The Cancellation of Jim Cornette

[Big Pete]

I wish I was relevant enough for Corny to call me an asshole on his podcast.

If anyone is curious, the rant starts around an hour and 10 minutes into the Experience in and if you take away all the bluster of Jim whipping himself into a heel promo, Jim has an issue with Bix 'stirring the shit' and 'casting aspersions' without having any sufficient proof all in order to make a quick buck from various wrestling 'news' websites. Jim didn't specifically discuss what he had been accused of, just that Bix had bagged him out and this was his receipt.

 

 

[Bix]

4 minutes ago, Big Pete said:

I wish I was relevant enough for Corny to call me an asshole on his podcast.

If anyone is curious, the rant starts around an hour and 10 minutes into the Experience in and if you take away all the bluster of Jim whipping himself into a heel promo, Jim has an issue with Bix 'stirring the shit' and 'casting aspersions' without having any sufficient proof all in order to make a quick buck from various wrestling 'news' websites. Jim didn't specifically discuss what he had been accused of, just that Bix had bagged him out and this was his receipt.

What in the world?

The only things I've written about him for money in recent times weren't even about him per se, they were a straight news hit for Forbes about the GRaver lawsuit and the MEL article examining why, especially in light of the ACH shirt story and Jim's NWA departure, pro wrestling fandom hadn't had a Gamergate type of moment. But that article didn't really go any further about him than recapping what happened. I'm not sure if I've ever written about him for a wrestling website, or what the last time would be if I have.

Hell of a way for him to tell on himself, I guess.

[Big Pete]

6 minutes ago, Bix said:

What in the world?

The only things I've written about him for money in recent times weren't even about him per se, they were a straight news hit for Forbes about the GRaver lawsuit and the MEL article examining why, especially in light of the ACH shirt story and Jim's NWA departure, pro wrestling fandom hadn't had a Gamergate type of moment. But that article didn't really go any further about him than recapping what happened. I'm not sure if I've ever written about him for a wrestling website, or what the last time would be if I have.

Hell of a way for him to tell on himself, I guess. 

I'll try and get you a direct quote and save you from a lecture on the freedom and fairness of the press and all the petty insults.

[Big Pete]

So if Bob Woodward wants to do a piece on me I'm fine with that whether it's positive or negative, because it's Bob fucking Woodward and he's a journalist. People who have gone to school to become journalists - Dave Meltzer has worked at legitimate newspapers. People who have degrees and experience in this field and who are paid professional at what they do they got the right to say shit as long as it's valid.

But people like Bitch the journalist is not a journalist at all. What he is is he's a fucking muck raker. He tries to stir his own shit up then write about it then sell it for 25 bucks or 50 bucks or maybe it's 100 bucks if you're Colt Cabana to websites of varying quality and professionalism and standards ranging from ho-hum to *mimics an explosion*. And because there's so many these days and everybody thinks they can cover wrestling and write about wrestling or need to there's all kinds of people that will pay even a fictious individual like Bitch the journalist for his effluvia of opinions. None of which he has the background, the knowledge, the substance or the actual proof to make but yet some of them will make these asides and cast these aspersions and poke the bear as some people say and let's just hypothetically say that I even mentioned a few months ago online to Bitch the journalist when he chimed in on something else that didn't involve him involving me and someone else that we had never had a problem and he should probably keep it that way and why was he commenting on something that didn't concern him or include him, that's when he blocked me so he could talk behind my back about me.

Let me just say once again that journalists and journalism is fine. But just as I think the professionalism level overall in the wrestling industry has gone downhill and anybody can do this shit these days the standards of journalism are lower than ever before at least what passes for journalism on the internet and with a great variety of wrestling sites or sites who don't know enough about wrestling and don't bother enough to find out and just pay a pittance to people who put their opinions on their pages. I'll have you know it is a fact that I watched live as it happened on network television in the middle of the night the moon landing when man first walked on the moon that does not mean my opinion is as valuable as Neil Armstrong's but some people think that.

 

EDIT: I was going to censor the cute nickname but I think he chose his words carefully even though it's clear who he was talking about.

