INTERVIEW RECAP OF JIM CORNETTE ON BETWEEN THE ROPES

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INTERVIEW RECAP OF JIM CORNETTE ON BETWEEN THE ROPES

02/23/2006 (4:41:34 pm)
Christopher Murray

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Between The Ropes
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team
Simulcast online at BetweenTheRopes.com

On Wednesday night, February 22, legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette joined hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci live on Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team to discuss life after WWE/OVW, today's product, the new rookies on the WWE roster, Matt Cappotelli, working ROH, wrestling reunions, and lots more.

Jim immediately started off with one of his many classic commentaries of the evening. "I'm just watching the 11 o'clock news here in beautiful Louisville, Kentucky and I've got breaking news for you. You might not have heard about it on the AP wires. They have found a solution to the Dubai port situation. Instead of letting Dubai take control of our ports, they are going to let the WWE do it. That way, not only the terrorists won't want to come, but nobody will want to come to the ports."

Cornette talked about his recent work as commissioner with Ring of Honor, which cost him a tooth at a ROH show in Dayton, Ohio at the hands of "some of those garbage hardcore wrestlers, which I'm not even going to dignify them by mentioning their names." He enjoys watching the young talent trying to prove themselves in ROH, which has given the people an alternative to the wrestling that's on national TV.

"So much of professional wrestling unfortunately is crap these days, to try to sugarcoat it as much as possible. I'd rather see my mother hooked up to a machine than watch anything on national television these days practically. Although, I've got no problem with the TNA product. I guess I was specifically talking about WWE. I guess that's what I was doing. So much stuff that you see just really insults your intelligence. With Ring of Honor, you know the wrestlers are trying hard. They're giving their all. They want to tear the house down. They want to be noticed. They want to get ahead."

Asked what he thinks WWE needs to do to create a more compelling product again, Jim responded, "I think probably a mainstreaming in the medical community of brain transplants. I mean, I don't know. I can't come up with an answer for why anybody with that much talent on the roster and that much money to spend on advertising and promotion and that much technical expertise in the television studio would consistently produce crap on national television. I really can't understand it. I don't know what the cause of it is. I don't know what the cure for it is."

Cornette said he doesn't watch a lot of wrestling except for Ring of Honor and the legends shows he participates in. "I don't watch WWE on television. I can't do that to myself. Life is too short and I'm on blood pressure medicine as it is." He has seen a little TNA on TV and considers the X Division "groundbreaking." He put over Samoa Joe as a superstar that WWE let get away because of his look. "It's almost like the person involved with hiring talent in WWE was a tall, awkward, gawky guy with two left feet and no charisma who worked in a bland style and never drew...oh, I'm sorry."

Jim says that from what he's seen of TNA, the company may not have a star like The Rock or Steve Austin, or even a Chris Benoit level in-ring performer, but they don't put insulting segments on their television show that produce "click heat," in viewers take the remote and click to a different channel.

Jim plugged his participation in the World Wrestling Legends 6:05 Reunion pay-per-view taping on March 5 at the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida. Cornette will lead all three members of The Midnight Express against The Armstrongs in a six-man tag. Jim will also be involved in the Capitol Wrestling Legends FanFest from August 11-13 in Rockville, Maryland. He'll be participating in a Q&A session with his friendly rival Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Jim talked about all of fun he's had at the various wrestling conventions over the past couple of years in seeing all of his old friends.

Talk shifted back to the current wrestling product. Jim said the art of the promo has been lost in WWE since the same people with the same viewpoint are writing lines for every wrestler. The lack of passion and emotion results in a lack of ticket sales. He said that wrestling needs credibility and you can't sell a blatantly phony product to the people.

The discussion moved on to Ohio Valley Wrestling and some of the talent that has gone through the territory en route to the WWE main roster. "That is one of the main bones of contention between myself and the WWE, which led to me being off an on camera position and off of a creative position here in Louisville. I see guys that are being trained and have talent and have potential that are not ready yet being called up. I see guys that are ready being called up and not given a chance to play to their strengths and accentuate their positives and try to eliminate their weaknesses. I see a lot of stuttering, retarded, goofy people. I see guys eating worms. The point is, it takes years to train and give experience to a quality wrestler and it takes literally weeks or months to negate all of his potential by presenting him in the wrong fashion. I'm excited for some of the guys' success that they've had, like John Cena, who's a tremendous guy, and like Randy Orton that we've trained here. And I also see what could have been with some other guys like Matt Morgan. Johnny Jeter is a tremendous talent. To me, he's like a 21st century Ricky Morton, but unfortunately in a group of five guys who all look the same and all wear the same clothes, I don't know whether anybody is going to get to see that or not."

When asked for his opinion on the use of Eddie Guerrero's death in the Randy Orton-Rey Mysterio WWE storyline, Jim commented, "It's horse manure. I know we're on the radio. I'll try not to get you kicked off by the FCC. I don't have terms strong enough to express how ridiculous and pointless and useless and in bad taste. Wrestling is all about bad taste, but you have to do bad taste and good taste. It's unnecessary. There's no reason for it. I don't know why anybody would want to do it and I don't know why anybody would want to watch it. I don't know why."

The interview concluded with discussion of Matt Cappotelli and his health. "I think that Matt did a tremendous job with a very tough situation. It wasn't presented in any way in terms of a storyline or in terms to further a match. It was simply that the folks in Louisville care about Matt Cappotelli. He's a great kid. The fans like him. The wrestlers like him. He's worked his butt off here. He was given the opportunity to tell everybody at the same time. The wrestlers did not know. Very people knew. He had just gotten his diagnosis the day before and he was given the platform to go on television and tell everybody at the same time what was going on. I did watch that. I think that was handled in the right way. Everybody is in Matt's corner. He's come back from a broken leg. He's come back from concussions. He's come back from injuries. He has the courage. He has the mindset. If anybody can whip this and come back and still do what he wants to do, it's Matt Cappotelli."

To listen to the Jim Cornette interview, including some additional hilarious stories and comments on today's WWE product, as well as the entire February 22 edition of Between The Ropes in streaming audio, visit the show online at http://www.betweentheropes.com/. Join us for Between The Ropes for two hours every Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team and worldwide on BetweenTheRopes.com.

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