Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru - Episode 416

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

This week on the Drive Thru, Jim talks about the state of WWE Raw & Smackdown, and answers YOUR questions about Asuka & Goldberg, Vince Russo's return to wrestling, Mercedes Moné's belts & appearance fee, rebooking John Cena's last year, Dick Slater, retro figures, June Lockhart, and much more! Also, Jim plays Guess The Program! Thanks to our episode sponsors: SHOPIFY:  Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com/cornette PRIZEPICKS: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/JCE and use code JCE to get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!  SURFSHARK:  Go to https://surfshark.com/JCDT or use code JCDT at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN! BRUNT:  Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code JCE at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/jce   Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: [e-mail]  Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast Merch! https://arcadianvanguard.com/ Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! https://www.patreon.com/Cornette Subscribe to the Official Jim Cornette channel on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialJimCornette Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more! You can listen to Brian on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com or wherever you find your favorite podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What the hell? Hello again, friends, all friends, even our chuckling friends. And welcome back to another edition of Jim Cornett's drive-thru right here. On another day, it may be cold or maybe just fine where you are. I'm your host, the great Brian last. I really don't know what we're going to do today, but we're going to have fun doing it with this man, the leader of the cult of Cornett. Mr. Jim Cornett.

Oh, good Lord. Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. You lost a couple of them there early. You didn't go to do-to-do-do-de-de.

You just kind of threw it. So then you went back and added a couple of new ones to later on to take the place of the ones that you missed the first part of it. It still sounds similar, Brian, to what it sounds every week. I will say that. It sounded pretty much more or less same as a day. every week. I'm an artist. I don't necessarily do it the same way every time.

If that's what you want, you're kind of a boring fan, but I think the fans of my musical styling is like the twists and turns. Well, there's definitely some twists and turns in there. So I've got you, I'm right there with you on that. And I'm just trying to warm up here. It may be fine somewhere, but it ain't, it's, it's a ill wind blowing, cold and wet and rainy not only here in the metropolitan Louisville area and I just told you a minute ago before we went on the air I said it didn't used to be this cold when I was young and I've been forced to turn the heat on in all parts of the house and the office I've got the office up to 67 I used to sweat when it was 67 degrees and I'm hearing a sweat shirt and rubbing my hands together. I'm going to set some notes on fire here on the desk to

keep warm during the program today. But it's not as bad as Jamaica. Have you seen this? Are you aware of what's going on or has gone on by the time of the people will hear this in public? But as we're talking, Jamaica is fucked. Do you know about this? Do I know about the Category 5 Hurricane? Hurricane Melissa? Yes. Well, that would be one of the things that's happening down there, you know, this week. Also, Category 5 is one of my favorite strains right now. A wonderful sativus. Well, they ain't going to have any strains of any kind of plants left on the whole island of Jamaica.

Apparently, they're going to just rip them up into roots. Did you hear the wind strength? I did, because I thought of you, because you made some kind of comment about wind recently, and then when I heard this, like, holy shit! And I only knew it because of the cornet scale. I think it was like 150 miles per hour? No, Melissa is going to be, because a tornado starts the F-0, right? The lowest that it can officially be a tornado, I believe, is 95 miles now.

And I've told the folks out there listening over the past few years, a number of the close calls we've had and et cetera, et cetera, we had an EF2. tornado just a little bit south of us last year or whenever and that was winds of up to I think 135 140 miles an hour maybe and that tore up an industrial park and just level trees and shit and but the thing about the tornadoes is they're only on the ground for a long track tornadoes is miles, but it can be hundreds of yards and it might only be 500 feet wide or 1,000 or 1,500 feet wide, whatever. The winds in Jamaica sustained 175 with gusts of 215. And sustained over a wide area ongoing, just shared its kids continuing to go. It's not like moving

through and bip. So how the fuck is they said it's the strongest hurricane that'll ever hit Jamaica since they started recording hurricanes. And I don't know how anything could stand up natural or man-made with 200-mile wind gusts.

And looking at the map here, it'll hit Cuba right after that. So the path of destruction is not going to end with Jamaica. It may not be a category five in Cuba, but it's going to hit pretty hard. have you ever been well I guess you would have been living in the Carolinas

I was going to say have you ever like been through a hurricane yes well you go the son of a bitch oh no I know it was my birthday and what was in 1989

I've told this story I won't bore the people but I actually had because that was when TVS had taken over and they ran fewer shows but I had not even taken it off

purposely I just just had like three days off spent at home around my birthday in September that year. And Hurricane Hugo came through and boom. Electricity went out. And it was out for three fucking days. And it came back on while I was in my car driving to the airport to go back on the road. And I was eating my birthday cake in bed while the fucking storm raged over the top of us. My first wife and dogs were in the bathtub with a blanket over them,

and I was sitting there eating a cake with a fucking fork in the dark, pissed off. So that was my birthday. You're saying it like there's a problem with eating cake with a fork. If it's not ice cream cake, what's the issue? No, I mean, the whole God, I just took the whole goddamn cake and sat in bed and took a fork to it. Because I had no TV, I had no tapes, I had no, electricity. I had no fucking goddamn light. I had no nothing. I'm only three days of fucking home.

So I just took a fork to the cake. I didn't mean a piece of cake. When you were a kid, did you ever have like the Vern Ganya board game? Now what now? I'm thinking of board games. Like, what can you do when there's no electricity? I'm thinking board games and I started out wrestling board games and it's the Vern Ganya board game. Well, you know, when I was a kid, it wasn't a big deal. not have electricity, if the wind blew back in those days, the power'd go out around here, but also had more than

one day a month to spend it fucking home when I was a kid. So it wasn't as, the time wasn't as crucial. So do we have listeners in Jamaica? I'm sure we do. I don't know who or where or how many. I don't know

if they're going to be here in this by the time. How will there be any power lines or infrastructure? good heavens Well good luck Anyway This is a happy show so far Well let's let's talk about

Something happy then it's your show I'm just I'm just trying to report on what's going on in the world And I just got a breaking news email Category 5 Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica Bringing catastrophic floods Storm surge and winds All right well I don't think we're going to have any updates on that

but good luck to everyone and I'm sure Hurricane Melissa will continue her path to destruction I don't know why I'm hearing the almond brothers Melissa I swear to God I was a sweet Melissa it's so inappropriate for this but that's what I'm hearing in my head

you can't hear well you can't hear the name Melissa without think about the almond brothers but Alan Wright the producer at Tennessee Production Center when I would do the the spots for the upcoming, you know, tours or events or whatever,

we'd put music in the background. We just played whatever the fuck we wanted, as I've mentioned many times in Smoggy Mountain Wrestling because Ruben said, just do it until somebody says, stop. He said, I make rap records. We take other people's actual recordings and reuse them. So anyway, I said, put Melissa behind. and he showed me the fucking, you know,

not the vocal part, but the instrumental in Melissa, because it was summer blast or whatever, nice summary music, just behind the announcement. And he came, I can't remember what he put instead, but I said,

why didn't you put the song I told you? He said, ah, shit, it's the almond brothers. All her songs are named after chicks. So I had to redo it. But anyway, just made me think of Melissa. Right?

