The Cancellation of Jim Cornette

[The Thread Killer]

Now that I have listened to that interview twice (once just to hear it and the second time while I recapped it) I have some opinions of my own to share.

Firstly, Cornette came off as very emotional in this interview.  He started out trying to act like the situation doesn't bother him, when clearly it does.  I tend to believe him when he says that he never listens to what people say about him personally and that rolls right off his back.  By now, he must have incredibly thick skin when it comes to criticism. However, this situation has obviously hit very close to home and I think he is pretty devastated by the effect this has had on his wife.  Understandably.

However, I am a bit surprised something like this hasn't happened sooner, obviously.  Cornette now pretty makes a career out of saying outlandish, insulting, demeaning and hurtful things about people.  So I'm not really surprised that has boomeranged on him and his chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.  Maybe this whole thing is karma, who knows.  When you say hateful shit about people for a living, maybe you shouldn't act shocked and morally indignant when somebody does it back to you.

Do I think Jim Cornette and/or his wife used his position in OVW to "groom" people or blackmail them into having sex under the threat of losing their license or it adversely affecting their career? No, I don't.  Like Jerome said, Jim Cornette is so despised within the industry, I think somebody would have leapt at the chance to torpedo him or humiliate him if there was even a scintilla of evidence out there of wrongdoing on his part.  If this situation has proved anything, it's how incredibly unpopular Cornette is with a lot of people, and how there are a lot of people salivating at the possibility of his downfall.

Having said that...I do think it's entirely possible that Stacey Cornette has trotted out the old "do you have any idea who my husband is and what he can do to you" line at some point.  I just don't think Cornette has ever used his influence (when he had it) to torpedo somebody just because they didn't want to have sex with his wife.  Power is all in it's perception and if she ever did use that line it's pretty inexcusable, but I would hazard to guess it never went any further than a comment.

Cornette seems absolutely convinced he is bulletproof against the main accuser, which makes me believe that he is innocent when it comes to that particular accusation.  The fact is that the dates just don't line up. Cornette was not running OVW when Phil Early was there. And Phil Early isn't even making the accusation on his own behalf, he's claiming it's on behalf of one of his friends...who has not come forward. It's a little fishy, to be honest.  And Phil Early is now touting himself as somebody who has "taken on the task of exposing predators in wrestling" and arguing semantics about Cornette's rebuttal, while at the same time promoting an independent wrestling event.  While people challenge him on what he said about Cornette, he has started posting claims about stuff that is supposedly going on in OVW behind the scenes right now...and Cornette hasn't worked there in years.  Cornette claims he can prove that Early's supposed "close friend" who was brainwashed by the Cornette's for years and "groomed" by them is still friends with them and doesn't even know Phil Early, and it's a little telling that Early does not deny that, now that Cornette has said it.

As far as the people who have supposedly corroborated Early's claims...there are two people.  Cornette was either lying or mistaken when he said they are the same person.  Mike Braddock is a former OVW champion, a disabled veteran and he is clearly the guy Cornette referred to in his podcast today.  The problem is, Braddock's biggest revelations about Jim Cornette is that Stacey once asked him about his sex life...oh, and he doesn't like what Cornette says about one legged wrestlers. Not to mention, Braddock's posts kind of sound like a cry for attention, saying things like "I don't even want to be on Cornette's podcast!"  Cornette actually implied that there are some serious mental health issues at play with Mike Braddock and was very reluctant to discuss him.  There is literally nothing in Mike Braddock's account that backs up Phil Early's story.  The other guy who supposedly said something that confirmed Early's accusation was Iain Moore, who was apparently an OVW Tag Team Champion.  Moore had his latest Tweet deleted today for violating Twitter's terms of service, but his entire contribution to this story was a tweet saying "this is legit." The bottom line is, if Mike Braddock and Iain Moore are the best witnesses Phil Early can come up with to corroborate his secondhand claims, then it's no wonder this story isn't getting more traction.

