The Jim Cornette Experience

[BruiserBrody]

Another largely skippable episode this week.  The first 45 mins is ads combined with stories of baby deer, a new a/c and troubles finding food during his latest travels. The rest of the show he reviews NXT Takeover, where he wishes for better angles, better promos, maybe some blood, and better facials.   He enjoyed the show, but realizes the flippy guys are what the fans react to now, and they are not really his thing. 

[The Thread Killer]

Yeah, this week's episode kind of stunk.  I guess some people love Jim's road stories but I really don't need to hear a play-by-play account of all the places he went trying to get a burger every damn week. I also find it ridiculous that Jim and Brian spent weeks ridiculing Conrad Thompson's podcasts and Bischoff in particular for promoting "dick pills" but now Jim's new sponsor is a company that sells specialized equipment so you can shave your balls, taint and asscrack...which Jim then proceeds to talk about in horrifying detail for 15 minutes.  That's so much classier. At least Eric's "dick pill" spots are fairly quick.  Seriously, Cornette went on for a ridiculous amount of time this week talking about "manscaping."

Then he finally gets to the NXT review after about 40 minutes of nonsense, and points out that he didn't have time to watch the whole show.  Maybe he would've had time if he didn't spend all of his time talking about shaving his body.  His review was pretty much what I expected, he loved Riddle vs. Strong (mostly because he loved Strong in ROH), he loves Shayna Baszler but didn't like the hardcore stuff, and then because Adam Cole was an ROH guy he praises him in the Main Event, but spends the rest of his time complaining about the modern wrestling style.

I don't disagree with him that the Main Even was too many spots and not enough psychology, and I especially agree with him that Johnny Gargano needs big time work on his facial expressions, promos and overall character.  A lot of his criticisms about the match were pretty much right on, but his dumping a lot of the blame on Gargano while praising Cole was a bit much for me.  The other thing was...why is Brian Last even there?  He literally doesn't speak at all during Jim's entire NXT review, and when Jim finally stops talking and asks Brian his opinion, Last replies: "I didn't see it, I don't watch NXT."  To which Jim replies: "Then why did you ask me to?"  Just confirms that as a host, Brian Last is pretty much a smug, arrogant, condescending jerk.

[sek69]

Here's what I don't get: Jim's a smart guy, he knows most of what goes on in wrestling now isn't his cup of tea, why does he spend so much time upset about it? It's not like someone in WWE is going to be like "oh shit, Jim Cornette didn't like our last show, we better get on that", and he knows that. It seems like his podcast is an audio version of Dave engaging with Twitter randos, wasting the time of someone with tons of expertise that could be better utilized elsewhere. 

[The Thread Killer]

Unfortunately, what's happening is that when Cornette gets cranky and goes off on somebody, be it Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Joey Ryan or whoever...word tends to spread online, especially on Twitter.  People then react about it either positively or negatively on social media, but then everybody goes and downloads or listens to the podcast to hear what Cornette actually said.  According to Brian Last, the episode where Cornette reviewed the AEW PPV and the subsequent follow-up response to the Sonny Kiss/Joey Ryan controversy were their most downloaded episodes in the history of the podcast. That means money for them, because all of their shows are posted on YouTube within a day, and their YouTube channel is monetized. During the whole Cornette/Bischoff feud recently, Brian Last commented that he doesn't know why 83 Weeks needs "Blue Chew" as a sponsor because the Cornette podcasts are making tons of money and he basically implied that if Conrad Thompson knew what he was doing, Conrad's podcasts would be too. So basically, I think in Brian Last's mind, Cranky Cornette = Money because the shows where he blows a gasket are always the most popular ones.

