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JWeinCom on 23 February 2024
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Jumpin said:

On another note, I've listened to a bit of Jim Cornette and these are my impressions of him:

1. The guy is the result of a highly intelligent person dedicating their life to pro wrestling. He is probably the most intelligent podcaster/creator I've seen relating to pro-wrestling, and maybe by a large margin. At least the most articulate.
2. He has a great sense of humour, and him and Brian Last banter and arguing can get kinda hilarious, and Cornette, in all his anger and bullishness knows when Brian has got the better of him.
3. I do think that Cornette has some opinions about certain things that he saw from the wrong angle, the one major example I can think of here is his opinion as to why the popularity of WWE dropped at the end of the Attitude era. He assumed it had something to do with Stone Cold Steve Austin turning heel, and completely misses the changing culture of the world at the time. WWF Attitude was one of the core shock TV shows along with South Park and Jerry Springer. Around 2000 to 2003 or so, the shock TV industry became very saturated and the audience was shrinking at the same time, moving toward reality TV--shows like South Park adapted into a more story driven stuff. WWE dipped a toe into reality TV, but it felt more like a "We can do survivor stuff too!" rather than an inherent element of the show like the shock value wrestling was. In other words: WWF Attitude ran its course. I don't think Cornette quite understands this, because Austin going heel was actually kind of awesome, and I think most people loved it.
4. The guy is angry all the time, he loves being angry, he's especially angry when he's happy. He is one of those guys who seems to be his wrestling gimmick in real life.
5. He hates Vince Russo... and I'm not just saying that glibly, he sincerely hates the guy.
6. Generally I disagree with him on opinions about wrestlers, but at the same time the ones he seems to dislike the most are the ones I'm generally not a fan of, and the ones he seems to like the most are among my favourites--at least when it comes to mens wrestlers.

Now, to go on a tangent about that last point: I'm probably a slightly bigger fan of women's wrestling because the women tend to be more expressive and often flashier - and its still somewhat new to WWE, as I always felt companies like FMW and ECW did womens wrestling so much better in the past, it was Japanese women's wrestling that really caught my eye when I was younger - and I also really liked the stuff in ECW (yes, I know, I was a teenager! At least I didn't say XPW) because it felt more energetic, more real, and with stakes that mattered. I think that they're a bit more negative on women's wrestling that I'd like, I don't agree that the women's wrestling isn't in demand, but rather that the writing is still not quite there outside of their top stars. When the writing is like Rhea, Charlotte, Becky, and so on, then people like them. But you're not getting story lines like The Bloodline with women's wrestling - there have been times (albeit, brief times) when wrestlers like Becky, AJ Lee, and Asuka were the most popular wrestler in the world. IMO, it's the stories, you can see with certain wrestlers that move from NXT to RAW/Smackdown (in the past) and the story isn't there for them in the way it was in NXT, and the audience is dead. Gargano and Ciampa were two of the favourites in NXT and they'd get the audience going nuts - personally, I was always looking forward to the next step in their storyline - but they come to RAW/Smackdown and have these little programs with little/no continuity, and the audience is dead. It's the bland storytelling. But also, I think that in order to get people behind them, they have to do something show-stealing in the ring. Becky getting her "face broken" was a career making moment - Asuka kicking peoples face off - Rhea Ripley is excellent in the ring, that's why people are invested in her storylines and love her even when she's evil.

Anyway, so far I like Cornette's material the best. I'm familiar with him from the past as I've come across a video here and there from his channel every now and then over the years.

Cornette is incredibly intelligent and is also kind of a weird guy, so it's the perfect storm for a podcast host. He's kind of like Hank Hill is with propane. He takes the business seriously in a way that even most of the wrestlers don't. I don't necessarily agree with his take on what wrestling should be in the modern day, but I think it's much closer to what I'd like than what a lot of internet wrestling fans would prefer.

I don't really think he views Stone Cold turning heel as the cause of the attitude era dying. I think he feels that it's more like the fingerpoke of doom of the attitude era. It wasn't the whole problem, it was just a moment that crystalized it. And I think there is some truth to that. Most fans seem to agree that Wrestlemania 17 was kind of the peak and it went downhill from there. Obviously everyone knows wrestling is fake, but you still kind of bought Stone Cold as a real, if exaggerated, version of himself. And when he turned heel, it was just kind of a reminder "oh yeah, he's just doing a character". The heel run really didn't work, although it didn't help that it was probably building towards a blow up between him and HHH which never happened due to injury. And, then the botched invasion happened, and he turned face soon after.

There's definitely a bias against women's wrestling. Not necessarily sexism, just not what he likes, and he's often primed to dislike it. 

As for Russo, he was the right guy at the right time. He had the sensibilities of a teenage boy at a time when the little Hulkamaniacs were hitting puberty and Jerry Springer was the hottest thing around. Maybe it's because people pull out the dumb shit he says more often, but I've yet to see him say anything intelligent or insightful. And, a lot of the stuff he says is just plain dumb. For example, he thought Rhea should stay as the generic blonde she was when she debuted. And while she definitely looked hot back then (and does now in a different way) it's obvious that her current presentation is much better for the wrestling world.

On the subject of Cornette and Russo, this is Russo's pitch for a women's wrestling promotion. This is something a grown ass man wanted to put on TV and put his name on. Tbh I could see where working with someone like this would get irritating. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEbMKUC-61E