Column of Honor 04.17.10: Editorial: Jim Cornette Needs to Stop Talking About Vince Russo

Welcome to the Column. Don’t know if this one is going to make a lot of friends, but so it goes.

=Editorial: Jim Cornette Needs to Stop Talking About Vince Russo =

Jim Cornette needs to stop talking about Vince Russo and TNA. Immediately.

No more commentaries on Jim Cornette.com. No more mentions of them on podcasts with Who’s Slamming Who. No more remarks of righteous indignation during interviews for Wrestling Observer / Figure 4 Weekly. No more talk of Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Dixie Carter, anyone else who worked on the inside for TNA and no comments on TNA as a wrestling company should make its way to any Ring of Honor live events or the HDNet television tapings.

It isn’t because TNA’s legal department threatened Jim Cornette with legal action for his “terroristic” threats to Vince Russo made in an email to Terry Taylor (through TNA’s corporate email account). It isn’t to kowtow to Eric Bischoff or Dixie Carter or anyone else in that company.

Jim Cornette’s obsession with Vince Russo and the wrongs done to him personally and to professional wrestling as a whole (whether true, false or in-between) has to stop now not just for the sake of Jim Cornette, but for the overall health and wellbeing of Ring of Honor.

The situation is this: earlier in the week Jim Cornette published on his website an e-mail he sent dated March 19th, 2010 to Terry Taylor and the response from the TNA legal department on April 9th, 2010 which stated that they were taking action against Cornette, including notifying Federal, State and local authorities about the incident.

The email reads in part:

I have always liked you and we have never had a problem. I am sure you have heard some of my many commentaries on TNA and I wanted to make sure you knew I wish you no ill, nor do I wish anyone in TNA ill, including talent, TV crew, and office staff. If the “incident” had not happened when it did, I would have quit anyway a month later when the news broke that Hogan and Bischoff were taking over the company, and you know this to be true, because the only reason I was ever there was that I thought TNA would be the promotion to keep Vince from having a monopoly, and be an alternative to this bullshit sports entertainment. Obviously, with the new regime, that is not in the plans, and I would have made a (hopefully) graceful exit shaking my head and wondering why. But taking that out of the equation, I was glad I worked for TNA, it’s just frustrating and disappointing to me that it couldn’t have turned out better. If not for one thing, I could move on with no hard feelings. But that one thing is big, and is in danger of consuming my life if I don’t just come out and say it.

Why am I writing you this? One, I got the irresistable urge to explain to you the depth of my abhorrence for this abominable prick, and two, I want to make sure that you, and anyone you care to share this with, knows that I truly and genuinely wanted TNA to succeed and liked working with all of you. I am no longer a supporter of TNA as a company, I hope it goes under quickly and painfully because of the stupidity Dixie has exhibited in employing Russo and now the WCW murderers, and I apparently will see my wishes come true with the new direction, but I really did want to see it succeed. I still like everyone there, and am only mad at a few people–Jeff, for talking me into co-existing with that miserable waste of human flesh for 3 years to the point where I have trouble looking at myself in the mirror and not a day goes by that I am not ashamed of myself for abandoning every principle I ever had and speaking to the motherfucker; and Dixie, not just for employing that useless twat, but for lying to me about the reasons for my firing (never mentioning Ed Ferrara’s name and acting like Russo had no part in it), and lying ABOUT me (letting some Russo stooge spread rumors that I was fired for acting unprofessionally toward him, then not putting her name on the retraction while knowing it wasn’t true.)

(A full transcript of the email and response are currently available at Jim Cornette.com as well as through John Meehan’s Friday News Report).

Cornette’s firing from TNA was very much a squeeze play—Russo wanted to hire his writing partner Ed Ferrara, but Cornette had longstanding bad feelings for Ferrara stemming back to when he played the “Oklahoma” character mocking Jim Ross. Dixie Carter asked Cornette if he could whole-heartedly support TNA’s creative direction and then made the choice to let him go when he said that he couldn’t with Russo at the helm. However, although he was pushed out the door, Cornette has himself recognized that he would have left one-month later anyway because Hulk Hogan and Bischoff were coming in to take over the product’s direction. That would have been enough to make him leave.

