Jim Cornette

Jim Cornette
Birth name	James Mark Cornette
Born	(1961-09-17) September 17, 1961 Louisville, Kentucky
Residence	Louisville, Kentucky
Spouse(s)	Stacey Goff (m. 2007)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Jim Cornette[1] James E. Cornette[2]
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight	198 lb (90 kg)
Debut	1982

James Mark "Jim" Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American professional wrestling manager, commentator, promoter, and booker.

As a manager and creative writer, he has worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (now WWE), and from 1991 to 1995, was the owner of Smoky Mountain Wrestling. He has also worked as an on-screen character in an authoritative role; as "Commissioner" of Ring of Honor (in a previous stint with the company) and "Management Director" (and off-screen road agent) for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

Career

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Cornette always loved wrestling, reportedly installing a ten-foot antenna on top of his house as a youth so he could watch as much regional wrestling as possible. He began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, magazine correspondent, and public relations correspondent. In 1982, promoter Jerry Jarrett made the 21-year-old Cornette the manager of Sherri Martel and gave Cornette the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match. The most notable wrestlers in this angle were Dutch Mantell and Crusher Broomfield (who would later gain fame as The One Man Gang and Akeem, The African Dream).

In 1983 he managed a trio of wrestlers in Nashville consisting of Carl Fergie, Norman Fredrich Charles III, and the Angel, a trio that he called the "Cornette Dynasty". At the end of 1983 he would take on his best-known role becoming the frontman for the Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton, and later Stan Lane). With Cornette as manager, the team were 2-time National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Champions and 2-time NWA United States Tag Team champions. As a manager, Cornette was known for both his loud mouth and for his ever-present tennis racket,^[3] which Cornette often used to ensure victory for his wrestlers, with the implication that the racket case was loaded. Cornette was at his best as a heel manager; fans loved to see the constantly yelling Cornette and his equally annoying charges beaten and humiliated. He and the Midnights were so hated, in fact, that they had to be escorted by police to and from the ring at the house shows and have a police escort to the city limits for fear of being attacked by overzealous fans.

Additionally, Cornette suffered a severe knee injury during a scaffold match between the Midnight Express and The Road Warriors at Starrcade '86. In a shoot interview, Cornette recounted that Dusty Rhodes convinced him to perform a dangerous stunt where he would fall off of the high scaffold, which Cornette estimated was twenty-five feet off the floor of the arena but about five feet less when measured from the ring mat to the top of the scaffold. The idea was that Paul Ellering, the manager of The Road Warriors, would chase Cornette up the scaffold. Once he was there, he would be met by Road Warrior Animal, who would assist him in getting underneath the scaffold, where Cornette would hang and then drop when ready. Cornette, however, suffered from a severe case of acrophobia and decided that the drop, which he estimated was a total of fourteen feet when he factored in his total body length of eight feet (height plus extended arm length), was, as he put it, "way too Goddamn far."

Condrey, Eaton, and Cornette discussed an alternative theory where Big Bubba Rogers, who Cornette was also managing and had led to victory over Ron Garvin earlier in the evening's event, would catch Cornette with Condrey and Eaton backing him up and once Rogers caught him, all three men would drop and roll based on something Cornette had seen paratroopers do on television when they landed. However, Rogers could not properly judge where he was due to his wearing dark sunglasses inside the arena. Cornette actually landed flat on his feet three feet away from Rogers, and since he was not expecting to land in the ring he did not immediately buckle his knees on impact with the canvas. Cornette later said that he knew he might get seriously hurt when he was told he'd have to fall off a scaffold, but that performing in front of such a large audience was more important than his own health. Cornette tore all the ligaments in one of his knees, as well as suffering a broken bone and cartilage damage, and said that the injury was so extensive that when he finally saw a doctor to have the knee drained, the amount of blood and fluid filled an entire bedpan.^[4]

National Wrestling Alliance/World Championship Wrestling (1986–1990)

The Midnight Express with Cornette had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers). When opportunities in WCCW looked to go nowhere the Midnight Express started to look elsewhere for employment and what they found would give the team national and international exposure.

In 1989, Cornette became the color commentator for Jim Crockett Promotions' nationally syndicated NWA television show, and later took over the same role on the Saturday night TBS broadcasts alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Ross.

In 1989, Cornette became a member of WCW's creative team, also known as a booker. As a booker for WCW, Cornette helped write storylines and shape the format of its television shows. Due to friction and animosity between himself and WCW head Jim Herd, Cornette quit the company after Halloween Havoc 1990.

