Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Sean Oliver and the Kayfabe Commentaries Crew
The Man: Jim Cornette was a lifelong wrestling fan, even adding an extra-long antenna to his house as a teenager to pick up wrestling shows from farther away. By the age of 14 he was doing various small jobs in the wrestling business – photographer, ring announcer, program correspondent and even working in the promotions department. This would all lead up to his big break at age 21, when Jerry Jarrett offered Cornette a role as a manager for his Memphis wrestling promotion.
Cornette received the gimmick he would carry for most of his career: spoiled rich kid. In the early days though, Jim was portrayed as inept and his clients fired him quickly. The list includes future stars like Sherri Martel, The One Man Gang (then known as “Crusher Broomfield”) and Dutch Mantel. Eventually Cornette would get steady clients and even expand into Ole Anderson’s Georgia promotion which was expanding north and needed talent in the ring and behind the scenes. Cornette would wind up back with Jarrett, and being used as an understudy to Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart.
By late 1983, Cornette would begin to manage his most famous associates – The Midnight Express – at this point consisting of “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and “Lover Boy” Dennis Condrey. The trio would end up being sent to Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling promotion as Jarrett was over loaded with talent. It wouldn’t take long to be involved on the top of the cards, as The Express would battle with Mr. Wrestling II and Magnum T.A. over the area’s tag team gold, as well as the Rock and Roll Express. The Rock and Roll Express showed their disdain for Cornette by shoving his face in a cake, which thrilled commentator and area legend Bill Watts to the point where he showed the clip of the incident frequently, which lead to the Midnight’s attacking him. Watts would come roaring back with the Junkyard Dog as a partner and abuse Cornette and the Express across the territory. This also led to a series of Rock and Roll Express versus Eaton and Condrey matches including a “Scaffold” match in the Superdome.
Cornette would later enlist Hercules Hernandez as a bodyguard to help protect him from “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. This would culminate in a Duggan versus Hernandez “hair vs. hair” match at the Superdome. Cornette would wind up bald as a result as the area’s babyfaces ganged up on him and shaved him.
With some proven ability to draw money under their belts, the Midnights moved on to World Class Championship Wrestling.
They spent most of their run in WCCW feuding with Tommy Rogers and Bobby Fulton – The Fantastics. The matches were generally well a cut above the rest of the card’s efforts and the Von Erich’s and the rest of the crew couldn’t put a match of the same quality on. Instead of moving the Midnight’s up to a “main event” feud with Kerry and company, the Fantastic/Midnights matches were often instead put on last and called “encore” matches. Tired of not being paid in accordance to their performance, Cornette saw to it that the WCCW stay was shorter than expected.
In Mid-1985, Jim Crockett came calling and the Midnight Express signed on at nearly the same time as their rivals the Rock and Roll Express. After an initial series against the Sawyer Brothers, the two Express teams renewed their rivalry. In addition the Midnights started a feud with Jimmy Valiant, which led to Superstar Graham and Valiant facing off with Eaton and Condrey- and ultimately a “Starrcade” match with Valiant teaming with Ronnie Garvin in drag as “Miss Atlanta Lively”.
The Midnights would defeat the Rock and Roll Express for the World tag titles in February of 1986 and hold the belts until losing them back to Ricky and Robert that summer. Big Bubba Rogers was added as Cornette’s personal body guard during this time. In addition to the Express vs. Express series, the Midnights also began to feud with Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. as a result of Cornette shoving his tennis racket into the gut of Baby Doll. This angle saw the Express sign to face who they thought were going to be jobbers – only for Dusty and Magnum to don masks and be surprise opponents for the Express:
A few weeks later, “The James Gang” briefly kidnapped Cornette and attempted to hog tie him to a back of a pick-up truck and drag him across the pavement. The Express saved him before an injury could occur. Magnum and Dusty then cut an awesome promo – justifying their actions by saying “we tried an old school solution to a new age problem”. This was an awesome angle!
1986 would also see the Express raise the ire of the Road Warriors – BAD IDEA.
This would culminate in the famous “Scaffold” match at Starcade 86, a match that not only saw the Express fly from the scaffold in defeat, but also saw Cornette drop off the platform while fleeing from the Warriors and legitimately blow out his knee.