The e-mail was meant to clarify Cornette’s position on TNA as it regards to the roster and crew. While he did state that he likes many of them and holds no ill will against anyone except Russo and somewhat against Jarrett and Dixie Carter (as explained above). Cornette reserved his angriest and most aggressive comments for Vince Russo, a man who he has much past history of hatred and animosity. Cornette has often made negative comments about Russo, both directed at his talents (or perceived lack thereof) as a professional wrestling writer and booker, as well as of a personal nature. This time however, there was a direct and clear response to Cornette for spilling out that anger to Terry Taylor through a TNA corporate email account and it was much deserved.

If anything, Terry Taylor and TNA owed it to Vince Russo to follow through on this email and send a legal response to Cornette, because the corporate responsibility should be to protect any employee of theirs against perceived threats or danger. They did it for Russo, and likely as well to cover their own backs. As the legal response stated: “Generally, under both Federal and State Law, a person will be guilty of having made terroristic threats if such person willfully threatens to commit a crime which would result in death or great bodily injury to the victim and demonstrates specific intent to communicate such threat to the victim or to a third party who the perpetrator believes will convey such threat to the intended victim. Your email satisfies all of the foregoing elements and it is irrelevant whether you intended to actually carry out such threat or not. Nonetheless, we must assume the worst.” It is true that with some exceptions Cornette’s bark is generally worse than his bite, but TNA had a very reasonable expectation given Cornette’s past with Russo and the multitude of comments that have been made by him throughout the years.

Jim Cornette has made a living of cutting vitriolic but entertaining promos on a variety of subjects. As a heel he riled up the fans to buy tickets to see the Rock & Roll Express do their best to defeat his Midnight Express. There was a short-lived but very entertaining “Cornette’s Commentary” segment on WWF Monday Night Raw where he cut quasi-shoot promos on about both WCW and WWF wrestlers and what he considered their mistakes (this was during the cusp on the Attitude Era). Cornette has also been involved in many a “shoot interview”, in which he freely discusses anything and everything, including of course, Vince Russo.

Most of these commentaries have been entertaining and in some ways educational about the professional wrestling business, not so much for the use of colorful language or for Cornette’s motor-mouth routine, but because they were the equivalent of wrestling opinion and editorials. They were spoken by a man who had the authenticity of being involved in wrestling for several decades and because, usually, Cornette had a good point and the evidence or justification to back it up.

However, this time, Cornette’s comments in the email crossed the line in the wrong direction. It doesn’t matter if Cornette was just venting to a friend, explaining his thoughts about TNA and that he didn’t intend to make good on his fantasies. It is that making these comments in any forum be it public or private, is completely and totally wrong.

I have absolutely loathed most of Vince Russo’s booking in TNA throughout the past decade, but that doesn’t mean I wish to see him physically harmed. Nor, generally speaking, should someone inflict physical harm on someone due to philosophical disagreements—especially in this situation: booking a professional wrestling product in what some would consider a stupid or profane manner (and of course, there are some who enjoy Russo’s booking). In the past I have enjoyed a good Cornette rant on a podcast or shoot interview, especially ones about Russo, but this e-mail is far more serious than any previous “promo” (for lack of a better word) Cornette has cut on him.

This is not to say that Cornette doesn’t have the right to feel angry about being fired from TNA last year or about Russo’s role in it or that he doesn’t have the right to think such thoughts. However, there is a difference between thinking violent thoughts, another to commit them down to paper (or in this case e-mail) and another to actually commit them (a step which Cornette has never taken with Russo). In this day and age of political correctness, it is increasingly potentially hazardous to a professional career to write down, publish or broadcast potentially litigious comments. Cornette sent some very inflammatory comments to someone who works in a position of authority in the very company he was denigrating in which he claimed he fantasized that he would hurt an employee of that company. It is plain to see that doing anything of the sort is flat-out wrong.