What did you use Jessica for? I remember using Jessica on Smoky Mountain TV. for another one of the was it the summer it probably was another one of the summer tours or the various tours we just used the nice

southern rock background instrumental backgrounds in the spots added a flavor to it Smoky Mountain Wrestling it wasn't goddamn Portland Oregon wrestling they don't have anybody named Melissa in Portland Oregon

I don't know about that I don't know why I'm thinking about this, but you brought of Smoky Mountain Wrestling and I'm thinking of Smoky Mountain music videos. One of the first ones I saw as a tape trader was the end of 1992, the rock and roll express to the boys are back in town. Oh, Jesus Christ. They had just reunited and gotten back together. And it made me think, you know, their theme music for you was old-time rock and roll by Bob Seeger. And I think for a while in WCW they had Your Mama Don't Dance and your Daddy Don't Rock and Roll

But it wasn't the Loggins and Messinaver It was like poison or something Yeah, who know, yeah And of course rock and roll is king in the early days And the awful boogie-wuggy dance hall Which the less said the better Well, they only played that for like two months When they were selling the fucking fan club memberships

What do you think is their best theme song And were you okay with the Bob Seeger? song, do you think that was the right thing? Did you have any like thoughts? I should go back to what they used in Mid-South or what were your thoughts on their thing. Oh, no. Well, first of all, when you mentioned that video, I fucking laughed. I was like, oh, God, because I sat up all night from like 10, 10 or 11 o'clock one night until 7 o'clock the next morning. I edited that video myself on the offline on the three-quarter inch pneumatic decks that I could work. I couldn't work the one-inch yet. So,

Instead of paying the editor for, I saw it in my head and I could work that shit. So they just let me sit in there one night. And we'll see you in the morning. And I put that thing together, but I remember my eyes bleeding over trying to get the double drop kick. They've matched that. But I'm a bad. Whatever the fuck. It was a good video.

By the way, it was a good video because it really got you like pumped up to see them reunite. Well, see, that was the whole. idea is that the Rock and Roll Express in 1982 or 83 rather, I'm sorry, 82, they didn't exist as a team. But in 83, the first music was rock and roll as king, ELO, which I'm pretty sure was on the goddamn radio at that point or just had been, right? It's not like they were originally playing old music. and then it evolved over time in Mid-South for a while they used jump by Van Halen

and I don't at least on house shows as I recall and they played with it a little bit and what were they using in Crockett now I've got damn I've lost that before boogie-wogie dance hall no and as I said they only used that for a short period of time They had, God damn now I've stumped you and me about the Rock and Roll Express music and for Jim Crockett. I was still thinking rock and roll was king, but I guess I'm wrong.

Were they? Well, they did a few different things, right? But for the purpose of your question, for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, their fans, it had only been in 1992 when they reunited there and Smoky Mountain Wrestling, when they reunited there in Smoggy Mountain, it had only been six years since they had debuted on, or seven years since they debuted on TBS television and blah, blah, blah, and been hot.

But they'd been away for a few years. Ricky did his thing. When he was under contract, they made him a heel with the York Foundation. Robert had injured his knee and had surgery and been off for that period of time, the people finally get to see them back together, but instead of doing the same thing, it was perfect because they were a little older,

and they weren't necessarily the Sean Cassidy or fucking Leif Garrett teeny bopper idols that they had been in the 80s, but they were still the Rock and Roll Express. They were still in their 30s. But now they like that old time rock and roll. And it was an upgrade. It was a, we remember these guys and they were massively over and it isn't that long,

but they've evolved a little bit. And the, you know, the fucking 20-year-old kids can do the heavy metal stuff. But we like that old time rock and roll. The kind of music that soothes your soul. And so it was perfect. Going back to Mid-South, how over they were, specifically with a younger demographic and a female demographic, were you surprised or disappointed when they returned from Memphis with mustaches? Yeah.

I think it's because wasn't that when fucking David Lee Roth had a goddamn mustache or somebody, once again, that was that their Van Halen period? And... I don't remember David Lee Roth's mustache. I must have missed that. I don't know. Well, I mean, one of the, again, there was somebody in a hot

in a band with a mustache. And then it didn't, it made them, I don't know, they needed those baby faces, baby. And well, look at Riggie Morton now, especially, he looks, you know, again,

he's timeless. I'm not saying he can go out there in Hurricane Rana, although he's, well, he's still does actually. God damn it. What am I saying? Not like he used to maybe 45 years ago or whatever. But the rock and roll express was it kind of morphed from the teeny bopper idols in the 80s

to the veteran baby face legends in the 90s that had proven themselves and had a name. But they were still, it was the old time rock and roll. It was a natural evolution with the music. and they had grown up a little bit, but they still sold, Riggie Morden sold like Ricky Morton, and they were still double drop kick. Okay, one last Rock and Roll Express question,

going back to 83, we know about Watts coming to Memphis and seeing you and then seeing Bobby and Dennis and putting you guys together. Did he see Ricky Morden that night, or when was the first time he saw Ricky Morton? Because when you think of 84, or Ricky Morton may be the embodiment of someone who's the opposite of a Bill Watts-style wrestler,

yet he got over big and Watts obviously went with it and it worked really well. I'm just curious about his early exposure to the way Ricky Morton worked and the way he got a crowd riled up. Oh, God damn it. I got hold on. I'm getting off headset. It sounds like he's going to one of his books. I'm sure we'll talk about his newest book shortly. This is a little bit more. Ha! Ha! There we go. got to scoot my chair in here. Why you got my chair run down slow, Ron?

I'm going to go to that night's card in Memphis because I'm pretty sure the Rock and Roll Express were on it as well. And good Lord, it's so dark, Brian, because of the weather. Yes, the Rock and Roll Express were on the card because they were working a program with the Brews Brothers.

So they were on a card, two weeks in a row there but wait and before the week no it was the week before yes point is yes they worked with the Bruce brothers every week for like a fucking month

but the point is Watts understood that this new MTV thing was hot and that these young guys and he saw the girls in the

crowd in the Memphis shows screaming for these young guys coming to the ring with rock and roll music. And so he got the concept, obviously. And when you look at Riggie Morton, just have a match at that point in time, you could see that he was the key to getting the sympathy on the team because of the way he could sell. And Watts understood the concept, the babyface selling.

and I think you asked some phrase of question of where did Ricky get it from or what exactly did you say? Just in terms of Watts seeing that, it was a very different style of work than what he had had in that territory over the last several years at a minimum since it had been Mid-South wrestling. Ricky Morton was smaller, wrestled a more exciting style. It was all very different and not every Booker adapts well to something that's different from, what their obvious preferences are, which are big guys. Well, he had a territory full of big guys. He was losing money. They were big old guys or stale guys

or guys that were being presented in the same fashion he'd been doing. And again, Watts was a businessman. And so he saw the next territory over. Jesus Christ, look at other people are jumping up. and down. There's tons of young people and lots of women. The matches are exciting.

