Shining a Spotlight 4.22.10: Responsible Mouths

Ironically, letting out your thoughts is the topic for the week. I’m sure most have heard of the controversy stirred up by James Cornette’s comments on TNA and their legal threats against him. Our own Ari devoted an entire Column of Honor to chastising Cornette, telling him he has to stop ranting on TNA and Russo as it makes ROH look bad. I do agree with some of the points but it once more shows how guys in wrestling have a bit of a hard time knowing when not to speak. It’s a pretty common problem for a lot of people and in a business based on perception, it’s even trickier. Some guys are able to handle it better than others but those who let their mouths run off too much often pay a big price.
　

Foot in the Mouth Syndrome

In every aspect of entertainment and sports, there are people who say the wrong things and have to backtrack over them. Recently, Katherine Heigl did an interview for Entertainment Weekly where she basically apologized for various interviews that made her look like a diva. Likewise, Chloe Sevigny apologized for comments on how bad the last season of Big Love was (not that she didn’t have a lot of people agreeing with her on that). And practically every other week is a sports player or executive issuing an apology for some comments they made that got bad press. It’s the way of the world, we all end up saying stuff we shouldn’t.

For wrestling, a business that rests on fan perceptions, making the wrong comments can quite often be a bad thing. It used to be that fans never got to see the behind-the-scenes events, never knew the backroom battles between promoters and talent of the bad blood behind the curtain. But the fall of kayfabe changed all that as fans got more of a look at how things really worked and the different sides of people in the business. With wrestlers being more media-friendly, they had to be careful over what they said more than ever.

Hulk Hogan can certainly attest to that. In 1991, he made an appearance on Arsenio Hall’s talk show where, amid the growing steroid scandals, he denied every using steroids at all. Naturally, this came back to bite him in the ass in 1994 during McMahon’s federal trial where under oath, he told the truth of his long-time abuse, a black mark on Hogan’s kid-friendly image. It’s not that Hogan is unused to such bad press as in 1985, he put Richard Belzer in a front face lock on a talk show and ended up igniting a massive lawsuit.

The temperaments of workers can hurt them as David Schultz learned the hard way when he smacked a reporter on camera for daring to ask “is it fake” and pretty much ruined his career. I don’t think I need to get into the litany of guys you’ll hear rail on their former employers on radio shows as it’s a very long list. However, I do bring up Larry Matysik’s excellent observation that quite often, the guys who yell the most about “being held back” and “not given their shots” are the guys who really didn’t deserve massive pushes anyway. The fact is, wrestlers often are self-delusional, it’s part of their entire drive. If you don’t have it in you to be the best or think you should be on top, you shouldn’t be in the business. But you have to balance that out with an understanding of your own skills and too often, wrestlers don’t do that. It’s like that with pro athletes in other sports as well, guys get too wrapped up in themselves to know how bad they come off. The difference is that those sports are team sports; guys have to learn to work together and handle each other which soothes some tempers a bit. Wrestling has ever been every man for himself and that just adds to the ego issues.
　

Public personas and bosses

A recurring theme I’ve heard from guys who do wrestling radio shows is that so often, the workers they most admire and respect come off as total selfish jerks while the guys with bad reputations are the most well-mannered guests. As I said before, wrestling is about perception and most guys are able to handle their public personas well, quite often the guys given a big push like Cena. It’s trickier with the rise of the IWC and how second-or-third-source stories can suddenly become accepted as utter fact. That makes it harder for fans to see the true person behind the public image and thus, adding in comments to make yourself look more like a jerk can hardly help.

That’s one thing for workers but when you’re someone in charge, that’s something else altogether. Bill Watts is a great example of how being a boss doesn’t make you immune to idiotic comments and their fallout. Watts was already making guys in WCW dislike him with his throwback to old-styled wrestling (bans of moves off the top rope) and his backstage rules such as no one allowed to leave before the end of the show. So when an old interview of him making the comment of “If I don’t want to serve blacks watermelon, I don’t have to, it’s my restaurant” surfaced, it didn’t take long for Turner to decide to give him the boot. Whether Watts is actually a racist is open for debate but his hard-nosed style hardly helped his case.

Eric Bischoff has been a bit too outspoken for his own good. I still remember back in 1996, when WCW was kicking WWF’s ass in the ratings, Bischoff did an interview saying Vince was “the Verne Gagne of the ‘90’s,” that Vince was too old-fashioned to survive and would be out of business in no time. Ironically, it was Bischoff who ended up emulating Gagne by reusing the same older performers over and over again and ignoring fans’ demands for change. Bischoff has continued to put over how ultra successful he was running WCW and that it wasn’t his fault things fell apart.

Vince Russo still has some of the most wild statements which have added to his poor rep with fans. His autobiography has him maintaining that American fans will never accept masked wrestlers due to trust issues, which ignores how Rey Mysterio is not only quite popular but his masks are one of WWE’s big merchandise buys. Russo also maintains how “titles are props” and really goes into the entertainment aspect of wrestling, often seeming to ignore that you have to balance that out with in-ring stuff as well.

