wrestling / Columns

411 EXCLUSIVE Interview 11.03.09: Jim Cornette, Part 2

November 3, 2009 | Posted by Michael Melchor

MM: So, back to RoH itself, you’re not part of the creative team itself, it’s more in helping with the show.

JC: Here’s the thing – if I say I’m a part of creative, then I’m doing a disservice to Adam Pearce, who’s their booker, because I’m just there to kibbitz. But, at the same time, I might have input to say, “Hey, I think this guy ought to do this for this sake or in that manner.” I don’t want everybody to think, “Oh, here’s Jim Cornette coming in, being Jim Cornette, gonna re-invent the wheel” – when I haven’t even been to my first television taping. [Laughs] I can assure you they’re receptive to my help and I plan to meddle in enough of their affairs the next few months. I don’t want to just say, “I’m going to do this or that or the other thing specifically.” I think they do a lot of things well and that’s why I’m excited about it, so I’m not going to sit here and pick it apart before I put my hands on it.

MM: Right – it’s a matter of taking a look, seeing what they have now, and helping them polish it a little.

JC: You know, I’ve really enjoyed making a couple of the live events since New York because the energy is great and there’s so many talented guys. A lot of heart and emotion I haven’t seen in a while because they’re allowed to go out and perform to the best of their ability. I see some guys that I think could be stars in the wrestling business, both in Ring of Honor and elsewhere. But, at the same time, they’re young and I see them in the same position I’ve seen so many of the other guys. You can predict talent, because you know who’s got it, but you can’t always predict its success because, sometimes, talent isn’t enough.

MM: Right. There’s a matter of luck and being in the right place at the right time and things like that as well.

JC: There you go.

MM: Is there anybody out there you’ve seen that’s caught your eye that would be a good addition to the Ring of Honor roster?

JC: Well, what happens is, I mention a couple guys and then I leave out 6 of my old friends that will incessantly hound me and never do me another favor. [Laughs]

MM: [Laughs] Gotcha.

JC: But, I’ve seen so much young talent, especially in the last 7-8 years especially coming through Ohio Valley Wrestling. The problem is, so many of the young guys in OVW that should be on top that were stars or budding stars 5-8 years ago that I would love to have work for me are now all out of the business because they got silly gimmicks from WWE and got disenchanted with wrestling to the point that they just quit or were ruined by the gimmicks they got where nobody else wants to book them. [Laughs]

MM: Yeah, I remember hearing some of the stories. You talked on the Re-booking the Invasion DVD for Kayfabe Commentaries about Doug Basham. Matt Morgan was almost a casualty as well.

JC: The whole Spirit Squad, practically! They repackaged [Nick] Nemeth, but Jeter quit the business and Mondo’s here in Louisville. I think Mondo’s great; I would have a spot for him in Ring of Honor. But, once again, they’ve got a budget and talent that they’ve committed to. Many of the guys that should be at that level of being a star and breaking through to that level, that 7-10 years into their career to make it, have already left it. It’s sad.

MM: Yeah, they should be really hitting their stride, but they’re already gone because of what’s been done to them.

JC: And then you’ve wasted all that time and money you spent training them and getting them ready because they were never able to capitalize on it, and nobody gets that good in a lock. The Rock got that good in 2 years, but nobody else does that. It just doesn’t happen. John Cena was a three-year “overnight” success. We’d had him in OVW for a year and a half.

MM: Definitely. Speaking of that, have you considered going back to Ohio Valley and resuming your role there?

JC: The problem is now that the whole system has been dismantled. First of all, I think the booking was questionable because it went through so many hands. There was no continuity on the committee. Then they reneged on the agreement they made when they renewed their deal for the developmental program with Danny Davis. They signed a contract for—I believe it was multi-year, but it was a year, at least. Six months in to it, they suddenly pulled out with no notice. That’s when I sold my part of the company back because he’d already made arrangements to re-sign his long-term lease on the building and buy out my share based on that long-term contract renewal. So they screwed him there, big-time. The television has a tenuous status in Louisville, so, really, all the pieces are not there for me to be able to help them in any way because I can’t produce, host, or write a television program that they’re not producing. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? [Laughs]

MM: Exactly. So, what do you hope to accomplish in Ring of Honor? Do you have any specific goals now that you’re back with the company?

JC: I’d like to help a small wrestling promotion get a little bit bigger. At this point in my life, almost being 50, I don’t want to spend 50,000 miles a year on the road. I drive everywhere and, even though we make weekend trips out of it and it’s quite nice, it’s still a lot of wear and tear. I’m not really enamored of corporate wrestling because nobody wants to give people the product that wrestling needs to give them to survive. Vince is increasing globally, but shrinking domestically. UFC is kicking everybody’s ass. TNA hasn’t made a mark on pay-per-view as I feel they should have because of creative – more on that at JimCornette.com. [Laughs] I’d like to see if Ring of Honor could help feed that niche, which I believe if there, especially with the fans of MMA. HDNet has a lot of MMA and PRIDE Fighting and also a lot of things that appeal to a male audience. So, naturally, it should – and will – get bigger. It’s not gonna kill Vince McMahon, it’s not gonna put him out of business, but I would rather be with a company—sort of like being with an art-house film producer. I would rather be with a company that puts out good work and gives guys breaks and really has a loyal fanbase and makes some good money than sit there and have to endure the wrestling business have the boots put to it by people that don’t understand or appreciate it. So there will be my role in Ring of Honor – I’ve got to make a small company bigger. [Laughs]

MM: Gotcha.