One point Cornette made that I totally agree with, is the blatant hypocrisy of a lot of people on Twitter.  Everybody went after Jim Cornette for being a supposed "groomer" and even tossed around unsubstantiated claims of his going after underage women.  All this was supposedly done in the name of "speaking out" for women in Pro Wrestling.  However, the response has been pretty damn repulsive when you look at how it has been directed at Stacey Cornette.  I thought maybe Cornette was being melodramatic when he talked about some of the things being said about his wife, before I went on Twitter to check out the accounts of the accusers today.  There are literally dozens of tweets mocking Stacey Cornette's appearance, or making fun of Jim Cornette for being a "cuck."

Like I said, Cornette has made his career lately off being outrageous, so I guess the backlash was inevitable.  But the people going after his wife while at the same time acting like they are "speaking out" for women disgust me, frankly.  And I am not saying Jim and Stacey Cornette are innocent, but it's going to take a lot more corroboration before you'll be able to prove he's guilty of what he's been accused of.  And considering how many people want to see him go down and how little damage he could do if he was taken down, I find it strange that more people haven't come forward if they're out there.

[Mad Dog]

I had kind of wondered if there is some truth to this stuff and Jim actually doesn't realize what his wife has been up to behind his back. It isn't impossible that they don't ask questions and she's pulled some bullshit to get what she wanted. His defense seems fairly legit though.

[The Thread Killer]

There have been a couple of new developments regarding the allegations against Cornette.

As mentioned earlier, the guy making the accusations is named Phil Early, an OVW trainee in 2017.  When Early made the accusations, he initially claimed he was doing it not on his own behalf, but on behalf of an unnamed friend.

During his denial on his podcast on Monday, Jim Cornette claimed that Phil Early was lying.  Cornette claimed that he and Stacey Cornette had spoken to the "unnamed friend" who they were still friendly with, and that the friend denied being involved in the allegations.  Cornette also pointed out that he was not involved with OVW in 2017, so he couldn't have used his position in OVW to either help or harm anybody.

Since that podcast was released, a lot of Cornette fans and even some of the so-called "Pro Wrestling media" went after Phil Early for making false accusations against Jim Cornette.  Dave Meltzer (who is hardly an ally of Jim Cornette lately) reiterated that the timeline of the accusations did not match up.  As soon as the opinion that the allegations against Cornette were false started to spread, a lot of Cornette's fans really went into overdrive harassing Phil Early and really going after him.

It got especially interesting on Tuesday, when somebody came forward with screenshots of a post Phil Early had made on Facebook.  This person was a Jim Cornette fan who had supposedly managed to get onto Phil Early's friend list on Facebook, and discovered a post Early had made on FB bragging about his ability to "cut and paste" and basically manipulate or manufacture screenshots of conversations and use them to get people in trouble. The Cornette fan released the screenshot of the FB post on Twitter. This alleged Facebook post was made prior to the allegations being made against Cornette, so it sure didn't look good for Phil Early. (I believe the exact quote was "who wants to see me photoshop him into some embarrassing shit?") When that Facebook post was made public, Phil Early deactivated his Facebook account.

So by Tuesday, things seemed to be looking better for Jim Cornette.  The general consensus seemed to be that he was telling the truth about the allegations Phil Early had made, and there even seemed to be some evidence to prove that.

But then...today, the "unnamed friend" came forward.  His name is Josh Ashcroft and he is now claiming that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette but she basically wouldn't let him break it off.  He is now claiming that after Phil Early went public with the accusations, Jim and Stacey Cornette and their lawyer contacted him and asked him why he had disclosed private conversations to Phil Early.  Ashcroft is now saying that Cornette is correct...he did deny knowing Phil Early to Jim Cornette, which is why Cornette made that statement on his podcast. However, Josh Ashcroft is now claiming he was lying and it actually was him who disclosed the information to Phil Early.  Ashcroft claimed that the reason he is coming forward now is because Cornette fans are "making Phil Early's life hell."