McMahon is an interesting case in many ways as it’s hard to tell where the man ends and the character begins. In public interviews, he can seem quiet and businesslike but can come off like his character. I still remember the infamous 2001 interview with Bob Costas where Vince went full-tilt “Mr. McMahon” and fired back hard on the guy. A highlight of the “McMahon” DVD is Stephanie talking about watching it and moaning “please don’t hit Bob Costas, please don’t hit Bob Costas” and HHH joking it’s good Vince didn’t as “Costas would have killed him.” However, that was a rare aberration as Vince generally is able to come off, in public interviews, as a reasonable man, nowhere near his on-screen character. But then again, in a way, Vince is just playing a part on camera as well. Of course, it’s not as if other CEO’s of companies don’t do the exact same thing, make themselves look good and even humble a bit in order to get public approval. Vince has proven himself a master manipulator, a man who’s able to get people to go along with him despite his bad reputation and faults. Vince knows he’s the public face of WWE, it all comes to him and while he’s shown he’ll do whatever he feels like, he still knows he has to put a good public image for the company and that soothes his words.

That’s a trait that’s been rubbed off on others in various ways. Dixie Carter has really mastered being able to make TNA sound like a company on the rise, giving props to her talent and washing over troubles like the Angle/Jarrett problems. Even Hogan has managed to give TNA major props in his interviews, knowing he was hired by the company to enhance their fame and has done a good job with that. If you want to spread it a bit, you can also discuss Dana White, who’s followed Vince’s methods quite a bit but often can be much more brutal to ex-UFC talent and his single-minded obsession with making UFC the only game in MMA town has caused problems (such as CBS declining to broadcast UFC shows as they’d want commentators who might be more impartial). To be the public face of a company is a lot of responsibility and you need to balance your own temper to make it work.

Cornette

That brings us to Cornette. Now, I like the guy, always have. He’s opinated and has a great experienced mind for wrestling. However, the man has two major problems. The first is that he can be a bit too “old-school,” seeming to believe that the same booking styles that worked for Southern audiences in the ‘80’s can still wow crowds in 2010 New York. The fact is, the business has changed and so has the audience and fans in the age of Twitter won’t respond as well to a sixty minute Broadway.

The bigger issue with Cornette (which is the crux of this whole situation) is the man lacks that little filter in your mind that tells you when it’s best to shut up. Let’s not forget the reason he was fired from WWE was that he crossed the line by slapping a wrestler who mocked the dress code he set up, a violation even Vince hasn’t gone to. That he lasted as long as he did with TNA has always astounded me as the man’s clashes with all the egos there were pretty big. While Cornette’s rants are entertaining, letting yourself get too involved with your own frankness can be dangerous.

I don’t fault him for his ranting on Russo. It’s not like the guy’s got no other detractors and Cornette has never been a fan of modern-day writing so it’s not surprising he’d turn venom on a guy who seems to think wrestling is just a sideshow to whacky angles. But to openly say “if I could figure out a way to murder (Russo) without going to prison, I would consider it the greatest accomplishment of my life” is seriously crossing the line. Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann can rant all they can about Obama or Senator Brown respectively but they at least hold back from openly calling for their deaths. Maybe a lot of fans think the same of Russo but they don’t put it out on an open forum, especially when they’re the public face of a company.

It may be true that ROH doesn’t actually pay Cornette but gives him a chance to hawk his merchandise at various shows. Maybe that gives him the idea he can basically talk as he wants but that’s not the case. When you’re shown on websites and videos as the face of a company, you have a responsibility to the fans, the company and yourself. Cornette, in saying what he said, is not living up to that responsibility. As Ari pointed out in Column of Honor, he’s spending more time ranting on the horror of TNA (often going over the top on how bad the company actually is) than promoting ROH. Maybe the lawsuit threat from TNA is a bit much but Cornette needs a major splash of water in the face to get through to him that he went overboard this time out. He has a beef with Russo, fine but wishing death upon the man to the entire world is too much. Cornette is entitled to his opinions but a man so experienced in the business should well know by now that when you do wild rants, you just undermine whatever wisdom you might have. Just look at how Beck and Olbermann have basically become living caricatures because of their often insane ramblings. It’d be a real shame for a guy who does have wisdom and experience like Cornette to become the wrestling version of some insane pundit.

Summation

Everyone is entitled to opinions and the right to speak them. But just as you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater, you can’t be the face of a company and spend your time threatening death on someone in a public forum. Several times, promoters have fallen prey to foolish words like Watts while others (especially Vince) are able to put their best face forward in public. They understand you have to separate things to make the product look good. Jim Cornette has a great chance to make ROH a terrific showcase but spending his time ranting on his former employers is poor judgment at best and insane when he seems to advocate violence. Hopefully, the threat of a lawsuit can soothe Cornette’s temper and obsession but he has to be careful not to let his love of frankness overwhelm him and undo what good he’s capable of. It’s rare that Vince McMahon is someone to be looking at as an example but he has mastered the ability to put a different face on to the public, something Cornette would do well to follow. As I said, it’s a responsibility being the face of a company and one has to be careful not to let the power of it slip away your judgment.