 

[Bix]

30 minutes ago, Big Pete said:

EDIT: I was going to censor the cute nickname but I think he chose his words carefully even though it's clear who he was talking about.

Eh don't worry about that, I know it's not you saying that!

It should go without saying, but I blocked him after the Bruce Mitchell thing because he clearly lost his shit. I have plenty of followers, it's not like I don't know that one of his weirdo cultists might sent shit to him.

Regardless, his reaction to the Bruce Mitchell thing is so bizarre. You accused him, in public, on social media of...taking bribes or secretly working for WCW or something! That's a big deal! To threaten to go off on me because I asked what the heck he was talking about and refuse to explain it...what?!?!?

Never mind that I can't figure out if there's something he genuinely thinks Bruce did but won't explain (confusion with Madden?) or if he's just making it up out of thin air (more likely, but contextually weirder based on the available things he could yell at Bruce). I did get a reply from someone saying something like "Didn't Bruce also work for the WCW Hotline?"—so maybe the idea WAS to get people to confuse him with Madden, but that's such a weird way to go.

Then again, he's repeatedly accused Wade Keller of nearly ending a TV deal for SMW by writing some kind of SMW GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SOON story in 1993, and I'm pretty sure none of that happened. (Never mind that even if the stuff that he accused Wade of turned out to be true, Wade was in his early 20s then with a not fully developed brain. He's a significantly more mellow guy now, regardless, and would probably be willing to cop to any actual mistakes and smooth things out! But I don't think he did any of it, anyway.)

 

[MoS]

I don't even like Omega and the YB that much, but are they really worth losing your shit over again and again, about hundreds of times, on Twitter, and getting into pissing contests with basically everyone who disagrees? And please don't give me the "Corny is working you marks" thing, cuz if this ever was a work, Cornette worked himself into a shoot a long time ago. 

[cm funk]

12 hours ago, Beast said:

What's the deal with Brian Last and Cornette? You and Brian started 605 together and even though you left, it didn't seem like there was any bad blood, I just assumed you got too busy. 

Seems like Brian's let his podcast success go to his head or something. Kinda inexcusable for him to sit back while Cornette sics his fanbase on Bix. I'd already found his attacks on Janela to be over the line. Either Brian's "playing a character" or he feels it's appropriate to rag on modern day guys using 1985 logic. Either way is sad.

How much "podcast success" has Last really had?  The 605 used to be one of my favorite pods but it's so infrequently updated now that it can't even be considered part of the rotation.  The Idol show flamed out.  I can only listen to so much of Fuller.  I burned out on the Arezzi shows pretty fast.  I enjoy Stick to Wrestling (the one that Last isn't on) occasionally.  I'm far less likely to listen to Corny's shows in full anymore because I don't enjoy him cutting promos on AEW, Meltzer, Bix, whoever.  If he's not talking old school and he can't do it without throwing in digs at modern stuff (which he does even more and more now when talking old school) he's hard to listen to. 

And this isn't a knock on Last at all really because I do love the old 605 and the rest at least have their moments.  He's always taken potshots at other podcasters, since the early days of 605...I'm just not sure which of his podcasts other than the Corny ones are actually listened to by a lot of people and where this massive success that could actually go to one's head would even come from

[sek69]

See, Jim does have a valid point in the middle of all that nonsense that there are people in the the wrestling sphere who pretend to be journalists but just make shit up and/or make enough vague scoop hints that one of them is bound to come true. But Bix isn't one of those people. I may disagree with his takeaways on some topics but at least I get where he's coming from when he says them and isn't just pulling it out of his ass.  You have people like Brad Shepard blatantly making shit up and Ryan Satin pretending he's tracking down hot SCOOPZ while not-really-but-kinda-really working for WWE.

[Coffey]

I'm more in the camp that I don't like Cornette nor the people he blasts in wrestling at this point. I never really was on the side of Cornette but I agreed that I didn't like the style of wrestling that Omega & The Young Bucks do. But he can't just be like "I don't like their style or what they're bringing to wrestling." He starts making "jokes" of sleeping with children & shit. It's ridiculous.

