The Jim Cornette Experience

[Coffey]

I feel like women's wrestling is probably the biggest area that I disagree with Cornette about. He rarely can even convey his point about women without it coming across as sexist. Often he'll even completely write them off & not watch their stuff. Which is odd as he very obviously loves Charlotte Flair & Rhea Ripley & will go out of his way to both watch & praise them. I do agree that a lot of people seemingly rate the women on a curve also, which probably doesn't help matters. That was somewhat mentioned in the AEW section about how people tend to overrate the women & I think that does more harm than good. Same kind of thing that I think hurts the Bucks & Omega when Meltzer puts them on a pedestal. 

Jim is also not super fond of Japanese wrestling, which most of my favorite all-time matches involving a lot of my favorite all-time wrestlers like Stan Hansen, happened in Japan. 

Also, he often makes jokes, jokes that you can tell he's been making for years, and a lot of younger, more modern fans don't realize he's joking & take his stuff out of context. When there's a mob mentality & tribalism in pro-wrestling now, everyone is always looking for the next thing to get mad about & Cornette frequently stokes that fire. I would even argue he does that purposely. The stoking, not the outdated jokes. I think the outdatedness just comes from the fact that he's almost 60-years-old & isn't great with technology. So he's not exactly up to date with how the world, especially the internet, has changed around him. Hell if you've just listened to him try to talk about his recent internet problems or his e-mail problems you can tell he doesn't have the first single clue about anything computer related.

It's actually somewhat fascinating to me that he leans Democratic politically when you consider a lot of his other views & how he's from Kentucky. That's why Meltzer making the Trump comment set him off so much. 

Ultimately, I like Jim Cornette & I like AEW. I don't have to like everything that either of them same or do but I can still like them both without having to choose one or the other. Too many people, especially on websites like Twitter, seem to think everything is either a this or that decision & it's just not.

[sek69]

Jim may get mad at Dave for mentioning it, but he does act a lot like Trump and his fans act an awful lot like MAGA loonies who go after anyone who says a bad word about their dear leader. The reason Dave would make those comparisons was to point out the irony of how even though they are opposites politically, Jim does act very similar to him at times.

Case in point, everyone who disagrees with him gets some sort of disparaging nickname and he takes everything as a personal slight. 

To be fair, I've long believed Dave is on the spectrum (even more so since raising my son who is also on it) and I honestly believe Dave thinks Jim is working and doesn't get the social clues being sent that say the opposite. I know that is an unpopular statement since people use that as a slur to attack someone a lot on the internet, but the infatuation with numbers/getting stuck on minor points and going on tangents about them/his obsessive work ethic....to me it's all telltale signs that if taken that way explain a lot about how he acts/behaves. 

Both men at this point would be better suited just never mentioning the other's name, but both guys being who they are that isn't  likely to happen. 

[Gertner]

Comparing Cornette to Trump and his ride or die fans to MAGA supporters is spot friggen on and I'm a fan of Cornette....when it sticks to talking about old wrestling.

[ragemaster]

Cornette problem is he can't see how similar he and the midnight express are to today’s wrestling. They were the work horse of their day and did things which would piss off a lot of the older wrestlers. 

When Dave points out this, or compares the midnight Expess to the Young bucks he can't see it and takes it as an insult, rather than it's Dave giving a complement. 

Cornette says they would try stuff out on the house shows and if the people popped they bring it to TV, no different than Orange Cassidy making the people pop with his stuff.  How is what Orange Cassidy doing any more unbelievable than Cornette CPR schick at ringside, to get a reaction from the crowd.  

 If you listen to Dave radio show, he’s always made a point to follow the trends of wresting and where it's going, he reports it for today fans and not fans from 30 years ago, as they probably not watching now, as wrestling evolves and changes.

 

[blueminister]

Historical relativist wrestling takes are the worst and Dave dishing them out like crack cocaine on a playground almost undoes the entirety of his good works. Orange Cassidy tries to pop crowds, he's basically the same thing as 80s Jim Cornette.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Since I’ve been consuming all the All Out takes this week, I’m going to listen to Corny’s review.  Lord help me.

[The Thread Killer]

28 minutes ago, Zoo Enthusiast said:

Since I’ve been consuming all the All Out takes this week, I’m going to listen to Corny’s review.  Lord help me.