JC: You know, the guy that invented hemorrhoid cream had a great idea one day, and the next thing you know…so, anybody can do it. If he can do it, maybe I can. [Laughs]

MM: [Laughs] Nice. I hope so. Now, to switch gears, let’s talk about Cornette’s Collectibles for a bit. How and when did you get the idea to start putting classic memorabilia up for sale on your site?

JC: Well, at first, I started doing the Midnight Express book. Originally, I was going to do a magazine for our 25th anniversary – “Here’s a list of all our results of all our matches.” It was that light of a thought. But then, I started looking at everything and there was so much. There were pictures and documents and the checks and the booking sheets – everything. There’s a lot of illustration and I had a lot of notes, so it got big. So then we were releasing this 232-page, squarebound, 8 1/2″ x 11″ book with 36 pages of color and all that shit. [Laughs] And I’m thinking, “Well, fuck, I guess I need a website to sell it on.” At the same time, over the last 5 years, I’ve been trying to get the time to sort out my wrestling collection, which has taken over my house. I’ve got a 6,000 sq-foot house, and about 3,000 of it is wrestling memorabilia.

MM: Wow.

JC: From running the companies and collecting for 40 years. I used to sell the stuff at the arenas; I’d get handfuls of programs and magazines and whatever. It’s not a collection like one copy – I would have ten copies of something. It’s just been ridiculous. So, I put the website up where people can come and read about my rantings – not my writings, but rantings. [Laughs] And, at the same time, I could market the book and the series of videos I’m going to be doing. Also, all these mint or really nice collectibles, be it magazines, programs, or whatever from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s—I’ve sorted through a lot of it and come up with duplicates or even things that I have multiple copies or things I don’t need so that I can reorganize my collection for an ongoing personal yard sale. [Laughs] I mean, people are getting good shit out of it, like mint-condition Starrcade ’86 programs.

MM: Oh, man.

JC: You couldn’t find them anymore – I had, like, five of them. Didn’t look like they’d aged a day. Things like that that people couldn’t find anymore that love collecting classic wrestling stuff. The future books and videos I’m doing—there’s not a lot of quality inside collectibles from that time period because either people like the doll companies that have a big budget and don’t produce a quality product or it’s somebody that has the inside knowledge but doesn’t have the budget. I’m trying to do nice-looking stuff that are collectibles of that time period like the classic wrestling photo book I’m going to be working on or the Midnight Express DVD that I already have up there of matches that were never televised that has camcorder footage and behind-the-scenes things. It occupies my time and keeps my blood pressure down.

MM: [Laughs] Very good. That was one of the things you’d mentioned on the latest commentary, that you had big plans for Cornette’s Collectibles in 2010. Would that be the book and the video series you were talking about, or is there more to come?

JC: You know, I’m still learning the internet. I just started sending e-mails in April. So, now, I’m getting the hang of all that. That’s why I liked going to the FanFest in Charlotte – there’s a group of people that really appreciate classic wrestling and the internet has opened it up that you can sell and trade things. I just think there’s a market for stuff that I find cool as a wrestling fan. Not just stuff about me, but about wrestling. One of the ways I got started in the business was writing stuff for wrestling programs and doing publicity for the magazines. So it’s kinda cool to have the slick kind of souvenirs we never got in the ‘80s or ‘70s. It was all cheap paper stuff. [Laughs]

MM: Now, let’s talk about the series of videos you have coming out. The Midnight Express DVD is one of them, obviously – any plans for any specific subjects in upcoming videos?

JC: As a matter of fact, I’ve got one thing I’m probably going to do for Christmas time. Unfortunately, it’s another project about me. [Laughs] It’s footage of me in my rookie year before I went to Mid-South Wrestling that most people have not seen.

MM: Hah! Cool.

JC: That’s going to be something for Christmas that I think people will like. Next thing I’m working on for next year – I’m still working on details, but I have the agreements basically in place – for a several-DVD set of classic wrestling footage that Vince doesn’t own that people haven’t seen in its entirety or in the right way in quite a while. I’m looking to be the Rhino Records of classic wrestling. [Laughs] Vince wanted to be the Walt Disney of wrestling, I want to be the Rhino Records of classic wrestling. I’ve got my sights set more realistically. Maybe he did become Walt Disney; maybe they’ll bury him in a hyperbaric chamber.

MM: Oh, God, let’s not give him any ideas, whatever we do…

JC: [Laughs]

MM: So, between Ring of Honor and Cornette’s Collectibles, it sounds like next year should be a great year for you, then.

JC: Yeah, and, once again, I just went over to West Virginia [recently] and managed Dennis Condrey. We do that every 3-4 months just to prove we still can and walk the next day. I enjoy doing that 3-4 times a year and I’ve got enough projects to keep me busy. That’s the thing – to me, wrestling has to be fun, because you have to devote your life to it. And if you can’t have fun, you can’t do it well.

Images courtesy of Jim Cornette.com, Cornette’s Collectibles.com, and Obsessed with Wrestling.com.

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Michael Melchor

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