The Jim Ross Report: The Incomparable Jim Cornette
Release Date: 12/19/18
Running time: 2:17
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
On today’s podcast J.R. will have part 2 of the Bully Ray interview and will also be joined by Jim Cornette.
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
0:00 – Intro (skip to 1:34 as the first 1:33 is a read)
- Coming up on today’s podcast is part 2 of the Bully Ray interview and the incomparable James E. Cornette.
3:15 – What’s On J.R.’s Mind
- The biggest story in wrestling is the return of the McMahons on Raw. He was disappointed there wasn’t more of a shakeup. He felt the first segment with the McMahon’s was good but the rest of the show was business as usual.
- J.R. feels Lars Sullivan has a unique look and has “it.” He needs his own agent that will bring him along with one-on-one care.
- Nikki Cross has a unique upside in the female division, the Heavy Machinery tag team is a throwback who lift weights and eat steaks. Lacey Evans also has some great potential. Bottom line, these new talents need to get on a roll which allows the fans to invest emotionally in these individuals.
- Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are coming back soon. They are two of the most talented guys in the business but need to be turned loose.
- Mickie James has now competed in more RAWs than Trish Stratus in 25 years.
- ROH Final Battle was a great show. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana did a great job on play by play but at times may have been too emotional at the beginning of the show. ROH is going through a lot of transition as a lot of guys like Cody, The Bucks and Hangman Page are leaving. However, ROH should be OK as they have a good product.
- Jericho was in Japan to promote his match against Naito at Wrestle Kingdom.
- J.R. sends condolences to the families of Bill Fralic and Penny Marshall.
- AXS TV will be airing the 10 hour Kenny Omega-thon on Friday December 28th including the Omega/Okada trilogy
- MLW will be doing a marathon on BeIN sports. Check www.mlw.com for details.
- TLC was a long show, however, he liked AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan. The Triple Threat TLC match was amazing and he loved that Asuka won the match. Ronda showed improvement and tried a few new things and Nia did well. Seth and Dean were put in a tough spot and the presentation of their match didn’t fit within the placement of the card.
- J.R. saw all of Baron Corbin that he needs to see for the next little while. He has upside but J.R. doesn’t understand why he was booked the way he was on TLC and RAW.
39:54 – Bully Ray Part 2
Talent Not Getting Over
- J.R. says a lot of today’s wrestlers have found their comfort zones and don’t want to draw attention to themselves not realizing if they were to reinvent themselves, they may have opportunities to move up the card.
- Bully Ray witnessed this first hand. When the Dudleys left the WWE, they were hearing rumors that the wrestlers were not getting over. When they got back in 2015, they saw how the climate had changed. He believes a lot of the talent are handcuffed. They are either not allowed to get over on their own or are afraid to get over on their own.
Busted Open Radio
- Busted Open is a sign that wrestling is doing well. It’s 6 hours a day from Monday to Friday and there’s even some weekend content.
- Bully Ray likes to bring wrestling fans in and get them to understand pro wrestling better because there’s too much negativity. People are constantly burying everything they see as opposed to sitting back and allowing themselves to be entertained.
- Bully tries to bring fans behind the curtain, understand the process and how they can appreciate the product. He is very fair and has no reason to bury any of the companies he’s ever worked for.
Negativity On Social Media
- Bully Ray feels fear and negativity have followed this industry for too long. Everything is about likes and retweets. If Bully Ray were to bury a wrestler he would do it to their face in a locker room.
3D Wrestling Academy
- Bully and D-Von own two wrestling schools, one in Florida and one in Connecticut
- They have been in business for twelve years.
- The guys Bully Ray puts the most stock in are the Guerrillas of Destiny. Jessie Brink, who was the first woman to referee at WrestleMania, is another person he is proud of.
- Haku asking them to train his sons was a big deal to Bully Ray because of the respect Haku commands with the boys
Lack Of Selling
- J.R. talks about things guys do like not selling properly, it takes him out of the moment.
- Bully Ray says one thing that is missing is the art of registering which has been thrown out the door. Registering is important because it’s an acknowledgement of the pain and guys don’t register on their face anymore.
J.R. thanks Bully Ray for being on the show and they sign off.
1:00:08 – Slobberknocker Of The Week
This week’s winner is Asuka who won the Smackdown Women’s title at TLC
1:09:49 – Pet Coon Goofy Award
This week’s winner is a fan on twitter who asked J.R. if the Roman Reigns leukemia diagnosis was a storyline.
1:16:43 – This Week In Wrestling
December 21st, 1973 – Ron Fuller defeated Bill Watts to win the Georgia Heavyweight Championship, Bobby Shane/Gorgeous George Jr. win the Georgia tag titles from Bob Armstrong/Robert Fuller. Tim Woods, Lou Thesz and Luke Graham were also on the card.
December 12th, 1978 – Mid South Superdome Extravaganza – Jerry Stubbs defeated Assassin #1 to win Mid-South Louisiana Title, Ron Bass beat Karl Kox to win the Brass Knuckles Title. In the final match to crown the US Tag Title, Andre The Giant/Dusty Rhodes beat Ernie Ladd/Stan Hansen with Danny Hodge as the guest referee
December 22nd, 2000 – Monday Night RAW – The Hardys beat Malenko/Benoit. The Hardcore title changes were going crazy, Too Cool beat Albert/Test, Christian/Edge/Kurt Angle vs. The Dudleys/Chris Jericho and the main event saw the Rock beating Taker by DQ.