I am definitely not one of those people who thinks Cornette is working a gimmick.  I think he 100% means everything he says.  I also don't think he wants to be considered "relevant" by today's wrestling fan, like Omega and the Bucks have claimed.  He's quite proud of the fact that he's old school and out of touch with today's product for the most part, but I guess based on the reaction to his shows, he is appealing to a large segment of wrestling fandom that feels the same way he does. He mentioned on this week's show that he really does the podcasts as an afterthought, he never puts any effort or pre-planning into them (and it shows for the most part.)  He still considers himself semi-retired and makes his money from his Cornette's Collectibles business and occasional convention appearances, provided they are within driving distance of his home and he doesn't have to fly, which he refuses to do.  According to him, Court Bauer had to make concessions to get him to work in MLW as the Color Commentator and Promo Coach, because he isn't willing to commit to any Pro Wrestling job full time anymore.

I guess Jim Cornette is basically just being Jim Cornette and getting paid for it, which is a nice gig for him.  He gets to be miserable and rant about modern wrestling, and he gets paid for it.  Most of us are doing that for free.

[Afro Steel]

Only kind of keeping up with it, but it seems like there's a segment of people online trying to get Corny "cancelled." This gaining any traction? One of the wrestling history related Instagram accounts I follow seems obsessed with taking down Cornette the last few weeks.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, Afro Steel said:

Only kind of keeping up with it, but it seems like there's a segment of people online trying to get Corny "cancelled." This gaining any traction? One of the wrestling history related Instagram accounts I follow seems obsessed with taking down Cornette the last few weeks.

Yeah, the response to Cornette's review of AEW's Double or Nothing has really caused quite a backlash online, as we discussed here. The whole thing has continued to snowball since then.  A lot of fans, and even wrestlers (some who apparently never actually heard his review) took great umbrage with Cornette's review of the Pre-Show and the Battle Royal in particular - especially the comments he made about Sonny Kiss.  Cornette called Sonny a Transvestite, which in the eyes of some people makes him homophobic. In particular, Joey Ryan took it upon himself to defend Sonny, and tagged beIN Sports in his tweet, I assume trying to get Cornette fired from MLW. That set Cornette's fans (the so-called "Cult of Cornette") and his co-host Brian Last off, so they retaliated by dredging up all sorts of unsavory tweets Joey Ryan has made over the years joking about rape and paedophilia. Of course, Cornette has a history with Joey Ryan, just like he does with Omega and The Young Bucks who run AEW, so this whole thing took on a life of it's own. Cornette responded to the controversy on his podcast the next week and claimed that he never meant to insult Sonny Kiss for being gay, but he didn't apologize for calling him a Transvestite either.  Cornette then doubled down on his criticism of Joey Ryan.

I suppose there is a chance the whole thing might have actually blown over, except for the fact that this past week Cornette got into it again - this time with Sami Callihan as we discussed here. If you didn't hear, on last week's episode of Fusion, Callihan spat in Cornette's face, which he claims was in defense of Sonny Kiss.  Callihan subsequently got fired from MLW, which he is blaming on Jim Cornette. So now, not only are Sonny Kiss and Joey Ryan fans on Twitter calling for Cornette's head, but so are Sami Callihan's.  Once again, Cornette issued a rebuttal on his podcast this past week, claiming he had nothing to do with Callihan getting fired, but I guess that's not what some people want to believe. 

So you've basically got fans of Sonny Kiss, Joey Ryan and Sami Callihan in an uproar on Twitter, and Cornette's fans and Brian Last responding in kind.  Now this Independent wrestler named David Starr (who appears to be mostly famous for his time in CZW, I guess) has weighed in.  I guess Starr has an issue with Court Bauer, the guy who runs MLW and he also now has an issue with Cornette.  Starr apparently is friends with Sami Callihan and doesn't like Cornette's attitude towards modern wrestling in general. Starr unearthed a five second clip of Jim Cornette uttering the "N-Word" and posted it on Twitter.  The clip was apparently intended to make it sound like Cornette was literally using the word as an insult.  In response to the clip being released a bunch of fans complained that the clip was taken out of context, so Starr has now released the entire 8+ minute clip in response.  It turns out the clip is from an interview Cornette did where he wasn't directing the racial insult at anybody at that time, but he was describing a match he was involved with in Smoky Mountain 25 years ago, when he used the word during an argument with an African-American security guard in attempt to "get heat" as a heel.

