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McGinnis: A Conversation With Jim Cornette

Posted: Oct 31st 2009 By: CMBurnham

Jim Cornette on the health care debate: ?It?s ridiculous! I wish Obama would just say, ?I?m the president, I?m the ****ing boss.? I like everything he says he wants to do, he?s just not getting enough of it done because (Republicans) won?t get out of the ****ing way. We should all have health care. For the income tax that I?ve paid over the past 20 years to the United States of America, when I?ve got a backache, they should come to my house and **** me!?

Jim Cornette on the rise of mixed martial arts and its effect on professional wrestling: ?What they?re doing is, they?re doing our business better than we are. Unique or colorful or athletic personalities that are kind of badass being manipulated into situations where they fight each other and they sell tickets to it. That?s professional wrestling. The difference, of course, is that they?re ?real,? but that?s like number five down on the list of why they?re so popular?P.T. Barnum said, ?If you want to draw a crowd, start a fight.??

Jim Cornette on organized religion: ?It has always been started or founded based on some guy either going out in a forest, or on a desert, or up a mountain, talking to God, having a conversation with him, and then coming back down and telling everybody else what he said?And nobody bothers to question this??

It?s said that the best ?gimmicks? in wrestling are never that far from the characters of the actual people who perform them. And legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette certainly did not have to stretch to become an outspoken, brash, opinionated and incredibly entertaining individual. Cornette is an interviewer?s dream; tremendously intelligent, interesting, a great storyteller and funny as heck to boot.

Nowadays, Cornette is a very busy man. Between the launch of his website, jimcornette.com, the simultaneous release of a book chronicling his history with hall-of-fame tag team the Midnight Express, his departure from TNA Wrestling and subsequent return to indie group Ring of Honor, a lot is on the plate of the man fondly referred to as the ?Louisville Slugger.? But you get the sense he wouldn?t have it any other way.

?I?m as busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest,? Cornette said in a phone interview, inspiring the first of many laughs.

In recent years, the Midnight Express, who Jim first managed back in 1984, has seen a major rise in prominence among wrestling fans, even those who had never seen the team work originally. What do you think has inspired this, I asked?

?Actually, it started about five years ago this past month, when we first started getting back together for the first time and started doing the reunion shows. Then it just kind of grew on itself. Also, I think Dave Meltzer said at one point, people turn around and it?s been like 20 years later and nobody better has come along, so they?ve gotten a whole new level of respect amongst people,? Cornette said. ?It just reminded everybody of how good Eaton and Lane and Condrey were.?

A big part of the Midnight nostalgia has been fueled by Cornette?s own book, The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette 25th Anniversary Scrapbook. A rarity in a business that never keeps records, the book features an incredibly comprehensive list of all the team?s matches during its history, as well as photos and other rarities. Cornette said the writing process was different than anything he?s ever tackled before.

?A lot of the writing was really transcribing, because so much of the text of the book is results and notes about the shows and our touring schedule and gates and information on the arena events,? Cornette said. ?The individual chapters on different subjects, like heat (wrestling vernacular for drawing a reaction from the crowd) and how it?s changed, and some of the lawsuits and riots and funny road stories, those were the fun chapters to write.?

Yes, lawsuits and riots. No one said playing a vehemently hated wrestling manager would be easy. The book details many of the exciting and scary facets of being a part of the wrestling business at that time, from the thrill of drawing a big crowd to the fear of being shot in the eye by a Drano-filled squirt gun. Despite such, um, complications, Cornette speaks of his days with the Express with great warmth.

And he isn?t done taking wrestling fans on a trip down memory lane. The site also offers a DVD of rare Midnight Express matches. And a new book is in the works, compiled of vintage photographs Cornette took at a young age when he first got involved in the business.

?I was at ringside for the Jerry Lawler/Andy Kaufman match. I took Hulk Hogan?s rookie pictures. Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher, world title matches at the Omni,? Cornette recalled. ?I?ve got all those pictures from all the years that I shot photos for the magazines and the programs. And over the holidays, I?m going to comb through this giant mound of classic wrestling photos I?ve got and do a classic wrestling photos book.

?I really think there?s a market for the fans who don?t get to see the good old stuff, or who haven?t gotten the opportunity to see it because they?re newer fans?There?s a market out there, and I think the fans enjoy it.?

In addition, Cornette is also on the road working for Ring of Honor, an independent promotion seen nationally on HDNet, and is audibly excited at the chance to work with the company?s up-and-coming talents.

?Ring of Honor, they have young guys that work their *** off. They have enthusiastic crowds, they?re really into the talent,? Cornette said. ?It?s just a great atmosphere. And if I can help with the television in any way?I?ve been doing wrestling on television in one form or another for 25 years. And they?ve just started. So if I can help them in any way, that?s my goal and that?s what I?m looking forward to doing.?

I asked one last question before we finished: How is it one of the greatest managers and talkers ever in wrestling history is not employed by WWE, but a marginal wrestler like Santino Marella still has a job?

Cornette laughed, then answered, ?Because Santino Marella wants one, and Jim Cornette don?t.?