Cornette's "rants" just come off as hate speech at this point. He's turned into the very thing he tries to vilify when going off about politics. As much as he hates Donald Trump, he sure sounds a lot like him when he starts going off on homophobic rants.

And talk about a dude in a glass house throwing rocks when talking about how people look. Cornette nor his wife are exactly lookers. He should keep that shit to himself. 

[Bix]

3 hours ago, cm funk said:

How much "podcast success" has Last really had?  The 605 used to be one of my favorite pods but it's so infrequently updated now that it can't even be considered part of the rotation.  The Idol show flamed out.  I can only listen to so much of Fuller.  I burned out on the Arezzi shows pretty fast.  I enjoy Stick to Wrestling (the one that Last isn't on) occasionally.  I'm far less likely to listen to Corny's shows in full anymore because I don't enjoy him cutting promos on AEW, Meltzer, Bix, whoever.  If he's not talking old school and he can't do it without throwing in digs at modern stuff (which he does even more and more now when talking old school) he's hard to listen to. 

And this isn't a knock on Last at all really because I do love the old 605 and the rest at least have their moments.  He's always taken potshots at other podcasters, since the early days of 605...I'm just not sure which of his podcasts other than the Corny ones are actually listened to by a lot of people and where this massive success that could actually go to one's head would even come from

I hope nobody takes this as a shot, but it's not enough that anyone else is really making money in any substantive way, at least I don't think. The other guys are getting promotion out of it on JCE, and there's certainly value in that, but I have no idea how much it's paying off. Certainly enough that they're doing better than the average podcast, but how much better, I dunno. 

[NotJayTabb]

Thinking about NXT last night, I'm wondering why it is that Cornette gives Adam Cole such high marks. Cole is every bit as dreadful a wrestler as a Kenny Omega, for example, making his matches needlessly long, always "getting all his shit in", throwing a leaping destroyer in as a standard 2 count move - all stuff Cornette professes to hate. Plus, considering Cornette rails often about wrestlers looking like they could kick your arse, Cole's build makes Kip Sabian look like Rob Terry. 

[Big Pete]

1 hour ago, NotJayTabb said:

Thinking about NXT last night, I'm wondering why it is that Cornette gives Adam Cole such high marks. Cole is every bit as dreadful a wrestler as a Kenny Omega, for example, making his matches needlessly long, always "getting all his shit in", throwing a leaping destroyer in as a standard 2 count move - all stuff Cornette professes to hate. Plus, considering Cornette rails often about wrestlers looking like they could kick your arse, Cole's build makes Kip Sabian look like Rob Terry. 

If Dave Meltzer came out and called Adam Cole a genius Cornette would likely take that evaluation to task and nit-pick but as it stands, he can over-look those short-comings as modern wrestling tropes and see Cole for his positives.

I don't think either guy has that much in common. Cornette's issue with Omega is that he finds him to be pretentious and he is so over-the-top and goofy in the ring he can't take him seriously for a second. Above all else, he worked for DDT and made a name for himself working these type of matches that took the piss out of something he passionately loves. As far as I know, Cole is a relatively straight laced performer who makes up for his short-comings on the microphone.

While Jim does like to harp on about 'grown men' he's happy to accept guys like Cole, Sabien and even Kenny. It's Joey Janela, Marko Stunt and Riho where he draws the line.

[NotJayTabb]

I meant primarily in terms of laying out matches, but yeah, I guess the big difference is Omega worked DDT and Cole worked ROH.

[The Thread Killer]

4 hours ago, Big Pete said:

I don't think either guy has that much in common. Cornette's issue with Omega is that he finds him to be pretentious and he is so over-the-top and goofy in the ring he can't take him seriously for a second. Above all else, he worked for DDT and made a name for himself working these type of matches that took the piss out of something he passionately loves. As far as I know, Cole is a relatively straight laced performer who makes up for his short-comings on the microphone.

This.