So the various Sonny Kiss, Joey Ryan, Sami Callihan and now David Starr fans have all apparently banded together and are trying to use this clip and various other things Cornette has said over the years to get him fired from MLW and get his podcasts "cancelled."  Cornette being Cornette will probably respond with his usual vitriol as soon as he gets a chance.  In the meantime, his fans are already attacking on Twitter, and some have apparently threatened to release Sami Callihan's personal information on Twitter, in response.

Needless to say, there are those who are claiming the whole thing is a "work" especially since Cornette's downloads for his podcast have reportedly almost doubled ever since his AEW review. I guess it remains to be seen if anybody "important" responds to the complaints about Cornette and if he faces any repercussions as a result of the interview clip that has been released.  His using the word "Transvestite" and the accusations of him being homophobic didn't end up gaining very much traction, but who knows...this clip just might. It's not quite as damning as the infamous Hulk Hogan video, but there is no doubt David Starr has a clip of Cornette using the "N-Word" and his fans are doing their best to get Cornette fired because of it.

[El-P]

SJW at work is a very sad and pathetic thing. I hate homophobic and racist shits, but I despise SJW just as much (their way of acting is very much alt-right, actually, so there's a connection here). That's the annoying thing about the entertainment industry in the world of social media, you know too much about people, on either side.

[TheDuke]

I like Cornette's road stories. I enjoy hearing him basically cut promos on burger restaurants. I find those sections entertaining.

[PeteF3]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 10:56 PM, sek69 said:

Here's what I don't get: Jim's a smart guy, he knows most of what goes on in wrestling now isn't his cup of tea, why does he spend so much time upset about it? It's not like someone in WWE is going to be like "oh shit, Jim Cornette didn't like our last show, we better get on that", and he knows that. It seems like his podcast is an audio version of Dave engaging with Twitter randos, wasting the time of someone with tons of expertise that could be better utilized elsewhere. 

His first Raw review (which wasn't really planned, but he wanted to watch Raw to see the Revival win the tag titles) did huge amounts of downloads, was talked about everywhere almost all positively, and was at least at one point their most-viewed YouTube video. They also got a lot of feedback encouraging him to review Smackdown, since this was when Road Dogg was still in charge (I think) and it was widely considered a far superior show. So that followed, more followed from that, and now they're milking the cow dry.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

About 90% of the podcast market is saturated with people talking about how much WWE sucks.  It’s low hanging fruit.  Lots of people just love to listen to that, so I can see why it’d be an easy thing for Cornette to do since it’s pretty much his gimmick anyhow.

[The Thread Killer]

Conrad Thompson recently said that Eric Bischoff and JR's podcasts usually do between 200,000 to 300,000 downloads a week.  I think his show with Tony Schiavone does quite a bit fewer, and during it's peak I heard and read that Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard was doing significantly more than that, but I think that has dropped off. At it's height, Conrad claimed STW was getting an unbelievable 750,000 downloads a week, or 3 Million a month.  It's been a long time since Conrad bragged about Bruce's numbers and I'm betting there is a reason for that.  JR has said his audience has increased dramatically since he teamed up with Conrad Thompson.  But despite all that, even at his most popular I think Jim Cornette's podcasts get more downloads than Conrad Thompson, the "Podfather" and king of Pro Wrestling podcasts.

During one of his many spats with Vince Russo, Jim Cornette claimed that The Jim Cornette Experience does around 350,000 downloads a week - and that was a couple of years ago. Cornette once claimed that if called upon, he could prove that more people downloaded his podcast on a weekly basis than watched TNA wrestling during their decline, and if those figures are true then I believe it. He also offered to compare his numbers to those of Vince Russo's podcast, who wisely ignored the offer.  On top of that, Cornette has long claimed that he makes more money from his collectibles business and from personal appearances than he does from his podcast.  He has repeatedly claimed that he makes more money now than he ever did when he was active as a Pro Wrestling manager. But Cornette is no dummy - he uses his podcast to promote his other business ventures, obviously.  Hell, the first 20 minutes of every show usually consist of him pimping his store and upcoming appearances.  And Brian Last has wisely hitched his wagon to Cornette and uses his platform as Cornette's co-host to promote his own large network of shows.

