The Enlightenment: Jim Cornette 1994 SMW Fan Week Interview

wrestling / Video Reviews

February 16, 2005 | Posted by J.D. Dunn

SMW Fan Week Interview With Jim Cornette.

For those of you too new to the wrestling game to remember Jim Cornette, he was one of the great managers of the 1980’s, taking the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey and later Stan Lane) to the top of the tag team ranks. Later, he left WCW and started his own promotion called Smokey Mountain Wrestling (SMW). SMW had a number of good years before talent raids and dropouts of the financial backers finished them for good. He wound up in the WWF as the “American Representative” of Yokozuna. Later, he managed Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. Currently, he books Ohio Valley Wrestling (a WWE developmental territory).

This interview was conducted with a number of “inside” wrestling fans/journalists in late 1994. In fact, this was a yearly tradition until SMW folded in 1995. Cornette is has an opinion about everything and isn’t afraid to share it, making him one of the most fascinating interviewees you’ll ever hear. Get used to the word “tangent.”

Onward…

We open with Cornette talking about his working relationship with the then-WWF. Cornette feels he’s gotten as much or more value out of the relationship than the WWF has. This, despite the fact that he lost The Heavenly Bodies and Brian Lee to the WWF and only got a few developmental stars and guest shots in return. He says eventually fans will burn out on the popular guys anyway and besides, not all the WWF guys would draw in his territory.

Says that Randy Savage was the best guy to get because he knew the territory and knew how the territorial business works vs. the WWF system. Cornette does a funny impression of Vince telling Bret Hart that Bret’s going to Smoky Mountain for six months to demonstrate the absurdity of such a situation.

Vince Jr. operates in a much different way than Vince Sr. did. When Vince Sr. wanted your talent, he’d give you some notice so you wouldn’t book them in a longterm angle. Sometimes with Vince, you didn’t know they were gone until you saw them on WWF TV. Says since the SMW/WWF deal started, Vince has been honest with him.

Makes fun of the Undertaker’s “death” and resurrection at the Royal Rumble in 1994. Says it doesn’t bother him that the Undertaker died, but “how’d he get out of the fuckin’ box?” He says he needs something to make him believe that it might be real, but he also says it’s Vince’s company and he’ll do what he wants.

Talks about being a fan of The Mummy (Ken Dillon) when he used to wrestle Jerry Jarrett back in the old days. Cornette says he decided to use a Mummy in SMW and says it works even today because you don’t need to believe that it’s actually a 3,000 year-old guy trying to kill everyone — a 30 year-old guy that thinks he’s a Mummy is just as scary. Says people are immune to goofy stuff like that because it’s so overdone. Same with guys who are 7-feet tall. The Mummy didn’t work out like thought, so Cornette jobbed him out and moved on to the next thing.

Another person asks about criticism/backlash against him, which leads into a LONG discussion about what an asswipe Bruce Mitchell (of the Pro-Wrestling Torch fame) is. The whole thing stems from Cornette shouting a racial slur (“nigger” if you want to know) at an overly markish fan during an intense match. Mitchell criticized Cornette for using racial slurs to get heat. Cornette’s excuse is that he wasn’t in character at the time (which really doesn’t make it any better). Keller then started beating the drum until Cornette says he had people from the WWF calling him and asking about the “race riot” he had in SMW.

Relations were further strained when Keller agreed to send Cornette’s merchandising info out with his newsletter. It led to a petty squabble about money. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was Keller’s attack on Terry Gordy, who was still loopy after a near-fatal drug overdose. Cornette admits to helping disguise Gordy’s bad interview, but says he paid for a name and got a name. His big problem with Keller isn’t that Gordy’s problems were reported, just how Keller went about it. He says Keller and Mitchell are too busy “trying to be Woodward and Bernstein.”

