interviews being negative. So now, whenever anybody asks me about it, I can just say “Go to JimCornette.com.” [Laughs]

MM: [Laughs] Exactly. “Go read it – it’s right there!”

JC: Yeah, so we don’t have to dwell on it all the time. But it’s also entertaining reading.

MM: Yeah it is, actually. So, right after all that – I think it was less than a week, really, you were back with Ring of Honor. Who contacted who to make that happen? Did you reach out to them or did they call you wanting you to come back?

JC: Cary Silkin had called me because—I worked with Ring of Honor before after I left WWE and before I went to TNA. It was a combination of me being able to go to Florida twice a month and them wanting to put money into the talent that was going to be able to be on their pay-per-views . I haven’t worked with them in a while, but I still talked to Gabe on occasion when he was booking and I’ve also talked to Cary just about his business and how things were going. So he called me after that, both to say, “What the heck is TNA doing?”, but also to say, “Hey, would you like to do something?” Of course I would, because I would have been working with them if I hadn’t been tied up with TNA to begin with. It wasn’t like we split up or anything. At the same time, I would love to get to an atmosphere where these kids are trying and give them an opportunity to do their thing and see if it gets over because, when you look at who the major companies are signing from any one place over the last few years – Samoe Joe, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Homicide, Nigel McGuinnes, Bryan Danielson – it seems like Ring of Honor is the only place that’s making stars!

MM: That’s very true.

JC: It’s because they go for the best talent and they try to give their fans the best shows . They happen to be looking for the best talent instead of lingerie models or bodybuilders or whatever.

MM: Right. After coming back, what did you think of the reaction you got when you first came out at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and made your official return? That place went nuts when you came out!

JC: Yeah, and it was because we were able to keep a secret! There are no more secrets. “So-and-so is making a surprise debut tonight at 9:30.” You know, how the fuck is that a surprise?

MM: [Laughs] yeah!

JC: You know, there are no more surprises. So the fact that we were able to keep that a surprise—I’d been in New York City since [the previous] Thursday night. We waited until 9 o’clock [the night of the show] and went through the lobby of the hotel and they brought me up the service elevator and I hid in a room for an hour and a half. I wasn’t trying to “work the boys”, as is sometimes popular; everybody just knows that the three main forms of communication are telephone, telegraph, and tell-a-wrestler. So, because we kept it from the boys, we got the pop we wanted from the people as a surprise to get people excited about Ring of Honor and then I apologized to the guys afterward. “Sorry we couldn’t tell you.” [Laughs] But it was fun and it worked.

MM: Nice. Now, what is your exact role there being back with Ring of Honor? The term I’ve seen and read is “Executive Producer of RoH on HDnet“…

JC: And really, that’s what they wanted help with and what I wanted to help them with is their television program. HDNet is growing; it’s in a lot more homes. I think somebody said 13-15 million now. I can remember when TBS was on a little more than that. At any rate, they’ve only been doing their television program for about 6 months and I’ve been doing wrestling TV, either for my own company or the big companies, for 25 years. So, “Executive Producer” is a way of saying, “I’m not in charge of anything, but I have an opinion on everything that I’d like them to listen to.” [Laughs] I want to help them make their TV better convey the great live atmosphere and excitement of a Ring of Honor show. I would love to suggest ways to—I think wrestling is past coming up with a gimmick and then giving it to a wrestler. These guys are fascinating – they have different personalities and backgrounds. I would like to see the personalities come out more and become the guy’s gimmick. Maybe put the horse before the cart once in a while. I’m going to some of the live events and doing meet-and-greets because I want to get feedback from the fans that really go to the live events on what they like. Any way I can use my experience or hopefully a little credibility I’ve got in the business to help them do business because this is the new wave of wrestling – athletic-oriented, competition-based pro-wrestling style that these MMA fans can get excited about.

MM: Do you think, if there were a wrestling promotion that was more reality-based, like more of the MMA-style, how successful do you think that would be, given the way the market is out there right now?

JC: Well, once again, who would own it? And who would run it? Who would finance? Where would people see it? Would it be on television or pay-per-view? There are so many questions with things like that. But, the concept, all things considered – with the breaks going equally and everything going everybody’s way and its financed – then, yes. There’s no reason to continue to do the wrestling that Vince has done for several years and does it with more money than everybody else. It seems to me that, just like the NWA fans hated the WWF style, which Vince has yet to fully come to grips with – that there were just as many of them as there were WWF fans in terms of TBS ratings, etcetera. More importantly, with the rise of UFC and MMA, it’s the style and the flavor that people are buying. So yes, I think somebody, if they presented an alternate product to the industry leader that was completely different in logic and more like wrestling in the ‘80s – but with stars that were born in the ‘80s. [Laughs] Just saying, make it make sense and present it straight, not funny and with new talent. I don’t understand and nobody has told me why they think it wouldn’t work. You still have entertainment, but you have an athletically-oriented product instead of a drama-oriented product with more credibility.

MM: Do you think Ring of Honor might be that promotion, with the chance to be really successful with it?

JC: I think they’re certainly way ahead on the right track compared to their opposition. To get bigger again, wrestling is going to have to change again. Remember, it stunk in the mid-‘90s, right, until – “Hardcore!” Everybody liked to watch what looked like two dogs fucking on the side of the road. It certainly got everybody to look. And then they saw some stars – Steve Autsin, The Rock, and Hulk Hogan – and they got hot for a while. But then, they made bad decisions and it cooled down. Now, it’s going to have to change again. You can’t get any more “hardcore”, we’ve already seen the flying Mexicans. So, since this is a carnival business, since you can’t bring them in with the guy that bites the heads off of chickens, and you can’t bring them in with the soap-opera drama, go with a fight. Two guys fighting.

MM: It’s kinda like a matter of, “Go with who brought you to the dance.”

JC: PT Barnum once said, “if you want to draw a crowd, start a fight.”

MM: [Laughs]

JC: To them, it’s too fucking complicated because they didn’t come from the world where you understood wrestling. Vince Russo didn’t understand it, he just watched it on TV. Dixie Carter didn’t come from that world. Stephanie McMahon – think she was at the matches constantly, hanging around like a ring rat? No – she was at the private school. When she was around, she was the boss’s daughter and she was talked to accordingly. She didn’t grow up in the wrestling business. So, that’s the problem – people from outside the wrestling business have commandeered the direction of it and they have strayed away from what people have morphed into wanting because they don’t get it.

411 Wrestling’s interview with Jim Cornette continues tomorrow! Don’t miss it!

Images courtesy of Jim Cornette.com and Obsessed with Wrestling.com.

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Michael Melchor

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