And now, if Brian Last is to be believed, the show where Cornette reviewed Double or Nothing did "almost a million" downloads, which (if true) is staggering. Obviously, they base their ad rates on downloads, and more significantly their YouTube channel is monetized and they get paid based on views.  Cornette and Last have both claimed that since the whole Double or Nothing controversy,  their audience continues to grow. Some of these people who are attacking Cornette online are pretty much playing right into his hands.  Let's not forget, Cornette broke into the business in Memphis and at heart is an old school carny of the first order. As Eric Bischoff said: "Controversy Creates Cash" and in this case, I think Cornette and Last are laughing all the way to the bank.

[Mad Dog]

I only listen to the Drive Thru. I find Cornette to be mostly insufferable when he gets into politics or modern wrestling. I think he is mostly right when he dissects the issues with the current WWE and some of wrestling's issues in general. But he's also extremely out of touch and his RoH run shows he doesn't have a solution or know what fans actually want these days. It's just easier to listen to him talking about old stuff that he actually enjoys.

I find Brian Last to be absolutely useless as well. He's even worse than Cornette in many regards when it comes to modern wrestling. 

[The Thread Killer]

Well, Cornette responded to David Starr's accusations of racism on today's episode of The Experience.  It was an...interesting rebuttal.  I didn't realize there was a history to the heat between Starr and Cornette. He also decided that his newest target is Orange Cassidy, however I approve of that so I'm not complaining. It all led into his analysis on the role of comedy in Pro Wrestling, along with a promise to review the AEW show this weekend - so I expect the outrage to continue. He's definitely working these guys now.  He knows his downloads are going to continue to go through the roof, the more he eviscerates AEW the more his fans lap it up and his enemies listen to get new fuel for their fire.  And he laughs all the way to the bank.

[PeteF3]

Is Cornette making any money directly off of the podcast? His only sponsor is Stephen P. New and I'm pretty sure they're old friends, and I'm guessing that agreement isn't tied so directly to # of downloads. Of course there are Youtube views (for whatever that's worth nowadays) and indirect benefits like his book and merch sales, but it's not like he's getting a cut from Omaha steaks here.

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

Is Cornette making any money directly off of the podcast? His only sponsor is Stephen P. New and I'm pretty sure they're old friends, and I'm guessing that agreement isn't tied so directly to # of downloads. Of course there are Youtube views (for whatever that's worth nowadays) and indirect benefits like his book and merch sales, but it's not like he's getting a cut from Omaha steaks here.

Brian Last claims they are making good money of their podcasts, and recently claimed they didn't even need sponsors to do it.  It was when he took a shot at Conrad Thompson and said that he didn't know why Conrad's podcasts needed "dick pills" as a sponsor when there are plenty of ways to make lots of money from your podcast.  But that's Brian Last and he could be full of crap.  Then again, he apparently makes a full time living from his network of podcasts, so there could be something to it, I suppose. It's not like Brian Last's other podcasts on the "Acadian Vanguard Network" are going to get anywhere near the downloads Cornette does.

Stephen P. New is a paid sponsor, but just for the Drive-Thru.  When Cornette promotes him on The Experience he's doing it for free.  They did have that one new sponsor "manscaped" for a few weeks, but this week Cornette did an ad for Rhino Records, so I guess they're a new sponsor for now.  Aside from sponsors, I think they do make quite a bit from YouTube.  That's why Cornette had a conniption fit when their old Official YouTube channel got demonetized for a while.  That guy who was illegally posting Cornette content ("Jim Cornette Talking Sense") even admitted he was making a lot of money from Cornette related YouTube content before Cornette made him stop and basically brought him on as an employee.  I think if your YouTube content gets a lot of hits you can do pretty well for yourself.