Keller tried to spin “the Gangstas” as a desperate ploy by Cornette to keep SMW from going under. Cornette says all he did was give them a name and turned them loose. Says he’d rather make money than please Wade Keller. Mitchell then wrote that he expected SMW to have the Gangstas show up eating fried chicken and watermelon. Ever the capitalist, New Jack showed up at the TV taping and asked if he could do an interview while eating fried chicken and watermelon. (This situation eerily mirrors the Hassan/Daivari angle. I guess some things never change.)

He then goes into a story about trying to explain to Mitchell why there were no black employees in SMW. Cornette says no African-Americans ever applied for the ring crew. He asks the group to name all the black referees they can think of. (Current SD GM) Teddy Long is the only one that comes immediately to mind. He says there are only five office workers running SMW at any given time and no blacks have applied.

On why SMW didn’t have many black workers — Koko B. Ware = fat & lazy, JYD = ditto, Ron Simmons (Farooq) wanted too much money, 2 Cold Scorpio wanted to be a babyface, which Cornette didn’t need at the time. Also says Scorpio has no idea how the business really works because he spent so much time in WCW. He thinks he can make $500-$700 a night on the indy circuit, but it ain’t happenin’. Cornette asks the interview crew if they think he has a “What color are you, motherfucker?!” line on his applications.

This leads to talk about why he made the Gangsta heels. It had less to do with their color than their act. He says southerners do hate blacks, but they also hate mama’s boys, bleached blonde pretty boys and all sorts of other people. Says Keller and his friends sit around expounding philosophically about what’s wrong with the world and how wrestling relates to that.

A bit of hypocrisy interjects itself here as Cornette starts saying what’s wrong with the black community, which is exactly what he complained about Keller doing. He says the biggest problems with blacks are Al Sharpton, Snoop Dogg, and others like them. He says there’s not a white person in the room that hasn’t thought to themselves, “why doesn’t someone shoot them in the head.” I feel I should note that Snoop has mellowed a bit since his debut.

Says it must be personal with Keller and Mitchell because Cornette got Mitchell to admit there were just no blacks they could realistically hire and Mitchell still wrote a column criticizing SMW’s hiring policies. That’s the difference between Keller and Meltzer, says Cornette — Meltzer will give you the news and what he suspects is going on behind the scenes and will tell you the difference whereas Keller tries to pass off opinion as fact.

Someone asks if it’s a problem that people can just write down their opinions and sell it off as fact. Ha ha! Wait until the internet really takes off!

Tells a funny story about how Keller can cause misunderstandings. Keller printed a story that Chris Candido was headed to SMW. This was long before Candido actually did show up in SMW. So Cornette tells Keller (back when they were speaking) that he hasn’t even talked with Candido and doesn’t know where Wade got the story. The headline in the PWTorch the next week was “Cornette Denies Talking to Candido.” That prompted Candido to call Cornette and ask him why he was so pissed off at him.

The bottom line on Keller and Mitchell after 30 minutes of ranting: They’re both “dumbfucks.”

Talks about how hard it is to compete with WCW because they pay guys to sit on their asses. He says the mid-card guys in WCW won’t even go to the WWF where they could make more money because they can sit at home for three weeks and still get paid.

Onto ECW. He doesn’t get to watch enough of it to really judge. He says it wouldn’t play in SMW, but it works for Philly. In ECW, there are no babyfaces, just the heels that people like and the heels that people don’t like. He comically speculates on what would happen if he were to ask an SMW fan for a chair. Says comparing SMW to ECW is like comparing the Fabulous Moolah to Bruce Lee.

Onto the territorial system – every territory was different but followed the same rule of thumb. The AWA was different from WCCW. Georgia was different from the WWWF, etc. He says you can only book to your base when wrestling is down. (Hint. Hint. Hint.)

Talks about SMW fans not wanting to be “smart” to the business even if they know wrestling is fixed. He says wrestling always draws more when A) there’s a huge match that comes together at the right place & time like Hulk vs. Andre or, B) when people think some real shit is going to go down.

This leads to another discussion of now vs. then. Back in the seventies & eighties, Cornette says, the Civic Center drew every two weeks what SMW did for its “big” show because the people weren’t “smart” and wanted to see who would win. He relates a story about how Jim Crockett Promotions’ last big money-drawing angle was the Midnight Express vs. the Four Horsemen because people thought they really got pissed off at each other for some backstage reason. You have to make them believe somehow.