Turmoil would hit the Midnight Express in the spring of ’87 as Dennis Condrey became burnt out and abruptly quit the team. Cornette and JCP had to scramble for a replacement – using Bubba at first, before settling on Ric Flair trainee and former “Fabulous One” Stan Lane. “Sweet” Stan and Bobby got a golden chance to prove themselves right away as they were entered into the 2nd Annual Jim Crockett Senior Memorial Tag Team Tournament against nearly every top team under the NWA umbrella. The Express would make it all the way to the semi-finals – defeating The Garvin Bros. and the Road Warriors before being overcome by the eventual winners- Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff. Only weeks later the Express would enter and win another tournament, this time winning it all and taking home the U.S. tag team titles as their reward.
The summer of ’87 saw the Rock and Roll Express and Midnight’s reignite their feud- facing in title for title matches. Then in Fall the Midnight’s interfered in a match with Ricky and Robert against Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard and cost the Rock and Rollers the World tag team titles. Ricky Morton was injured by the Express and Gibson forfeited the match when Morton was trapped in a submission hold. This would lead to a Starcade “scaffold” match between the two Express’ – with Lane and Eaton taking the plunge.
Early ’88 saw Cornette’s Mama order him to split the Express and have them go after Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff’s singles titles. Bubba also bailed out on the team and headed to the WWF. The US tag belts were still owned by the Midnights though and the Fantastics took up the challenge of swiping the belts from Lane and Eaton. The Fantastics would gain and lose the belts to Eaton and Lane over the next several months. Then in September, Lane and Eaton took on Arn and Tully in a champions versus champions match and stunned the Horsemen for the belts. The Express were now DOUBLE tag team champions and suddenly fan favorites!
The fun wouldn’t last long though as the Road Warriors had just turned on Dusty Rhodes and were in a pissed off state – this made for a short reign for the Express as the Road Warriors snagged the belts that October. In addition, the US tag titles had been stripped as the team needed to focus on the World tag defenses.
Meanwhile over in the AWA, Dennis Condrey had re-emerged, taking on Paul E. Dangerously as a manager and former Express member Randy Rose as his partner and they dubbed themselves the “Original” Midnight Express – and they also captured the AWA version of the World tag titles. Paul E., Rose and Condrey made a surprising appearance on NWA TV and attacked Eaton, Lane and Cornette and gave them a major beat down.
This would lead to The Express versus The Express at Starcade ’88, with Cornette’s duo emerging victorious. Soon after Condrey would flake out again and quit, forcing Rose to take Jack Victory on as a replacement partner and killing much of the feud’s heat. Paul E. found a new team in Samu and Fatu “The Samoan SWAT Team” and the Express struggled with the beastly duo. They would lose to the SST at Clash of the Champions 6 in April, but by summer had turned the momentum around and beat the SST as part of the NWA World tag title tournament. The Express would lose to Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes in the finals. Cornette was injured during the match and helped off by Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, the start of Cornette’s association with another tag team.
The Midnight Express would team with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams and The Road Warriors in a “War Games” match in July against Samu, Fatu, Terry Gordy, Michael Hayes, and Jimmy Garvin – Cornette’s team got the win and the satisfaction of besting Paul E. yet again.
Cornette kept up his association with the dorky Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace, before finally setting them up to be battered by Lane and Eaton that Fall – turning the Express into rulebreakers once again. They spent much of early 1990 feuding with Tom Zenk and Brian Pillman – capturing the US tag belts from them – and of course wrestling the Rock and Roll Express once again…
At the end of summer, The Steiner Brothers defeated Lane and Eaton for the US tag gold and the Express sputtered around for a few more months before Lane and Cornette chose to quit WCW. Eaton stayed on because he had a fat contract and was so well liked and respected.
What became of Cornette and Lane? Find out Tuesday…..
The Shoot: Disc Two
Cornette was a fan of the Patriot, Del Wilkes. Good all-around package as a wrestler.
Davey and Owen didn’t want to work with the Patriot for reasons that Jim doesn’t know.
Cornette went to bat for the Patriot as Kevin Dunn and others booked him to get beat down only a week after he showed up. Cornette snapped and mocked Dunn to his face, then threatened to attack Dunn. The room all laughed except for Ross and Dunn, because they knew Cornette was serious. Cornette stormed out of the meeting and was later forced to apologize. Dunn started crying.
“You’re a millionaire! Get your teeth fixed!” Oh Jim!
