Jim Cornette / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Cornette's long-delayed confession/realization in Dark Side of the Ring that he was the Unwitting Instigator of Doom behind the Montreal Screwjob, and consequently the final death of Kayfabe, casts somewhat of a new light on his near-psychotic hatred of anyone who "exposes the business" even years after the business has been completely exposed.
- Jim's conflicts with the current generation of indie wrestlers and fans make sense if you look at it as being a plain Culture Clash. Cornette spent his life with wrestling as a respected if "low brow" sport/occupation while modern wrestlers are more likely to view it as an "art". Cornette has seen the rise and fall of the wrestling industry from the territory days into a mere shadow with a handful of promotions actually making money and providing a life for their workers, and he despairs at what he sees now as a niche product for kids. As a result, for him, only promotions and wrestlers that do things in the "traditional" way are doing it in the "correct" way, while those trying something weird and different are foolishly undermining their long-term job prospects (and those of others) at best and doing the wrestling equivalent of a witless comedian doing fart jokes onstage for a cheap laugh because he's not good enough to write actual jokes at worst, while others (including a lot of modern wrestlers) view the latter as simply trying something new and pushing their medium forwards.
- For that matter, some people think that his whole feud with Omega is a Worked Shoot, while others believe (and Cornette himself insists) that it is absolutely real, stemming from differing wrestling philosophies and a particular incident between Omega and Cornette.^note
Awesome Ego: There is a reason why Cornette has had such a long career, despite being difficult to work with. His podcast only evidenced this more; one can easily find comments on the videos of clips of his podcasts of people who gladly admit that they don't agree with Cornette's views on wrestling at all, but that nonetheless listen to them because the sheer confidence he has on his rants is vastly entertaining.
Base-Breaking Character
- Jim Cornette is respected by a good portion of wrestling fans for his honesty, his willingness to speak truth to power, and his overall entertaining rants. In his defense, Cornette has helped to discover and develop many wrestlers who would go on to become major players in the Attitude Era and the Ruthless Aggression/PG era. He's also willing to speak out for underutilized wrestlers whom management cast aside in favor of the "sports entertainers." And he's known to be (mostly) gracious to the many wrestlers who have worked with and under him. Of course, it also helps that he's genuinely one of the more charismatic and eloquent speakers in wrestling who will always give the audience the straight scoop. On the other hand, many other fans feel that he's outdated and that he's nothing more than a bitter old man who just can't accept the fact that wrestling has changed. On this flip side, Cornette's stubbornness has led to him burning bridges with almost every wrestling organization he's worked with. He's also known to hold a bitter grudge for a long time even against people like Shawn Michaels who have, by almost all accounts, stopped being manipulative backstage politicians later in life (as opposed to the 90s, the period when Michaels interacted with Cornette)^note. It also doesn't help that he has, for the record, physically slapped workers in the past like Santino Marella for making on-air mistakes. And, of course, he's gotten himself more and more hatred in recent years for trashing fan favorite wrestlers and organizations like Colt Cabana, Kevin Owens, El Generico, Joey Ryan, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Johnny Gargano, CHIKARA, Lucha Underground, and All Elite Wrestling, going so far as to end ongoing friendships with Brian Zane and Dave Meltzer over their defense of AEW and comedy wrestling. All these things combined have contributed to making him one of the most divisive figures in wrestling today.
- Jim Cornette as a booker is also pretty divisive. His most notable success as a solo booker was Ohio Valley Wrestling, but Cornette's OVW is something of a Cult Classic, believed to have improved what was already a cult classic promotion, had respectable six figure gates over the course of three day events, gained multiple sponsors and provided much comedy as he managed to make the best of situations often entirely out of his control. OVW's ratings and attendance plummeted to their lowest after he broke loose from it too, leading Cornette to make a brief return to help "save" it and have some ROH guys put over some OVW wrestlers(with the OVW guys also putting over ROH wrestlers off of OVW shows of course). His most contentious joint projects are all in ROH, serving as an adviser to Adam Pearce and Delirious. While Pearce tended to get all of the blame for his run, Cornette got all of the blame for Delirious's until Cornette was visibly removed from an onscreen roll. Though Delirious continued to get attacked for his booking even after Cornette was out of the company entirely, it was never as vitriolic as Cornette got while he was visible. On the other hand, Cornette's booking collaborations in WWF/E proper, WCW and MLW were well liked, while they lasted. Smoky Mountain is something of a vindicated case, as though the territory failed and was often disparaged by many fans, the crowds it drew suggested the booking was working for someone, they just wouldn't come online to talk about it until well after the fact. Late adapters, if you will.