(This is why Vince Russo’s 1999 run was so successful. People didn’t really care about the backstage politics on their own, but if they thought there was a chance two guys might start shooting on each other, they’d flock to see it.)

Says if everyone across the country knows wrestling is fixed, they won’t go to see it. Blasts Keller for saying if wrestling can’t survive the truth, it doesn’t deserve to survive. Cornette says that’s bullshit because David Copperfield couldn’t survive either if everyone could do his tricks at home. He says any entertainment venue depends on showing people something they can’t see and can’t predict. Says Keller is fucked too if wrestling goes under, and he should realize that.

(As someone who makes films, I can attest to this. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sit back and enjoy a movie without wondering what kind of editing system was used or why they cut to an overhead shot when a tracking shot would work just as well. Part of having knowledge of the business is losing your ability to mark out.

On the other hand, wrestling often does things that are so stupid and outlandish that it’s like seeing the zipper running up the alien’s back or a string guiding the spaceship along. Sometimes, wrestling can be its own worst enemy.)

Says you can get kayfabe back even after it’s lost, but you really have to work at it and make people believe. (And this was 5 years before Russo’s success!)

Talks about being screwed over by Jake Roberts when he walked off as champion. SMW’s line was that Dirty White Boy beat Jake at a house show. In reality, the match never happened because Jake is…well, Jake. Cornette says it was a no win situation. If he had booked a match between DWB and Gordy it wouldn’t draw because neither of them had beaten the champ. In SMW, people don’t care because they don’t analyze.

Describes the situation with Jake, and them playing phone tag all weekend. Jake would always call and say, “I’ll be in tomorrow.” Someone asks if Cornette knew about Jake’s problems. Cornette knew about the AAA riot incident and some of Jake’s other problems. Cornette went down and talked to him in person. He seemed to have gotten things reasonably together so Cornette brought him in.

Cornette defends Jake by saying he’s a great worker mentally. That segues to Jerry Lawler, who Cornette says is the best heel in the business, but the young WWF guys won’t pay attention to what he’s doing because he’s not doing backflips. Says guys have all the tools physically to be great, but guys like Dick Murdoch, Lawler & Terry Funk know it’s what you say and how you do what you do. Asks what would happen if Lance Storm had Jerry Lawler’s promos and Jake Roberts’ head. He says wrestling is psychology, not athletics. Athletics helps, but it’s not necessary.

That leads to a discussion about Dick Murdock and Bob Armstrong working a headlock for twenty minutes at the Night of Legends show and people marking out for that match as much as any other because they have twenty different ways to get out of the hold and back into the hold.

Contracts don’t help because you can’t make people do things they don’t want to do anyway. They’ll just make you sue them or come in and half-ass it. Normally, he says, it’s not a problem. SMW has a small roster, and he has surrounded himself with good people like the Armstrongs. He trusts people at their word and would rather book them instead of whoever is hot at the moment. That’s why when people come to a promotion, they always bring their friends and family into the promotion too. You always know that your family won’t fuck you over. (Which is why Stephanie McMahon is still around while Tom Pritchard and Pat Patterson are gone. Loyalty over talent.)

Cornette then goes into a rant that is so relevant it’s scary. He talks about the dirt sheets (you can substitute IWC in there now) always saying “Why doesn’t this guy get a shot? Why don’t you push that guy?”. He says it’s not always about talent, but whether or not you can depend on the guy. (cough**Lesnar**cough)

The first year of SMW went just like he wanted it to. He knew Ricky Morton would be free of WCW and wanted to reunite the Rock ‘n’ Rolls. The only person that had a problem with that was Bruce Mitchell who talked about how old Ricky was. Cornette says tell that to the people who cheer their heads off every night. Ricky is still successful even though he can’t cut a promo, doesn’t have a body, doesn’t really have any athleticism. He just knows what he’s doing.

