The Jim Cornette Experience

[The Thread Killer]

If anybody here is looking for a good laugh and has some time to spare, I can't recommend this week's episode (#84) of Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru enough.  Cornette and Brian Last are both in great moods, and the opening segment where they debate Brian "smartening up" his daughter to the fact that The Tooth Fairy is a work is worth the price of admission alone - not to mention the great questions and answers.  This show can be hit and miss, but this week they are on point.

[SomethingSavage]

At some point last year, I got lazy with my listening to some shows & only selectively kept up with Corny's stuff through YouTube clips. It was much easier to avoid the political landmines & other assorted stuff that way.

Then the whole thing with YouTube blew up, and I just never got back into it. Has he still been covering OVW or SMW at all?

[The Thread Killer]

I don't really listen to The Jim Cornette Experience, and that was the show he was doing those "Deep Dives" on.  From what I understand, he hasn't done one of those so far this year, I think the last one he did was in December, I'd have to check.  Brian Last did mention those episodes always get great feedback and the most downloads, so I am a bit surprised that they haven't gone back to reviewing SMW or OVW year by year.

I love Cornette's incredible depth of knowledge when it comes to the history of Pro Wrestling, and I tend to agree with his opinion on the current product - but I could not possibly care any less about what he thinks of Donald Trump.  It is on The Experience that he tends to devote a fair chunk of time ranting and raving about politics, so that is the show I tend to avoid.  He and Brian Last appear to be trying to keep the Drive-Thru a history only, politics free zone, so that is the show I check out every Monday.  Even when it's a bit bland because of the lack of good questions, it's still moderately entertaining - and as I said, for some reason this past week I found it really, really funny.

[Happ Hazzard]

They definitely need to go back to having the short clips on Youtube again. I always thought they should have just the "Jim Cornette Talking Sense" guy on the payroll and just moved all the existing clips onto the official Cornette Youtube channel and put him in charge of editing clips off new shows and doing the amusing pictures for them.

[peachchaos]

10 hours ago, Happ Hazzard said:

They definitely need to go back to having the short clips on Youtube again. 

I think they will, Brian was just blocked from even posting them for awhile there. All the clips on the Arcadian Vanguard channel are still out there.

[BigBadMick]

Cornette did a rundown of cards in early February 1986 on a recent Experience. It was an hour into the show. I always skip around to find the relevant bits on that show. 

[BigBadMick]

I don't think I'd enjoy it if it happened every week, but Cornette's thorough reviews of Raw have been interesting. He really concentrates on how bewildering and confusing it all seems for a casual viewer/newcomer. 

[peachchaos]

8 hours ago, BigBadMick said:

I don't think I'd enjoy it if it happened every week, but Cornette's thorough reviews of Raw have been interesting. He really concentrates on how bewildering and confusing it all seems for a casual viewer/newcomer. 

At this point I don't see how it's humanly possible to sit thru Raw every week. Even listening to a complete review of the show felt like a chore. Really excited for him to watch Smackdown this week since the action is usually world's better. The real ticker would be for him to watch NXT, I think he might even enjoy the program. 

[TheDuke]

I wonder if he will do ROH or Impact? those might be interesting to listen to, and shorter.

[SomethingSavage]

Impact could be fun. There's nothing remotely interesting about ROH right now, so that would still feel like a chore - albeit a more condensed alternative.

I could see Jim actually enjoying various bits of Impact and NXT at times though. Those programs at least have elements of traditional storytelling via the promotion of characters & conflicts.

Raw is a rough sell for anyone. It's three hours of sketch comedy horse shit combined with competitive star-seeking matches, and absolutely none of it feels intended for the casual fan.

Even *IF* a casual fan is drawn in by a Ricochet or a Balor or (god forbid) a Rollins, they're not going to stick around for 3 fucking hours of the same thing. They'll likely watch the one match, enjoy it for what it is, and then quickly pass on by as soon as they realize that - oh yeah. The rest of the show is just exactly THIS SAME THING on repeat.

[rovert]

37 minutes ago, SomethingSavage said:

Raw is a rough sell for anyone. It's three hours of sketch comedy horse shit combined with competitive star-seeking matches, and absolutely none of it feels intended for the casual fan.

1

For sure. Ten or so years ago I used to see school kids wearing Cena and Rey schoolbags and the same for sale in shops everywhere along with pens, pencils copybooks etc.

Also, I am from Ireland and Wrestlemania main event or not Becky Lynch is virtual non-entity media profile wise here. WWE simply doesn't transcend anymore. I remember 1992 and the WWF and/or the British Bulldog being on the cover of (tabloid) newspapers frequently. 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, rovert said:

For sure. Ten or so years ago I used to see school kids wearing Cena and Rey schoolbags and the same for sale in shops everywhere along with pens, pencils copybooks etc.

Same things in France. My nephews followed pro-wrestling for a while with Cena on top. Actually I think they kinda stopped being a fan after going to see a live show, one thing that they missed was the announcing (which is indeed pretty terrific in its own ways). Cena is the last "mainstream" star they had here. No one knows who Roman Reigns is.