Why would someone write those thoughts and then send them to someone who is in a position to take action for doing so? The answer was that Cornette thought that Terry Taylor was someone he could count on to be a friend and confident. He knew Taylor for thirty years and the e-mail was something Cornette probably considered “private”. However, there should have been no reasonable expectations of privacy since the e-mail was sent to a TNA account and not Taylor’s private e-mail. Cornette has chosen now to make this a public story. Since then, Eric Bischoff has responded with several derogatory remarks of his own directed at Cornette and everyone from the message boarders to wrestling journalists to Jim Ross have had their say on the situation.

The past week has not been kind to Cornette. It was revealed in a story by the Declaration of Independents website (DOI) that Cornette does not receive any salary for his work in Ring of Honor. Instead, he works for ROH in exchange for a gimmick table at every ROH event, where he provides autographs (free of charge, mind you) and can sell his Midnight Express book, DVD and other merchandise. Cornette confirmed this in the course of a very aggressive and derogatory phone call to DOI’s Sean McCaffrey, who in the first and a follow up article insinuated that Cornette was providing his services to ROH free-of-charge for now so that he could gain power and influence in the company and then charge them more for a contract later on.

That last part smacks of conjecture and gossip-mongering and DOI is known for its anti-ROH bias through the years. However, they have also proven to be right on past stories albeit with a ton of negative spin and criticism of ROH on top of whatever factual basis they have for reporting. So this story may have been written off and dismissed by fans if not for Cornette’s follow-up call to the DOI and then the public revelation just a few days later of the email to Terry Taylor about Vince Russo and the corresponding legal letter he received from TNA.

Eric Bischoff jumped into the fray after Cornette went public with the emails, making two separate comments about Cornette, disparaging his weight and his reputation in the wrestling industry. Some of these comments do prove Cornette’s points about TNA and the esteem and reputation of the men they brought into the company last October. However, this back-and-forth mudslinging is going to get everyone dirty, including Cornette and Ring of Honor.

Cornette has served as Ring of Honor “Executive Producer” since September 2009. During these past eight months his role has included assisting ROH with the television show, working with the wrestlers on promos, focusing on wrestlers’ strengths and promoting logical and coherent storylines within the product.

The comments Cornette made not only does damage to his reputation, but by proxy to Ring of Honor. Cornette is now very much a representative of ROH at this point—whether he works for free or not. His words and his actions have become part of the voice for ROH—and so his “terroristic threats” against Russo, whether or not the intent was there or it was someone just blowing off steam, have a very real consequence for how both he and ROH are perceived by the wrestling fan base.

ROH looks unprofessional thanks to Cornette’s words and thoughts, even if he never intended for them to become reality. Even worse—since there has been no statement (much less repudiation) from ROH regarding this situation, it gives the appearance that they are tacitly approving of these words and actions.

Even when Cornette began his latest stint with ROH he could not help but continue to discuss his release from TNA and the role Vince Russo played. At Glory By Honor VIII Cornette explained the situation and his comments received a huge pop from a New York City crowd that was happy to welcome him back. He also continued to comment on the situation in various media interviews, including taking plenty of shots at TNA’s booking and overall philosophy of doing business in professional wrestling. All the while, TNA and the company Cornette worked for, ROH, had restarted a working relationship so that ROH would be allowed to book TNA –contracted talent.

At times ROH has encouraged its fan base to consider TNA as its enemy, but in reality there has always been an “on-and-off” working relationship with them going all the way back to 2002. Sometimes the relationship has been genial, cooperative and mutually beneficial. At other times, when TNA has viewed ROH as competition, the relationship proves to be dysfunctional at best. As of late, ROH and TNA had been on the “cooperative” side, with TNA agreeing to let ROH book the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) for May 8th in New York City (TNA receives a healthy booking fee in return).