And the thing about Watts is he could recognize somebody that could work. And that's why when he saw Dennis Condry and Bobby Eaton, again, not, well, Dennis had, back in those days, had some size on him, but not like 280 pounds, but he was 235 or so and was working out. We got to Louisiana, nobody had time to go to fucking bed, much less the gym. But he,

Watts, understood guys able to work and he saw what you could do with them in his head. And then, obviously, needing a booker, wanting, you know,

eventually making the deal there with Dundee to be the Booker. He knew he needed a new direction and he saw something that was working right down the road. But Ricky grew up around the business because of his father, Paul being a, in an old time,

back in the old days, Paul wrestled a bit, dabbled with it, but he was a referee, hauled the rings, he worked in the offices. And when Ricky started, I saw some of his very early matches. And he was, he might have been 175 pounds.

He was the exception. He was even smaller than Jerry Jarrett used to get laughed at at 195, that little kid. But he instantly could work, not only his offense, but his selling. And because he was smaller, he knew he had to sell big, and he had to use the lack of size to get sympathy from the fans that these big bullies were just kicking a shit out of him. And then they would get behind the comebacks when he started making them

because they wanted to see him already. It was, you know, and so he mastered that. But it worked better in a tag team setting where, I mean, after you get the ship kicked out of you like that you can't really make your own comeback so he was able to make the tag and the hot tag became a thing and then robert would come in and he had that fire and in his younger days he could he could robert was an exceptional worker when he was younger it was just he was next to ricky doing all that selling and then he started having back problems from all the crazy bumps he used to take when he was young.

But he had the fire to make the comeback and the blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, that was the formula. And it worked and the people loved it. But Watts could see that. And he also could see when he came to Memphis that they were loaded with talent and much of it was being misused because that was Lawler's thing. Is he could say no to anybody when he was the booker. yeah, come on in.

He had 40 guys on a fucking card. That's why Jared could afford to lose a dozen, and he still had sometimes two cards a night. But he said, these guys are just in the wrong position or not being featured or focused on because the Rock and Roll Express were the B baby face team

underneath the fabulous ones. And I was the B manager underneath Jimmy Hart and Dennis and Bobby were not even teaming at the time. Dennis was teaming with Norville Austin as a heel and Bobby was a baby face just kind of floating around

because he'd been there so long. People had seen Bobby Eaton. But they hadn't seen the combinations that Watts wanted to put together in his head in his territory. Well, Jim, those may not be your heroes, but there's certainly some of your friends. And on that topic,

yes, a brand new book from Jim Cornett at Cornett's Collectibles, Jimcornett.com. And boy, howdy, as we mentioned on the last show that we did, and it's gotten even worse, Brian. We are, as we speak here now, by the time you hear it, it'll be gone, but we're like 150 copies away from selling out of the first printing. And thank you guys so much for, again,

they're just now starting to be done, delivered from the home office in Sellersburg, Indiana, over at the Featherbottom's place, to some of the people who are just now, the first orders that have been filled are just now arriving in hands. So we expect another rush when people see this thing. So as a result, we are reprinting. But don't worry, that's not going to delay anybody. What's going to delay anybody's orders is that I'm signing books as fast as I can sign books.

I can't even make one of those tongue twisters out of that. And we've either processed and filled or in the pipeline, everything's been signed and handed for labels and et cetera. Over 900 orders that we're still working on the first days on sale, Brian. So, if you want this by Christmas, I beg of you, as I said, the reprinting process will not do. delay things. It's just I'm signing a lot of books because everything's done

to order folks and we appreciate the feedback. If you just want a t-shirt, you can just jump right in because those don't have to be signed and one of the miscellaneous feather bottoms can stick those in an envelope. But get

in line on heroes and friends. It's apparently becoming very popular. I think now the people are starting to see it, they will probably want more of them, maybe give them out as Christmas gifts, but I'm signing them as fast as possible. So jump right in there at Jim Cornett.com and get this thing before next spring. That could be a tagline. Get this thing before next spring. All right. Well, get that book. Mine just arrived. Very happy to see it.

It looks really great. I think everyone's going to love it. Before spring. Well, yes, as a matter of, the people are tired of hearing me talk about how great the book is. Now that you've actually seen one, you can talk about how great the book is. It's very heavy when you pick it up and hold it your hand, isn't it? Very heavy. It's a fine quality publication. Obviously, money was put into it, so it looks so nice. But for those looking at it for a discount, the black and white copy versions will be available very soon on a cheap paper stapled together.

I should have known to watermark all the pages of the book I sent you. Jim, a few follow-ups before we get to some of the topics and questions and everything else. One, we talked recently about the show Taxi, did it have the best cast in television sitcom history? And that was not, in my opinion. Somebody asked that question. We both forgot to mention Christopher Lloyd as being one of the cast members. Reverend Jim Ignatowski, I don't know how we forgot that, but the listener sure didn't. and they let us know, you can't mention Taxi without Reverend Jim, any thoughts on Christopher Lloyd?

No. Particular thoughts, because I watched Taxi. I don't even remember what prompted this. Somebody asked us that, and we went off on other shows that I believe had better. And many people mentioned Seinfeld, of course, which was perfect. Always Sunny, which is kind of perfect, because that was their thing. etc but down through history there have been greater cast

but yeah Christopher Lloyd did some especially the back to the future stuff he did some funny things but again what is the the reverence for this taxi subset of the community going on here doing the PR work for taxi

40 years after the fight I liked Andy Kaufman but and Danny DeVito, I like better and always sunny, and many of the movies that he's done. So now they're just beating a shit out of this taxi thing. It's ticking me off. Well, that's the update on that, I guess.

And Jim, another update here. Well, I don't even know if updates the right word, but we've heard from a lot of listeners, one to get your thoughts on the passing of Sir Mo, Mo from Men on a Mission, Bobby Horn, any thoughts on this? Well, yes, and several people had tweeted, I can't believe they didn't. And actually, it was something that happened in the midst of our recordings.

It happened in the middle, and it just got lost in our shuffle, so we apologize. But no, I've got nothing bad to say about Sir Mo. I actually I'm going to say had they come into the WWF yet when I started there they started shortly around the same time.

Did they not? He and Mabel. Summer of 93, yeah. Yes, and. And Oscar. And well, and Oscar wasn't really with them. They had been partners on the Indies

and I think it worked Memphis. Mo and Mabel. And then Oscar bless him, what a character he was, but he had just jumped out and done some kind of rap when Vince was in Las Vegas or someplace out of an elevator and Vince said, well, get that guy's number or something like, I don't know. But nevertheless, and that was really the only time that I was around

Mo was during the period of time there was 93 to 95 ish in the WWF nice guy he never had any issues Mabel was the one that had heat with various people but at the same time

I didn't even really have any great anecdotes or you know well back in the day when we did this angle type of thing I just I hate to hear that he was a young youngish fellow to have all these health issues for the last 20 years or whatever.

I think he looked older than he was. At least when I was a kid, I thought he looked a lot older than Mabel. Well, now that's... Mabel wasn't exactly a goddamn cosmetically pleasing individual. That was part of his visual charm, but he was kind of ageless.

