The Thread Killer

I believe the aforementioned interview where Nick Aldis tore into Bruce Prichard was on Busted Open. Something else interesting came up during that interview. Aldis talked about the positive buzz around his match with Cody at All In, the rematch at NWA 70 and that he is constantly being asked by the fans about a "rubber match" between he and Cody. Aldis mentioned that he and Cody are still close and remain in contact. Aldis said that he has a great relationship with Tony Khan, and that there is pretty much an open offer for him to go to AEW, but that he is totally committed to the NWA unless the day comes that Billy Corgan decides it's time to close up shop. So it's good to know that if the NWA does go down, at least Aldis has an offer on the table. Also, if Nick Aldis shows up on Dynamite unexpectedly to challenge Cody for the TNT Championship, then we can pretty much assume the NWA is dead. I'm almost glad Bruce Prichard doesn't like Aldis, because WWE would never use him properly and he'd end up like EC3 or somebody like that.

And having said all that... Billy Corgan just released a statement saying not to believe the rumors, he is not selling or shutting down the NWA...he's just trying to figure out the best way to proceed. Fucking Raven.

Supposedly, after the pandemic had gone on for a couple of months and it became obvious that Pro Wrestling wasn't going back to "normal" anytime soon (if ever) then the NWA told everybody they had under contract that if they wanted to be released from their contracts to work elsewhere, they could be. From what I have read/heard, NWA contracts weren't really like WWE/AEW contracts, or even like Impact. Essentially, the NWA contracts guaranteed the talent a very nominal amount of money per month, but they got a generous amount of the profits from merchandise sales. Anybody under NWA contract was free to work for any other independent promotions, but I think they were prohibited for working from one of the big companies or be on television unless they could still honor their commitments to the NWA. I got the impression that they were trying to avoid a repeat of the Willie Mack situation, where they thought they had him locked up but he just went and showed up in Impact. Aside from Nick Aldis, a lot of the bigger names in the NWA were only really part timers anyhow, and in a lot of cases they already had full time "day jobs." To me, that was a great part of the NWA. You could work NWA tapings 2-3 days every 4-6 weeks, still focus on your other career but look like you were wrestling full time due to the NWA taping schedule. Tim Storm is a full time teacher, Aron Stevens and Eli Drake are both living in Los Angeles and trying to break into acting, Ken Anderson and Trevor Murdoch either own or train at wrestling schools, ODB owned a food truck...stuff like that. These guys could still enjoy being in Pro Wrestling and make a bit of money on the side, while not threatening their main source of income or job security. Guys like Aldis, James Storm, Thunder Rosa and some others might only have Pro Wrestling as their main source of income so I guess this will hit them a lot harder. That's assuming this story is true. As I've said before, if the world ever does go back to normal, Billy Corgan can always try this again. He owns the name NWA and all the associated intellectual property outright, so it's not like he's going to go bankrupt over this. I'd say the whole Dave Lagana scandal is probably what hit them even worse than the pandemic. Billy Corgan may have been the driving creative force behind the NWA but I think Lagana was doing most of the grunt work behind the scenes. I don't know that Corgan would have the time, enthusiasm or inclination to try and find somebody new to replace him. If this project really is dead, then it sucks. I thought the NWA was really onto something and they seemed to be on the right track. The Crockett Cup was going to be their biggest show since Power debuted and the attendance at and reception for that event would have been a really good indicator of where the NWA was going to go. Now we'll probably never know.

I don't know how reliable he is as a source, but Raven apparently stated in an interview yesterday that he has heard Billy Corgan is planning on pulling the plug on the NWA. Corgan and Raven are friends, so who knows if Raven heard this directly from Corgan or it is just gossip. Raven claims that between the COVID-19 shutdown causing the NWA to lose talent like Ricky Starks and Zicky Dice, and the whole fiasco with Dave Lagana, Corgan has grown disillusioned with the whole project and is basically going to throw in the towel. I wouldn't be surprised if that is true, but I would be very disappointed if it is.

Because I love him.

I don’t. I’m in awe of how badass you are. You’re like a one man army, crusading for justice. You SHOULD be in charge here. It would just like that movie Walking Tall. (The Joe Don Baker version, not the one with The Rock.) Nobody would mess with you, and everybody would know how tough you are because you keep saying “Fuck.”

I'd just like to say that this is hands down the funniest post I've read here at PWO and I want to put it in my signature.

You're the man, @Blehschmidt. I am so ordering that shirt.

But he ain’t gonna stand for no alt-right horseshit and he’s gonna call it whenever he sees it, though.

I'm more concerned they're going to book him the way they booked Asuka on the Main Roster. But I guess not until he gets there, maybe.

Okay listen, I know you're from France so I'll chalk what you just said up to a cultural misunderstanding...because that is Iron Mike Sharpe you're talking about, mister. As in "Canada's Greatest Athlete" Iron Mike Sharpe. The man wrestled for 15 years with a forearm injury that would have crippled anybody else, but all he needed was a leather forearm brace and he was still twice the athlete anybody else in the WWF was. He was robbed of the WWF Tag Team Championships on multiple occasions because they kept sticking him with inferior partners like Steve Lombardi or Terry Gibbs. Hell, the man had the greatest set of lungs in the history of Professional Wrestling. As Gorilla Monsoon used to say, if you could win matches verbally or judged the winner by volume, Iron Mike would have been undefeated. So I'll thank you to keep your snide comments about Iron Mike Sharpe to yourself. If you think @C.S. is out of control with his blind love for Mauro Ranallo, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just wait until you see what happens if people keep besmirching the good name of Iron Mike Sharpe.