December 21st, 2001 – Christmas Eve RAW – The Rock did a great promo, McMahon had a Christmas party with Patterson and Brisco dressed as elves. Ric Flair had a Christmas party with Tajiri dressed as Santa. Torrie Wilson defeated Stacy Keibler in an eggnog match. Tajiri defeated Bubba Dudley in a Santa match and in the main event, Jericho retained the title in a three way match with The Rock and Kurt Angle.
December 20th, 2003 – The First Tribute To The Troops in Iraq. The APA defeated the World’s Greatest Tag Team, Rikishi defeated Rhyno, Eddie Guerrero defeated Chris Jericho, Torrie Wilson defeated Dawn Marie and Sable in a Santa’s Little Helper’s match. In the main event, John Cena defeated Big Show with an appearance from Steve Austin.
1:34:40 – Mailbag
Send questions, comments and suggestions to thejimrossreport@gmail.com
Q: Any memories about Reesor Bowden or Boyd Pierce from Mid-South?
A: Reesor was the booth announcer and one of his classic lines was ‘he left me looking like a plateful of piss’. Boyd Pierce’s suits were colorful and unique as was his personality.
Q: Has there ever been a moment on or off character that caused a wrestler to break character?
A: Most of these moments usually have something to do with flatulence. Wrestler’s with gas will keep it in until they get their opponent in a compromising position. At a live RAW, a woman wanted J.R. to sign her breast.
Q: Will J.R. bring Tony on the podcast or get Vince to bring him in as a producer?
A: J.R. can get Tony on the podcast but isn’t sure if he wants to go back to the WWE.
Q: What is J.R.’s favorite memory from the Minnesota/North Dakota area?
A: One of J.R.’s favorite South Dakota memories is recruiting Brock Lesnar. From Minnesota, it was when Vince first saw Brock at a show.
Q: Is the WWE heading in the right direction with the 205 talent given the recent booking of Lio Rush and Mustafa Ali?
A: They are heading in the right direction but isn’t sure if this will get someone over the top. If WWE doesn’t get the 205 guys on the main shows, they’ll always be considered preliminary guys.
1:42:10 – Jim Cornette
- J.R. welcomes Jim to the show
- Jim just had the first event for the Midnight Express 35th Reunion tour with Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey. It’s the first time anyone has seen Dennis since he beat throat cancer and is doing well.
- J.R. said if he could have one tag team in his territory, he’d pick the Midnight Express because he would get Cornette in the deal and you would have two guys who could work with anyone.
- They bring up a story where J.R. was scared for Bill Watts’ Rolls Royce because there was a riot and Cornette was running towards it while getting rocks thrown at him.
- Cornette often had a horseshoe in his tennis racket that he still has. He considers it a lucky horseshoe. Someone threw it at Jim but he ducked. He picked it up and has kept it ever since.
- Cornette does not buy gifts for anyone during the holidays. He used to send individual Christmas cards to his friends. The cards these days are so impersonal and they cost $6 a piece.
- Jim does not like malls and is not a vegan.
- After beating cancer, Dennis decided he wanted to see people and enjoy himself. There was a guy doing a 20th anniversary Comic-Con and Cornette asked Dennis if he wanted to be involved.
- When they booked the first event, people realized they were back because people didn’t know about Dennis’ illness.
- They realized it was the 35th anniversary from when they started teaming in Mid-South Wrestling. Next year is the 35th anniversary of the big year the Midnights had in Mid-South.
- During this reunion tour, they will be visiting some of their old haunts.
- Dennis has been genuinely shocked by the resurgence of not just the Midnight Express but also 80s wrestling.
- Cornette recently did color commentary on the NWA 70 show back in October. It was very well received.
- Jeff Jarrett handled the local promotion and was the liaison with Fite TV. Billy Corgan and the NWA provided the talent.
- Jim is glad he worked the event because it was a fun event. The feature match was the rematch between Cody and Aldis.
- Cornette says this was a one match show (the NWA title match) as people wanted to see that main event.
- They’ve done a great job at bringing the NWA title back into prominence and are defending it in different promotions across multiple countries.
- Instead of signing a bunch of promoters who may not be ready to be members, they’ve concentrated on focusing on the history of the NWA.
- Joe Gally was the play-by-play voice with Tony Schiavone joining them for the main event.
- Tony and Jim have kept in touch over the years but Tony never indicated to Jim he wanted to talk about wrestling. Now he’s back in the business doing podcasts with Conrad Thompson.
- Tony tweets randomly about Blue Chew.
- Check out @TheJimCornette on twitter and www.jimcornette.com
J.R. thanks Jim for being on the podcast and they sign off.
2:10:54 – Show Wrap
J.R. goes through some 5 star reviews. The recent Hilarities show with Jerry Lawler will be next week’s podcast. And that’s a wrap
Rating – 7/10
I originally rated this podcast lower but when I re-listened to it, it actually wasn’t bad. The interview segments with Bully Ray and Jim Cornette were fun, if a little short. It was interesting to hear Bully Ray talk about how the current WWE talent isn’t getting over either by design or by fear which he touched on last week as well. Hearing that Dennis Condrey has beaten throat cancer was good to hear on the Jim Cornette portion of the podcast. I was always a fan of Condrey and Bobby Eaton so it’s nice to hear him out and about and meeting fans. Jim is always an entertaining guy, especially when he’s not ripping on Vince Russo or Kenny Omega. Definite recommend.
About Joe:
Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. He is a co-host on the Pull Apart Podcast with Jeff Rush and Caitlin Lavelle as well as a contributor to www.pwpodcasts.com. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post-show podcasts. He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, he just likes wrestling. Check him out on Twitter and Instagram @ja113.
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