(But it becomes a catch-22. Look at the situation with Hulk Hogan in 1993. Hogan was really the only draw they had at the time, so they didn’t want him to lose. Then, when Hogan left business went into a tailspin because everyone else was seen as second rate. The same situation is occurring today on Smackdown with the Undertaker.)

He moves on to talking about Chris Walker who had all the tools physically to be great. Cornette advised him not to go to the WWF. He did anyway and got eaten up by the WWF system. A few months later, he was calling Cornette for a job. Cornette arranged for him to come in, but Walker came up with excuse after excuse and no-show after no-show. Cornette says talent is fine, but loyalty is what keeps you around.

They talk about Jim Crockett trying to get back into the wrestling business. Cornette went down and saw what they were doing. He made a few suggestions in exchange for gas money and a meal at McDonalds. Poo-poos talk of joining the NWA. His response – what NWA? He only tried to join the NWA in the first place to piss off WCW. There’s no one in the NWA to make it a national organization anymore.

When asked how he expands outside the region, he wisely says “you don’t.” He talks about Jim Crockett Promotions promoting in West Virginia, Virginia and the Carolinas for fifty years. They tried to expand to Baltimore and Philly, and two years later they were out of business. Same with Bill Watts and the UWF. He says the best way to stay in business is to make your own territory strong and maybe, maybe expand slowly. The best idea is to let someone else try to revive a town and then work with them. (TNA should listen to this!)

Talks about the damage that has been done to the wrestling business. People got pissed off at wrestling and tuned out. He uses a restaurant metaphor to say it takes a long time for people to come back. Word of mouth is what’s important.

When asked about TV affecting house shows, he launches into a hilarious story about how he had his tires slashed in some Podunk town in Virginia. The guy giving him a ride to the tire store told him they had two over-the-air channels and 12 cable stations but no one knew what would be on them at any given time because the guy who ran the cable company would pull TNT if he didn’t like what was on that night. He says most of Appalachia is dependent on satellites so who knows what the fuck they’re watching. He is happy because they get better ratings than WCW, who pay for their time. Says it’s hard to get fans to come to the shows though.

It’s hard to know whether or not the overabundance of cable exposure for WWF and WCW has hurt SMW. He says there are just more movies, music, shows etc. for people to spend money on instead of wrestling.

STORY TIME~!

Talks about his misadventures with hair clippers. He was managing the late Hercules Henandez against Jim Duggan with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams as the special referee. If Herc won, Duggan was supposed to get his head shaved. If Duggan won, Cornette was supposed to get his head shaved. Doc turned on Duggan and cost him the match, but all the babyfaces came down and grabbed Cornette. They tried to shave his head, but the clippers wouldn’t work. Someone brought a pair of scissors, but they broke in half! Bobby Fulton (of the Fantastics) gets the bright idea of running to the back to get shaving cream and a Bic disposable razor. Cornette’s thoughts: JESUS CHRIST! They got him nearly down to a Mohawk before he ran off.

Onto Mid-South as a territory as Cornette remembers a tangent he missed. Louisianna and Mississippi used to be where you went when Leroy McGuirk hated your guts. When Bill Watts had a falling out with McGuirk, he took over Mississippi and Louisianna and popped the territory by sheer force of will power. He relates the big angle between the Angel, the Assassins, Rock Hunter and JYD. MSW went from making $4,000 a show to $4,000 a wrestler.

That segues to Jerry Jarrett and how he’d leave for a while when he got burnt out and let the territory die down, then when he got back from wherever the hell he was, he’d take over the book and triple the house take.

Cornette says it was easier then and relates a story about Jerry Lawler needing a heel opponent so Lawler showed up on TV one week with a bandaged eye and marbles in his mouth talking about how he went down to Birmingham where a guy named Ken Lucas jumped him and with the help of the biased referee and a bunch of fans beat the hell out of him. Voila. Instant top heel. It was easy if you made things make sense, says Cornette. Now, Cornette says, a guy can come out on television with his arm cut off and people would say, “Eh, let’s wait ’til next week. He may get his leg cut off.”