Crosses the Line Twice: Some of the quips and remarks he says are just so over the top, that it's nigh-impossible not to crack up at them. This is especially prevalent in his shoot interviews and on his podcasts. To wit:
- Anytime he goes off about Vince Russo is definitely worth a few laughs; it takes a man with a special sense of humor to make talking about pissing on a man's grave hilarious. This segment of the You-Shoot interview with Sean Oliver is one of numerous examples.
- His rant about AEW's Woman's Tournament in Episode 367 of his The Jim Cornette Experience podcast. It might come off to some as Jim being Jim, until this exchange with Brian Last (his co-host) pushes it straight into comedic absurdity:
Brian: You say fetish like he's... I mean, he's not really into women.
Jim: Well, then, what the fuck are we doin' here, talkin' about Japanese fuckin' tournament matches?!
Brian: He likes Japanese women's wrestling! I wouldn't say that's a... fetish.
Jim: *grumbles* Then he oughta BE a Japanese women's wrestler!
Brian: *pause* ...he kinda IS! *corpses*
Epileptic Trees:
- Believe it or not, he was one of several people (most notably Matt Hardy and Raven) being theorised as the "Exalted One" of the Dark Order in AEW (before ultimately being revealed to be Brodie Lee), despite the fact that he has repeatedly stated that he dislikes a large part of AEW's booking (to say the least) and would never work for them,^note and that the Dark Order is a stupid gimmick that should never have seen the light of day, the reasoning being that's exactly what he would've said if he were about to debut on AEW.
- Some wrestling fans online believe Cornette's hatred of much of modern wrestling (and pretty much everything stemming from it, such as his feud with Kenny Omega) is a work, despite shoot interviews existing as far back as Smoky Mountain Wrestling of Cornette taking a very negative view of hardcore wrestling and anything he views as goofy gimmicks.
Fashion-Victim Villain: Jim Cornette has three wardrobes. Casual, professional and "what the hell is he wearing?" Naturally it's the nerd glasses, baby blue suits and high heels everyone remembers.
- In 2023, images stared circulating online showing old pictures of Jim in suits almost identical to Lupin III. It wasn't a deliberate homage on either side either, Jim simply managed to put together outfits so bizarre that he looked like a deliberately ostentatious anime protagonist.
He Panned It, Now He Sucks!:
- When he dissed Vince McMahon, Paul Heyman, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Vince Russo, Sable, New Jack, Chyna, Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels, Brock Lesnar, Batista, The Miz, Low Ki, Austin Aries, Enzo Amore? Well, he's not saying anything someone else hasn't already said about them, he just sugarcoats it less. But when he dissed Colt Cabana, Kevin Steen, El Generico, The Young Bucks, Joey Ryan^note, and Kenny Omega? It was... way less well received, to say the least.
- He also panned The Wrestler. Not just that; Cornette said he'd rather live next to a child molester than someone who worked in the wrestling business if the only things he knew about the business came from The Wrestler.