[BruiserBrody]

 

[BruiserBrody]

The AEW review ends with the Bucks match because Jim was tired. He didn't bother watching Jericho/Page.  Mind you he DVR'd the show and was watching it Sunday.   

Highlight #2 was Brian and Jim doing an ad for NFL betting without having a clue about how it works or who would be a good bet to make. Glorious trainwreck radio. 

Minor highlight #3 was Jim's exasperation about his TV not having an HDMI port and what he would need one for. 

[El-P]

I quit after two minutes in (of the review, did not listen to the rest) when he said that Excalibur was exceptionnally bad and that him and Goldenboy sounded like two fans talking in their basement and that it got better when JR came in. I mean, when you're that much biased, you're not getting more of my time.

[FMKK]

Some of Cornette's points and attention to detail in those reviews is good and worth listening to, some of his criticisms are matters of taste that you can agree/disgree with based on your own taste but a lot of it is also the sort of nitpicking that you'll find anywhere if you're looking to find things to complain about. And its the sort of focused scrutiny that he wouldn't subject any of his favourite wrestling to.

Brian Last is kinda unlistenable to me. So many of his talking points are out of date and seem to be made to one-up Cornette's opinions. The least he could do is a little bit of research to fill in the details when Jim is asking questions about the workers or the angles.

[El-P]

40 minutes ago, FMKK said:

Some of Cornette's points and attention to detail in those reviews is good and worth listening to, some of his criticisms are matters of taste that you can agree/disgree with based on your own taste but a lot of it is also the sort of nitpicking that you'll find anywhere if you're looking to find things to complain about. And its the sort of focused scrutiny that he wouldn't subject any of his favourite wrestling to.

A lot of it is going on with AEW in general. As if they rub a lot of people the wrong way with their success so far. I mean, hearing Cornette, of all people, use the "if that happened in the WWE people would shit on them for that kind of stuff" argument is mind blowing. Really Corny ? You of all people ? That reeks of bad faith and sadly, it makes him sound as much of a gimmick as Brucie does. It's kinda interesting to see guys like Schiavone being much more open minded, as I mean way before he was even involved with AEW, you could feel he had fun in MLW calling some crazy-ass indie style matches (when they still had some good names), just like he would have fun watching old ECW cards on his podcast.

And speaking if MLW, what if someone would break down the very mediocre product Corny is involved with right now ? Because they sure don't deliver anything great ever, have zero hype despite being on Being Sports and having their show on Youtube and very often displays the most indierriffic of indierriffic stuff on the undercard (awful spot monkey guys like Gringo Loco and Aero Wolf or whatever his name is) because they don't have a legit roster. If Corny would use the same kind of logic he uses breaking down AEW with MLW, I wonder how that would look...

[Scarlet-Left]

I don't listen to the podcast, apart from when I hear about stuff like the OVW deep dives. I don't like modern wrestling (exceptions abound, of course). Jim doesn't like modern wrestling. Brain Last barely ever even watches the shows he's asking Jim to review. So, what's the point? (I know the point is that some people enjoy hearing Jim rant, that was a rhetorical question).

That said, as someone who's ambivalent towards AEW I had a listen to a clip from his 'Double or Nothing' review (the battle royale) and it definitely steered me clear of the product. It sounds like TNA; comedy nonsense on the undercard in convoluted gimmick matches, ex-WWE versus Indie darlings on top. I can recognise where Jim might be biased (as in, if he says so-and-so sucks or so-and-so is great without giving examples) but half the entertainment value of Jim's classic rants come purely from the trainwreck he's describing.

If you tell me Orange Cassidy's great, so what? If you tell me Orange Cassidy sucks, so what? If you describe his gimmick ("wrestling's fake so who gives a fuck?" - basically), then I can draw my own conclusion.

[BruiserBrody]

Interesting nugget in this week's Drive-Thru:  WWE doesn't pay royalties on NWA footage to the guys for DVDs.   