Onto Bill Watts’ troubles. Cornette says when the oil dried up that was it for Watts. He recalls selling out 4 consecutive shows, each with a raised price because Watts would just advertise it as a “special event” and people would just pay more.

This segues to stories about Mid-South fans (fanatics). Instead of stopping you on the street to hope you have a good match or put on a good show, they would wish you good luck and hope that you win. Talks about Watts not letting the territory get exposed and allowing backstage horseshit get in the way.

Someone asks what happened to Watts in 1992 (his WCW run). What changed? It certainly wasn’t Watts, says Cornette. In Mid-South, Watts ran things his way. If you didn’t show up at a show, he’d fine your ass. If you showed up late, he’d fine your ass. If you wore shorts, he’d fine your ass. Cornette jokes that you could run a territory just based on what Buddy Landell got fined while he was there.

That leads to a tangent about bringing in young guys and making them good. Dick Beyer (THE DESTROYER~!) trained a young black kid by the name of Mark Ragin. Watts needed a young, black babyface, so he brought both of them in and had the Destroyer wrestle twenty-minute matches with Ragin every night and made Ragin watch all the matches on the card so he could learn.

Cornette’s last night in Memphis, he earned $110. His first night in Mid-South, he earned $900. He decided he wanted to learn why he was making so much money so he could keep doing it.

Says Watts knew everything that went on in his territory and knew how to explain his own angles on commentary so that they made sense. That, btw, is where a young Jim Ross cut his teeth in the industry.

In Atlanta, everything was politics. In WCW, you couldn’t backhand someone and throw him out on his ass. Watts took a look at the books and tried a radical concept for WCW — actually making money. Watts told him that when JCP sold WCW in 1988, they were $2 million in debt. In his first year, Turner lost $10-$12 million. When Watts came in, he wanted a deal that said he got a percentage of what he saved then rather than a salary.

Everyone hated Watts because of it. People were satisfied making money and not working. Cornette says Watts never really penned any of the WCW angles because he was too busy just trying to clean out the front office. Says some things can pass you by, but there are certain things that will never work — like paying a guy $200,000 when he’s not working.

That leads to a discussion of Brian Pillman. Ric Flair busted his ass early on to get Pillman over. Then Dusty took over and buried Pillman. Watts went to Pillman, who was near-worthless at that point, and told him he couldn’t afford to pay Pillman while he wasn’t drawing. Cornette says Watts didn’t blame Pillman, but knew the reality of paying him $150,000 for not drawing. (This situation led to the infamous exchange between Pillman and Watts where Watts threatened to job Pillman out for the rest of his career. Pillman fired back, “Then I’ll be the highest paid jobber in history.”)

Cornette talks about Watts being a hard man who would yell at everyone, but he was successful. Doesn’t think he’d ever come back to wrestling because he doesn’t need to. (In fact, Watts would come back to book the WWF in 1995.)

Someone asks if it’s going too far trying to humiliate someone who has already signed his contract. Cornette says it’s debatable, but its Watts’ way.

Someone asks about Cornette being run out of town one night in Louisianna. Cornette says it was just after church and 1,400 fans showed to the gym roaring drunk and cussing in Cajun. The match before them was Jimmy Garvin vs. Chris Adams. The fans were so drunk they were pinching Precious’ ass all the way down the aisle. Jimmy was so scared of fan retaliation that he refused to cheat. So when Cornette and the Midnight Express came down to wrestle Junkyard Dog and Magnum T.A., the fans hadn’t gotten it out of their system. Before they even got in the ring, someone threw a beer in Bobby Eaton’s eyes and tried to pick a fight with him. Cornette grabbed his tennis racquet and prepared for battle. The big security guards threw the fans back over the rail and away they went with the match. Cornette hung onto the ringpost for dear life with a security guard at his back just in case. Eaton, who Cornette says would wrestle a match on the surface of Mars, kept trying to get heat while Cornette was screaming, “Don’t cheat, Bobby! Don’t cheat!” Eaton tossed Magnum over the top rope (a major no-no in the old school) and by the time his feet hit the floor, the Midnights were on their way to the dressing room. Security locked Cornette, Eaton and Condrey in the locker room “for their own protection.” It takes 30-40 minutes for security to get the arena cleared and escort them out.

