The Thread Killer

He said on more than one occasion that Hilary Clinton didn't deserve to be President because she's a woman, and women are meant to be subservient to men...because they were created from the body of man. "I don’t believe a woman was created to run this country based on the fact that the woman was taken from the man’s rib...Woman wasn’t created first. The man was created first. The woman was created second. I believe that’s how God wanted the pecking order to be." And of course who could forget this gem: "I have come to the conclusion if you are part of the NXT crowd, the people who were in Orlando, the ‘This is Awesome’ crowd, you fall in three categories. Its this simple, bro. You’re either A) homosexual. Okay, you like men. For you to react this way, you have to like men. B) You’re either no homosexual but have homosexual tendencies. Or C) You’re in the closet. Its that simple bro, because men do not react to other men that way. It’s not a normal function. Bro, I had someone tweet me after I made a tweet that Finn Balor has to hit the gym. Bro, I literally had a guy send me a picture of Finn Balor with his shirt off. Bro, you are probably a homosexual. If you are searching the internet for pictures of Finn Balor without his shirt on, and taking his time to send it to me, you fall in one of these categories." In his defense, he did go on to say that he doesn't actually have a problem with gays and worked with a lot of gay wrestlers.

Well, as bad as what Cornette said is, Russo has said even worse over the past couple of years about women and homosexuals, so I suppose Russo might refrain from saying anything since there are plenty of skeletons in his closet that would not be hard to find.

He absolutely brought this all on himself and I have no sympathy whatsoever for him. However, I find it humorous to see people like Dixie Carter using this as an opportunity to throw her two cents in. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up getting a self-satisfied promo from Russo any minute now. "See bro? Cornette is a bad person, bro! I tried to tell everybody bro, but nobody would listen to me, bro!"

I know Bruce Prichard has told a couple of horror stories about what it was like to deal with her, and Bischoff ended up suing her as well. He refuses to discuss the details, but he does not have flattering things to say about her either. In fact, aside from Mick Foley I don't know many people who do.

I had heard this as well. In fact, hasn't Billy Corgan claimed that they had an exclusive contract with Willie Mack, which he violated by signing with Impact? I remember Corgan saying that he had a solid legal case against Mack for breach of contract, but in the end he didn't want to get into another legal battle with Impact after he had just finished getting his money back from the whole Dixie Carter/TNA investment debacle. In his interview with Mike Johnson he claimed he didn't want to be known as "the lawsuit guy" so he ended up deciding to just let the whole thing go. It's a shame really, I would have loved to see Willie Mack in the NWA.

They agreed that when Cornette left TNA the public story would be that they agreed amicably to part ways. (Pretty much like what happened today with Cornette and the NWA, I assume.) Then Terry Taylor leaked it to Mike Johnson that Cornette had been fired, after Dixie Carter had given Cornette her word that wouldn't happen. Cornette called her on the phone to ask why TNA had done that, and Dixie apparently assured him that the whole thing had been a misunderstanding and that she was personally going to call Mike Johnson and issue a retraction, which she never did. It seems like Dixie pretty much told Cornette that they would agree to go with the story that the firing was a mutual agreement just so she could get rid of him, but never had any intention of honoring that agreement, she just did it to get rid of him. Cornette claimed he didn't even care if they had told everybody that he'd been fired, but he was pissed that it was their idea to claim they'd mutually parted ways, but then lied about it. I'm pretty sure that incident was the end of Cornette's friendship with Terry Taylor, because Cornette claims to have seen evidence that it was Taylor who fucked him over and leaked the info to PWInsider.

