Vice: Dark Side of the Ring

[wandshogun09]

Just listened to a clip on YouTube of Cornette talking about the Brawl For All episode. He does his usual ranting about the concept as you’d come to expect. But he’s also trotting out the old excuses for Dr Death not winning the thing. Acting like he’d have pissed it if he wasn’t injured, if he was allowed to wrestle etc. Talking like Bart couldn’t have knocked him out if he was mobile and stuff like that. 

I get that Dr Death was a legit beast in his day but I think Jims Cornette and Ross are in a bit of denial. Not saying age, injury etc didn’t play a part but even if he was 100% physically, was he known as a standup scrapper? He didn’t look too great against Pierre in their fight. In a ‘tough man contest’ situation a big slugger like Bart could’ve always caught him. Fuck, even in the wrestling, Severn could’ve been a tough one for Doc. Just seems like guys like Cornette and Ross didn’t want to let go of the past. Expecting Dr Death to walk through everyone, based off a reputation he’d built years earlier as a younger and fitter man, and thinking he’d stay in his prime forever. Lennox Lewis was an all time great, but if they threw him out there 10 years after his prime and expected there to have been zero decline it would be ridiculous. Not the best analogy but whatever.

I’d still watch Haku vs Dan Spivey if they brought Brawl For All back. 

[GeronimoJacksBeard]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

 He made Batista a sea monster in his girlfriend's goth stable, let's not forget.

Reckon i'd have really enjoyed the Minnesota Stretching Crew though!

[PowerButchi]

If peolle still trusted Cornette enough to book a decently sized company we'd be seeing our arses about Mike Mondo being a headliner wherever that company was. 

 

Mike Mondo. The man with the smallest face in the world and the child's voice. 

 

I love SMW, but I could have booked it as well as Jim Cornette. id also rip off every trope from Memphis and Alabama for inbreds. 

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Should be noted that Dr Death injured himself because Bart Gunn double legged him. He didnt injure himself in training. And there was hardly a world of difference between their ages. 2 years or something. And for all the bumping Doc was doing in All Japan, Bart had been working those kitchen floor rings the WWF used to have for years. And doing it 300 days a year. So I'm not buying the thousand excuses Cornette gave. Dr Death and Hawk were two supposed badasses, and neither looked like they could throw a decent punch.

[bAzTNM#1]

Anybody know how anybody could watch these shows in the UK? Thanks.

Edited April 12, 2020 by bAzTNM#1

[Cannibal Man]

cornette, prichard and ross absolutely cannot believe that doc was going to be a star or that he had a chance in a fucking game of inner city sumo. they're the only three people I think i've ever heard that from, and they're all reasonably intelligent in the way the goons in a heist gang from a 1960's crime thriller might be so they have to know that it's a line of utter shit to still be going on at people about

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

2 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Anybody know how anybody could watch these shows in the UK? Thanks.

I've been watching it using Cyberflix, which I sideloaded on to my Firestick.

[bry2j]

5 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Anybody know how anybody could watch these shows in the UK? Thanks.

Most of these have been uploaded to YouTube, all around 40 odd mins long

[Onyx2]

5 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Anybody know how anybody could watch these shows in the UK? Thanks.

Search Dailymotion and Vimeo. 

I've also seen lots of them on YouTube but they don't stay up as long. 

[Mr Kennedy]

6 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Anybody know how anybody could watch these shows in the UK? Thanks.

Season one can be found on Sky on demand, I think via 4oD.

[DCW]

18 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I don't think it takes much of a genius to turn out Lesnar, Cena, Orton and Batista. And outside Lesnar all 3 were shit when they first turned up. I've never heard any if them give Cornette any credit over the years either.

In that Ruthless Aggression Evolution episode, Triple H said they pretty much had to teach Batista how to work all over again, because he was only taught to work as a generic 80's lumbering big guy in OVW by that utter clown Cornette. 

 

[BomberPat]

4 hours ago, DCW said:

In that Ruthless Aggression Evolution episode, Triple H said they pretty much had to teach Batista how to work all over again, because he was only taught to work as a generic 80's lumbering big guy in OVW by that utter clown Cornette. 

 

yeah, Cornette said he saw him as a limited big guy who should get pushed straight to the top for programmes with Undertaker, Kane and Big Show, and then be done, so never gave him anything else to work with. He also said that he predicted Batista would last 5-7 years in the business tops, and then insists that he got it all right because if you deduct all the time he spent injured or on leaves of absence, he guessed the arbitrary amount of time correctly - never mind completely fucking it on recognising his potential, or giving him anything to work with.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

And of course, if he was booked like Cornette booked him he'd have either been out of the business before that time or still doing it now like Kevin Thorne. Lasting 5-7 years in the business is perfect if you make 2/3 million a year and end up in Hollywood.

[IronSheik]

He's a polarising figure but I think it would doing a dis-service to say Jim Cornette didn't positively influence the careers of your Chris Jerichos and your Lance Storms and your Al Snows and your Randy Ortons and your John Cenas and your Brock Lesners and your Glen Jacob's and your Tyler Blacks and so on. I think most of the above would put him over as a big influence in their early development.

[BomberPat]

if you can point me in the direction of Cena, Lesnar, Orton or Rollins ever having said anything to that effect about Cornette, I'd agree with you. 

Not denying that he helped out some talent by giving them a push when few other people would, or by recognising latent talent with them. He was a decent booker, for a time, and then he wasn't. Just like Russo was a good person to have on-board at a time when what wrestling needed was to deviate from the norm, and tap into the late '90s zeitgeist. Time has passed both of them by, neither will admit it. 

It's not something you can quantify, but I'd wager there are just as many times that Cornette missed the boat with someone, a la Batista, or backed the wrong horse as there were times he got someone over to the next level - no one's exactly singing the praises of SMW headliners Tom Prichard, Dirty White Boy, Bobby Blaze and Bull Buchanan, and in terms of getting a second wind for old Southern stalwarts, Heyman in ECW probably had a better crack of the whip with Tommy Rich, Tommy Rogers and Tracy Smothers in Philadelphia than Jim Cornette did in Kentucky. 

Did anyone come out of Cornette's stint booking ROH looking like a bigger star than they went in as?