Numerous stories about trying to get a hotel room and order fast food. Funny, but not really wrestling-related.

Onto stupid fans and their stupid lawsuits. Back in the 1987, The Midnight Express and the Rock ‘n’ Rolls had just finished a match, and the MX were standing in the ring celebrating when someone throws a signpost at Eaton that gashes his neck open. Lane chased the guy into the crowd and knocked him out with a single punch. The arena staff rushed the guy to first aid, so Cornette tracked him down and cussed him out while he was being arrested. Corny says the funniest thing is each person who witnessed Cornette’s verbal tirade recalled a different epithet, so there was a long list given to the cops. The guy sued because Stan had broken his orbital bone and he couldn’t have sex with his wife. Cornette says if his wife looked like what he thought she did, having one blind eye would be an asset during sex. The whole thing led to a difference in the way they did business with security.

More stupid fans. A fifteen year-old kid ran up to Dennis Condrey and punched him in the arm. Cornette brushed the kid aside, so the next time they come to town, there’s a warrant for his arrest. Cornette says the kid claimed Corny hit him with his tennis racquet and he couldn’t piss anymore. It cost Cornette $2,000 in attorneys’ fees to be found not guilty.

More stupid fans. Christmas in Louisianna. Some guy took a swing at Cornette, so Cornette hauled off and hit the fan with the racquet. The problem is, on the backswing, he hit a cop in the head. They wanted to hold him over for questioning. When they took him to the police station, everyone in the jail was black…and a wrestling fan. Cornette asked for an empty cell so he wouldn’t get killed. They put him in a cell with a guy who may or may not have been dead. The only wrestlers he’s ever seen that started fights were the Bruise Bros. (Ron and Don Harris). He says the papers only talk to people who are pissed, not the wrestlers.

He originally wanted Tom Pritchard to replace Dennis Condrey. Dusty suggested Stan Lane. Someone asks if they were allowed to interact when they were both in the WWF (Stan as an announcer). Cornette says they didn’t belabor the point, but it would be stupid of them to pretend they didn’t know each other.

Someone asks about Baby Doll and how she broke his jaw. He says she would do things as a shoot while he was trying to sell it as a work. He tells a story about running away from Paul Ellering and being hit in the back of the head by Baby Doll so hard it nearly knocked him out. (That’s featured on the Best of the Midnight Express, and it’s a really good shot.) Cornette says he has no real complaints because they made money, but hears she’s complained to the dirt sheets about him being too stiff with her.

On a proposed rape angle for Baby Doll. Dusty was supposed to arrive at the arena and find Baby Doll missing. They would find an abandoned car in the parking lot with Baby Doll’s legs hanging out of the open door. Dusty would run over to her and you’d hear a CRUNCH as Dusty Rhodes steps on Big Bubba Rogers’ sunglasses. (I have to admit, that would be pretty cool.) For obvious reasons, that never happened.

Someone asks how you do the fire trick. He says Ronnie Garvin wouldn’t sell anything unless it looked good. As a result, Cornette wadded up several rolls of the flash paper and threw it in Garvin’s face. The problem is it stuck there and kept burning. Cornette says it made for great video, and Garvin was happy with the segment even though it burnt his eyebrows off.

Someone asks if Hogan to WCW will be a smart move. He says no one gives a shit. They’d have to make a lot of money just to justify signing him. He says they’ve beaten down Flair to the point that he beats himself down. He says Flair is loyal to a fault, sacrificing himself to make new stars. Says he doesn’t know why WCW is doing cartwheels over signing a guy for $2 million dollars only to have him get the buyrates to half of what they were in 1989. Says Hogan will be gone in six months (Which would seem like a false prediction, but I’m sure Cornette couldn’t have known the lengths Bischoff would bend over backwards…and forwards for Hogan. Including months off with pay.) Says Bischoff will claim it’s part of the “longterm plan.” Also says Bischoff’s longterm plan is to work for Walt Disney because he knows fuck all about wrestling. Thinks they should freeze Bischoff and thaw Walt.

