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Talking With Jim Cornette: Now With Ring Of Honor

Posted: Oct 10th 2009 By: CMBurnham

Jim Cornette is swapping shame for honor.

The legendary manager has quit his TNA Wrestling front-office role to become the executive television producer for Ring of Honor, a smaller company trying to carve a mainstream niche on the HD-NET channel.

"I'm not just trumpeting my latest job, but Ring of Honor is always one of the companies I've loved and pulled for," Cornette said in a recent telephone interview. "They do a better job with what they have than anybody else. They're a wrestling company run by wrestling people. They're not trying to beat (World Wrestling Entertainment). They just want to carve their own niche.

"At TNA, I was basically tired of working for a big company and watch it get smaller. I wanted to go to a smaller company and help it get bigger."

Considered one of wrestling's sharpest minds, Cornette joined TNA in 2006 as on-air figurehead commissioner and backstage member of the creative team. He helped coordinate TNA's camera work for "Impact" telecasts (9 p.m. EDT Thursdays, Spike TV) and offer story-line input.

Cornette said he enjoyed "pulling in a lot of money working with a lot of people I've known for 20 or 30 years." Cornette, though, also admits to being "embarrassed" working for TNA because of the company's direction under lead writer Vince Russo.

Cornette also had problems in the late 1990s coexisting in WWE with Russo, whose unconventional matchmaking style isn't everyone's cup of tea. Russo's booking heavily contributed to the demise of World Championship Wrestling in 2001 and leads to occasional crowd chants of "Fire Russo!" during TNA pay-per-view shows.

"It was sad, disappointing and depressing to watch," Cornette said. "We didn't have as many pay-per-view buys as we should and nobody was getting over (i.e., becoming popular with the fans). He's the only booker I've ever seen who gets people under."

Russo recently climbed the TNA political ladder when executive/wrestler Jeff Jarrett was stripped of his backstage power by company President Dixie Carter. Cornette was released after telling Carter he couldn't fully support Russo's creative vision. Cornette is more of a traditionalist who places a greater emphasis on in-ring action and cohesive, sensible story lines. Cornette also is terrible at biting his tongue, which has led to backstage problems in other companies he's worked for.

"The matches are made meaningless so Russo can see his comedic lines and dramatic scripting spring to life," Cornette said. "There's a bunch of great athletes, but they're not very good actors. They're even worse comedians."
Ironically, Cornette is heading to a promotion whose young performers need a shot of charisma to complement their innovative in-ring styles. Although he won't be Ring of Honor's lead matchmaker, Cornette will try to impart his wisdom in character and story-line development culled from 34 years of experience in all aspects of the business.

ROH, which landed its first weekly television show earlier this year on HD-NET (8 p.m. Mondays), also can use Cornette's savvy in TV production. Cornette booked shows for his now-defunct Smoky Mountain Wrestling territory that helped groom such current stars as Chris Jericho and Glenn "Kane" Jacobs.
"I don't want to reinvent the wheel in Ring of Honor or change the style (of wrestling)," said Cornette, who had previously worked some dates as an ROH performer before joining TNA. "The only thing I'm going to try and do is see what else we can do in addition to what the Ring of Honor fan base likes to see. That will maybe bring in some other fans who want to see a little something different."
Cornette's days managing wrestlers onscreen are over but not forgotten. Cornette and his acclaimed Midnight Express tag teams were recently voted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, which is considered the most prestigious career honor of its type in the grappling industry. Earlier this year, Cornette published a 25th-anniversary scrapbook chronicling the Express' accomplishments as one of the 1980s top duos.

"The book didn't talk anyone into voting for us, but it may have reminded people how good we were," said Cornette, 48. "We had longevity on top, great match quality and drawing power."

Cornette recently assembled a two-set DVD with rare match footage and interviews with the Midnight Express, which consisted of Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey and Stan Lane in different incarnations. For more information on the scrapbook and DVD, visit www.jimcornette.com. For more information on Ring of Honor, visit www.rohwrestling.com.