I am looking forward to that. With Cornette right now, we're definitely in a "good news/bad news" situation. The bad news is he basically admitted the majority of his new fans only listen to hear him rip on modern wrestling, so he bowed to fan pressure and is reviewing Fyter Fest and The Great American Bash. (I suspect Brian Last had a lot to do with that as well.) The good news is, they apparently got a ton of positive feedback for the old school watch-along, so as @NitroFan says, they are doing another one. I am all for that. A lot of that was deliberate though. I used to go to WWF House Shows at Maple Leaf Gardens religiously from 86-91 or so, and usually there wasn't any great matches until after intermission. Hell, it wasn't even unusual for the first two or three matches to feature enhancement talent, and for those matches to be LONG sumbitches. (Hence my love of Iron Mike Sharpe.) Arn and JR have both talked about how on house shows or even the big events, the opening and even midcard matches were discouraged from being too exciting because that would take away from the upper card and the Main Event. Which is a kind of dumb philosophy in some ways, but then again having all your talent doing insane shit from the opening match and playing "top this" can burn the crowd out and actually does make big spots in the Main Event matches less special, so I guess there are arguments to both sides. That is a massive generalization, and isn't provable one way or the other.

So I guess comprehending blatantly obvious sarcasm is not your thing, then?

Pete Dunne has already relocated to the States and is part of the NXT roster now, from what I understand. I'm not sure what the full story is with Tyler Bate. The worst I heard about him is that he made a pass at a married woman. Call me immoral but I'm not sure that makes him worthy of banishment, but I guess we'll see. WALTER is an interesting case. I got the impression from a couple of interviews I saw with him that he was pretty happy to remain the big fish in the small NXT UK pond, making the odd flight Stateside for an occasional appearance. If he can't do that, I don't know how interested they'd be in using him full time. Not to mention that as soon as Vince and Bruce get their hands on him, they'll fuck him up and try to get him to breakdance while wearing a tuxedo, I'm sure.

I just finished that watch along and I agree, it was excellent. Cornette’s memory of the details is very impressive with him pointing out where he and the guys in the match were calling spots and time cues. I’d seen this match a few times before and I had no idea Tommy Rogers had been injured so badly on the bulldog spot outside the ring. I also found it interesting that they had to adjust their usual gameplan due to time restrictions and borrow a layout from a Memphis style match to get in everything they wanted to do. I have heard Eric Bischoff, JR and Tony Schiavone do watch alongs with Conrad on his podcasts and they are never as entertaining or informative as the rare occasions Cornette does them. I really wish he would do more stuff like this, and less political and anti-modern pro wrestling rants. This was so much better.

I am slowly making my way through this week's edition of The Jim Cornette Experience. It's taking a while because this sumbitch is long...around 3.5 hours, and I usually only listen about 30 minutes at a time while I am walking my dog. They have finally gotten to the review of the first Clash of Champions, and are talking about the bizarre panel of judges for the Flair/Sting Main Event. You had Gary Juster, (the event promoter) Sandy Scott (former local wrestler and JCP office worker), Ken Osmond (who played Eddie Haskel on Leave it to Beaver), Jason Hervey (who was still a kid at that point, staring on "The Wonder Years") and...1988 "Penthouse Pet of the Year" Patty Mullen. Cornette and Brian Last rightfully start making fun of some of the choices for the judges, when Brian Last asked if Patty Mullen had also been an escort, since (he claimed) many of the Penthouse Pets were also escorts. Cornette took a very offended, haughty tone of voice and replied: "Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm a prude. I do not like sex talk. Intimate relations should be between one man, and one woman. With as small a crowd as possible watching." Another highlight of this episode so far was when Cornette was talking about his Cornette's Collectible's business. He recently introduced a limited edition Jim Cornette action figure, of which there were only 450 available. The response to the limited edition action figures was so overwhelming that they sold out in one day and crashed his website, apparently. Cornette talked about how they were shipping out all of the figures in the coming week. Brian Last said that he couldn't wait to see the response to the next action figure...the "Jim Cornette Hot Tub Play Set."

That's interesting. I had always heard the same story you mentioned, that the whole reason Hansen won the title was that Baba wanted to showcase Stan Hansen as a World Champion when he did his next AJPW tour, but Gagne turned around and wanted to take the belt off Hansen before he had barely defended it in AJPW. If I remember correctly, Hansen did mention somewhere that he thought it was odd that Gagne would ever have agreed to put the title on him in the first place, considering it was common knowledge that All Japan would always be his first priority over everything else, and his tours there would make him unavailable for long stretches of time. Now that you mention it, I do remember Hansen saying that he wasn't impressed with how disorganized Gagne was and the fact that putting the title on Bockwinkel seemed to be a last minute decision. Talking about Stan Hansen and Verne Gagne, they have to be more of the two more notably stubborn and bull headed guys in the history of Pro Wrestling. Small wonder they couldn't work together.

I was curious about that book myself. The one thing that stopped me from ordering it is the fact that Stan Hansen seems to be one of those old school guys who is still trying to "protect the business" whenever he talks about stuff that went on behind the scenes. I saw his episode of "Legends" with JBL, his Shoot Interview with Devon Nicholson and his episode of "Back to the Territories" with Jim Cornette, at Kayfabe Commentaries. In all three interviews he seemed happy to discuss certain aspects of his career, but Stan Hansen seems content to speak in generalities and really never goes into any detail. For example, he admits he ran the AWA World Championship Title belt over with his truck and mailed it back to Verne Gagne rather lose the championship, but he won't get into the specifics of why he refused to drop the title. (I know it's pretty much common knowledge at this point, but it would have been nice to hear it from his perspective.) I was especially annoyed with the "Back to the Territories" Shoot Interview. The whole point of the interview was to discuss All Japan, and Hansen only mentions Misawa and Kobashi in passing. If I recall correctly, he never even mentions Kawada. He is also surprisingly sparse on details when talking about Baba. I am worried his book would be similarly vague and short on insight.