The Kenny King deal is pretty well known. When Cornette was an executive with ROH, the decision was made to put the Tag Team titles on Kenny King and Rhett Titus, even though King's contract was coming up. King verbally agreed to a new contract (and if you believe Cornette, even shook hands on the deal) so they went ahead and did the title change, but then King apparently went back on his word and refused to sign the actual contract when it was presented to him. He went to TNA and did a tryout match there without even telling ROH he was doing it, so they fired him. Then of course, King went on to accomplish exactly jack squat in TNA and ended up slinking back to ROH with his tail between his legs. As soon as King went back on his word about signing the contract, went to TNA without telling anybody and basically screwed Rhett Titus over, Cornette went ballistic and started burying King in interviews all over the place. As far as Dixie Carter...well her history with Cornette is pretty much well documented. She chose Russo over Cornette, and if that isn't going to get you heat with Cornette, I don't know what will. What we all assumed would happen is currently happening...every single Pro Wrestler or executive Cornette has ever criticized or cussed out are now tripping over themselves coming out of the woodwork to condemn him, Austin Aries being the first unsurprisingly. There is blood in the water now.

I only found out about it by accident, when one of my friends made some comment about not liking The Young Bucks and it wasn't directed at them, it was part of some discussion about New Japan or something, and one of them posted some snarky response and blocked him. My friend was all "WTF, I didn't even tag them in that tweet!" I know Kevin Nash and The Honky Tonk Man have been known to do the same thing. I was just flummoxed that these guys have the time to do that, never mind the inclination. Twitter is hardly the place for the sensitive or easily offended.

Agreed. I don't even doubt that Cornette intended the joke to allude to how tough Trevor Murdoch is...but how anybody could make a joke involving black people and fried chicken and not expect a backlash is beyond me. This reminds me a bit of when Michael Hayes gave that interview where he was acting mildly puzzled that people found the Confederate Flag offensive. He may not have worn it with the intention of offending African-American fans, but you can sure as hell understand why it would offend them.

I know he automatically blocks anybody who identifies as a Trump supporter or says they're a Republican. You didn't post a picture of yourself wearing a MAGA hat, did you?

One thing occurred to me today. I guess this whole thing pretty much scuttles whatever small chance there was of The Midnight Express ever getting into the WWE Hall of Fame. Jim Cornette has said many times that he'd probably accept if it was offered, but he'd be basically doing it for Dennis Condrey, Stan Lane and especially Bobby Eaton, because there is a payday involved. Cornette himself doesn't care if he gets in. A lot of guys (Steve Austin being one of the most notable ones) have been vocally campaigning for a while to see The Midnight Express get in. There was even the theory that WWE wanted to see how Cornette behaved himself when he inducted the Rock and Roll Express as kind of a test when deciding if they would induct The Midnight Express. After this latest incident, Cornette is pretty much radioactive and I'd be shocked if WWE touched him now. Remember how people reacted to the Moolah Battle Royal? Imagine if WWE announced Jim Cornette was going into the Hall of Fame. His detractors would be out with their knives in full attack mode, and there is no way a publicly traded company like WWE would want to touch a situation like that. If they erased Hulk freaking Hogan from history for three years, no way in hell Jim Cornette gets in. Which is sad for Condrey and Eaton, since they are both in very poor health and might enjoy the benefits of a HOF induction. According to Cornette, Stan Lane is totally out of the business and has no idea what is going on in the industry now, so he likely wouldn't care.