I listened to it yesterday, since I had actually seen All Out and I was curious what Cornette's thoughts were.  As usual, he had some valid criticisms that I agreed with, some that were so ridiculous that even Brian Last didn't agree with him, and there was some stuff that he really liked...especially the Punk/Darby match.  As you would expect, he's never going to have anything even remotely positive to say about a Young Bucks or Kenny Omega match.  Brian Last was a bit more fair minded about the Main Event, I don't think he dislikes Omega all that much.  At least (unlike Cornette) he seems to be able to see past the goofy nonsense that Omega does and find the positives.  In the overall picture, it's not like Cornette ended up indiscriminately shitting all over the PPV like I am sure a lot of people expected him to do.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

8 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I listened to it yesterday, since I had actually seen All Out and I was curious what Cornette's thoughts were.  As usual, he had some valid criticisms that I agreed with, some that were so ridiculous that even Brian Last didn't agree with him, and there was some stuff that he really liked...especially the Punk/Darby match.  As you would expect, he's never going to have anything even remotely positive to say about a Young Bucks or Kenny Omega match.  Brian Last was a bit more fair minded about the Main Event, I don't think he dislikes Omega all that much.  At least (unlike Cornette) he seems to be able to see past the goofy nonsense that Omega does and find the positives.

I’m still on the Rampage portion of the show but I can tell he’s going to be high on Punk/Darby.  Hearing him call Excalibur “Excrement” is just dumb.

I don’t get how the guy who pushed Davey Richards as ROH world champ is burying Daniel Garcia as being someone completely lacking credibility.  I was live for a Garcia/Richards match at AAW last weekend and thought it was very good, and I think Garcia has been really good during his AEW run, especially since he essentially came out of nowhere.

[BigBadMick]

Does anyone know of timestamps for Cornette Exprience and Drive-Thru?

There's usually a few topics I'd like to hear, but wading through trying to find it......

[SomethingSavage]

Might be easier to just jump on over to his YouTube channel. They chop up his talking points and usually sort them by specific questions/topics.

[WrestlingPower]

Good discussion this week on Cornette’s tape collection and the future of it.  Ep. 436, about an hour in

[BigBadMick]

Thank you! That's just the sort of recommendation from Cornette's podcasts i want.

[TheDuke]

This is the YouTube video that directly talks about his tape collection. The clips on his YouTube page are pretty long. You can browse it to see if there are certain topics you want to hear him talk about if you dont want to hear him go on and on about modern wrestling, Republicans, or weekly updates about what is going on at his house or on his property which is what the majority of his podcast feels like it's about.

[BigBadMick]

Has he stopped doing the watch-alongs? They were always  interesting.

[TheDuke]

He did a couple earlier this year before Wrestlemania but none since then. It seems like something he only does once in a while and not something he is interested in doing on a regular basis.

[BigBadMick]

Thanks!

[Champagne]

10 hours ago, WrestlingPower said:

Good discussion this week on Cornette’s tape collection and the future of it.  Ep. 436, about an hour in

What a great listen. Jim is sitting on a veritable goldmine of rare or lost footage.

[BigBadMick]

I listened to the Bret v Ramon (Rumble 93) and Bret v piper (Wm 8) watch alongs. Really enjoyed both. Cornette insists that it’s all common sense, and not rocket science, but it’s fascinating listening to him break down the match as it happens. 

[The Thread Killer]

Yeah, it’s kind of ironic in a way. Conrad resorts to doing watch-along episodes pretty much out of laziness or when he has run out of topics or ideas. The end results are generally not great and I end up wishing he’d do less watch-alongs and just do his normal show.

With Cornette, I am so over listening to him criticize the modern product, I end up wishing he’d do less of his normal show and focus more on doing a watch-along, where he is so much more interesting and insightful. Not to mention, you can just tell by the enthusiasm in his voice that Cornette finds doing a watch-along more interesting as well. You can tell he is so much more engaged in the process when he does that, focusing on what he is really good at.

I said it much earlier in this thread I think, or the Cancellation of Jim Cornette thread, but he has become trapped in a pattern. He has become famous and is making a lot of money off ranting about the modern product. You can tell if he was left up to his own devices he probably would not watch it at all, but he has to for this podcast and all he ends up doing is saying the same thing over and over again. Hell, he has been reduced to reviewing Raw at this point.

And the blame for most of that, and the fact that he does not do more watch-alongs falls squarely on the shoulders of Brian Last.

[TheDuke]

Even when he is reviewing this week's matches, he is much more interesting when he breaks down what is working and what isnt working, and what spots were good and how other spots might have been improved or should have been taken out etc. Its the fact that he just shits on so much of it that makes it tiresome to listen to. Like 3 quarters of the current wrestlers he has just written off completely including most of the women, so he is not interested in really engaging with their matches. Which makes me think he shouldn't be reviewing full shows, he should just be pulling out a couple of matches that he wants to talk about and really focus on them.

[The Thread Killer]

29 minutes ago, TheDuke said:

Which makes me think he shouldn't be reviewing full shows, he should just be pulling out a couple of matches that he wants to talk about and really focus on them.