- He implied AAA was going in the wrong direction for years, but spent four minutes trashing on Lucha Underground, and everyone lost their minds. Perhaps because it was unexpected; he gave Lucha Libre USA his seal of approval (expecting it to fail, which it did after 3 years). Plus, he is a big fan of famed Mexican luchadores such as El Santo, Perro Aguayo (not Jr.) and Gran Hamada (plus Ayako), so it was expected he'd at least like the matches. The fact that he also sees nothing wrong with dropping massive spoilers about upcoming twists without so much as a warning doesn't help matters, especially as LU (which is taped weeks or months in advance) already has a massive problem with spoilers. Adding insult to injury, some of the spoilers for things complained about turned out to be inaccurate and misleading, meaning he was criticizing the show without even watching it and getting it wrong while doing so.^note
- This video where Cornette was asked about NXT. Surprise: He doesn't like NXT either. ("We taught people how to wrestle! We didn't just teach them how to be gimmicks! They pumped a bunch of money into the performance center because the son-in-law [Triple H] wants to look like he knows what he's doing!") Cornette later significantly softened his stance on NXT, as he is a big fan of The Revival and other acts that later appeared on the show, admitting that Triple H managed to do a good job putting on as close to a "wrestling" show as you can get in the world of Sports Entertainment. He has also gone on record saying he expects NXT to overtake AEW in ratings when the two compete on Wednesday nights given the quality of the products^note
- All Elite Wrestling has been given positive reviews by many people in the industry since its inception, mostly for being a viable alternative to WWE. But while Cornette enjoys many of its top-level singles performers and angles, he is sharply critical of what he sees as self-indulgence on the part of management, and of many of the more out-there talents and gimmicks they employ. Not helping is the fact that said talents and management include Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, whom Cornette has intense hatred for and a long-time beef with, especially the former. Some of the other talents only intensify Cornette's criticism towards AEW, including:
  - Orange Cassidy, someone whose lackadaisical and "meta" gimmick he despises so much he refuses to refer to him by name and give him publicity ("my little dog Pockets" is what he usually calls him).
  - Riho. He considers her an non-credible champion for being even smaller than any woman he ever let win a belt, doing nothing with her look to detract from that and winning the belt against a much bigger and stronger woman billed as a "beast" in a match that saw them go 50-50 as opposed to a tree chop/mountain climb struggle on Riho's part. Cornette even upped the ante when Nyla Rose started acting like a Giant/Monster after losing and Riho had to be saved by Kenny Omega, alleging that Riho only won the AEW Women's title because she was sleeping with Kenny Omega (an unproven claim). Cornette was also under the mistaken impression that Riho, a staple of Ice Ribbon where girls are the target audience, was Haruka, a part of a comedy angle that went nowhere in the more general audience and fanservice catering World Wonder Ring STARDOM; namely, Haruka was the little girl Omega infamously wrestled against.^note
  - Joey Janela, someone who he loathes as a talentless and unprofessional Garbage Wrestler. Cornette rarely refers to Janela by first name (sometimes, in a similar case to Orange Cassidy, refering to him by disparaging names such as "Jelly Nutella") and negatively contrasts him to longstanding rival Lio Rush, who for context Cornette was iffy about the very idea of allowing into the ring and thought might have been better off as a manager who only does the job against anyone worth pushing. Janela has taken several shots back at Cornette on pay-per-view, to Cornette's amused mockery.
  - They also diluted his favorite tag team act of Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy with Marko Stunt, someone he thinks is too small and unaesthetic to be a credible wrestler, and after Luchasaurus's injury gave Marko more screentime.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In one match back in the 90's, Cornette smashed Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis) in the stomach with his tennis racket when Laurinaitis was a wrestler. Nowadays, Cornette hates Laurinaitis the executive with a passion (although he clarified he didn't hate him as a person).
- His interview about the scaffold accident that damaged his knees. At the time it was chilling. Now people just watch it to see the Cornette face.
- An instructor striking a student is not inherently comedic. That Laurinaitis fired the teacher while still using the school the teacher owned is. It got funnier later when Laurinaitis was named in Deep South Wrestling scandals and nothing happened (the first time anyway, when it resurfaced alongside FCW and NXT scandals Bill DeMott resigned), and the Sadist Teacher nature of WWE developmental became more widely known.
- His shoot interviews promoting TNA's family friendly product and how it only needed to rely on in ring action instead of overbooked events, comedy angles, girls hanging out of their clothing and hardcore garbage wrestling. Since leaving TNA his shoot interviews have mostly consisted of him complaining about TNA doing all those things he previously said it would not.
- His shoot interviews promoting Ring of Honor's internet pay per views on go fight live, television program on HD net and how great the matches between Kevin Steen and El Generico would be. Considering how badly go fight live would handle the pay per views, how few people were even able to watch the HD net program and how many creative issues he would have with Steen and Generico.