Josh Ashcroft is saying that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette is 2015, and when he broke it off she basically started stalking him and harassing him.  He is claiming Stacey Cornette tried to get him evicted from his apartment and fired from his job, and that she sent him messages threatening to harm herself.  He is alleging that Stacey Cornette did threaten to use Jim Cornette's influence to ruin the his life, both professionally and personally.

The interesting thing here is that Ashcroft's statement only partially confirms the allegations against Jim Cornette.  If Ashcroft is to be believed, Stacey Cornette did threaten him and did claim Jim Cornette could use his authority to screw up Ashcroft's life.  However,  (at least so far) it doesn't appear that Jim Cornette himself was actually involved with the threats, and the timelines still don't line up where Jim Cornette could have done anything to Josh Ashcroft, since by 2015 he had divested himself of all his involvement in OVW.

It is starting to appear (on the surface at least) that @Mad Dog might have hit the nail on the head.

On 6/22/2020 at 8:19 PM, Mad Dog said:

I had kind of wondered if there is some truth to this stuff and Jim actually doesn't realize what his wife has been up to behind his back. It isn't impossible that they don't ask questions and she's pulled some bullshit to get what she wanted.

This is starting to look more like a Stacey Cornette issue...basically she was a jilted lover who threatened to use her husband's supposed influence in the Pro Wrestling business to screw up her ex-boyfriend's life.  Cornette obviously had his lawyer contact the guy and ask him if he was working with Phil Early, and Ashcroft (by his own admission) lied to Cornette and his lawyer and claimed he didn't know anything about it...but now he's changed his story.

So on one hand, the main aspect of Jim Cornette's denial seems to still be true...he didn't work in OVW when Phil Early or Josh Ashcroft did and he didn't use his influence to screw up Ashcroft's career. That was the main gist of the accusation against Cornette, and it remains provably false. It seems possible (maybe even likely) that Jim Cornette didn't even know Stacey had gone all "fatal attraction" on Ashcroft either.  You have to assume that if Cornette did know, he wouldn't have issued such a heated denial on Monday.  I am not criticizing the Cornette's sexuality or lifestyle, but I guess situations like this happening are some of the risks you run when you are married but have a non-monogamous, non-exclusive "understanding" with your spouse.

I tend to believe Josh Ashcroft is probably telling the truth. Unfortunately his initially denying involvement in the allegations to Cornette's lawyer and then changing his story won't help his credibility much with some people.  Plus he also isn't being helped by Phil Early's making accusations that haven't proven to be true, as well Early apparently bragging on social media about his ability to manipulate information to hurt people. On top of that, there is Cornette's allegations of Phil Early basically being a blackmailer.  And Early's own Twitter account have pretty much confirmed that as well, as he has made several allusions to having other information on other people that he hasn't released yet.

What a convoluted mess this has turned out to be. Neither Phil Early or Stacey Cornette are coming out of this situation looking very good.

[Mad Dog]

There are people saying Cornette did do an angle with Ashcroft in OVW around that time frame. I haven't followed the promotion in years so I don't know on that front. 

That story seems plausible as I imagine they don't always ask questions of what the other is up to on the side. 

[WingedEagle]

4 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

There have been a couple of new developments regarding the allegations against Cornette.

As mentioned earlier, the guy making the accusations is named Phil Early, an OVW trainee in 2017.  When Early made the accusations, he initially claimed he was doing it not on his own behalf, but on behalf of an unnamed friend.

During his denial on his podcast on Monday, Jim Cornette claimed that Phil Early was lying.  Cornette claimed that he and Stacey Cornette had spoken to the "unnamed friend" who they were still friendly with, and that the friend denied being involved in the allegations.  Cornette also pointed out that he was not involved with OVW in 2017, so he couldn't have used his position in OVW to either help or harm anybody.

Since that podcast was released, a lot of Cornette fans and even some of the so-called "Pro Wrestling media" went after Phil Early for making false accusations against Jim Cornette.  Dave Meltzer (who is hardly an ally of Jim Cornette lately) reiterated that the timeline of the accusations did not match up.  As soon as the opinion that the allegations against Cornette were false started to spread, a lot of Cornette's fans really went into overdrive harassing Phil Early and really going after him.