One of the things I used to enjoy about Cornette's podcasts is that there was a clear delineation between Cornette's Drive Thru and The Jim Cornette Experience. If you wanted to hear Cornette answer questions from fans and talk about Pro Wrestling History and the Territories, you listened to the Drive Thru. If you chose to listen to The Experience, you would get lots of Pro Wrestling talk sure...but you'd also get more of his ranting about Modern Pro Wrestling and lots of ranting about politics. For the longest time, I listened to the Drive Thru exclusively and pretty much avoided The Experience unless I knew he was covering a topic I wanted to hear him talk about. That way, you could still be a Cornette listener but avoid a good amount of his insane rantings. Like I said earlier in this very thread, I think when Cornette reviewed AEW's first Pay Pay View was when everything changed. His review (specifically his comments about the Battle Royal on the pre-show) seemed to ignite a firestorm of controversy and almost inadvertently increased his popularity. It wasn't long after that Cornette came right out and announced that both his podcasts were basically going to have the same format, with the exception being that he'd still try and answer questions on Mondays. Since then, there have even been a few episodes of the Drive Thru where he didn't take any questions at all, and instead devoted the entire show to reviewing a PPV or whatever. Here's the problem...he opens both shows with the same old shtick. He plugs his business, he does some ad reads and then like clockwork he starts talking about current events. Thing is, I don't give a damn what Jim Cornette thinks about Donald Trump, the Republican Party, or religion, to be honest. For a few reasons. Firstly, I'm Canadian. I couldn't vote for or against Donald Trump, even if I wanted to. It's bad enough that you can't go online or turn on the television without being absolutely inundated with people complaining about Donald Trump 24/7. I use Pro Wrestling as an escape from all that, I don't need to hear about it on a Pro Wrestling podcast. Secondly, even if I wanted to hear somebody talking about politics, the absolute last person I would want to hear from is Jim Cornette. His views on politics are astonishingly simplistic. I have literally heard Jim Cornette complaining when the weather is cold that is the fault of the "goddamn Republicans." And he's not joking, or working his gimmick either. Cornette actually gets worked up about bad weather to the point where he starts profanely cussing out "Republicans." Not a particular Republican. Not a particular policy or piece of legislation. He doesn't bother to specify if it's on the local, state or federal level...he's just pissed off that it's cold and it's the damn Republicans fault. Jim Cornette is like a lot of people who have taken hardline political positions on both ends of the political spectrum...he isn't interested in rational discussion, or intelligent debate. Cornette just likes to scream insults, talking points and generalizations. If you're going to make me listen to your political opinions, at least put some thought into it and say something remotely resembling intelligent. If I wanted to listen to an idiot ranting about current events with no basis in logic or interest in discussion, I'd listen to Alex Jones. If Cornette would cut out the political rants or at least restrict them to one show rather than both, I'd be pretty happy. I am already an hour and a half into this week's show, and he still hasn't got to discussing the first Clash of Champions yet. But I did get to hear all about what he thinks of Donald Trump this week. Which is exactly the same as what he says every week. I think it's hilarious that Brian Last has to edit out large portions of both shows before they go up on YouTube, because Cornette's ranting about politics violates some sort of YouTube policy or something. I am considering waiting the extra couple of days and just checking out his shows when they go up on YouTube. Cornette made mention again this week that he is essentially being inundated by messages from fans begging him to go back to reviewing AEW every week. And if you read between the lines, you can tell Brian Last would like him to. When Cornette does answer questions, Last makes sure the majority of them are about the current product and AEW in particular. So far, Cornette remains steadfast in his refusal to watch or review AEW...his only exceptions being that he will watch whatever FTR or MJF does. The whole reason Brian Last talked Cornette into getting the WWE Network is so he could do watch-alongs and review stuff he had never seen. I think the idea was to make that exclusive content for their Patreon members. Unfortunately, the first couple of things Last picked for Cornette were Legends House and the Ruthless Aggression series. I for one would love to hear Cornette review some of the WWF stuff he never saw because he was too busy on the road in the NWA. Cornette did miss a lot of big WWF shows because he was otherwise occupied. But I agree, I'd like to hear him review stuff from the WWF from before he was there, that he's never seen.

The new episode of The Jim Cornette Experience just debuted, and apparently Cornette reviews the first Clash of Champions, including a watch-along/detailed breakdown of the Midnight Express/Fantastics match. Pretty stoked about listening to that. More classic breakdowns and reviews, less bitching about AEW, please.

I assumed that if Cornette knew that what he was saying could be very easily disapproved he wouldn’t have been so adamant about denying it, or he might not have said anything at all.

I agree with Jerome. During my career I worked with a number of hardcore sex offenders who were some of the most charming, engaging people you would ever meet. I would read files on some offenders and have a hard time believing that the individuals I knew were capable of committing the acts I was reading about. That's the thing about a lot of sex offenders, their ability to charm helps them manipulate people and keeps them from getting caught. There have even been cases where husbands have been serial offenders and their spouses and families literally had no idea. These people have subterfuge down to an art form. I can't honestly blame somebody who knew Joey Ryan for not seeing through his act. I am sure in some cases there might be people who look the other way, don't want to believe it, or try and rationalize predatory behavior...but more often than not sexual predators are just master manipulators and world class liars.