You didn't really know how old he was. You're just like, fuck, look at that. but yeah and mo may have got started late i don't know all right well bobby horn to his friends and family we send our sympathies yes and best wishes and uh you know he was probably the guy out of the team especially i considering oscar that wanted to be in the wrestling business more than you know the rest of him he was really dedicated and tried to you know you do different things and stuff, but it just, I think he was typecast. Like, you know, that's kind of the gimmick that everybody saw him with and he couldn't get out of it.

But anyway, as I'm sure you're very aware, a lot of the listeners have been sending an emails, called to Cornett posts, tweets, everything about a topic before we get to, get to modern wrestling reviews, whatever there is of that today. Word came out over the weekend that allegedly, and I'm not up to date on everything, I've seen some video just recently, but apparently Vince Russo, the word was that he was going to be the Booker for the NWA, which seemed to be surprising news. And then a day or so later, it came out that that isn't the case. He is apparently, allegedly, who knows, what's at work and what isn't anymore.

The new Booker and investor in the insane clown posse's wrestling promotion. What do you know? What do you say? Well, first of all, if I was Billy Corrigan, I believe I'd sue Dave Meltzer for slander. Is that where it came from? It came from Meltzer? Apparently, because...

And see, once again, this blows up to be a big story, but what is the old saying that some is greater than the whole of the parts or whatever the fuck? There's a lot of people here involved who have been doing shit that nobody knew was going on. And like, apparently the insane clown posse have a wrestling promotion that does a television,

does a TV show, but can it be a TV show if it's not on TV. But they do a show. I mean, do that? Is it a current show that already exists? I've never seen or heard about it. I know they have a promotion that runs like a show a year, I thought. That's well, no.

I mean, because the clip that is going around that we'll get to in a minute that's from their show. And apparently they've been doing a show somewhere that is seen somewhere. So that's number one thing. And then number two, nobody's been paying attention. friend Vinny Rue anymore. And so he wants to drum up some publicity. And then Uncle Dave apparently got fed

some kind of half-assed partial information and was assuming or saying, when you assume you make an ass out of you and me, he apparently blurted out on one of his shows. Well, it was like the NWA. Well, nobody's watching. the NWA anyway, which is true also. The NWA still does a show somewhere that airs somehow.

But that combination of Uncle Dave saying that about shit stain and it was enough, there was some recognition at the NWA, because also then there's the, you put Rousseau and NWA together, and then there's the sacrilegiousness and the blasphemy of the worst, you know, fornicator and sinner ever against the wrestling business being elected to the, you know, the Vatican and popedom of the last bastion of wrestling credibility, the NWA in people's minds. And that was just something that got people going.

But when everybody settled down, I mean, Vince Rousseau announced that, he had worked the dirt sheet writers again and laughed about Uncle Dave saying that he'd gone back into the wrestling business with the NWA. When that's not it, he's back into wrestling business with the insane clown posse. This shit writes itself. And not only is he back in business with it, but he's saying, in capital letters on Twitter from one thing that I saw somebody tweeted that he is an investor I mean invest can you say it like he does

investa investor how would he do investor I don't know how he would do it invest I guess invest would be the two words investor where that's where you put the pronunciation but nevertheless the driver over the E he's an investor in the insane clown posse's wrestle which which they used to

actually call championship wrestling. That was one of the names they used at one point when they get their friendly clowns together and have the gathering of the jigalos.

He's championship wrestling has evolved into what is it? Lunatic wrestling or it's... Oh, what was the name of it? Insanity. It was something

in the background was like... Illiteracy? Well, nevertheless. So now let's examine this. They've gotten some publicity because it, again, this stuff writes itself and it's just the preposterousness of it. But then he goes a step further.

Oh, Mr. Rousseau, and reveals that, bro, I've already written nine hours of television, nine hours of television, and right off to bat, bro, guess what we're going to do? Have you heard his three ideas for the revolutionary,

groundbreaking new television show he's going to write that ain't on television? No, other than the clip that went around of him coming out, I've not seen like ideas or anything, no. oh yes well there there's the clip going around is his friend remember veto we talked about him a while back he called me and pestered me on my private number at home

in connecticut in 1990 fucking six trying to get booked and he was the guy that when we read the thing that rousseau wrote in the fan bulletin in 92 he's trying to get him booked is this 30 fucking three years later and there's Vito in the ring throwing these fake fucking looking punches on some guy in this room in front of people

who are kind of like what the fuck there's 200 of them or whatever and out comes Russo looking like Father Christmas what the fuck or Grizzly Adams Dan Haggerty is that what he got from the Colorado experience is he looks like

the wolf man I don't mean Lon Cheney I mean Jack Lon Cheney Jr. Can you, well can you but still can you Is he going through a wolfman Jack face? No he had an audience Nevertheless

Coast to coast nationwide He had an audience Rousseau comes out is there screams no veto get off him i told you we're not going to do it this way and then it goes that's the clip being circulated that how he revealed him and when he walks out the room is dead silent and at first i thought that that they just really don't care that he's back right and then i realized nobody even recognized who the fuck it was and then somebody in the back of the room starts to try to get off after about 20 seconds

holy shit holy shit going and that's how long it lasted three holy shits and it did quiet again but the ideas bright you have not heard the ideas okay number one

he says he said bro right off the bat we're going to be doing this in the first nine hours of the TV somebody's going to get concussed concussed. And then we're going to put them and we're going to put them

in the concussion protocol. What does that mean? I don't understand. Wait, in K-Faim, someone's going to get concussed and put in the concussion protocol. The concussion protocol is in a test you take. Well, not only the test you take, but the time, apparently they're going to,

this brilliant idea is to somebody's going to get a working concussed. and then somebody's going to tell them they can't wrestle and they got a hand. We're going to see them have the brain scan and we're going to see them do rehab or wait the time out or whatever and talk to their doctor, which is a great 30 seconds or a minute update on a top star on a weekly basis or a nice three, four minute package on, you know, leading to someone's return. but this is not revolutionary, groundbreaking goddamn television,

especially for the insane clown posse. He just described, okay, we're going to do a fucking vignette. But the second idea, I think, is better, Brian, because they're going to drug test. That's a good start. On television, no, they're going to, it's going to be part of the deal. They're going to drug test, and they're going to, they're going to have the guy that does the drug test

stand there and watch the guy's piss and say because we want to make sure you ain't using any fake piss. Let me stop you from it, because these ideas are not really traditional wrestling TV ideas. I'm a little confused by the whole thing. It's like WWE LFG meets a brick wall. I'm not sure exactly. even if these ideas were great

and if I understood them if you're a booker why would you be announcing what you're going to do like this before anything has happened well because hold on I will psychoanalyze him in a minute but he wants this this is what he's leading with this is like

this is the shit he thinks we'll get people interested in seeing his vision of this product he thinks that people want to tune in to watch guys standing there with their pants around their ankles with another guy watching them piss in a fucking bottle on a weekly basis? Once again, what is this? Is it a weekly segment? And now let's go back to the pisser. Let's find out what's happening this week with the pecker checker.