It got especially interesting on Tuesday, when somebody came forward with screenshots of a post Phil Early had made on Facebook.  This person was a Jim Cornette fan who had supposedly managed to get onto Phil Early's friend list on Facebook, and discovered a post Early had made on FB bragging about his ability to "cut and paste" and basically manipulate or manufacture screenshots of conversations and use them to get people in trouble. The Cornette fan released the screenshot of the FB post on Twitter. This alleged Facebook post was made prior to the allegations being made against Cornette, so it sure didn't look good for Phil Early. (I believe the exact quote was "who wants to see me photoshop him into some embarrassing shit?") When that Facebook post was made public, Phil Early deactivated his Facebook account.

So by Tuesday, things seemed to be looking better for Jim Cornette.  The general consensus seemed to be that he was telling the truth about the allegations Phil Early had made, and there even seemed to be some evidence to prove that.

But then...today, the "unnamed friend" came forward.  His name is Josh Ashcroft and he is now claiming that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette but she basically wouldn't let him break it off.  He is now claiming that after Phil Early went public with the accusations, Jim and Stacey Cornette and their lawyer contacted him and asked him why he had disclosed private conversations to Phil Early.  Ashcroft is now saying that Cornette is correct...he did deny knowing Phil Early to Jim Cornette, which is why Cornette made that statement on his podcast. However, Josh Ashcroft is now claiming he was lying and it actually was him who disclosed the information to Phil Early.  Ashcroft claimed that the reason he is coming forward now is because Cornette fans are "making Phil Early's life hell."

Josh Ashcroft is saying that he was sexually involved with Stacey Cornette is 2015, and when he broke it off she basically started stalking him and harassing him.  He is claiming Stacey Cornette tried to get him evicted from his apartment and fired from his job, and that she sent him messages threatening to harm herself.  He is alleging that Stacey Cornette did threaten to use Jim Cornette's influence to ruin the his life, both professionally and personally.

The interesting thing here is that Ashcroft's statement only partially confirms the allegations against Jim Cornette.  If Ashcroft is to be believed, Stacey Cornette did threaten him and did claim Jim Cornette could use his authority to screw up Ashcroft's life.  However,  (at least so far) it doesn't appear that Jim Cornette himself was actually involved with the threats, and the timelines still don't line up where Jim Cornette could have done anything to Josh Ashcroft, since by 2015 he had divested himself of all his involvement in OVW.

It is starting to appear (on the surface at least) that @Mad Dog might have hit the nail on the head.

This is starting to look more like a Stacey Cornette issue...basically she was a jilted lover who threatened to use her husband's supposed influence in the Pro Wrestling business to screw up her ex-boyfriend's life.  Cornette obviously had his lawyer contact the guy and ask him if he was working with Phil Early, and Ashcroft (by his own admission) lied to Cornette and his lawyer and claimed he didn't know anything about it...but now he's changed his story.

So on one hand, the main aspect of Jim Cornette's denial seems to still be true...he didn't work in OVW when Phil Early or Josh Ashcroft did and he didn't use his influence to screw up Ashcroft's career. That was the main gist of the accusation against Cornette, and it remains provably false. It seems possible (maybe even likely) that Jim Cornette didn't even know Stacey had gone all "fatal attraction" on Ashcroft either.  You have to assume that if Cornette did know, he wouldn't have issued such a heated denial on Monday.  I am not criticizing the Cornette's sexuality or lifestyle, but I guess situations like this happening are some of the risks you run when you are married but have a non-monogamous, non-exclusive "understanding" with your spouse.

I tend to believe Josh Ashcroft is probably telling the truth. Unfortunately his initially denying involvement in the allegations to Cornette's lawyer and then changing his story won't help his credibility much with some people.  Plus he also isn't being helped by Phil Early's making accusations that haven't proven to be true, as well Early apparently bragging on social media about his ability to manipulate information to hurt people. On top of that, there is Cornette's allegations of Phil Early basically being a blackmailer.  And Early's own Twitter account have pretty much confirmed that as well, as he has made several allusions to having other information on other people that he hasn't released yet.