He absolutely shouldn’t be doing it. He doesn’t want to do it, and he even quit doing it at one point, very briefly. He openly discussed this on the show a year or so back, that Brian Last talked him into going back to doing the AEW reviews because that’s what people wanted to hear. Last is so desperate to maintain the listener numbers that he doesn’t care if Cornette wants to do it anymore. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Cornette has openly discussed retiring from the podcast over the last few months. I think he is well over all of this stuff and just doesn’t want to do it anymore. 

Ultimately the responsibility for what Cornette does falls on him of course, there is no two ways about that. But it is pathetic to see how desperate Brian Last is to have a successful podcast and he basically keeps nagging or begging Cornette to keep doing the endless AEW reviews because that’s what gets them listeners. Cornette is at the point now where he is skipping matches or fast forwarding through them because he knows he’s going to hate them. But Last wants him to watch stuff he hates, just so their “fans” can hear  Cornette lose his mind and swear and insult the talent. Then his “cult” goes and parrots everything he says on Social Media and the dollars roll in.

I really believe that one day soon, Jim Cornette is either going to put his foot down and say he isn’t watching any more modern wrestling, or more likely he is just going to quit the podcast altogether, regardless of how much money it is making him. He has joked about it several times over the last few months, but there is some truth to it. He is making enough money from his memorabilia business, and his other investments. He is starting to really think about retiring from all of this.

I would not be one little bit surprised if a year from now Jim Cornette is 100% retired from the pro wrestling business, aside from his memorabilia sales.

[WrestlingPower]

I guess it must be something tied to the ad reads, but I don’t know why they insist on having each show be 3-4 hours.  It’s hard to keep up with, I’ve been picking & choosing shows and going to more of the youtube clips for the past year or so.  Maybe it would help maintain his sanity if they cut back to the 90 min shows and focus more on the questions and talking about all the merchandise projects JC has in the works.

[SomethingSavage]

I gave up listening to the full 4 hour shows around the summer of COVID and Hurricanes Laura and Delta. The negativity was just too compounded for me, and I say that as a huge Corny stan.

But yeah. The YouTube clips are much easier to consume and keep track of, in my opinion. The ideal move would be to just streamline the actual pod itself and trim off a lot of the fat, but I don't know the reasoning behind the marathon style shows in the first place.

I'll always have a fondness and a curiosity for Cornette's rants and hot takes, but I'm much more interested in hearing him talk history and viewpoints on the past.

Either way, I greatly enjoyed the Drive Thru in its early stages - back when it was strictly questions and answers. Even after the linenof questioning became repetitive and you could tell new listeners weren't hearing the older shows, I still found found them better than what we mostly get today.

[Brynn]

2 hours ago, SomethingSavage said:

I gave up listening to the full 4 hour shows around the summer of COVID and Hurricanes Laura and Delta. The negativity was just too compounded for me, and I say that as a huge Corny stan.

But yeah. The YouTube clips are much easier to consume and keep track of, in my opinion. The ideal move would be to just streamline the actual pod itself and trim off a lot of the fat, but I don't know the reasoning behind the marathon style shows in the first place.

I'll always have a fondness and a curiosity for Cornette's rants and hot takes, but I'm much more interested in hearing him talk history and viewpoints on the past.

Either way, I greatly enjoyed the Drive Thru in its early stages - back when it was strictly questions and answers. Even after the linenof questioning became repetitive and you could tell new listeners weren't hearing the older shows, I still found found them better than what we mostly get today.

I second all of this.

I used to like the Drive-Thru when it was a strict Q&A show and I could learn and listen to him talk about history and his experiences. Occasional rants were fine but not the constant negativity he uses to drive his podcasts now. I still subscribe to the YT channel so I can pick and choose the things I want to listen to. I'll have to listen to the tape discussion soon.

Side note ... Brian Last is fine is parts too but I find too much of him goes a long way. He comes across with a very elitist or better than you attitude. That being said, I did like the 6:05 when he was doing the long form interviews because I learned a TON from those.

[Embrodak]

Last’s Mid-South watch along podcast is fun. Hearing him rave about things he likes is better than him disinterestedly agreeing with Corny about modern wrestling. Although I do like Last as a foil for Corny in general, I don’t know that anybody could have done a better job of lubricating that Bobby Eaton tribute episode. And hearing him get annoyed and call Kenny Omega “Ty” on the latest ep was pretty funny, so I can’t hate too much.

 

As for why it’s a marathon show - because Corny can’t truncate himself even if he wanted to, and because they can sell a bunch of ads without the show feeling like it’s nothing but ads. Corny has the best ads in the game, though.