I am hardly a big Adam Cole fan, but I'd watch a 4 hour "Best Of" Adam Cole Compilation before I'd sit through another one of Omega's goofy epics, with all the bug-eyed pointing, jazz-hands pew-pew motions, dancing and prancing. Both guys are technically sound, but Omega can't cut a serious promo to save his life, and his execution looks so theatrical and ridiculous most of the time that I don't see the comparison with Cole at all.  Plus, Cornette worked with both guys early in their careers and it certainly appears that he liked Cole's attitude towards the Pro Wrestling business a lot more than he did Kenny's.

[MikeCampbell]

14 hours ago, Big Pete said:

I'm wondering why it is that Cornette gives Adam Cole such high marks. Cole is every bit as dreadful a wrestler as a Kenny Omega, for example, making his matches needlessly long, always "getting all his shit in", throwing a leaping destroyer in as a standard 2 count move - all stuff Cornette professes to hate.

 

That's hardly something that Cole can be blamed for. NXT Main Events have been like that since Gargano vs. Ciampa in 2018, and since Cole became a main event player every Takeover Main Event he's had has been against Gargano or Ciampa in some form. How have Cole's NXT Title matches outside of Takeover, and away from either of those two looked? He's had televised defenses against KUSHIDA, Riddle, and Balor. He wrestled Dunne at Surivor Series, and Tozawa on the EVOLVE anniversary show.

[C.S.]

Adam Cole does nothing for me, but he and his silly "Bay Bay" catchphrase have gotten over everywhere he's gone, so there's something to be said for that. Ditto for Finn Balor. I may not be their biggest fans, but I'd still push them. 

[War is Raw]

A shame so many of you intelligent fans parrot Jim's rants about "modern style" (it's been 20+ freakin' years now) and anti-Omega stuff like it's a fact.

Watch NWA and let us enjoy AEW without the judgement. Omega will not change and neither will my perception of him.

Omega and similar wrestlers are hybrids of lucha and 2000s ROH,. Omega adds the weird mannerism. Big friggin' deal.

NXT is Shawn Michaels taken up a notch and Shawn is training there. Jim should be ranting against NXT more.

Purists didn't like Dusty Rhodes' comedy spots or Hulk Hogan's facials either.

Get over it and stop giving Cornette publicity. If you ignore him he will stay in a walled garden, like Michael Savage in political radio or Don Tony in wrestling podcasts. Or even compare the amount of attention Uncle Dave gets compared to Wade Keller. Keller's ratings are never cited on Reddit.

Jim is influencing how people think, and yes, there is a 50% chance he's working everyone. Jim and the Midnight Express would have not been allowed to work in St Louis under Mushnick because they were too gimmicky and unrealistic (fact). Surely he must know he has been guilty of bad comedy, gimmick crap, and lack of realism.

[sek69]

10 minutes ago, War is Raw said:

Surely he must know he has been guilty of bad comedy, gimmick crap, and lack of realism.

Setting aside the possiblity of him working (which as discussed I think he's gone past that point by now),  it's been pointed out to him by many people including Dave himself that he's done a lot of the same comedy stuff he shits on guys today for doing. As far as I can tell he's never really had a proper response other than "well my silly shit was different that their silly shit" which ignores the concept that both were in fact silly shit. 

Also it's pretty underrated how Jim's rants on Kenny Omega nudge up to (and sometimes cross over) the border of being homophobic, and he's a guy who's gimmick was a sissy mama's boy who gets beat up by women managers. 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, War is Raw said:

A shame so many of you intelligent fans parrot Jim's rants about "modern style" (it's been 20+ freakin' years now) and anti-Omega stuff like it's a fact.

Watch NWA and let us enjoy AEW without the judgement.

Or you know...revolutionary idea here...people could watch and enjoy BOTH.  Radical thought, I know.  But it's actually possible, because I do it pretty much every week. 

I don't even hate Omega, I just think he's wildly overrated.  There are fans around who claim that Omega is the best Pro Wrestler in the world right now, and I don't see the evidence of that.  Especially since Dynamite debuted. I think he's a talented Pro Wrestler who is capable of being involved in very good and even great matches.  His recent Iron Man match with PAC and the Tag Team match at Revolution are both clearly proof of that fact.  But I think his promos are shitty, his facials and mannerisms in the ring are comical, and his selling is inconsistent and unconvincing a lot of the time.  Kenny Omega is very good, but there are plenty of guys around who are just as good as he is, and better in quite a few cases.