What a convoluted mess this has turned out to be. Neither Phil Early or Stacey Cornette are coming out of this situation looking very good.

Why does one have to assume this?

[The Thread Killer]

1 minute ago, WingedEagle said:

Why does one have to assume this?

I assumed that if Cornette knew that what he was saying could be very easily disapproved he wouldn’t have been so adamant about denying it, or he might not have said anything at all.

[WingedEagle]

8 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I assumed that if Cornette knew that what he was saying could be very easily disapproved he wouldn’t have been so adamant about denying it, or he might not have said anything at all.

Not a trend I'm familiar with in this unfortunate story or in many other cases where accusations are leveled against an individual.  I wasn't sure what may have made JC different.

[sek69]

I may be misremembering things, but I seem to recall there were stories about Stacy back when she was an on screen character (a manager) having run ins with folks and not being the easiest person to deal with. I don't know if she was married to Jim yet, but people at the time were commenting on what we would probably now call "Karen" type behavior. I tend to think along the same lines as @The Thread Killer here where it's entirely possible she was playing her own games with these guys and Jim didn't know about it. If they have an open relationship where they're cool with the other having sex with other people as long as both parties know its going on, it seems reasonable to think that was what he assumed was going on and not anything else. 

[Mad Dog]

I was telling @The Thread Killer that I don't remember where I got the impression but I was under the impression that she was a little off. I think it's possible she wasn't take the breakup well and gave the impression he would cause issues. 

 

[cm funk]

There's been stories about Stacey being a bit "eccentric" for decades now.  The open relationship/swinger stuff was pretty well known I thought....at least I've known it to be strongly rumored to be true for a long, long time.  And for me it's totally in the "to each their own" category.  If that's what you're into, whatever floats your boat.  I don't really get how a self-proclaimed germaphobe slices that onion mentally, but whatever, Jim is a F'n weird dude

As far as the allegations go, who the fuck knows.  With the power dynamics in play in wrestling it's entirely possible Stacey used it back in the days when Jim was a major player in OVW (or TNA, or ROH) to imply it would be in that individuals best interests behind Jim's back.  I don't find that at all far fetched.  I also don't find it far fetched that she went a bit crazy after a guy cut her off which is the story that is out there now.  It's entirely possible that he used and abused his power in that particular way.....but I'm definitely of the school of thought that we'd be hearing a lot more stories about it given how widely hated Jim is by a whole generation of wrestlers.  From what I know I have to think this is more on her probably.  And given the risk taken when having a lifestyle like this, the trust involved for it to work, bad outcomes are unsurprising.  But this sounds more like a jilted lover story involving swingers in the wrestling business than anything to rake Cornette over the coals for, at least at this point

As far as the shows go, I can still listen to Corny's shows and mostly enjoy them....but I definitely have to skip thru a lot more than I used to.  I'm an AEW fan so as soon as he goes on his childish name-calling rants about AEW I turn it off and might revisit later on FF to try to find something I can tolerate.  It's funny to me that his numbers have apparently skyrocketed in the last year as he's been more controversial.....I've been listening less and less and have to skip more and more.  I don't get off on hate listening or listening to a miserable old prick rant and rave about the shit he hates.  Life is too short for that, I've got better things to do with my time

I happen to agree with him when it comes to Republicans and the religious right, NRA etc. etc. though, so I enjoy those rants

[The Thread Killer]

The new episode of The Jim Cornette Experience just debuted, and apparently Cornette reviews the first Clash of Champions, including a watch-along/detailed breakdown of the Midnight Express/Fantastics match. Pretty stoked about listening to that.  

More classic breakdowns and reviews, less bitching about AEW, please.

[Loss]

That's pretty much entirely what Cornette should be at this point -- a historian rather than a shock jock. But I guess because people are stupid and uninterested in learning much of the time, there just isn't as much money in that.

At the very least, imagine if he did a no gimmicks show that focused entirely on stuff like this. Then I could at least safely ignore everything else he does.

