Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru Episode 41
Release date: February 12, 2017
Recap by: Paul Briody
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Top stories/moments of interest:
• Usual format in which Brian Last asks Jim Cornette email questions from fans about current wrestling and wrestling history with great chemistry between the two.
0:00 – Intro confirms the weather is awful in New York and Louisville, Kentucky! Jim tells some New York horror stories. There may be some Southern bias here…
10:40 – Jim answers a question about Randy Savage once saying that Chief Jay Strongbow killed more young wrestlers’ careers than drugs! He’s unaware of any heat between the two (it might’ve been because Strongbow nixed the suggestion of Randy’s father, Angelo Poffo, for a gimmick battle royal) but Chief was a polarizing figure and “a grumpy frump.” Matt and Jeff Hardy appeared on WWF television when they were underage thanks to Chief being too lazy to check their age! Strongbow got a chance in the WWWF because they wanted a Native American wrestler but Wahoo McDaniel had slapped a promoter in Baltimore so Joe Scarpa became Chief Jay Strongbow. Jim and Brian then discuss the use and logistics of ‘jobbers’ in wrestling including Jim talking about Doug Basham landing head-first on the ring steps in a tryout match in TNA.
27:40 – Jim talks about the possibility of Curt Hennig joining the Horsemen instead of going to the WWF as Mr Perfect. He thinks it would’ve been “a great fit” and “Flair and Hennig loved hanging out with each other.”
31:24 – Jim addresses an idea floated by Kevin Sullivan on the 6:05 Superpodcast about Lance Russell taking over Jim Herd’s job in WCW. He thinks that Lance was more than qualified, with all his experience in different areas but it would’ve taken a lot of money to convince him to move away from Memphis at nearly retirement age.
35:10 – Jim is asked about The Nasty Boys and whether they’re “overlooked” when people talk about classic tag teams. They weren’t particularly innovative or good workers, they were just brawler types. Jim thinks that the fact that wrestlers today don’t cite them as an influence (like The Midnight Express or The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express) limits their legacy.
37:07 – Jim answers a question about “hotel destruction stories” in wrestling. Wrestlers were getting kicked out of hotels all the time for various acts of debauchery. When he was in OVW, The Boogeyman was banned by a hotel chain for leaving his worms in the room when he left causing it to require fumigation! Brian talks about Johnny Valentine unscrewing furniture in hotel rooms and shoving “s*** in there” so that staff would be unable to locate the source of the smell. Jim tells a rather grim story about Valentine attempting to “penetrate” newer wrestlers in the shower “just to see if you were one of the boys and s***.” Urgh.
46:00 – Jim is asked about Owen Hart using the tombstone piledriver on Steve Austin at Summerslam ‘97 (which led to Austin’s severe neck injury) when The Undertaker was in the main event of the show and the tombstone is his finisher. Does this not break ‘wrestler etiquette?’ Jim confirms that Owen actually used a modified sit-out tombstone (which is more dangerous to take than a regular tombstone) and “didn’t have him up as far as he should’a had him” and the move went wrong. Jim was backstage watching the match on a monitor when the incident occurred but not in the ‘Gorilla position’ and knew as soon as he saw “how Steve was selling it… something was f******’ wrong.” Jim thinks that Austin not being able to wrestle had its positives because management had to come up with creative ways to use him.
52:40 – Jim is “all for” The Dudleys being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame because they did a lot of great tag team work and drew money in WWE.
53:58 – Jim answers a question about the careers of Wildcat Wendell Cooley and Doug Furnas. Furnas was huge in All Japan throughout the 1990s in a tag team with Philip Lafon and they were in the WWF briefly. Good wrestlers but lacking in personality. They were “so good in All Japan.” Cooley decent had runs in Continental, Mid South and WCW and has been retired for quite some time. Jim thinks that Cooley could’ve been a “top guy” in “any other era in more than one territory.”
59:25 – Jim was never asked to work for Herb Abrams but would’ve declined anyway. Jim was in the process of setting up Smoky Mountain Wrestling and had talked to people who’d worked for Abrams and said he was “nuts.”
1:00:25 – Jim talks about Joel Goodhart and Philadelphia wrestling. Goodhart tried his hand at promoting and would load his cards with lots of wrestling legends and cult favorites of the day. The pay was good – Jim and Stan Lane got $750 each, plus trans. Apparently, Goodhart lost a lot of money by employing so many stars. Brian runs through one of his cards from 1991 including The Shiek, Stan Lane, Jim Cornette and Abdullah The Butcher.
1:06:25 – Jim talks about wrestlers pointing at the WrestleMania sign. “I could see where that would become annoying real f*****’ fast.” Jim suggests that a wrestler could get over by flipping off the sign and just beating his opponent up “right there” at the start of a match.
1:07:59 – Who would win in a UFC fight – Billy Robinson or Brock Lesnar? The “UFC rules” stipulation “pretty much gives it to Brock Lesnar” but a regular, unsanctioned street fight could well see the opposite result, Jim thinks. Jim would love to see Danny Hodge compete in today’s UFC. Brian also suggests Karl Gotch. As well as being a dominant amateur wrestler, Danny Hodge was also a Golden Gloves boxing champion.
1:13:57 – Outro includes a tease that Jim intends to watch the Johnny Gargano/Andrade Cien Almas match from NXT Takeover and will discuss it on the upcoming Jim Cornette Experience! Should be good!
Rating: 7.5/10
I sound like a broken record in my reviews of this show but it really is a great mix of humour, banter and classic wrestling stories. I’d recommend this podcast to anyone interested in such things!
Time stamps:
0:00 – Intro
10:40 – Randy Savage/Chief Hay Strongbow heat
27:40 – Horseman Curt Hennig in 1988?
31:24 – Lance Russell in WCW?
35:10 – The Nasty Boys’ legacy
37:07 – Hotel destruction stories
46:00 – Owen Hart/Steve Austin botched piledriver
52:40 – The Dudleys in the WWE HOF
53:58 – Wildcat Wendell Cooley and Doug Furnas talk
59:25 – Jim working for Herb Abrams?
1:00:25 – Joel Goodhart
1:06:25 – Pointing at the Wrestlemania sign
1:07:59 – Brock vs Billy Robinson
I’m just a guy, from England, who watches wrestling and listens to podcasts!
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