I guess your definition of "a whole lot of bookings" and mine are different. He was scheduled to do a meet and greet before the NWA PPV (which is obviously not happening now) and aside from that he isn't booked anywhere until some fanfest in February 2020. Before this mess blew up, he had been claiming that he probably wouldn't be appearing anywhere until the Spring of 2020 at the earliest. He refuses to fly, and there are a bunch of States he won't go to anymore (New York chief among those.) He's said it a million times on his podcast, he isn't doing any more autograph signings, conventions, personal appearances or stuff like that unless it is somewhere within reasonable driving distance of his home (like The Crockett Cup and NWA 70.) He has said he will make exceptions for two reasons, if it is a favor for a friend (like the WWE HOF for the RnR's or MLW for Court Bauer) or if they make him a financial offer which is so large he can't afford to turn it down. When Brian Last asked him what that figure would be, Cornette said it would have to be six figures - which is probably bull, but still. There is a big benefit as a tribute and to raise money for Bobby Eaton coming up in December, (www.DontTellBobby.com) which Cornette said he was going to have to miss because he was going to be working for the NWA. I am curious to see if he goes to that event now, because he had mentioned that he wished he could be there. All I am saying is that in this particular case, I believe what Cornette is saying. Jim Cornette is full of shit just as much as all people involved in the Pro Wrestling business, but in this case I think he's telling the truth. After the whole suicide controversy last month he claimed that while he was actively working in the Pro Wrestling business, he had to bite his tongue all the time and keep his opinion to himself (?!) in order to avoid conflict and presumably costing himself work. For him, I think the turning point was when he quit Ring of Honor in 2012. Cornette claims that once he made enough money to retire he made the conscious decision to start speaking his mind about the Pro Wrestling business, regardless of what the consequences would be to him professionally. He said this during the same segment where he said he didn't really care if the NWA fired him. Without getting into specifics, he has claimed that aside from his collectibles business and podcasts, he invested his money wisely enough that he doesn't have to work anymore. He has claimed multiple times that since quitting ROH he has never once had to go looking for work, the work comes to him and he has the luxury of turning a lot of it down. I know a lot of people want to "cancel" Cornette in response to his comments about modern Pro Wrestling over the past couple of years and especially in light of this latest controversy. They want to see him lose work and be exiled from the business. My main point is that he has already pretty much exiled himself. I've said it before and I think it bears repeating, I honestly don't think Cornette gives a shit about the consequences - which is why he says a lot of the shit he does. People who already love him are just going to love him more, and people who already hate him are going to keep hating him. It's natural to want to see him held accountable for his words. It's always satisfying when somebody does something wrong and we get to see them suffer the consequences of their behavior. I'm not convinced that is going to happen in this case. I'm not sure what they can take from Cornette that he actually wants.

The Bucks do vanity searches and then block people who say anything negative about them, even if it isn't directly at them.

I tried following Cornette for about a day before I unfollowed him. If his tweets weren't bad enough, the responses from his fans were enough to make me vow to never make that mistake again.

I have to interject here...there is no way in hell Cornette would have ever wanted to appear on that pointless WWE show anyhow. He has turned down multiple chances to go back to WWE for a variety of reasons in the past. He has zero love for that company and most of the people in it. It was only the Rock n Roll Express getting inducted into the Hall of Fame and them wanting Cornette to induct them that got him back there the last time. While he was there, he shot an episode of Table for 3, Photo Shoot, and they got his comments on a bunch of topics for DVD's and documentaries they were doing. People are already starting to act like this whole situation is going to cost him bookings when he's made it abundantly clear over the past couple of years that he doesn't want to be booked anywhere. I'm sure Cornette couldn't give less of a shit what somebody like Renee Young thinks of him.

Yeah, I was going to say...on the occasions that I listen to The Jim Cornette Experience I usually have to sit through at least 10 minutes of him ranting and raving about how much he hates Donald Trump and the entire Republican Party in general. It's pretty tiresome, actually.

That has to be when the Rock n Rolls won the NWA Tag Team Championships, I would assume.

I'm very disappointed that this whole situation arose, with Cornette for making the joke and then with the NWA for not editing it out when they had plenty of time to do so. Having said that, I can't honestly say that this is going to keep me from being a fan of the NWA, watching Power or ordering the PPV. We've discussed this multiple times before here at PWO, but it bears repeating now...I think in order to be a fan of Professional Wrestling you have to be able to separate your feelings about the performers and the performance. Or especially the management and the product. I've come to accept that Pro Wrestling is pretty much a scummy business run and inhabited by scummy people for the most part. We all have our own personal line and breaking point of course, but for me...this incident wasn't it.