[PeteF3]

On Cornette's Facebook group some months ago, someone suggested to Last that Cornette review something like WrestleMania III--something from a more classic time period but still outside of his wheelhouse. He seemed open to the idea. I think that would make for a fascinating show.

[The Thread Killer]

On 6/27/2020 at 9:27 AM, cm funk said:

I happen to agree with him when it comes to Republicans and the religious right, NRA etc. etc. though, so I enjoy those rants

One of the things I used to enjoy about Cornette's podcasts is that there was a clear delineation between Cornette's Drive Thru and The Jim Cornette Experience.  If you wanted to hear Cornette answer questions from fans and talk about Pro Wrestling History and the Territories, you listened to the Drive Thru.  If you chose to listen to The Experience, you would get lots of Pro Wrestling talk sure...but you'd also get more of his ranting about Modern Pro Wrestling and lots of ranting about politics.  For the longest time, I listened to the Drive Thru exclusively and pretty much avoided The Experience unless I knew he was covering a topic I wanted to hear him talk about.  That way, you could still be a Cornette listener but avoid a good amount of his insane rantings.

Like I said earlier in this very thread, I think when Cornette reviewed AEW's first Pay Pay View was when everything changed.  His review (specifically his comments about the Battle Royal on the pre-show) seemed to ignite a firestorm of controversy and almost inadvertently increased his popularity.  It wasn't long after that Cornette came right out and announced that both his podcasts were basically going to have the same format, with the exception being that he'd still try and answer questions on Mondays.  Since then, there have even been a few episodes of the Drive Thru where he didn't take any questions at all, and instead devoted the entire show to reviewing a PPV or whatever.

Here's the problem...he opens both shows with the same old shtick.  He plugs his business, he does some ad reads and then like clockwork he starts talking about current events.  Thing is, I don't give a damn what Jim Cornette thinks about Donald Trump, the Republican Party, or religion, to be honest.  For a few reasons.  Firstly, I'm Canadian.  I couldn't vote for or against Donald Trump, even if I wanted to. It's bad enough that you can't go online or turn on the television without being absolutely inundated with people complaining about Donald Trump 24/7.  I use Pro Wrestling as an escape from all that, I don't need to hear about it on a Pro Wrestling podcast.  Secondly, even if I wanted to hear somebody talking about politics, the absolute last person I would want to hear from is Jim Cornette.  His views on politics are astonishingly simplistic.  I have literally heard Jim Cornette complaining when the weather is cold that is the fault of the "goddamn Republicans."  And he's not joking, or working his gimmick either.  Cornette actually gets worked up about bad weather to the point where he starts profanely cussing out "Republicans."  Not a particular Republican.  Not a particular policy or piece of legislation. He doesn't bother to specify if it's on the local, state or federal level...he's just pissed off that it's cold and it's the damn Republicans fault. Jim Cornette is like a lot of people who have taken hardline political positions on both ends of the political spectrum...he isn't interested in rational discussion, or intelligent debate.  Cornette just likes to scream insults, talking points and generalizations.  If you're going to make me listen to your political opinions, at least put some thought into it and say something remotely resembling intelligent.  If I wanted to listen to an idiot ranting about current events with no basis in logic or interest in discussion, I'd listen to Alex Jones.

If Cornette would cut out the political rants or at least restrict them to one show rather than both, I'd be pretty happy.  I am already an hour and a half into this week's show, and he still hasn't got to discussing the first Clash of Champions yet.  But I did get to hear all about what he thinks of Donald Trump this week.  Which is exactly the same as what he says every week.  I think it's hilarious that Brian Last has to edit out large portions of both shows before they go up on YouTube, because Cornette's ranting about politics violates some sort of YouTube policy or something.  I am considering waiting the extra couple of days and just checking out his shows when they go up on YouTube.

2 hours ago, Loss said:

That's pretty much entirely what Cornette should be at this point -- a historian rather than a shock jock. But I guess because people are stupid and uninterested in learning much of the time, there just isn't as much money in that.