The booking of the Machine Guns and the ROH World Tag Team Title match announced this week against the Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) has been in the plans for months now. Although it appears that the Cornette situation will not deprive ROH fans of this special appearance, there was the worry that TNA could have put a stop to it. Ultimately TNA did not want to deprive its talent of pre-arranged bookings, including this ROH show.

However, it is very much a real concern that Cornette’s constant disparagements about Russo and TNA will ultimately damage and ruin that working relationship. In the future, TNA may once again be less agreeable to allow ROH to book its talent, and a large part of that could be due to Cornette’s constant antagonism of a member of their creative team and the company as a whole. That will cost ROH and its fans the opportunity to see some of the former ROH talent now working in TNA making rare but special and entertaining appearances for ROH. The more Cornette talks about TNA, the more he angers them, the more it hurts ROH fans and the wrestling talents such as The Guns or Homicide or Samoa Joe, who have come back to ROH over the last few years and have made their brief returns worthwhile.

Yes, Ring of Honor has plenty of great talent in their own right and they have withstood not being able to use TNA talent before and could likely do so again. There is also the constant stream of former TNA talent that are making appearances for ROH, such as Christopher Daniels, Daivari, Petey Williams, Sonjay Dutt and Amazing Kong. However, the greater obligation and the greater good come from a good working relationship with TNA and the ability to use the Guns, Samoa Joe, Homicide and potentially other talents for special appearances on ROH events.

These appearances create a strong and effective buzz. They energize the ROH base and they also interest the wrestling fan who knows of ROH but is more of a casual follower. There are those who will purchase tickets and DVDs of shows with such TNA talent involved—that equates to real dollars and real added attendance figures. These extra customers and extra dollars would cease to exist if TNA puts the kibosh on this new era of cooperation with ROH.

Jim Cornette doesn’t need mental help, as suggested by Bischoff. However he does need to put Vince Russo behind him and get over the past. He no longer works for TNA. He no longer works alongside Vince Russo. He no longer has to put his pride and ego behind glasnost-levels of cooperation with someone he dislikes. He no longer has to be concerned about their product—whether it has a positive or a detrimental impact on the world of professional wrestling is immaterial to his current job right now.

Cornette works for Ring of Honor now—free of charge or not, he has been a part of the company for eight months. That is more than enough time to have gotten over his former employment and the subsequent fall-out. Ultimately that means he must pay attention to only one company’s bottom line—Ring of Honor. That’s how he can stuff it to Russo and TNA—by working hard for ROH and moving that company forward. It was a major commitment of time and passion for Jim Cornette to jump onboard ROH again, but it will serve no positive outcome if all of that good work is undone by his continual comments and responses about Vince Russo, or by this newfound war of back-and-forth between him and Eric Bischoff.

Jim Cornette, put the past away. Forget about Vince Russo and concentrate on the future, your future, and on Ring of Honor.

Head on over to TwitterNation and follow me at: http://twitter.com/AriBerenstein.

You can read more of my thoughts about the week’s news in WWE and TNA in this week’s 411 Fact or Fiction.

411 Buy or Sell is Lansdell and Domingo discussing Guns vs. Kings and MsChif.

Randy Harrison has this week’s coverage of ROH on HDNet with Steen vs. Eddie Edwards in the ROH Television Title Tournament.

Kevin Ford’s CHIKARA Special discusses the upcoming King of Trios 2010 tournament. Also coming up very soon will be Pro Wrestling Pondering’s special interviews with Mike Quackenbush and Bryce Remsburg so be sure to check that out!

That will do it for this week’s Column. Next week will be that promised countdown of ROH’s best heel and face turns, plus the return of the usual column features including the Fave 5. Until then,

BROOKLYN!
–Ari–