- Cornette's criticism of Anthem, regarding their use of TNA, particularly suing Matt Hardy over his "Broken" gimmick, became funnier when Anthem listened and offered Cornette a job. For his part Cornette softened on everything, saying he would take the opportunity to learn more about them, see how he could be more constructive, everything except Matt Hardy, who maintains shouldn't be sued for his gimmick. Surprising absolutely no one, Cornette left TNA again (by then rebranded as Impact Wrestling) a few weeks later.
- For a little while, there was a Jim Cornette Fanclub run by a man named Andrew Goldberger. One day, he introduces a small-time video store owner with aspirations of becoming a booker to Jon Arezzi, who runs a wrestling news show on radio. From this connection, Vince Russo would begin his career in professional wrestling. He would go on to rise through the ranks, reporting on the wrestling scandals of the early 90s, going behind Arezzi's back, finding work with the WWF and WCW, generating some of the most reviled angles and programs wrestling has ever seen, and becoming Jim Cornette's arch-nemesis. Russo's origin story and Cornette's shock and awe is really worth listening to.
Memetic Badass: Stephen P. New, Jim's Real Life lawyer (and the guy who advertises his law office on MLW Fusion) who he regularly puts over on his podcast. He even gave him a theme song (namely the old World Class intro theme with new Stephen P. New lyrics).^note Taken to a whole new level when he was revealed to be none other than the lawyer representing CM Punk and Ace Steel in their lawsuit over Brawl Out.
Memetic Mutation:
- Before The Undertaker threw Mick Foley off of Hell in a Cell, Jim Cornette falling off the scaffold at Starrcade was the most replayed fall in professional wrestling.
- For a long time, the only thing some people knew about Jim Cornette was that he went off on someone behind the desk of a Dairy Queen. On this very website the franchise was listed as his Arch-Enemy until Cornette later released a statement that he actually does enjoy Dairy Queen, just not that particular one.
- The Cornette Face, courtesy of Botchamania. Cornette loved it so much he often wears a shirt with a picture of the "Cornette Face".
- "Thank you, fuck you, bye!"^note
- "BUCKY BEAVER MOTHERFUCKER!"
- "Jim Cornette is clearly on WWE's payroll! Just listen to the glowing review he just gave their flagship show!"
- "Outlaw mudshow wrestling"
- "Trevor Murdoch is so tough he can strap Jim Cornette to the back of a moped, ride through an outlaw mud show, and come out unscathed."^Explanation
- "Laaaaaaaaaaaazy booking!" A phrase he throws around when a promotion book something that clearly has no thought put into it, like multi-man tornado tag matches with no disqualification stipulations. These type of matches are commonly spot fests with no psychology behind them, have no build up, do nothing to build feuds or promote teams in the longer term. Similar for "can they co-exist" booking the members in a feud as a tag-team to tease them imploding and fighting each other. If you were to play Jim Cornette Catchphrase Bingo while listening to his podcast "Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy booking" would be the free center square.
Mis-blamed:
- While he had a considerable amount of influence in booking during his time in Ring of Honor, the final decisions were still in the hands of Adam Pearce and then Hunter Johnston. Jim Cornette does not blame Adam Pearce or Hunter Johnston for anything though. If we were to take Cornette's word for it, most of the blame lies with the suits of the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
  - For one example, he says Pearce ran into friction from the Sinclair employees and got kicked out after declaring his desire to beat up one of them, Jim saying he felt the same way but in an uncharacteristic moment decided to keep his job by playing "nice".
  - For two examples, he thinks Hunter Johnston was given too much while not being provided with the adequate means to get it all done. Johnston was also head of the ROH school but Sinclair went back on getting the school building seen in the proposal that lead to them purchasing Ring Of Honor in the first place. Jim thought too much was asked of himself by Sinclair as well and this time, true to character, did tell them off (but apparently not bad enough to lose his job... yet).