At the very least, imagine if he did a no gimmicks show that focused entirely on stuff like this. Then I could at least safely ignore everything else he does.

Cornette made mention again this week that he is essentially being inundated by messages from fans begging him to go back to reviewing AEW every week.  And if you read between the lines, you can tell Brian Last would like him to.  When Cornette does answer questions, Last makes sure the majority of them are about the current product and AEW in particular.  So far, Cornette remains steadfast in his refusal to watch or review AEW...his only exceptions being that he will watch whatever FTR or MJF does.

2 hours ago, PeteF3 said:

On Cornette's Facebook group some months ago, someone suggested to Last that Cornette review something like WrestleMania III--something from a more classic time period but still outside of his wheelhouse. He seemed open to the idea. I think that would make for a fascinating show.

The whole reason Brian Last talked Cornette into getting the WWE Network is so he could do watch-alongs and review stuff he had never seen. I think the idea was to make that exclusive content for their Patreon members. Unfortunately, the first couple of things Last picked for Cornette were Legends House and the Ruthless Aggression series.  I for one would love to hear Cornette review some of the WWF stuff he never saw because he was too busy on the road in the NWA.  Cornette did miss a lot of big WWF shows because he was otherwise occupied. But I agree, I'd like to hear him review stuff from the WWF from before he was there, that he's never seen.

[The Thread Killer]

I am slowly making my way through this week's edition of The Jim Cornette Experience.  It's taking a while because this sumbitch is long...around 3.5 hours, and I usually only listen about 30 minutes at a time while I am walking my dog.  They have finally gotten to the review of the first Clash of Champions, and are talking about the bizarre panel of judges for the Flair/Sting Main Event.  You had Gary Juster, (the event promoter) Sandy Scott (former local wrestler and JCP office worker), Ken Osmond (who played Eddie Haskel on Leave it to Beaver), Jason Hervey (who was still a kid at that point, staring on "The Wonder Years") and...1988 "Penthouse Pet of the Year" Patty Mullen.  Cornette and Brian Last rightfully start making fun of some of the choices for the judges, when Brian Last asked if Patty Mullen had also been an escort, since (he claimed) many of the Penthouse Pets were also escorts.

Cornette took a very offended, haughty tone of voice and replied: "Get your mind out of the gutter.  I'm a prude.  I do not like sex talk. Intimate relations should be between one man, and one woman. With as small a crowd as possible watching."

Another highlight of this episode so far was when Cornette was talking about his Cornette's Collectible's business.  He recently introduced a limited edition Jim Cornette action figure, of which there were only 450 available. The response to the limited edition action figures was so overwhelming that they sold out in one day and crashed his website, apparently.  Cornette talked about how they were shipping out all of the figures in the coming week. 

Brian Last said that he couldn't wait to see the response to the next action figure...the "Jim Cornette Hot Tub Play Set."

[Loss]

The walk-through of the MX vs Fantastics match from Clash I in real time was excellent and I'd recommend that everyone check it out. THAT is what I want to see more of from Cornette.

[C.S.]

3 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

Cornette took a very offended, haughty tone of voice and replied: "Get your mind out of the gutter.  I'm a prude.  I do not like sex talk. Intimate relations should be between one man, and one woman. With as small a crowd as possible watching."

Brian Last said that he couldn't wait to see the response to the next action figure...the "Jim Cornette Hot Tub Play Set."

IF Cornette is guilty of anything, these " jokes" are a bad look.

[Robert S]

I had the episode yesterday running in the background yesterday and called it quits after 2 h:

- first half hour: political stuff

- second half hour: arguing that there was hardly any abuse of women in the territory days as (1) there were enough rats around that let workers do whatever they wanted, (2) wrestlers who had to spend time to talk women into having sex were subject to ridicule in the lock room and (3) there were hardly any females around in the locker rooms, and many female wrestlers that were around that time were Moolah girls and Moolah protected them like a good pimp (he did not use that term, but basically that was what he was saying) does

- full second hour: another review and rants about AEW

If I ever try to listen to another Drive Through, then only with time stamps.