Yeah. How is that more? Once you've established that that's what you're doing and you've even if you've seen it one time or you've just been alluded to, how does that take up any ongoing television time? And the only way you can bring it into the storylines is if people start flunking the fucking test and then, well, how do you flunk a test and be in an angle at the same time?

If you flunk the test, don't you have to go the fuck away? And apparently the name of the show, and again, I've never heard of this, and I don't know where it airs, I've heard that they've done wrestling shows, but it's JCW juggalo championship wrestling, lunacy. That's the name of the program, lunacy. We've had everything in wrestling now this.

Well, and the third idea, I think, has the most legs to it, because I can see this thing being a major part of anything that any one hour of television that Vince Russo would write, I would think this would probably dominate a half an hour of it on a weekly basis for months and months and months.

And I'm sure there's just wonderful details to follow but he said bro one of the female wrestlers is going to lose power so she me too's somebody

all right I can't wait to see how that might turn out I was going to say for our friend for it to be classic Russo like there has to be some kind of thing I'm going to have two hot girls yell at each other and call each other sluts but hasn't been any of that yet well no no because i'm sure the me too girl is going to is going to change the whole face of the game

rather from instead of their they're not going to fight with each other it'll be the men versus the women and we all know in what side that Vince has been on for quite some time now matter of fact i understand his border crossing privileges have been revoked oh come on now that may not be true but uh the show that i'm looking may not be false either you don't know It's a very interesting look. When you come out on the little stage they have there, there's a DJ on the left and on the right of the commentators. It appears to be a man in a suit.

I don't know who it is with a juggalo. So there's a clown on commentary. You thought Excalibur was bad, Jim. Excalibur isn't so bad anymore. They're only doing it figuratively over at AEW. They're literal over it. And let's talk about the investor portion. Because at first,

I smelled something with the first quote that I saw from Rousseau was that I have written nine episodes of television. He said, anybody asked him to. He's written them. You know, so I was wondering, is he just trying to float the here's some episodes of TV if anybody wants them? And that's when Uncle Dave was running with the idea that he's been hired by the NWA. He hasn't even been hired, wink, wink, by the clowns. He's apparently bought in. So on the surface of this thing, he's been wanting to write people's TVs for 20 years. He's been asking company after company to either bring him back or bring him in to write this goddamn,

these masterpieces that he's got in his head. And finally, according to at least, the story that they are presenting, the only one that would do it is the one he has to buy into? I bought part of the company. Can I write TV for you now? He's like the wrestling equivalent of the producer's girlfriend. And buying it could be anything. It could be $500. It could be $5,000. I can't imagine it would be much more than $5,000, but it could be anything. I can't imagine it would be much more than $500, but here's the thing. I've said many things about Vince Rousseau.

And that's how I'm just to make sure there's no confusion. That's why I'm using his government name instead of his more familiar name of shit stain here on this segment here. So we don't confuse any of the kids. I've said a lot of things about him. But I don't even believe that Vince Rousseau is stupid enough. at this age, at this stage of his game, when he's been asking for jobs for years that haven't come,

to put any sizable amount or really any amount of his own money into any wrestling promotion, much less run one run by the insane clown posse. So I don't, I don't know where he would, see that he was going to get a return on his goddamn investment unless he's completely lost his mind and thinks he is the second coming of goddamn Tutsmont. So I don't see why that a...

And we've established that Vinnie Rue is even older than I am. Certainly the way he looks, he's... I think he's a year older and he looks 10 years older. But he's not going to fucking put any... goddamn money that he can't afford to just throw away

into a fucking indie wrestling promotion. But this is some kind of deal that he's concocted in his head where he can get more attention because he's going to be some kind of goddamn authority figure or

puppet master or pulling the strings in the background or as when he comes out in the ring and grabs one of the wrestlers says, I told you we're not going to be doing it this way. So he's going to be telling people what to do. And that's his K-Fabe

cover reason for being able to do that. He's got money into company. It's a fucking work. It's bullshit. Maybe I'm wrong, and I can't remember what it was that triggered it. Didn't Vince Russo announce at some point like the last year and a half that he was done with wrestling, that he quit the wrestling business?

he's officially not interested in coming back. What was it? I can't remember what he gave a fucking deadline. I think it was the end of this year. It was like, yeah, I'll officially, I'm not going to watch you this stuff. I'm officially be done. But no, again, I don't know what they may be paying him the clowns. Because the insane clown posse apparently does have money at its disposal.

because whatever the fuck it is that those people do, they've been doing it for quite some time, and there are a lot of strange people that fucking enjoy it. We established that long ago. That's why they decided to dabble in wrestling, and being marks, they do bad, outlaw, indie, garbage, death match wrestling, and other assorted bullshit.

And all the, many of the legends that I used to know, or actually still do know. I haven't forgotten about them. But of my generation, we're like, oh, yeah, they'll pay you and they'll do this, they'll do that, but you're wrestling in a goddamn mud field in front of the fucking grandchildren of the Woodstock generation. But nevertheless, they got money.

So he may have sold them on some who shot John fucking bullshit. Well, I'll come in and I'll be the authority figure it, I'll write the TV, and because you people, meaning the clowns, have such a goddamn unsavory reputation, and people think I'm a goddamn, just giant, massive turd, then it'll get attention, and we'll all get attention. And that's, you know, apparently what they're doing.

And everybody's giving it attention because it's so preposterous. I'm sure they're going to get a big media right still. By the way, the footage I see here, there's like, saran wrap not saran wrap but it's like plastic wrap around part do they do like a gallagher thing where they like spray the audience or something no i think they were they were covering something up that was in the camera shot of the upper walls whether it be windows of a rec center or are they in a video game arcade and they're trying to cover lights but they've they've kind of made like a tent over the top of this area they're shooting this television

show in. This is a new Gallagher documentary. I really want to see it, but it's not available anywhere yet. It's still like in select theaters. But he was a lunatic. I'm dying to see that documentary. I have seen Gallagher. Live, you saw him? Yes, and it was far enough back that I didn't get

sprayed. When was this? I can't remember now. Where was this? God. It was in Las Vegas. But the question is, what year of time? For the LPWA? It has to be LPWA if you had time.

Well, I'm thinking because I was out there a couple times in the late 90s. With time to spare? I just remember seeing Gallagher. Or was it Charlotte? Or was it Gallagher 2? Are you sure it was Gallagher 1 or the original? No, there was only, I'm old enough, there was only one Gallagher. Okay.

Maybe it was Charlotte. I can't, I just remember now. I've remembered that. that I saw Gallagher in person. Yeah, fascinating because he got completely went off the rails and became like a nut. But, like, he gave his brother his gimmick so that he could have two Gallagher's touring at the same time because he was so afraid of carrot top. And then, like, he went to war and sued his brother that he couldn't call himself Gallagher anymore.

I'm dying. But, you know, their first names were Doc and Mike. No, it was not. No, those are the famous wrestling guys. Gallagher brothers, of course. Well, I just had that for you. Well, Jim, we'll see what happens with Vince Rousseau and the insane clown posse. Of course, we wish it him well.