[Big Pete]

I can understand how a one hour pre-show and four hour PPV can be difficult to sit through, but when you promise to a review a show and don't even get around to watching the main event, I don't care if you're Roger Ebert, it's a bad review.

I still look forward to his opinion. Jim can still turn a phrase and I enjoy his perspective if only because I'm sure the old guard see it the same way. However, I can see why others would be turned off especially when he just repeats himself on certain wrestlers and goes on and on.

[The Thread Killer]

Cornette finished his review and ended up reviewing the All Out Main Event on this week's episode of the Experience.  I honestly can't blame him for not doing it last week.  I know advertising last week's episode as a review of All Out and then not reviewing the Main Event is a definite "bait and switch" but in his defense, the show was a lot longer than I think he expected it to be. I tried to watch that AEW PPV in one sitting as well, and I couldn't get through it all either.  I don't know who the genius is that decided "big" Pro Wrestling shows in 2019 needed to be 4 + hours long, but whoever it was needs a smack in the teeth.  All Out was living proof of that.  You're not going to find a more rabid fan base than AEW fans, but judging by the crowd noise, even they were burned out by the time the Main Event rolled around.

Cornette reviews NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff during this week's Experience.  I was really surprised at how much he liked WALTER vs. Tyler Bate.  I personally loved that match and have it as my current MOTY, where it bumped off Cody vs. Dustin - but I was caught off guard by how much Cornette and Last liked it as well.  The one good thing about Cornette's review of the NXT UK show is that he's never met anybody on the roster, and he doesn't have heat with anybody there, so he went into the review with an open mind - or as much of an open mind as you're likely to get from Jim Cornette.

[The Thread Killer]

On 9/6/2019 at 10:40 AM, El-P said:

And speaking if MLW, what if someone would break down the very mediocre product Corny is involved with right now ? Because they sure don't deliver anything great ever, have zero hype despite being on Being Sports and having their show on Youtube and very often displays the most indierriffic of indierriffic stuff on the undercard (awful spot monkey guys like Gringo Loco and Aero Wolf or whatever his name is) because they don't have a legit roster. If Corny would use the same kind of logic he uses breaking down AEW with MLW, I wonder how that would look...

I've seen you say stuff like this on a couple of occasions about Cornette and MLW, and I don't get it.  Cornette was never on the creative team in MLW.  From what I understand, Court Bauer handles a lot of the creative, if not all of it.  Cornette was simply brought in to MLW to cover for Tony Schiavone during baseball season, and to act as a promo coach. He's part time at best, and the proof of this is the fact that he isn't even working for MLW right now.  He's been saying for the last couple of years that he won't go anywhere he can't get to by driving, and he won't go back to New York under any circumstances.  He claims he was asked to work the recent MLW tour of Texas and he wouldn't go due to the distance. He hasn't ruled out returning to MLW as a color guy at some point if they're doing tapings within 600 miles of his home, and if they need him - but it's not like the he's the creative force behind MLW. You always seem to give Cornette way more credit than he deserves when it comes to MLW, like just because he worked there he was somehow responsible for the stuff they did which didn't work, or that working there made him a hypocrite when he slammed AEW.

Not to mention, Cornette has been openly critical of MLW.  He has openly stated on a number of occasions that while he respects the cultural and historical significance of Lucha Libre, he doesn't like it, he thinks it's overly choreographed and too fake looking and doesn't really enjoy calling the Lucha matches in MLW.  Not to mention his public feuds with Callihan or most recently Mance Warner.  How many announcers have you seen that get into Twitter spats with guys on their own roster, or roast them on their podcasts?  I've heard Cornette praise MJF and Jacob Fatu (and a couple of others) to the high heavens, but I never heard him say anything implying that MLW was superior to AEW in any way, shape or form.

Face it dude, you just don't like Cornette because he craps all over AEW and in doing so, is verbalizing the opinions of a select group of Pro Wrestling fans who don't like that style. He's pretty much the voice of the resistance when it comes to a certain segment of Pro Wrestling fandom that doesn't care for the so called "evolution" of the sport, and are being vocal about it.