[Migs]

It's surprising to me that they haven't tried to do a short-form show for kids on Hulu. Saturday Morning Slam was ahead of its time - while it probably wasn't a ratings draw, parents with kids are now all about the streaming content. Even if they just repackaged Raw in a more kid-friendly way, it'd probably be a big step in getting some kids back in.

[rovert]

11 hours ago, Migs said:

It's surprising to me that they haven't tried to do a short-form show for kids on Hulu. Saturday Morning Slam was ahead of its time - while it probably wasn't a ratings draw, parents with kids are now all about the streaming content. Even if they just repackaged Raw in a more kid-friendly way, it'd probably be a big step in getting some kids back in.

A couple of years ago they filmed a pilot at Full Sail centered around Bayley before for she was called up. NXT Kids. But it went nowhere.

[Migs]

1 hour ago, rovert said:

A couple of years ago they filmed a pilot at Full Sail centered around Bayley before for she was called up. NXT Kids. But it went nowhere.

I actually think creating new content (other than wraparounds and explainers) is probably the wrong idea. Even a younger kid would quickly figure out this wasn't the main show and abandon it. Cut the show down, maybe add a focus on kid-friendly characters (every Bayley match makes air for sure). Maybe it's something for the Network that a parent who likes wrestling uses as a gateway with their kids.

[CarpetCrawler]

1 hour ago, rovert said:

A couple of years ago they filmed a pilot at Full Sail centered around Bayley before for she was called up. NXT Kids. But it went nowhere.

If that's the one with Corey Graves on commentary with a couple of kids, I got such a kick out of it and it's a shame it never went anywhere.  Corey is trying not to crack from the kids comments the entire time, it's really fun.

[CarpetCrawler]

Didn't realize Cornette and Bruce Prichard had a falling out but I guess I can't be surprised.

 

 

[Petey]

I had no idea either. Didn't Cornette appear at one of Bruce and Conrad's live shows not that long ago?

[SomethingSavage]

I'm honestly surprised it didn't happen sooner. There seemed to be some underlying tension between them right after the Jerry Jarrett stuff started way back when Bruce did one of his early episodes covering the steroid trial.

They kind of had an "agree to disagree" discussion about that on Corny's show and moved on though. Any clue what this lie is supposed to be about?

[The Thread Killer]

Yeah this new twist in the Cornette/Prichard relationship is weird, and it must be a fairly recent development.  Cornette appeared as a guest at a Prichard live show in the fall of 2017, Cornette interviewed Prichard as part of his "Back the the Territories" series for Kayfabe Commentaries (probably the best show in that entire series, IMO) and Prichard guested on Cornette's podcast a few times.  Not to mention, they seemed to delight in taking (seemingly) good natured shots at each other on their own respective shows - Prichard doing his Cornette initiation and talking about George The Rat on his show, and Cornette calling Prichard "The Artful Dodger" on his.  Cornette has never shied away from saying that he thinks Prichard is a bullshit artist (hence the Artful Dodger nickname) but there seemed to be a genuine sense of camaraderie and respect between the two of them.  Not to mention the fact that Cornette is very close to Bruce's brother Tom.

I know Cornette has always taken issue with Prichard's Meltzer bashing and his attitude towards Jarrett and the Memphis territory in general, but who knows what the source of this new disagreement is.  It's probably more serious than the recent falling out between Bischoff and Cornette, which was over erectile disfunction pills of all damn things.

[flyonthewall2983]

10 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

It's probably more serious than the recent falling out between Bischoff and Cornette, which was over erectile disfunction pills of all damn things.

I don't think Eric and Jim had too much love for each other anyway apart from agreeing on Vince Russo. Jim just owning Bischoff on Twitter was hilarious. On the other hand I get the impression that Jim and Bruce were pretty good friends and saw eye to eye on a lot of stuff perhaps until whatever happened recently. 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, flyonthewall2983 said:

I don't think Eric and Jim had too much love for each other anyway apart from agreeing on Vince Russo. Jim just owning Bischoff on Twitter was hilarious.

Initially, I had no issue with anything Cornette said about Bischoff, especially since Bischoff (apparently inadvertently) took a shot at Cornette's parents. I do have a problem with how Brian Last and all Cornette's Twitter followers jumped in and piled on to the point of absurdity.  As much as Conrad Thompson can annoy me, I couldn't help but notice how he went out of his way to steer clear of the whole thing, unlike Brian Last.

The part that I found especially pathetic was how after Cornette himself took the initiative to get Bischoff's phone number, and call him and they ended up putting the whole "feud" to rest - Cornette then just had to go the extra mile and crow about how you don't want to mess with his Twitter followers and get in a couple of extra shots at the end.  I get why Cornette is so vindictive towards Russo, because Russo got him fired, twice.  But in this deal with Bischoff he took it too far and after the whole thing should have been over, he was still acting like a little kid. 

It appears the whole thing has subsided now and they have both made light of it since, but I still think it was ridiculous for supposed grown men to be acting like that...especially when it came to whipping up a whole "Twitter Mob."  It's really no different from how Prichard and Russo fanboys go after Meltzer relentlessly on Twitter.   Then again, Meltzer seems to love provoking people on that platform as well.  That is one of the several things I have grown to loathe about Twitter.

[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.