We can't wait to see where this will be broadcast and how long it lasts. But when it comes to making a pick and saying, I think this is a winner or I think this is a loser, not everyone has that skill, not everyone has that talent. But for those who want to test their talent and skill with their picks, We have some friends that have some prizes for these picks. Oh, you hear that, Jim, prize picks. Yeah, yeah. Part of that was almost a coherent sentence,

and then you just went and started playing the xylophone. Folks, I'll tell you what, there's all kinds of ball things going on right now, ball games. Brian, I'm telling you, I'm just so excited about all the balls that are being played with all i'm telling you it's like somebody has written it down in red and then highlighted it in yellow all the ball that's being played now and you can be a part of it because if you get your picks right at prize picks then you could cash in you just pick more or less on at least two player stats and if you get the picks right you could cash in let's say that you want to pick just for instance

Vince Rousseau more or less is going to fuck up his umpteenth wrestling promotion in under three months or over three months, something like that. But more with the basketball, the football and the baseball. And you can stack them up. You can pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup, which to me is like wink, wink, ha, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat, but it's legal here. and you can follow other people directly on the prize picks app and you'll know where they are at all times.

It's like they've got a homing device in their pocket. As soon as you lock on to them, so if you want to follow somebody, you just make sure they're involved in prize picks and you'll know where they are because it says right here, Brian, you can follow other prize picks players directly on the app. Well, I don't think that means tracking.

I think that means what they put on the app is information that you will have access to. There won't be any tracking. Price Pix is there to leave you alone, but be there when you need them. That's... Well, how can they leave you alone? How can they leave you alone and be there if you need them?

They need to be somewhere around close in case you need them quick. But you can copy these other people's lineups in one click and then boom, it's yours. And it's registered with the government. They can't take it back away from you. whether it's a friend or a celebrity partner. Somebody's got a celebrity partner out there.

Who? Or just someone whose picks you like. It could be somebody at random walking down the street and suddenly you say prize picks, follow them. And boom. It's like they got an ankle monitor on. And how you play on prize picks is up to you. If you want flexibility,

choose flex play where you can get paid even if one of your picks misses. Well, hell, then it's horseshoes, hand grenades, and flex play. And if you want the biggest payouts, Brian, go for the power play. That's where they're going to play you with extra power. No matter your play prize picks is a great way to put your takes to the test. And also, if somebody gets hurt, I think you don't have to, normally, if one of these players gets hurt that you've picked,

you've got to pay part of their doctor bills, but I understand they indemnify you on prize picks. You don't have to play unless they're on a respirator. Then you've got to pay 6% of their medical bills. Jim, there's the truth serum. We only want to talk about what the people can do and what they can do right now with prize picks. And it's a wonderful promo code that will do something for you right now.

Right now, download the prize picks app and use the code JCE. you're going to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code JCE to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup because at prize picks, it's good to be right. All right, prize picks. And of course, Jim, what a prize it is for the listeners today to hear this exciting show. Yes. We're going to talk about a lot of things currently happening in wrestling or at least some things.

Did want to make a couple mentions here. one, there's a new YouTube playlist for the show. We filled up to capacity the previous corny clips and cornet clips playlist. So if you were someone, subscribe to one of those, the new one, and it's on our official Jim Cornett YouTube page, is official Jim Cornett Clips. Subscribe to that one in place of the other two. And any thoughts on that, Jim? Well, wait a minute.

Don't they still might want to go back and listen to something we don't? done on one of these other here fancy Dan playlist. It'll still be there. They can't they? You could certainly access it at any time, but there won't be any new additions to those playlists. They have filled up to capacity. We cannot...

Because there's a... Wait a minute. There's a limit to how many videos that we can put up on a YouTube. No, there's a limit to how many videos you could put in a playlist on YouTube. Well, but it's all on our page. Right. It's just it has to be in multiple playlists if it fills up one playlist. Well, that sounds stupid.

Well, it's not our rules, and of course they must have their reason, but if you wanted to follow the clips from beginning to end, you would start with one playlist, you would go to the second, the middle playlist that we just finished with, and then you would start the new playlist. Well, when I click on the dagum YouTube page, it just has all of the clips right there, all lined up in order that we put them on.

I didn't know we were dealing with some kind of goddamn capacity here of some description. We're not dealing with it in terms of the videos, but in terms of the playlist, which are accessible, again, through that page that you're on right now, some people are subscribed to the playlist, and that's how they get their updates on what new videos have come out. Sometimes I just don't understand you. Well, again, I think, I hope, I pray the audience understood some of that. On the topic of things happening right now, I'm not even sure what you're going to say here.

What have you watched in the last few days from WWE? Oh, boy, howdy. I saw a little bit of the Smackdown. Would you like me to tell you why I watched a little bit of the Smackdown first or why I didn't watch any of the Raw first, which would you like to? Well, I guess I know we'll need another segment soon, but now let's talk about what you saw on Smackdown. Well, that was in chronological order.

This was for this past Friday, and the reason why, again, it's not like there was anything newsworthy. you could have put the written description of this fucking television program on the Pony Express and dropped it off by horse that routes along the way back east and it's it was nothing newsworthy and this is underlying a bigger problem we may talk about but i mean j uso gotten a big pull apart with drew mackintyre at the top of the program because of course you know every Everybody's accusing Drew of whatever the fuck anybody did, hitting Jacob Fatu in the mouth with a baseball bat.

I don't know what happened to cause that injury. But so they got problems. And people were talking about Jade Cargill turned heel. She came out and saved Tiffany Stratton. And then held her hand up and, gave her belt back, did all that stuff, and they just beat the shit out of her all over ringside, and all the officials came out and pulled her off of her.

But this is the question, Brian, do you think, before we go any further, have they modified their expectations for Jade Cargill? Who, from all accounts and, you know, logic and thought, the way that they had presented was going to be like one of the faces, of one of the women's shows, of one of the titles or whatever, and now they kind of moved her down and slowed it up,

and now they're, well, let's see how she does as a heel. Hey? I mean, in some ways you could say they've gone as far as they can with her as a baby face right now. She traditionally, when she wasn't really trained well and was in AW, was a heel, and that kind of was the role she excelled at. She hasn't done that at all in WWE.

Like I said, where else is she going to go as a baby face? Maybe it's time. She looked good, too. Well, that's a visually. She's, you know, she's always very presentable. I mean, she, you know, she washes her hair and brushes her teeth. I'm not talking about that. She looks great.

But I'm thinking that they may have realized that maybe they had higher expectations to bring her in as the big baby face. and we're going to write in the way, we're going to, or right away, we're going to give her the rub with Bianca and all the top girls and blah, blah, blah. And she still can't. And now she's been with them as long as she was with AEW. When you count the fact that I think she only saw them once a week

where she's probably being trained in WWE more often. So I think now it's down to, well, it would be easier. as a heel, she gets heat on some baby faces that can sell, make her a big bully. I don't know that she's going to take to this. Her promos will be better. That's true. She's got that attitude.