Let me have that opinion...without the judgment.

2 hours ago, War is Raw said:

NXT is Shawn Michaels taken up a notch and Shawn is training there. Jim should be ranting against NXT more.

I don't know what information you've been getting, but Cornette criticizes WWE and NXT almost as much as he does AEW. There seems to be a misconception that Cornette blindly hates AEW and shits all over everything they do, so he must therefore prefer NXT and WWE.  He's even had some wacked out AEW fans on Twitter accuse him of secretly working for WWE, which is laughable. On his podcast he and Brian Last reviewed both Dynamite and NXT every week for a few months, and he gave Dynamite a better review than NXT about half the time. Hell, he reviewed Raw for the past three weeks and he absolutely eviscerated it. He even shit on Seth Rollins, who used to be one of his favorites. (Which I was glad to see, because for my money Seth Rollins and Kenny Omega are cut from very similar cloth.)  As recently as this past week, he said that he thought Dynamite was a very good show, the best they've done so far. (Which I totally don't get, but whatever.) He's even gone so far as to say that at least AEW is interesting when WWE is just boring overly scripted garbage.

Cornette doesn't hate all "modern" Pro Wrestling, he gushes about Darby Allin all the time and they don't get much more current and modern than him. He always praises The Jurassic Express, he just hates Marko Stunt. Hell, he even gave the Tag Team Title match at Revolution a positive review, even though Omega and The Young Bucks were involved.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

Also it's pretty underrated how Jim's rants on Kenny Omega nudge up to (and sometimes cross over) the border of being homophobic, and he's a guy who's gimmick was a sissy mama's boy who gets beat up by women managers. 

He frequently accuses Kenny Omega of having a Japanese schoolgirl fetish, too.  (Which hey...where's there's smoke...) You're right though. I used to think that Kenny took too much shit for his mannerisms being effeminate and that some of the criticisms levied at him were borderline homophobic. Then I found out that he starred in an art film entitled: "Sissy Boy Slap Party."  And I saw a couple of minutes of it on YouTube.

I don't think he is gay, and even if he was I wouldn't care, nor would I support anybody criticizing his lifestyle choices.  But after Sissy Boy Slap Party, I can see where the people that are taking shots at him for that are getting their ammunition.

[sek69]

I was under the assumption that Kenny was like the modern day Pat Patterson where it was kind of an open secret he was gay or at least bi, but never talks about it and it's not a big deal. That made the stuff that Jim was saying seem more hurtful. 

[NintendoLogic]

I was under the impression that he used to date Hikaru Shida.

For what it's worth, Cornette has accused Omega of having an Asian schoolgirl fetish (which, granted, is problematic in itself). He seems to believe that Riho was the 9-year-old girl Omega wrestled in DDT that one time.

[FMKK]

Yeah, Kenny always blurred the lines of whether he's bisexual for real or whether it was a work for the Ibushi relationship or whatever. Either way, Jim's shit about him prancing and whatever else does sail close to the line and should be neither here nor there to whether he's a good wrestler or not, which he clearly is.

[SomethingSavage]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:56 AM, C.S. said:

You've just exposed yourself as someone who didn't bother to read my post. You just wanted an excuse to rant like your hero. You're better than this and one of the best posters here, so act like it.

#FUCK

I already admitted diagnosing him over the internet wasn't a good idea. With that being said, my reasons weren't because of his "controversial wrestling opinions" on Twitter (I don't follow him) or on his podcast (I don't listen to it or care about it).

Go back and actually read what I wrote.  

I just wanted to say i'm just now seeing this post, and I still won't read what you wrote.

...

Nah, in all seriousness, I hope all is well with you and your people.

And Cornette's still the fucking man. Carry on.

[Loss]

I figured this was bumped because just yesterday, in response to recent criticism of Lawler's announcing, Cornette pointed out that Bearcat Wright drew a sellout in 1970 when the heels painted him white, but that sadly today, there would be a movement to kick them off the air. Yes, the world indeed changes.