Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette was recently Kevin Kellam’s guest on WrestleZone Radio. Cornette gave his thoughts on today’s wrestling business, All Elite Wrestling, the WWE Network, and whether he believes he will ever be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
On Inducting The Rock ‘N Roll Express To The WWE HOF:
At the last Hall of Fame, I didn’t have a speech. I never wrote it. What I said up there at the podium was legitimate. I had those three pages of notebook paper where I put notes like, ‘Tell this story or that story,’ so I wouldn’t go too far off the beam because people have told me that sometimes I do go on. One time Vince [McMahon] said, ‘If I ask you what time it is, don’t tell me how to build a watch.’
I just had my bullet points and I just spoke. Jimmy Jacobs was my producer and he came up to me and was like, ‘Do you want to go over anything? There’s a few things they ask me to go over with everybody. Don’t thank Vince. He doesn’t like that.’ I said, ‘Jimmy, don’t worry. I promise I won’t get you fired, but I legitimately have no speech. Here’s my notes. I’m gonna mention these names.’ That was pretty much it and the first time I said it out loud was onstage. Obviously, in my head, I went over the flow of the thing, but you might go a little longer, if you’re tearing the house down and you might go a little shorter, if you’re dying, but I kind of went in the middle, but it was fun and everybody was happy. Nobody was offended.
His Thoughts On A Potential WWE HOF Induction:
I didn’t think they’d ever call The Midnight or The Rock ‘N Roll and that’s why when they called the Rock ‘N Roll and they asked me to induct them I said, ‘OK, I can’t be the prick. They’ve done something I said they would never do, so now that they’ve done it I’ve got to go along and honor everybody.’ I don’t think that The Midnight Express and Jim Cornette ever did anything in the WWF to deserve going into the Hall of Fame, but since now they’re open to the whole world of wrestling, if they wanted to induct me and all the members of The Midnight Express, I would say yes because I think it would mean a lot to those guys, as validation and recognition of what they have done.
As touchy as people are, besides the fact that I’ve said a lot of sharp things about people – now Donald Trump, for God’s sake, is in the Hall of Fame for WWE, so they’ll take any unsavory piece of sh*t, so it’s not about the stuff I said, but I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’ve been quite outspoken on a variety of topics and will continue to be that for the rest of my life because I don’t give a sh*t, but that may disqualify me from being an honoree. Who knows?
Readers may listen to Kevin Kellam’s interview with Jim Cornette in its entirety below:
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