There have been a couple of new developments regarding the allegations against Cornette. As mentioned earlier, the guy making the accusations is named Phil Early, an OVW trainee in 2017. When Early made the accusations, he initially claimed he was doing it not on his own behalf, but on behalf of an unnamed friend. During his denial on his podcast on Monday, Jim Cornette claimed that Phil Early was lying. Cornette claimed that he and Stacey Cornette had spoken to the "unnamed friend" who they were still friendly with, and that the friend denied being involved in the allegations. Cornette also pointed out that he was not involved with OVW in 2017, so he couldn't have used his position in OVW to either help or harm anybody. Since that podcast was released, a lot of Cornette fans and even some of the so-called "Pro Wrestling media" went after Phil Early for making false accusations against Jim Cornette. Dave Meltzer (who is hardly an ally of Jim Cornette lately) reiterated that the timeline of the accusations did not match up. As soon as the opinion that the allegations against Cornette were false started to spread, a lot of Cornette's fans really went into overdrive harassing Phil Early and really going after him. It got especially interesting on Tuesday, when somebody came forward with screenshots of a post Phil Early had made on Facebook. This person was a Jim Cornette fan who had supposedly managed to get onto Phil Early's friend list on Facebook, and discovered a post Early had made on FB bragging about his ability to "cut and paste" and basically manipulate or manufacture screenshots of conversations and use them to get people in trouble. The Cornette fan released the screenshot of the FB post on Twitter. This alleged Facebook post was made prior to the allegations being made against Cornette, so it sure didn't look good for Phil Early. (I believe the exact quote was "who wants to see me photoshop him into some embarrassing shit?") When that Facebook post was made public, Phil Early deactivated his Facebook account. So by Tuesday, things seemed to be looking better for Jim Cornette. The general consensus seemed to be that he was telling the truth about the allegations Phil Early had made, and there even seemed to be some evidence to prove that. But then...today, the "unnamed friend" came forward. His name is Josh Ashcroft and he is now claiming that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette but she basically wouldn't let him break it off. He is now claiming that after Phil Early went public with the accusations, Jim and Stacey Cornette and their lawyer contacted him and asked him why he had disclosed private conversations to Phil Early. Ashcroft is now saying that Cornette is correct...he did deny knowing Phil Early to Jim Cornette, which is why Cornette made that statement on his podcast. However, Josh Ashcroft is now claiming he was lying and it actually was him who disclosed the information to Phil Early. Ashcroft claimed that the reason he is coming forward now is because Cornette fans are "making Phil Early's life hell." Josh Ashcroft is saying that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette is 2015, and when he broke it off she basically started stalking him and harassing him. He is claiming Stacey Cornette tried to get him evicted from his apartment and fired from his job, and that she sent him messages threatening to harm herself. He is alleging that Stacey Cornette did threaten to use Jim Cornette's influence to ruin the his life, both professionally and personally. The interesting thing here is that Ashcroft's statement only partially confirms the allegations against Jim Cornette. If Ashcroft is to be believed, Stacey Cornette did threaten him and did claim Jim Cornette could use his authority to screw up Ashcroft's life. However, (at least so far) it doesn't appear that Jim Cornette himself was actually involved with the threats, and the timelines still don't line up where Jim Cornette could have done anything to Josh Ashcroft, since by 2015 he had divested himself of all his involvement in OVW. It is starting to appear (on the surface at least) that @Mad Dog might have hit the nail on the head. This is starting to look more like a Stacey Cornette issue...basically she was a jilted lover who threatened to use her husband's supposed influence in the Pro Wrestling business to screw up her ex-boyfriend's life. Cornette obviously had his lawyer contact the guy and ask him if he was working with Phil Early, and Ashcroft (by his own admission) lied to Cornette and his lawyer and claimed he didn't know anything about it...but now he's changed his story. So on one hand, the main aspect of Jim Cornette's denial seems to still be true...he didn't work in OVW when Phil Early or Josh Ashcroft did and he didn't use his influence to screw up Ashcroft's career. That was the main gist of the accusation against Cornette, and it remains provably false. It seems possible (maybe even likely) that Jim Cornette didn't even know Stacey had gone all "fatal attraction" on Ashcroft either. You have to assume that if Cornette did know, he wouldn't have issued such a heated denial on Monday. I am not criticizing the Cornette's sexuality or lifestyle, but I guess situations like this happening are some of the risks you run when you are married but have a non-monogamous, non-exclusive "understanding" with your spouse. I tend to believe Josh Ashcroft is probably telling the truth. Unfortunately his initially denying involvement in the allegations to Cornette's lawyer and then changing his story won't help his credibility much with some people. Plus he also isn't being helped by Phil Early's making accusations that haven't proven to be true, as well Early apparently bragging on social media about his ability to manipulate information to hurt people. On top of that, there is Cornette's allegations of Phil Early basically being a blackmailer. And Early's own Twitter account have pretty much confirmed that as well, as he has made several allusions to having other information on other people that he hasn't released yet. What a convoluted mess this has turned out to be. Neither Phil Early or Stacey Cornette are coming out of this situation looking very good.