[The Thread Killer]

1 hour ago, Loss said:

The walk-through of the MX vs Fantastics match from Clash I in real time was excellent and I'd recommend that everyone check it out. THAT is what I want to see more of from Cornette.

 I just finished that watch along and I agree, it was excellent. Cornette’s memory of the details is very impressive with him pointing out where he and the guys in the match were calling spots and time cues.

I’d seen this match a few times before and I had no idea Tommy Rogers had been injured so badly on the bulldog spot outside the ring. I also found it interesting that they had to adjust their usual gameplan due to time restrictions and borrow a layout from a Memphis style match to get in everything they wanted to do.

I have heard Eric Bischoff, JR and Tony Schiavone do watch alongs with Conrad on his podcasts and they are never as entertaining or informative as the rare occasions Cornette does them.  I really wish he would do more stuff like this, and less political and anti-modern pro wrestling rants. This was so much better.

[El-P]

33 minutes ago, Robert S said:

- second half hour: arguing that there was hardly any abuse of women in the territory days as (1) there were enough rats around that let workers do whatever they wanted, (2) wrestlers who had to spend time to talk women into having sex were subject to ridicule in the lock room and (3) there were hardly any females around in the locker rooms, and many female wrestlers that were around that time were Moolah girls and Moolah protected them like a good pimp (he did not use that term, but basically that was what he was saying) does

Well, even if he did nothing wrong relating to that story that is out, which still remains ambiguous to say the least, fuck him seven ways to Sunday for saying shit like this because it shows that he doesn't understand the issue at hands at all.

[cm funk]

I like Corny's political rants mainly because he is pretty entertaining when he gets unhinged sometimes, it just depends on what it is.  If I happen to agree with him on something I get a kick out of it, if I don't care it's meh, and if I disagree with him the absolute venom he often puts behind opinions I think are stone cold wrong drives me nuts and I turn it off.  That last one really only happens when he's ranting about modern wrestling, which I find insufferable, even when I agree with him on some of his points.  If it's talking about his trips to the post office or the grocery store sometimes it's funny sometimes it's not.  Hit and miss, and I need to be in the right mood for it.

I'm a progressive who voted for Bernie in the primary.  I have some overlapping views with Corny when it comes to a very strong dislike of the same people, and I kind of find it hilarious that he of all people is the stereotype of a raving lunatic liberal.  I enjoy his rants like I used to enjoy crazy people leaving voicemails to Stern, or even guys like Alex Jones and Limbaugh when they get fired up.  At the very least they're funny as shit.  But Corny's the type of person I could never be around in real life and being much younger than him I think our views on life would be largely incompatible.  I'm basically the same age as Last and don't know how he puts up with him tbh.

[SomethingSavage]

I was raised by my wonderful grandparents and have just grown up around A LOT of folks like Corny. I find him immensely entertaining. I don't need to agree with his stance on issues to find his insults amusing. The guy's a gifted storyteller through & through. His charm lies in his conviction. I'll take a fired up Cornette rant over the best promo in the business by 2020 standards.

Cornette may be the last guy from the business who promos with any consistency & still sounds like he means what he says. GOAT status.

[Robert S]

One or three "AEW/current wrestling is shit" rants may be fine and entertaining, but he is doing basically the same rant every week (or at least every time I tried to listen to him in the last couple of months).

[TheDuke]

Wow I finally got to the end of this episode of The Experience, and watched along with the Midnights/Fantastics from Clash I. It's the very last thing on the podcast,  so I would suggest just skipping ahead to the last like 20 minutes or so. It's amazing. Seeing the match while hearing it broken down like that, wow. Did they really call it in the ring like that? I feel like something must be lost in wrestling tradition if in the old days it was just called on the fly like that, and today its planned out before hand. Like I know that's how they used to do matches, but until he walked us through it like that I dont think I appreciated how complicated that process could actually be. I would love to hear more of these. 

[NitroFan]

He did another watch along with Lawler vs Funk a couple of months back. He and Bryan have said they plan on doing more.