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Jim Cornette reflects on pro wrestling's legacy in Richmond

Posted: May 21st 2019 By: Wes McElroy

Longtime wrestling broadcaster, manager and promoter Jim Cornette visited Richmond this week and took a stroll down memory lane.

Question: Welcome back to Richmond. Do you have a memorable match from a night when wrestling was here?

Answer: There are so many great matches with the Midnight Express and the Rock N’ Roll Express. One of the greatest matches we ever had was a double main event: Lex Luger vs Ric Flair for the NWA World Title and The Midnight Express against The Horseman: Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, along with JJ Dillon. It was 1988, we had to turn people away from the Richmond Coliseum because we sold out — some 12,000 people. They were hanging off the rafters. The Horsemen at the time were very unpopular. Now they’re legends. At the time, the fans hated them and the fans hated [The Midnight Express], but we became the popular figures that fans got behind in our fight with The Horsemen and it
just made a great night. That was in September of 1988.

Question: As wresting rose in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, there were so many road shows. Who was the best entertainer, whether the match was on television or not?

Answer: So many were true pros, but I think Ric Flair. He’s become a pop culture icon. The Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas region had him first, but now he’s worldwide. Ric was an amazing physical specimen. He had the pulse rate of a marathon runner at 240 pounds. He worked out constantly, and
he would go in that ring every night and leave it all there for a half-hour, 45 minutes, or even an hour. It didn’t matter if it was on television of if there were 12,000 in the Richmond Coliseum or 3,000 in the Roanoke Civic Center, he was on every night and he kept that up every night.

Question: You were part of so many aspects of wrestling, including behind the scenes. How did wrestling find its space the pop culture in the 1970s and 1980s when there was no social media or YouTube?

Answer: The thing was we had great television exposure back then because we had local broadcasts in every television market in Virginia, and we had TBS from Atlanta that was national on Saturday and Sunday nights. That together with the constant live touring, because in those days you had live wrestling every month in Richmond, every month in Norfolk, and several times a year at the Hampton Coliseum and all the other markets like Roanoke, Charlotte, and Greensboro. We were, literally, like rock stars touring behind a record, but every night, 365 days a year. That kept the fans interested and kept them coming to live shows and it developed that following and that bond.

Question: Who were your favorite wrestlers to travel with on the road?

Answer: You know I always rode with the Midnight Express, they were great. Ric Flair is not only hilarious to ride in a car with, but you can get in trouble because you will spend a lot of money and do things that still might be illegal in several states [laughs]. His opening order when he’d walk into a bar, just to break the ice, was a tray of shots — not just a shot but a tray, which he’d end up passing out.
There was Roddy Piper; he was an insane guy and a great guy to have fun with. It was like a rock group touring without the bus, because you had individual cars but yeah, the women, the notoriety,
the glory and the fame, and all that stuff, well, there were some interesting things that occurred on the road back then.

Wes McElroy hosts a daily sports talk show weekdays from 3
to 6 p.m. on 910.