Now that I have listened to that interview twice (once just to hear it and the second time while I recapped it) I have some opinions of my own to share. Firstly, Cornette came off as very emotional in this interview. He started out trying to act like the situation doesn't bother him, when clearly it does. I tend to believe him when he says that he never listens to what people say about him personally and that rolls right off his back. By now, he must have incredibly thick skin when it comes to criticism. However, this situation has obviously hit very close to home and I think he is pretty devastated by the effect this has had on his wife. Understandably. However, I am a bit surprised something like this hasn't happened sooner, obviously. Cornette now pretty makes a career out of saying outlandish, insulting, demeaning and hurtful things about people. So I'm not really surprised that has boomeranged on him and his chickens have come home to roost, so to speak. Maybe this whole thing is karma, who knows. When you say hateful shit about people for a living, maybe you shouldn't act shocked and morally indignant when somebody does it back to you. Do I think Jim Cornette and/or his wife used his position in OVW to "groom" people or blackmail them into having sex under the threat of losing their license or it adversely affecting their career? No, I don't. Like Jerome said, Jim Cornette is so despised within the industry, I think somebody would have leapt at the chance to torpedo him or humiliate him if there was even a scintilla of evidence out there of wrongdoing on his part. If this situation has proved anything, it's how incredibly unpopular Cornette is with a lot of people, and how there are a lot of people salivating at the possibility of his downfall. Having said that...I do think it's entirely possible that Stacey Cornette has trotted out the old "do you have any idea who my husband is and what he can do to you" line at some point. I just don't think Cornette has ever used his influence (when he had it) to torpedo somebody just because they didn't want to have sex with his wife. Power is all in it's perception and if she ever did use that line it's pretty inexcusable, but I would hazard to guess it never went any further than a comment. Cornette seems absolutely convinced he is bulletproof against the main accuser, which makes me believe that he is innocent when it comes to that particular accusation. The fact is that the dates just don't line up. Cornette was not running OVW when Phil Early was there. And Phil Early isn't even making the accusation on his own behalf, he's claiming it's on behalf of one of his friends...who has not come forward. It's a little fishy, to be honest. And Phil Early is now touting himself as somebody who has "taken on the task of exposing predators in wrestling" and arguing semantics about Cornette's rebuttal, while at the same time promoting an independent wrestling event. While people challenge him on what he said about Cornette, he has started posting claims about stuff that is supposedly going on in OVW behind the scenes right now...and Cornette hasn't worked there in years. Cornette claims he can prove that Early's supposed "close friend" who was brainwashed by the Cornette's for years and "groomed" by them is still friends with them and doesn't even know Phil Early, and it's a little telling that Early does not deny that, now that Cornette has said it. As far as the people who have supposedly corroborated Early's claims...there are two people. Cornette was either lying or mistaken when he said they are the same person. Mike Braddock is a former OVW champion, a disabled veteran and he is clearly the guy Cornette referred to in his podcast today. The problem is, Braddock's biggest revelations about Jim Cornette is that Stacey once asked him about his sex life...oh, and he doesn't like what Cornette says about one legged wrestlers. Not to mention, Braddock's posts kind of sound like a cry for attention, saying things like "I don't even want to be on Cornette's podcast!" Cornette actually implied that there are some serious mental health issues at play with Mike Braddock and was very reluctant to discuss him. There is literally nothing in Mike Braddock's account that backs up Phil Early's story. The other guy who supposedly said something that confirmed Early's accusation was Iain Moore, who was apparently an OVW Tag Team Champion. Moore had his latest Tweet deleted today for violating Twitter's terms of service, but his entire contribution to this story was a tweet saying "this is legit." The bottom line is, if Mike Braddock and Iain Moore are the best witnesses Phil Early can come up with to corroborate his secondhand claims, then it's no wonder this story isn't getting more traction. One point Cornette made that I totally agree with, is the blatant hypocrisy of a lot of people on Twitter. Everybody went after Jim Cornette for being a supposed "groomer" and even tossed around unsubstantiated claims of his going after underage women. All this was supposedly done in the name of "speaking out" for women in Pro Wrestling. However, the response has been pretty damn repulsive when you look at how it has been directed at Stacey Cornette. I thought maybe Cornette was being melodramatic when he talked about some of the things being said about his wife, before I went on Twitter to check out the accounts of the accusers today. There are literally dozens of tweets mocking Stacey Cornette's appearance, or making fun of Jim Cornette for being a "cuck." Like I said, Cornette has made his career lately off being outrageous, so I guess the backlash was inevitable. But the people going after his wife while at the same time acting like they are "speaking out" for women disgust me, frankly. And I am not saying Jim and Stacey Cornette are innocent, but it's going to take a lot more corroboration before you'll be able to prove he's guilty of what he's been accused of. And considering how many people want to see him go down and how little damage he could do if he was taken down, I find it strange that more people haven't come forward if they're out there.