Bret Hart worked Terry Funk’s Amarillo retirement match. Both guys insisted on jobbing.
Shawn power played himself to beating the British Bulldog on a British PPV – Bulldog’s mother was in the audience as well as his cancer stricken sister – who Davey dedicated the match to before the finish was changed to him jobbing.
Cornette was appalled that Vince gave Nash a huge payoff for Wrestlemania 13 – despite Nash already signing with WCW.
Despite entertaining TV shows – ratings and attendance was still struggling, which allowed Vince to tell Bret he couldn’t afford his contract. More than likely Vince picked Shawn over Bret after all their bickering and one or the other had to go.
Jim is amazed that Vince let his millionaire talents get away with so much.
Cornette had the misfortune of being the guy put in charge of finding out Pillman’s location the day he died. Jim found out from the hotel clerks via a phone call.
Kevin Dunn wanted to cut a legends segment from a PPV because “nobody knows who they are”. This included Harley Race, Sam Muschnick, Jack Brisco, Dory Funk, Jr., Gene Kiniski, Terry Funk, and Lou Thesz.
Cornette takes credit for the “Hell in a Cell” design and the idea of Kane tearing off the cage door.
Cornette started doing semi-shoot rants on RAW about WWF and WCW. Jim had to write down the promos to make sure he wouldn’t be sued.
Russo thought Cornette would come across as a heel for these promos, but mysteriously wrestling fans cheered the concept that “wrestling fans come to a wrestling show, to see wrestlers WRESTLE!”
The WWF started to try and script Cornette’s rants after a few weeks and he quit on the concept.
Jim didn’t like Vince interviewing Mel Pillman and grilling her on her husband’s death, live on RAW.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyh895_wwf-raw-10-06-1997-part-2_sport#.Ubd56Jxv9Zk You can see this disgusting interview for yourself at just past the 20 minute mark of this clip,
Cornette was removed from the writing team in late October.
Jim compares booking Shawn and Bret’s Survivor Series ’97 match to the Middle East Peace Conference.
Overweight, miserable at work, deflated by the crap angles getting approved etc. Jim was ready to quit the booking team anyway.
Russo was given a commentator spot on “WWF New York” – a redubbed syndicated show exclusive to the New Yorkers. I’m intrigued to hear this.
Jim rattles off a wonderful tirade about Russo’s booking. I laugh.
Russo wanted to book Taker and Kane to trade beat downs on each other for five months leading to Wrestlemania 14. Thankfully Cornette won out and made Taker refuse to fight Kane, and forcing Kane to mow down the roster to shame Taker into finally agreeing to battle.
The Shawn/Bret booking mess leading up to Survivor Series is gone over. Cornette claims to have brought up jokingly double crossing Bret as a finish (with Shamrock as the opponent) – Jim thinks Russo took the idea and ran with it.
Cornette saw the double cross on a monitor and left right away, not wanting to be part of the shit that was about to go down.
Vince thought he would be the babyface in the situation. Cornette was surprised Bret admitted that the match was a work to “the papers”.
Foley no showed the next night as a protest, then Cornette told him “Two whiny millionaires are butt hurt over who is making more millions and winning fake fights – and meanwhile your missing paydays over some moral grounds that the principal players don’t really give two fucks about!” (Paraphrased).
Cornette was amazed that Vince thought Rick Rude would be happy with loyalty over a written contract. Then Rude jumped to WCW and embarrassed McMahon.
Owen was promised Bret’s spot as “Canadian Superhero” as part of his agreement to come back to WWF after Bret’s screw job.
DX refused to wrestle Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Lawler in the main event of a Memphis house show. A riot broke out.
Ed Ferrera is buried for many reasons by Corny.
Ed and Russo waited till Vince went overseas and snuck down to WCW and worked a deal out. Russo called in his resignation to Vince on the phone.
Cornette finishes with an overview of how 1997 set up a perfect storm of talent and opportunity for the WWF in 1998 to have their boom period.
Final Thoughts: Jim Cornette’s gift of gab translates to yet another forum, as he’s just tremendous here. Thankfully, unlike a previously reviewed Timeline, they didn’t rush Cornette through the year in order to fit into their 2 hour window. What we have instead is a three hour thing of beauty. Fun and enlightment – I offer this at my highest recommendation!!