Asked if Hogan is going to do a job. Cornette wonders why he should. Everyone thinks they’re movie stars, with agents, and stylists and whatnot. Remember, this is 1994.

Someone asks about David Crockett. He says David was always nice to him except they’d always bleep Crockett’s promos. He says he’d go to David and say, “I heard the same word last night on David Letterman,” and Crockett would respond, “This isn’t David Letterman.” Cornette shot back, “That’s right. People are watching Letterman.” He says he never went up to Crockett and told him he sucked dick as a commentator…which he did. He was a nice guy.

Who was the best guy who never made it big? Cornette says Bob Holly (who was in his first year in the WWF as “Sparky Plugg”). Says he can’t think of anyone off the top of his head. Brian Hildebrand tosses out the name Terry Taylor.

Back to Bob Holly, who was supposed to be one of the Heavenly Bodies, but his girlfriend convinced him to stay close to home. Says he’s sorry to see him as Sparky Plugg, but as soon as it fails, he’ll have Bob Holly back.

Someone asks for any dirt he has on the wrestlers. He says he can’t do that because that’s the same thing he blasts the Torch for. His advice is not to make it personal.

Says he can’t write for New Jack. New Jack comes up with his own stuff, but Cornette will turn it into a more confrontational style. He does the same from Tammy Sytch, taking her aside and saying “How would you say this in real life.”

All Knoxville knows about gangs is what they see on the news. That’s what gets heat because the last thing the people of Knoxville wants is for gangs to move in. Says the angle can only go too far if they get taken off of TV. Someone suggests a black babyface team to take the heat off, and Cornette says he doesn’t give a shit about heat. Says he only cares that people come in to see it. Besides, if you haven’t figured out that there are good and bad black people, you’re beyond help. Says white people get sick of turning on MTV and seeing blacks glorifying violence.

Needed something to hit people with when he started managing He saw a bad teen movie around the time they went to Louisianna where the rich snobby kid carried a racquet around through the whole movie. Voila. A legend was born.

Someone suggests Cactus Jack as possible SMW talent. He says Jack will probably take some time off when he’s done with WCW. Says Sabu is more problematic because the moves he does would outshine all the babyfaces so the fans wouldn’t boo him and wouldn’t feel right cheering him. That leads to a discussion about Chris Candido’s debut. Candido did a tope to dead silence. Cornette told him to kick the ropes and start pouting. When he did that, the place went crazy.

People he’d like to work with at some point: There aren’t many he hasn’t met. He worked with Piper at WrestleMania X.

Free agents he’d like to bring in: Louie Spicolli is one, but he can’t think of anything for him to do. Who would have thought that Moustapha Saed would be a top heel? Says Randy Savage was living in an apartment in Knoxville in 1984 with only a mattress on the floor. A year later, he was one of the WWF’s top heels.

Someone asks about the Steiner Bros., which leads Cornette to go off another Keller rant. He says he was lending the Rock ‘n’ Rolls to the WWF for a European tour and needed a replacement. The Steiners were available, so he made a couple calls to see if they would show up for a couple of days. It turned out they were headed to Japan anyway, but Keller ran a story about how they were “in negotiations to go to SMW.” He says Keller makes everything sound bigger than it is. He shrugs off talk about running a Steiners vs. Rock ‘n’ Rolls program. People wouldn’t pay to see it because they don’t want either team to lose.