As mentioned earlier, Cornette's Friday podcast was recorded before the scandal broke, so there was no reference to the allegations during that episode. Brian Last did record a last minute insert segment where he acknowledged the allegations and reported that Jim Cornette would issue a statement on the Monday episode of Cornette's Drive-Thru. This was confirmed by the statement Cornette's lawyer released as well. Today Jim Cornette and Brian Last released a special episode of Cornette's Drive-Thru specifically devoted to Cornette's comments on the scandal that broke last week. I will do my best to recap what he said here. I am going to refrain from editorializing as much as possible, but if I do add my own comments I will do so in brackets. If Cornette specifically or categorically refutes one of the accusations which have been made against him and his wife, I will recap it in bold. - The show began with Brian Last introducing Cornette, as per usual. Last stated that this week they would not be doing the usual Q&A format for the Drive-Thru, and basically turned it over to Cornette. - Cornette started off by joking and pointing out that there was thunderstorm happening in Louisville as they were recording, which you might be able to hear in the background and would add to the gravitas of his statement. - Cornette said that he had accomplished the crowning achievement of his career, since he was now the only person left in Professional Wrestling who could get so much heat and be so despised by everybody even though everybody knows Pro Wrestling is a work. Cornette pointed out that if anything bad happens or any scandal comes up, people who hate him always try and drag him into it. He mimicked Sally Fields famous "you really like me" speech from the Academy Awards by saying: "You hate me. You really hate me." Cornette said that he was not going to take this situation seriously, and he was gratified that he is the only person left in the business that people legitimately hate. - Brian Last mentioned that a lot of very serious allegations have come to light over the past few days in the Pro Wrestling business, it is seemed Jim Cornette has been swept up in it. (In my opinion, this felt like Brian Last was basically trying to encourage Cornette to take the situation seriously.) - Cornette reiterated that the audience for his podcasts has grown tremendously over the past couple of years, and that considering the size of his audience it is possible that many of his listeners "don't live their lives on Twitter" and might not even know what he is talking about, so he is going to repeat the accusations that had been made against him and his wife Stacey. - Cornette said that he and his wife have been accused by a particular person on Twitter of trying to recruit sex slaves while he was running OVW, and that this person alleges that Jim Cornette subsequently threatened to ruin people's careers if they did not succumb to his wife's carnal desires. Brian Last confirmed that was the basic gist of the accusations. - Jim Cornette claimed the person making these accusations was a trainee in OVW in 2017. Cornette says that the accuser claims that Stacey tried to "groom" him for sexual purposes but that the accuser managed to escape them. Cornette claims the accuser further alleged that Jim and Stacey ruined the career of a good friend of his. Cornette said that the accuser has claimed that he was afraid to come forward, and was reportedly "shaking" as he typed out the accusation. Jim Cornette says that based on this accusation and some screenshots, the Pro Wrestling media and many fans on Twitter picked up on the story. - Cornette pointed out that last October he was basically accused of being the "Grand Dragon of the KKK" (referencing the infamous NWA fried chicken joke, I assume) and then in December he was accused of hating women (I believe that is when he got into the Twitter spat with the female AEW fan and used a bunch of the old Andy Kaufman lines to upset her) and then in March he was accused of hating babies (the Becky Lynch controversy.) Cornette pointed out that on all these occasions he had trended on Twitter, and now he was trending again and people believed what was being said about him. - Cornette said that things needed to be put into context. Jim Cornette claims that the person making the accusation is a man in his late 30's who lives in Billings, Montana. Cornette says he has proof of that fact and challenges anybody to prove him wrong. Cornette says that means the accuser would have been 35 years old at the time he claims Stacey Cornette tried to seduce him. Cornette basically claimed that maybe the accuser's age had something to do with why he never made it in the Pro Wrestling business. Jim Cornette says there is no proof that the person who has made this accusation against he and his wife is actually even a Professional Wrestler. Cornette does not deny that the accuser may have been to wrestling school, but he denies that the accuser is actually a Pro Wrestler. The only thing Jim Cornette can confirm is that the person making the accusation against he and his wife trained in OVW in 2017. Cornette claims the only proof that this accuser is even involved in Professional Wrestling is the fact that his Social Media profile picture was taken at a meet and greet with Sami Callihan. - Jim Cornette is claiming the person who made this accusation against him and his wife is also holding onto intimate photographs of another known Professional Wrestler. Cornette claims that the accuser came into possession of these photographs under suspicious circumstances, that the photographs were not sent to the accuser or intended for him, and that the accuser is planning on making an accusation against the Pro Wrestler in the photographs, alleging that this person sends out unsolicited photographs of himself without consent. Cornette said he will not disclose which Pro Wrestler is in the photographs. Cornette's point is that the person accusing he and his wife is holding onto these photographs as a "backup plan" in case the accusations against Cornette were unsuccessful. (Basically, he is implying that the person making the accusation is a blackmailer.) - Brian Last interrupted and said that he didn't understand what Cornette was alleging. Cornette reiterated that the person accusing him is holding incriminating photographs on somebody and is "starting a career" of making allegations. Cornette said he cannot say anymore about that situation.because it is not his place. Cornette says the point is, it has been proven that the person who made this accusation has the ability to access information or materials that were never sent to or intended for him. - Cornette says that he has being accused of withholding or rewarding employment and of using fear and intimidation based on people's willingness to engage in sex with he and his wife. Jim Cornette pointed out that he was the owner and booker of OVW from 1999 until 2005, at which point he had a falling out with WWE. In 2005 he resigned as booker and stopped being creatively involved with OVW. Cornette remained an owner of OVW until 2007, at which point he sold his portion of the business. So by 2007, Jim Cornette claims he had no ownership in or creative involvement with OVW. (Basically, Cornette is implying that the timeline of these accusations don't line up, since he had no authority in OVW at the time the accuser allegedly trained there.) - Jim Cornette pointed out that from 1999 until 2005, he had a very