- He got blamed for the release of several ROH wrestlers, many who were let go because internal politics with people not even involved with wrestling prior to Ring Of Honor's purchase or because Sinclair wanted to cut back on Ring Of Honor's budget. Sometimes the connection was made because Cornette did not like them, say, Cabana or Steen, who he still considered championship material (he described the show Steen won the title on as being the best ROH could do and saw Colt Cabana becoming WWE champion). Other times it was just assumed Cornette didn't like somebody, such as The Young Bucks/Generation Me, who he turned out to be fond of, at least back then. (They weren't his favorites, him stating they weren't going to be bringing in new fans and that ROH had plenty of tag teams just as good but Cornette still wanted to use them because the ROH fans he didn't want to lose wanted to see them. He couldn't convince the new company owners to pay for the Bucks though SGB eventually did come around and start paying The Bucks to work less in an effort to extend their careers).
- Since Jim doesn't like "cartoon wrestling" he was blamed for the Chikara guys (The Colony, The Super Smash Brothers, Los Ice Creams) not getting more spots in ROH, rather than the fact they were not contracted under Ring of Honor, though Jim's shoot interviews don't help his case. (He said he would have been against their booking if not for overwhelming fan demand and would have rather had the Hardy Boyz, who were punchlines to RoHbots until the "Broken" gimmick that was way later. He eventually smartened up, saying he'd rather have had the always in demand Fergal Devitt, though there is no way ROH could have gotten him on the non budget it had at the time while they already had one Hardy.)
- Despite their enmity, Colt Cabana would voice many of the same reasons for not returning to ROH that Cornette had for leaving. While Cabana would eventually return, it appears his issues with Cornette were a little overblown. While the two continued to disagree on what "good" pro wrestling is, they also squashed their personal issues at an NWA event.
Never Live It Down:
- Cornette is usually credited with discovering Matt Morgan, who is not considered a great wrestler. Morgan was pushed to win the OVW title before his WWE runs. After his failed WWE runs, Jim still vouched Morgan, which lead to his TNA runs.
- One the opposite end, if you mention John Laurinaitis in Cornette's presence Cornette will without fail remind anyone listening that Laurinaitis once signed the wrong one-legged wrestler to a contract.
Rooting for the Empire: When he betrayed the Dynamic Dudes in WCW in favor of the Midnight Express (as if that was surprising), he was cheered, despite the Dudes supposedly being baby faces.
Most Wonderful Sound: Many fans say that they could listen to Cornette's voice all day.
Suspiciously Similar Song: The Midnight Express entrance music was a take on Giorgio Moroder's "Chase" (not surprisingly, from the movie Midnight Express) after having actually used "Chase" initially. In ECW, they gave him the real song again, as they had for Bobby Eaton in 1994.
Tear Jerker: Cornette's tribute to the late Bobby Eaton. Cornette has never sounded closer to tears in any Jim Cornette Experience video; he sounds closer to his normal self when he's reminiscing about the good old days with Bobby, but the first two minutes of the video, and the end (where Jim talks about the last time he spoke with Bobby)...you can tell he's barely holding it together.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!
- It is considered that Cornette himself holds this view, and is the reason why he doesn't appear as much as he used to do. Cornette knows more about wrestling than probably anyone here will ever know, so he has a great mind for the business, but he's just stuck in a different era. One he'll be quick to tell you, was watched by a lot more people, easier on the wrestlers' bodies, had more emotional connection with the fans, and most importantly, made a LOT more money for a lot more wrestlers.
- On a lesser note, Cornette used to like rap music before it became a corporate industry defined by rampant consumerism, larceny, drug abuse and murder. Since Cornette was never part of the music industry, he was able to accept that things had simply changed and move on. (That and unlike pro wrestling, rap continued to make as much money as it ever did off of an ever expanding fan base who individually spent less money over time)
Values Dissonance:
- The Gangstas in Smoky Mountain, his "evil Southerner" trio with the Briscoes in ROH, LAX in TNA...everywhere he goes will have a weird race-based angle within a year or two. He was a big proponent of the Gang Warz in the WWF in '97, randomly inserting himself into an angle with Homicide in ROH where he called him "boy" and whipped him repeatedly.