But anyway, I think they're trying to course correct now because maybe she's not going to be what they thought she was on a baby face set. Did you see? I'm awful. I'm all for it. I think she's better as a heel. Even though, you know, A.W was A. And she obviously was very limited in what she was doing in the ring.

She was better as a heel character on this show than as Bianca's friend. And then it's just upset because Naomi's mad at her. Like, nothing is really, she's lucky she's not, you know, under more than she is right now. Yeah. Because they haven't given her much other than just being kind of number two to Bianca. and now you set her up to potentially wrestle babyface Bianca down the road. Hey, where is Bianca? I don't know.

Is she hurt? We know where Naomi's been. I wonder what happened to Bianca. Well, bad time to be Bianca. No, it's a... Well, we don't know what time it is to be Bianca, but what else did you watch... Well, what time is it... Did you see

I keep wanting to call him Ilya curiocin now because I can't stop Elia Dragonov's promo Did you watch the promo? I actually did not. This is where they need the announcers interviewing people

and I don't know why that they abandoned years ago that concept and just went to I think it was obviously, again, another thing that our friend, Schittstein probably pioneered, but were the long solo monologue with the dramatic spotlight of whatever, instead of being a sporting television show and the announcer, the commentator, interviewing the fucking athletes.

Elia has great natural likability, chemistry, charisma, the way he moves in his matches and the underdog thing and the feistiness and being Russian or whatever he, wherever he's from that passes for Russia, English is a second language, but it does, he sounds about, you know, five octaves or whatever lower than old Kyle Feltcher does over an AEW, but it doesn't flow for it. him. The point is when there was an announcer to help guys get over points and details without them having to do a long solo monologue, where the guy could just come in and say certain things that he needed to say that benefited him, but not having to go on a long explanation,

do you see what I'm saying? It made it sound more legit, and it picked up the fucking pace and got the information out. Do you miss those days like I do, Brian? You know, I've been thinking a lot about it. I thought we would talk about it later on, but we'll do it right now because, you know, we're just talking about a bigger issue industry-wide, which are the promos. And for all the talk of, like, boring old wrestling tropes, maybe the worst and most boring are the tropes of Vince McMahon, which is this format that everyone is adopted.

Everyone does. Go out there with our... microphone and do your, you know, they do more than a stand-up comedian, dog. A stand-up comedian's not up there that long for their set sometimes. And they go up there and they recite something and it doesn't sound genuine. And I forget even what it was, but I was thinking about it recently with a feud that's on wrestling right now, where you see face-to-face stuff. And we've seen a bunch of it recently with Adam Page and AEW. We saw the Chris Stathlander performance with Tony Storm a few weeks ago.

CM Punk and Jay Uso. Like all these face-to-face things are happening. In what world is it not more effective to have one guy come out there, have an interview or hold the mic, and give them three minutes to flip out about their opponent? Or just, if that's their thing, maybe not everyone's going to scream or yell, but go out there and cut your opponent down in a way that doesn't hurt them.

but makes people think, oh my God, I can't wait to hear what that other guy's going to say. Sell the match. Sell the issue. Sell the angle. Everything now is a limp confrontation where there's no reason why death couldn't happen, except two people are standing there deciding not to do it, but they agree they hate each other, and they're going to do it soon. Like, it's just the stupidest thing.

And I think, you know, the other problem is who does the interviewing. WWE has good interviewers, is the AEW as Chavani and Renee. Renee, who's like out there performing, trying to outperform actually, in some cases, the wrestlers, and Chavani, who is just the frump in the back of the fucking standing in the corner. Of the corner of frumpiness.

And see, that's part of it, is that especially with the younger guys in OBW or any television program that I've hosted over the decades that there's been so many. But you get with the guy and go, okay, what are we talking about here? And then I come up with, I'm going to, here's my lead-in question.

I'm going to come to you with this. You'll say something about that. And then I will let me ask you this. We got two or three questions and some ability to go back and forth and he can get the fucking point out. And I know where he's done and where he wants to get out. And then back to you guys. That still helps because somebody else is bringing up other information.

When this guy has said what he needs to say about Brian, then I is the announcer, oh, what about Jim now? Jim said that, well, Jim can go fuck himself. It's more natural that way. And then on a confrontation, subliminally the people see the host of the show or the announcer, there's somebody with a tie on that's conducting the interview that's trying to keep these guys settled down and be professional. and it's there a lot of times that if the announcer, the heel says something to the baby face is goddamn just, you know, sharp and cuts him to the bone, the announcer can jump in now, come on there, Bill, and just put the hand on the shoulder like there's some type of decorum being maintained here.

It just, it flows more naturally. instead of, again, what you said, just guys standing there telling each other how bad to hate each other 15 fucking minutes. Like for everyone that complains about the Vince McMahon style of wrestling over the last 25 years. This is what he did. This is what he did. And this is what AEW does. This is what Paul Aveck does. This is what T&A does.

This is what everyone does. Indies fucking do it. A guy just walks out there. Where did they get the microphone? Just walks out there with the microphone. Hey, they didn't turn this off. I guess I could say whatever I want right now with this really. dramatic walk-in.

Hey, here you go, Rousseau, on your new show that you're booking is going to be hit by, seen by millions. Have some guy walk out with a microphone and then somebody else coming out. No, we're not turning it on. Fuck you. You can't talk. I should have someone walk out with a microphone just say, I just wanted to return this. I'm sorry.

This is just sitting there. You know, I think, obviously we're in a different world than we were in the 80s or the 70s, but I think there are specific things that work for professional wrestling on TV that the industry got completely away from because of Vince McMahon's embarrassment about this being the industry. And I think you're not going to have local promos anymore because what's the value in that? But you need the local promo type promo to make you care about Saturday night's main event or the pay-per-view or whatever it is.

And they're not doing it. Instead, you have guys coming out there and I guess maybe because they have to fill up so much time, they are endless speeches. They just talk and talk and talk. And then the only way out of it is someone comes out there to confront them, which is what they do every single week on every single show. This is the most boring trope there is in wrestling right now. And the other problem is, if you gave Ilya Draganoff, as an example, the microphone,

could he do it? at any point in his life as an indie wrestler in NXT wherever was he given a microphone and said go out there and make people think you really hate this guy or was he handed a script and you want to talk about the boring tropes of Vince McMahon get away from the scripts that was a Vince McMahon thing and for everyone who wants to talk about Paul Levec being a different kind of animal he's doing all the same things Vince did I don't know how that if somebody had handed me a script and not like here's the story written down, come up with a promo out of it, but here is exactly what you have to say, and they would actually stop me and make me do it

if I didn't say that exact thing, which I understand, in pre-tapes, I understand is a thing that they do, and get mad at you if you didn't say if it was live and you didn't say it that way. we wouldn't be sitting here now. I don't think anybody would have ever heard of me. Not only could I not say that long of a dissertation, word for word, exactly like it was written, I don't think it would have been as good as the shit that I came up with for me, myself,

that nobody else could fucking do either. I don't know that I would have made money if I did try to do my promos like Joe LaDuke. Probably wouldn't have worked. I don't know how they fucking don't have a nervous breakdown trying to remember all that shit. And it just seems like delivering scripts and delivering written lines for someone to recite, it's a self-defeating thing.