good record of training and developing talent for WWE. Cornette implied he was proud of what he did in OVW and that while he was affiliated with WWE, he pushed talents based on merit and not based on fear or favors. Cornette said that at no time in the past 15 years was he ever accused of pushing talent based on him having an unprofessional relationship with the talent in question. Cornette said the only time there was a problem with the wrong talent being pushed in OVW was when the WWE would force him to push talent he thought didn't deserve it. - Cornette pointed out that the most powerful and successful Pro Wrestlers in the industry came through OVW, and none of them ever accused him of pushing talent in exchange for sexual favors. Cornette pointed out that he was very unpopular with John Laurinitis and that Laurinitis would have been happy to have any excuse to get rid of Jim Cornette if accusations of that nature had come up. Cornette further asked if people were afraid to complain about him while he was in charge of OVW, why wouldn't they have come forward with these accusations after he was fired and they were safe from reprisals? - Jim Cornette claims there were plenty of complaints about him while he ran OVW, that he screamed and yelled at the talent about their work and "having crummy matches" so people obviously weren't afraid to complain about him, yet nobody ever accused him of that. Cornette reiterated that not one person over the past 15 years has ever accused him of pushing talent based on sexual favors. - Cornette pointed out that he was gone from OVW from 2007-2010. Cornette says in October 2010 he was contacted by Danny Davis who was the owner of OVW. OVW was no longer a WWE developmental territory by that time. Cornette was working for Ring of Honor/Sinclair Broadcasting by that point. Danny Davis asked Cornette if he would be willing to take over the booking of the OVW TV show, and Cornette agreed. Cornette started writing TV for OVW in October 2010, but he was not booking the house shows. Cornette claims at that point there was no affiliation with WWE, and he did not control the bookings, so he could not have possibly offered or withheld any favors at that point. Cornette pointed out that the OVW roster was pretty much depleted by that point, and there were only four guys who were any good...the rest were "the drizzling shits." Cornette claimed that he continued booking OVW TV from October 2010 until April 2011, at which point he handed off his duties. Cornette claims that his name was kept in the credits for OVW but by that time he was working full time with Ring of Honor and had nothing to do with OVW. Cornette pointed out that from 2007 until 2011 he either did not work with OVW or was not in the position where he could grant any favors to people who would have sex with his wife. - Cornette says he set up a sponsorship for OVW as a favor in 2015 and made a few appearances on OVW TV, but by that point he was only a paid talent and was not in a position of authority. Cornette says for the past 10 years he hasn't paid any attention to or had any involvement with OVW, especially since Danny Davis sold OVW to Al Snow. - Cornette addressed the accusation that he had threatened to use his power with the Kentucky Commission to punish people who wouldn't submit to his and Stacey's sexual whims. Cornette says that back during the territory days it was possible to bribe the commissioner to look the other way when wrestlers would blade, but that the modern day commission is a government post and it would be impossible for him to exert that type of influence. Cornette claims that would be an actual crime for the commissioner to do a favor for him just so he or his wife could "get laid." Cornette admits that he did ask the commissioner on some occasions to not drug test certain talents until after a show took place, or to not suspend other talents for not having a valid license, and whenever he would ask for favors like that, he would be denied. Cornette says he never asked a commissioner to suspend, fine or punish anybody in OVW. Cornette claims he could get a sworn statement to prove that. - Cornette also "categorically denies" ever promising any type of favors or threatening any type of punishment or exclusion on the condition of sexual relations with he or his wife. - Cornette says no female Pro Wrestler he has ever worked with his ever claimed he treated them in a sexually inappropriate manner. - Cornette says he has never been involved sexually with somebody who is not legal age. - Cornette says he has never physically abused anybody, expect for the men he hit with his tennis racket. He has never abused anybody in a sexual way. - Cornette says he has never sent an inappropriate picture or message to anybody on the internet. - Cornette says he never had any non-consensual sexual contact with anybody. - At this point, Cornette basically admitted that he and his wife Stacey are "swingers" for lack of a better term. Cornette admitted that both he and his wife have a relationship where they engage in sex with others, sometimes separately and sometimes apart, but he does not "cheat" on his wife as she is always aware of what he is doing sexually, or she is there when it happens. - Brian Last asked Jim Cornette to clarify that although and he and Stacey are admitted to being sexually active with other people, it was never associated with people getting a push in OVW. Cornette agreed, and joked that all he could offer is that if people got into the hot tub with he and Stacey, they could drive the OVW ring truck. - Cornette also talked about how the stories going around were making him sound like Hugh Hefner with all the hot tub parties. Cornette basically claims that even that aspect of his sex life is being blown way out of proportion. Cornette claims that in the past 15 years, he and Stacey have been involved with 5 or 6 people who are in the Professional Wrestling business, at most. Cornette claims that none of the people who were ever in his hot tub over the past 15 years were under contract with any major organization. - Cornette says that if you take out the accusation of he and Stacey using his position in OVW for sexual reasons, the only they are being accused of is having an interesting sex life. - Brian Last pointed out that in his opinion, Cornette is basically being "kink shamed" for having an unconventional sex life. Cornette says it wouldn't be possible for his sex life to be as exciting as some people have made it out to be and he wishes it had been. Cornette admitted that he and Stacey have been sexually involved with people outside the Pro Wrestling business, but "just a few, not a ton." Cornette also pointed out that the stories online have made it sound like Stacey is the one doing all the sexual exploring and not him. Cornette says the amount of sexual activity between the two of them is probably even. - Cornette talked about how seriously he takes the Pro Wrestling business, and how he finds it insulting that people would imply he would compromise the business for his own sexual gratification. - Cornette says some local Louisville fans think his wife Stacey is actually the character she portrayed on OVW TV and is some sort of deviant cult leader. - Cornette says the only evidence against him is a Facebook message and a picture of Stacey's ass. Cornette says that some people have claimed that the accuser must be telling the truth, because he has a picture of Stacey's ass. Cornette says that he hopes he