Smoky Mountain Wrestling (1991–1995)

A firm believer in "old-school" territorial wrestling, Cornette began the Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) promotion in 1991.^[3] SMW promoted shows in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. By this point, however, the nature of wrestling in the United States had already changed irrevocably, leading Cornette to seek a working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993. This did not change the new national perception that regional promotions were "minor league". The move also did not help the federation's finances, and Cornette closed SMW's doors in November 1995 and sold all SMW rights and videos to the WWF. Cornette later said that he chose the wrong time to start a wrestling federation because the business as a whole was in a recession.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (1993–2005)

Cornette went to the WWF in 1993 while still serving as promoter of SMW. As he had done in other promotions, Cornette held several positions in the WWF, including manager, color commentator and member of the booking committee. Cornette's most notable managerial role in the WWF was as the "American spokesperson" of WWF Champion Yokozuna.^[3] Cornette joined the WWF full-time in 1996 after the demise of SMW, and had a major role in scouting and developing new talent.

On screen, he led a top heel stable of wrestlers referred to as "Camp Cornette". At any given time, Cornette's charges consisted of Yokozuna, Mantaur, Vader, Owen Hart, and The British Bulldog. He also served as the manager of Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray during their brief stint in the WWF.^[3] In 1997, Cornette became a member of the WWF announce team where he served as a color commentator. It was during this time that he also began performing a series of controversial "worked shoots" where he would praise what he felt was right and condemn what he felt was wrong in professional wrestling. Although the segments were produced by the WWF, Cornette did not hesitate to give praise to WCW wrestlers that he felt deserved it. Cornette also became active behind the scenes working on the booking committee for several years before being removed after frequently butting heads with head writer Vince Russo.

In 1998, Cornette led an NWA invasion,^[3] based on the old Crockett Promotions territory, with a stable including Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Later that year, Cornette managed The New Midnight Express^[3] before he stepped back from managing. Cornette then did some color commentating, primarily on Sunday Night Heat, before disappearing from television. Cornette returned to WWF television for one night at WrestleMania X-Seven in Houston, where he took part in the "gimmick battle royal" but was quickly eliminated by Hillbilly Jim.^[3]

Cornette later became lead booker and part owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's lead developmental territory at the time, run by "Nightmare" Danny Davis. As a talent developer, Cornette had previously been instrumental in developing current and former WWE Superstars such as Kane, D'Lo Brown, Sunny and Al Snow during his time running SMW. WWE credits Cornette with helping foster numerous successful superstars including John Cena, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar.^[5]

In May 2005, Cornette was suspended for several weeks after slapping OVW developmental wrestler Anthony Carelli backstage after Carelli had "no-sold" fellow wrestler The Boogeyman by laughing at him during a live OVW event. Shortly after Cornette returned from his suspension, a separate incident occurred and the WWE released him from his contract in July 2005. In the spring of 2007, Carelli, who had since been called up to the WWE as Santino Marella, appeared on a Canadian radio program where he publicly challenged Cornette to a match despite Cornette working for rival promotion TNA at the time.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2006–2009)

In 2006, Cornette joined TNA Wrestling as the new face of TNA Management. He held the title of "Management Director" according to the press releases following his premiere at the Slammiversary PPV event on June 18, 2006 in Orlando, Florida. After a brief speech, he departed, but returned at the end of the show in light of the "Orlando Screwjob", taking the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt after Jeff Jarrett, Larry Zbyszko and Earl Hebner successfully executed a screwjob on Christian Cage and Sting.

As the figurehead "Management Director" of TNA, Cornette did not usually take up more than ten minutes of the show, which can be attributed to both his quick tongue and TNA's lack of desire to create another Mr. McMahon. Matt Morgan had also become Cornette's on-screen bodyguard to prevent harm to his physical being, until leaving that post to become a full-time wrestler. Part of Cornette's gimmick was that when multiple situations build up at once, he often takes care of them all swiftly by getting all the TNA wrestlers to come out to the Impact! Zone for a "company meeting" to hear his decisions, or exasperatedly deals swiftly with people who barge into his office. The clear impact of this feature was made evident right from the start, as the first "company meeting" (which aired on the edition of June 29, 2006 of TNA Impact!), where every wrestler was asked to come out and stand at either ramp, saw Cornette clear up several issues:

• Forcing The Latin American Xchange to start wrestling again under the threat of termination.
• Booking Raven and Zbyszko in a hair vs. hair match against each other for Victory Road 2006.
• Disbanding Team Canada as a result of their overly cheating ways (he would later offer them a match which, if they won, would allow them to stay as a unit, with the winner to get a future shot at the championship of their choice. They would lose the match).
• Firing Earl Hebner for his role in the "Orlando Screwjob" at Slammiversary 2006. (Hebner had since been rehired, due to a lie detector test on Jeff Jarrett)
• Booking America's Most Wanted and Gail Kim in a match against Sirelda, A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels in an intergender six-person tag team matchup with Styles and Daniels' NWA World Tag Team Championship on the line.
• Booking a fatal four-way between Christian Cage, Sting, Scott Steiner, and Samoa Joe for Victory Road 2006.
• Finally declaring Jeff Jarrett the official NWA World Heavyweight Champion given that Jarrett defended his title against the winner of the fatal four-way at Victory Road.