- His angles that involve women are often incredibly misogynistic. Cornette's of the belief one unlikable female manager can make more money in a month than an entire women's division can in a year. He's of the belief that if said manager can wrestle, she should be a key foundation of that women's division if the booker decides to have one anyway. This goes a long way in explaining how Tammy Lynn Sytch, Terri Runnels, Synn, The Lovely Lacey, Melina Perez, Shelly Martinez, Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, Tracy Brooks, Sara Del Rey, Maria Kanellis, Seleziya Sparx, Salina de la Renta and several others of wildly different looks, talents and temperaments steadily ended up in similar roles. The trope of the bitchy woman who wrongs the hero of his story is a bit overdone.
- Fans were never comfortable with Cornette's racially charged remarks, especially not his occasional outright racist joke or use of ethnic slurs, but in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s this got him "good heat". Fans in arenas wanted to kill him, news sources vilified him, fans expressed contempt for the wrestlers he managed doing nothing to keep him in check; it ultimately made money. Recycling that same material as a commentator on a 2019 episode of NWA's Power show instead got "bad heat" on the show and made him lose his job. (Some people blamed the NWA for simply not editing a joke out of a pre.taped show and accused them of using Cornette as The Scapegoat, but most fans took Cornette's resignation as an acceptable apology.)
Vindicated by History:
- For example, he always said that Ultimate Fighting Championship did the wrestling thing better than WWE. Even when it was the mixed martial artists leaving for pro wrestling he said everyone should be concerned with that UFC, but back then few listened to the guy who booked Smoky Mountain.
- At the time of Smoky Mountain's closing, he was viewed as whiny and unwilling to take responsibility. His competence as a promoter and in financial management looked better after the closing of ECW and WCW. Cornette at least paid off his debt while Paul Heyman admitted he'd have kept operating with a debt Smoky Mountain never came close to so long as ECW had distribution.^note Meanwhile, many involved with WCW, besides running Cornette and the Expresses off from the company twice, would play significant parts in stunting TNA's growth, and at least one person (Jim Herd) was so maligned he was basically banned from the business altogether.
- There was an infamous story of Cornette using a baseball bat to get into a room John Cena had gone to change in and running down Cena once he got in for missing a time cue and prolonging an Ohio Valley show. As it turns out, Cena himself doesn't hold it against Cornette and has few gripes about his continued training under him. Compared to the various other Sadist Teacher accounts given about Ohio Valley, Deep South and the Florida Championship Wrestling revival, it really doesn't seem like a big deal anymore.
- The Young Bucks, Kevin Steen and Sami Zayn. Whether he likes them personally or not, he still had the vision to push all three. Cornette himself points out that in the latter two cases, his primary criticisms of both of them (feeling Steen should lose a bit of weight and Zayn should take off the mask and leave the silly "El Generico" gimmick behind) turned out to be more-or-less what they did in their now wildly successful WWE careers.
- Cornette's time in ROH, hated as it was by the fan base, still brought the company its highest turnouts and buy rates up to that point, ultimately playing a key role in saving a company that was in rough straits after losing founder and distributor Rob Feinstein, other founder and booker Gabe Sapolsky and many of its most popular wrestlers. Yes, ROH continued to slowly grow after Cornette left but that lends credence to Cornette's claim that Delirious knew what he was doing and that the Japanese champions were worth booking (though in the latter case it was management, as most ROH fans always agreed with him regarding the NOAH guys). When the combined pressure of Impact, All Elite and WWE saw ROH backsliding during the late 2010s more fans came to acknowledge Sinclair mismanagement was mostly to blame, especially after Joey Matthews ended up having nearly the exact same meltdown Cornette did. Furthermore, any criticism people had of Cornette's time on the booking team ended up paling in comparison to that of Bully Ray's. Some people even jokingly asked Cornette to save the company again.
- Cornette has mentioned after the "Brawl for All" and "David Schultz and the Slap Heard Round the World" episodes of Dark Side of the Ring aired, people have contacted him stating that they now understood his strong hatred towards Vince Russo and Eddy Mansfield/John Stossel respectively.

YMMV / Jim Cornette

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