does not offend anybody's sensibilities, but pictures of his wife's ass are not uncommon. Cornette says he has taken hundreds of pictures of his wife in a variety of locations over the years, and while she does not send them out unsolicited there are "quite a few" risque pictures of his wife in existence that she has shared. - Cornette says the Facebook message in question was written by Stacey, but it was not a conversation she had with the person who is making the accusation. Cornette is claiming that the accuser came by that conversation through other means. Cornette claims Stacey was drunk when she wrote the message and she was venting about a friend of theirs with whom she had a falling out. Cornette claims that the friend in question has since "made up" with Jim and Stacey, and he claims to not know how the accuser came into possession of the conversation. Cornette claims that the conversation has been cut, pasted and altered. - Cornette claims that neither he or Stacey actually know the person making the accusation, or recall ever having any conversation with him. Cornette claims they have never met and that he and Stacey "couldn't pick him out of a police lineup." Cornette claims that the accuser might have contacted Stacey under false pretenses pretending to be friends with the person Stacey references, when that was actually not the case. Cornette says their friend denies knowing the accuser and does not know why he has been dragging into this. The point is, the accuser claims he is close friends with the person referred to in the Facebook message. Cornette claims that is categorically untrue, and that he and Stacey are still friends with the person being referred to in the message. Cornette claims the accuser is not friends with the person referred to in the Facebook message. Cornette says the person being referred to in the Facebook message has no issue with Jim and Stacey Cornette, and was never under contract in OVW. So "grooming" would have been technically impossible and the entire backstory behind the accusation is a lie. - Cornette claims that anybody who corroborated the accusation are people from the local Louisville Pro Wrestling scene who have an axe to grind with he and Stacey, but have no proof of them "grooming" anybody because it never happened. Brian Last brought up the fact that two people have come forward and corroborated the accusation. Cornette claims that he knows the person who came forward, that his name is Michael and he is actually responsible for both accounts that backed up the accusation. Cornette claims that Michael has mental health issues, he is a veteran and Cornette says he does not want to malign him. Cornette says that when the accusations became public he looked into who was corroborating them and that is when he discovered it was Michael, a former OVW employee who he does know, that has a history of issues and he does not want to go into them. - Cornette pointed out that since the accusations have been made public, there have been calls on Twitter for Stacey to be banned from Professional Wrestling, which is impossible because she hasn't even been active in Pro Wrestling for 15 years. Cornette claims people have made the same statements about him, that he should be banned from Pro Wrestling. Cornette says he doesn't care about that. - Cornette says he accepts the hatred because he chose to make himself a public figure. What he doesn't understand is that these accusations are being made in the spirit of stopping bullying and intimidation against women in the Pro Wrestling business, but in that cause people are now attacking, bullying and slandering his wife. Cornette says that these attacks against his wife are being made by people who hate him but can't get to him. Cornette claims his wife has been overwhelmed with messages from people mocking her physical appearance and calling her a slut and whore and a sexual predator. - Cornette pointed out the timing of this controversy is terrible. He reminded Brian that Stacey's Father died this past winter and this was her first Father's Day without him. He said that she cannot even visit her Mother in person due to the pandemic, so she is feeling very lonely, sad and emotional when suddenly she is confronted with these accusations out of nowhere and is being insulted, mocked and degraded. Cornette says that his wife was having a bad enough weekend and on top of that she is being called a whore and spent three hours crying. Cornette talked about the Hanna Kimura incident and claims the exact same thing is happening to his wife, but people are okay with it because she is his wife. - Cornette pointed out that by a terrible example of timing, right before this whole controversy broke, Bobby Fulton of the Fantastics (who has been having a very public battle with Cancer) happened to Tweet a message thanking Cornette for being his friend and Tweeted a picture of them together. Since it happened right before the story broke, people have apparently been harassing Bobby Fulton and verbally abusing him. Cornette asked how can people who say they're against harassment of people in the Pro Wrestling business turn around and verbally abuse a 60 year old housebound man who just underwent chemotherapy. By this point, Cornette was obviously incensed and was basically cussing out everybody who was harassing his wife and friends. - Cornette says that a lot of people have been accused of a lot of things over the past few days, and unless the person admits they're guilty then he isn't going to judge them because based on what has happened to him he's not sure he can believe accusations are true. Cornette says that by making false accusations, people like his accuser are hurting the poor people who actually have been harassed or abused, because once they have been proven to be lying people will start to doubt everybody who comes forward even when they are telling the truth. - Cornette said in summation, the only thing he and Stacey are guilty of is having fun sexually, and cussing people out when they're angry. - Brian Last said that due to his relationship with Jim Cornette he has heard just about every criticism and claim against him, but he had never heard the allegations of "grooming" or trading sex for professional favors before. Cornette said that when somebody can prove that he did it, then he will be contrite but they can't prove it because he didn't do it. Brian Last asked on the record, for an unequivocal denial that Jim Cornette had never groomed John Cena, Dave Batista, Randy Orton or Brock Lesnar. Cornette laughed and said he couldn't even get Stacey in the same room as Brock Lesnar because they didn't get along. Cornette said you could go down the list, but he never groomed anybody. Cornette said he and his wife "have their fun" but they didn't do it. Cornette reiterated that his life hasn't been as exciting as the story has made out, and that these sexual things don't exactly happen all the time. Brian Last asked why he had never been invited to one of Jim Cornette's hot tub parties. Cornette said that Last never leaves his house, and now he can't due to the pandemic. - Cornette said this whole thing is just stupid and ridiculous but the way people have reacted has been repulsive. - Cornette said that he was so upset about this that he "wasn't going to sit here and answer questions about the Ding Dongs." - Cornette and Last said the show will go back to normal next time, and a standard Q&A edition of the "Drive-Thru" will be released later in the week.