In the NWA thread I suggested Dutch Mantell. I don't know if you ever heard him when he did color back in WCW after Turner bought JCP but before Bischoff came in, but he was great. Knowledgeable, and really funny. He was also the Color Commentator on the infamous "Heroes of Wrestling" PPV back in 1999...not that it should be held against him.

I'm betting they don't name, shame and fire the person responsible for letting the joke stay on the show because I'm betting the person responsible either has the last name Corgan or Lagana.

Well, either they fired him or he quit (odds of either are 50/50 to me, since he made it pretty clear last month after the whole "suicide" controversy that he'd be okay with not doing the December tapings if that kind of situation arose again, which it has) but the bottom line is now he's gone. They're announcing it as a "resignation" and we won't have long to wait to hear his side of the story, as he's going to be addressing it on his podcast on Friday. The NWA apologized again when they made the announcement, for those who weren't satisfied with the apology from last night. I believe you are 100% correct sir. When he announced he'd be addressing the situation on Friday he certainly sounded neither conciliatory or even remotely apologetic. Sad thing is, I bet his podcast on Friday sets new records for listeners. Many of those will be his fans listening to get his side of the story, many others will be his detractors ready to transcribe any fresh outrage and spread it across Twitter the moment he says it. What's amusing to me is the reaction to his "resignation" online. It seems split into three groups, NWA fans who were threatening to boycott the NWA and are now mollified, Cornette fans who are now outraged and are claiming they'll be boycotting the NWA now for losing Cornette, and special third group who are claiming that this is a good step but it's not enough and they are demanding whoever in the NWA that allowed the comment to get through editing and air be named and fired as well. I am hoping that this Friday Cornette saves his vitriol for the people who complained about him and "misinterpreted" his "joke" but that he doesn't rip into the NWA. I am hoping he discourages his idiot fans from boycotting the NWA or going after Lagana and Corgan. I wonder who they're going to get to replace him? I am hoping there might be a decent retired or inactive Pro Wrestler out there who actually has some experience in the industry (preferably a heel) who can be moved into the Color Commentary position. I just hope and pray they don't get somebody who sucks. Joe Galli the play-by-play guy is okay, but they could really use somebody with experience in there with him. You know who would be outstanding? Dutch Mantell. He's an outstanding heel color guy.

Yeah, the clip of Cornette using the exact same joke in the WWF in 1995 is all over Twitter right now.

Nick Aldis released a statement tonight condemning Cornette's joke, so it seems clear that the NWA isn't going to shield him from the fallout of this situation. Problem for the NWA is, even if they decide to go public tomorrow and fire Cornette, they still have three more weeks of shows to burn through before the PPV and the next set of Power tapings. I wouldn't be surprised if they announced that Cornette will not be the Color Commentator for the PPV and on Power from now on, but there is not much they can do to scrub him from the upcoming shows. He does interviews from the podium and even if they tried to get clever and edit his commentary out or have somebody else do a voice-over, you'd still see him sitting there in the studio...it's too small an environment to try and cut all the scenes where he appears. It's not like they're going to scrap the shows. So they're pretty much stuck with him for the next few weeks, whether they like it or not at this point.

Yeah it was Pete, he wrote pretty much all of their lyrics and in the mid-seventies he was into that objectivism stuff, but I have seen him say in interviews that got way overblown because they dedicated an album to Ayn Rand in 1976 or something. From that point on, a lot of people liked to paint them as rabid Libertarians or something but as I said, I really don't think that represents any of their political views now - not that it matters anyhow because they're retired. And you are correct, Neil Young also has to cancel out a lot of crap we have unleashed upon the world. And no, you're not wrong for liking the Crash Test Dummies. As I recall, I had their first few albums on cassette!

Yeah but then that sets a precedent and I'd have to apologize for Celine Dion and then Justin Bieber...it never ends. Thank God we gave the world Shatner. Luckily he makes up for pretty much everything.