Regarding new talent. The babyfaces are set. The heels are set. Says that most of the guys who are heading to Japan won’t like and will be back. Says Mike Lano is a nut. They tell funny Lano stories. Cornette says Lano once booked him in Japan without his knowledge. He finally caught up with Lano, who tried to convince Cornette to go because “he could book.” Cornette shot back, “I’m going to book a bunch of Mexicans…in Japan? I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t speak Japanese, and I don’t even want to go!” Says mail-order tapes that come from Lano look like a 4 year-old made them. Also says its funny that everyone Lano quotes talks just like Lano writes.

Says he wishes some of the Japan groups would go out of business because they’re stealing everyone. If he was advising anyone on which Japanese fed to go to, it would be All Japan then New Japan. Relates a story about being at Chris Jericho’s house and watching someone do a springboard somersault onto another guy. Cornette says the guy is just “a stupid dumbfuck” because it doesn’t make sense. Nice to look at, but it would kill the territory because you’re one-upping yourself. If you can work, you can get people into the match without doing flips.

On who he’d like to have back. Says the Bruise Brothers are too expensive. Moondogs would be nice. Says (SMW manager) Darrell Van Horn is an idiot who can do great interviews. He’d call Cornette 3-4 times a week to go over a single interview. Cornette took a few days off and the checks started bouncing because Corny didn’t take care of it before he left. Van Horn’s check bounced, which caused him to call everyone and ask if the promotion was going under. Corny jokes Van Horn called Paul Heyman, who probably confirmed SMW was going under. Says it’s stupid that Van Horn was worried about losing a $75/month job.

Talks about the difference between face vs. face matches and heel vs. heel matches. Says Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller worked because they mixed in the Rock ‘n’ Rolls, the Stud Stable, and the Heavenly Bodies so no one knew who was turning.

Copies a lot from Jerry Lawler because he was a great worker and made everything look real. Says he enjoyed Lawler’s heel work more, but he drew more as a face because he was one of the few faces who could deliver a good promo. Lawler got over from doing shocking stuff and making it look real. Says Lawler had a ridiculous amount of success over twenty years.

Says he wouldn’t use Sid Vicious because he always thought Sid was a blight on the business.

Someone asks who influences Brian Christopher the most – Lawler or Eddie Gilbert. There is no difference, says Cornette. Gilbert apes Lawler to a tee. Says Christopher acts and looks like a 90’s version of his father. Says he doesn’t know if Christopher could make it in the WWF because he doesn’t want to leave Memphis.

Talks about the Fabulous Ones heel turn on Lawler. Gilbert booked it, but it was during the Gulf War so their TV was preempted.

Someone asks if Cornette would hire Eddie Gilbert. He says no because Eddie is too unpredictable. It’s not just because people piss him off, he just is like that. (It makes me wonder how Watts ever kept him in line.)

Talks about the guys he’d love to have but WCW keeps renewing their contracts and not using them.

Victor Quinnones called him up and asked him if they could put some Japanese guys on SMW TV to make them look like big stars. Cornette was cool to the idea, but Quinnones says “We’ll pay them.” Cornette said sure. Kanemura shows up and gets cut open by Sullivan and bleeds all over the place. They were about to do it again, but Mike Kirschner had his little scrape and it exposed the fact that Quinnones didn’t get proper paperwork for the foreign workers.

Worst thing that happened since starting in SMW. One time the camera wouldn’t work so they had to snag a VHS camera from a fan to shoot the angle. Every week there’s something else, says Cornette.

Talks about working with other promotions. The problem is who goes over and what style you work. Says he wouldn’t mind managing Owen or bringing him in.

And that’s where the interview grinds to a halt.

Final Thoughts: Your typically brutally honest interview with Cornette. As you can tell, it’s looooonnnnggg, clocking in at around 3 hours. About thirty minutes of that are spent ranting about Wade Keller, but once you get into the meat of how to do promos, how to be a great babyface/heel, etc. this is absolute gold. I highly recommend it for anyone thinking about getting into the wrestling business or for the casual fan of the old school. Time may have passed Cornette’s style by, but there are still a number of things people can learn from him.

Enthusiastic thumbs up.

J.D. Dunn

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The Enlightenment: Jim Cornette 1994 SMW Fan Week Interview | 411MANIA (2025)

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