Jim Cornette was fired from TNA on September 15, 2009.^[6]

Return to ROH and OVW (2009–2012)

In 2009, Cornette signed a contract with Ring of Honor to be their Executive Producer for the Ring of Honor Wrestling show on HDNet.^[7]

Cornette made his surprise return to ROH at Glory by Honor VIII: The Final Countdown on September 26, announcing he was the new Executive Producer for the television show. Cornette made his first appearance on Ring of Honor Wrestling on the December 7 episode and immediately made waves by putting ROH champion Austin Aries into a 4-way title match later that night and created the Pick 6 contender series.

On September 8, 2010, Ohio Valley Wrestling announced that Cornette would resume his duties as the head booker of the promotion.^[8] Cornette left OVW in November 2011, when the promotion announced a working agreement with TNA.^[9] On the edition of January 21 of Ring of Honor television, Cornette announced that chairshots to the head were banned and anyone that did so would be fined $5000. On the February 4 telecast, Cornette made another ban in which the piledriver—in any form—is banned.

On October 8, 2012, it was reported that ROH had replaced Cornette as the head booker with Hunter Johnston (Delirious).^[10] ROH wrote Cornette off television by having him suffer storyline injuries at the hands of Jay Lethal.^[11] As of November 2012, Cornette is reportedly "on sabbatical" from Ring of Honor and it is unknown when he will return to television. The reason for Cornette's absence allegedly stems from a public outburst he made at the November 3 ROH television taping. At the taping, ROH talent Steve Corino suffered an injury, and allegedly no ROH officials were able to pay for Corino's immediate medical attention or even arrange for an ambulance to be called, leaving Corino in pain for hours.^[12] Following his departure from Ring of Honor, Cornette decided to take an extended break from professional wrestling to focus on his health and work on personal projects.

Global Force Wrestling (2015)

On May 1, 2015, Cornette revealed on his podcast that he will be working the June 12–13 Global Force Wrestling events in Jacksonville and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Personal life

Cornette and his longtime girlfriend Stacey Goff, were married October 31, 2007. Stacey, was a former independent wrestling manager who went by the name "Synn". Synn was the OVW manager of the Disciples of Synn which included Dave Batista.^[13]

In September 2009, during a podcast interview on "Who's Slamming Who?" he voiced his support for President Barack Obama's Health Care Reform plans. He also condemned what he considered "fearmongering" from the Republican party, as well as calling former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin "a useless twat". He acknowledged having voted for Obama in the 2008 election, but does not consider himself a Democrat.^[14] His political statements have led to media attention, including an appearance on Internet talk show The Young Turks.^[15][16]

Knox County, Tennessee mayor Tim Burchett declared November 17, 2014 "Jim Cornette Day" during a Southeastern Championship Wrestling taping in Knoxville.^[17]

Cornette has an intense fear of flying and hadn't flown in 10 years until February 2014 when he graced the UK for a five date U.K Tour.

He also works closely with Kayfabe Commentaries on the 'Back to the Territories' series.

In wrestling

Cornette (right) with Adam Pearce.

Wrestlers managed

Tag teams managed

Nicknames

• "The Louisville Slugger"^[2]
• "The Louisville Lip"^[25]
• "The Louisville Loudmouth"
• "Prince of Polyester"

Entrance themes

• "Chase" by Giorgio Moroder^[26]
• "Gavel" by Dale Oliver (TNA)^[27]

Championships and accomplishments

• Cauliflower Alley Club

• Other honoree (1997)

• Iconic Heroes Wrestling Excellence
  • Southern Wrestling Hall of Fame (2015)
• National Wrestling Alliance
  • NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2005)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Manager of the Year (1985, 1993, 1995)
• Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame

• Class of 2012

• World Wrestling Federation
  • Slammy Award (2 times)
    • Best Dressed (1994)
    • Blue Light Special for Worst Dresser (1996)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Best Booker (1993, 2001, 2003)
  • Best Non-Wrestler (2006)
  • Best on Interviews (1985–1988, 1993)
  • Manager of the Year (1984–1990, 1992–1996)
  • Best Pro Wrestling Book (2009) Midnight Express 25th Anniversary Scrapbook
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jim Cornette.

• Jim Cornette on Twitter
• Official website
• Jim Cornette's profile on WWE.com
• Jim Cornette GFW Profile
• Cornette wows the audience in Charlotte
• Jim Cornette at OnlineWorldofWrestling.com
• Jim Cornette released from WWE
• Jim Cornette at the Internet Movie Database