Why go there? In AEW, I don't think Tony Khan's scripting Adam Page. I think Adam Page is scripting Adam Page. No, that's the problem. They're writing it all out and memorizing it for themselves and it sounds fake too. Unbelievable. You just don't believe the guy.

If you were in a fight and someone started talking to you like that, you would kind of like drop your fighting pose. What is he saying? Why is he saying this? But I think it's an industry-wide problem. I don't know what we could do about it, but it's an industry-wide problem. Well, we can complain about it, and there you go. But Elia, I like him.

He's a good baby face. He had a match with Malachi Black, who Zalina is since they're married, is now his evil, spooky manager, got evil, spooky lighting and spooky music, and it's the same guy in the ring. But Elia, you can't take your eyes off of him. And they had a nice little match, and then it completely came to a halt. Zelina interfered and tripped Elia, and the referee milked it,

and then kicked her out of ringside. But as she was leaving, Damien Priest, with his music, came out. And while all of us going, the two guys to match are just down. and then Damian Priest stares at Malachi Black, because he burned his priest's face last week. And Malachi Black stared at Damian Priest, and he turned right back around when it was time, and Ely hit him with his forearm finish, boom, one, two, three.

And then Priest got in the ring and beat up Malachi Black and was going to conchere to him on the desk, but Zelina saved him and the heels ran off. and that besides the main event And that is why I don't watch Smackdown That is why I was not persuaded to go back to Smackdown And nothing against Ilya But I've been tired of Damian Priest forever

Alistair Black just doesn't do it for me I haven't checked him out with his wife yet Maybe that really livens up the act I haven't checked him out with his wife You think they leave the curtains open? I'm talking about on Smackdown Oh But yeah see you took it into the gutter for no

discernible reason. No, it wasn't in the gutter. It was in a hotel room off of fucking Dixie Highway. But anyway, besides the main event, as I said, that was pretty much all that there was, but we got Drew McIntyre and Jimmy Uso. And guess what kind of match they had, Brian? Did you see the kind of match they had? No disqualification.

Anything goes. It was the same shit as you... I love Drew McIntyre. Again, not the biggest fan of Jimmy's technical work, but the Uso's are over. But it's the same shit that everybody does everywhere. They had a regular match a little bit, and they went out and fought in the arena,

out amongst the fans. Then they came back to ringside, put a table in the ring, had a little fight on the floor. Drew brought a chair in and beat on Jimmy with a chair. Jimmy made a comeback, beat on Drew with a chair, set up the table and gave Drew a smoe and dropped through the table. And then went for a splash and Drew picked up a chair

and beamed him in the head with it coming off top rope and hit his kick, one, two, three. And so, and then more heat on Jimmy with a chair and the officials tried to stop it. But guess what? Cody, here comes Cody. And he made a big comeback. and got Drew out of there and then went to help Jimmy and Drew came back and leveled him with a kick. I could have never predicted something like that happened in a million years. Of course, they're in the main event on Saturday.

I know you have to promote these things, but it's a two-hour show. And every 45 minutes or so, you get two minutes of action. and at the end of the thing somebody's going to run out and fucking getting a fight to go off the air it's I hate I mean there are variations

of this that we're entertaining and wrestling for a hundred years but now that you see almost the same show with the same people on TV every week from every company doing the exact same goddamn thing that they do every fucking week, it just all blurs, doesn't it?

Yeah, again, I don't want to get all fired up again, but I haven't figured a lot about it because it's hard to get the desire to watch these shows. And they just don't, you know, I guess a lot of it may be the length, which is a necessity because that's what they're selling, is all that time. I wonder sometimes would this be a better show if everything that was on it was in a one-hour show? Or would it still feel the same? And again, I think a lot of the problems

are WWE long-term issues that I've had a problem with for a long time, been vocal about it. People go back and forth over whether they agree or not. I think the way the commentators do commentary is an issue. You never pay attention to them and it doesn't seem genuine. You want to talk about people who don't seem genuine. The way Michael Cole leads the announced team, it doesn't seem like genuine conversations. It doesn't seem like genuine concern. It seems like acting as announcing. Because that's what it is. His name's not even Michael Cole. He's an actor playing a commentator. But I think that, I think the way they're setting up every show, just the long promo and then as a confrontation, then as a general manager. If there's four people there,

we got a tag match. If there's three people there, we got a three-way match. If there's a contender. You know, it's just, it's the same formula for both shows, just different characters on each show. And also, they've got themselves and it's a trap now because the people want to cheer and sing, and that just eats up so much fucking time. But at the same time, you don't want to, you know, shut the paying customers down from doing what they want, but part of the reason why they're doing is because they came

up with his shit to help fill some fucking time while they were sitting there watching an endless entrance and now it's made the entrances longer but at least they get to participate but yeah like the Seth Rollins entrance it's great that it happens every time it's great that the fans are so into the heels music that they just want to keep singing along to it

even after it goes off but he would stand there and feed into it Oh, well, they're teaching them in the performance center. They're teaching them, because you can see them all doing it now, where they're just, they're milking what, they're not milking what's already happening. They're doing the subtle mannerisms and leaving the pauses where they can engender the people to come in and fill in an extra minute for them or whatever. They'll stop and pause at any hint that something's beginning to grow and let it foster,

but that's part of the 20 minutes they're all standing there talking each other. And I don't... Like even punk, I'm a big punk fan. His work on the mic is his strongest work. I've gotten bored with watching punk the last several weeks. I don't necessarily blame him.

I said it last week. I'd love to see a heel turn just because I'd love to see heel promos. But it's also... It's what he does in between the things that matter. and it feels like WWE, that period of time for everyone, in between the matches that matter

on the premium live events, it's kind of a weird holding pattern that doesn't even feel as effective as just winning squash matches. I know, again, they have two or three hours or whatever, depending on the vehicle that they have to fill and et cetera. They also have 100-something fucking wrestlers

that you hear names of and is everybody and, you know, still in wrestling school and NXT so goddamn shitty that you can't, I'm not saying try to push and feature and get over 20 new different people at the same time. I'm saying take the people that are familiar to the fans that are already over sometimes

and just give them a four-minute fucking match with some other guy just to goddamn keep this shit moving. He just keep them moving along and let him get a nice win once in a while. Instead of, there's four matches on a two-hour show, they all take 20 minutes

and in between at the beginning and end is a goddamn 15 or 20-minute promo. And bad acting in the back. That's another one of these Vince tropes that just doesn't go away. I mean, as much as we haven't complained about the judgment day stuff in the back,

it's ridiculous. I skip it all. I skip all the backstage stuff in AEW too. Because if it's in the back, it's just more chances at bad acting and it's not going to be any kind of earth-shaking information. You know, everyone always here's the Mid-South wrestling talk because that's always like the perfect example,

at least for me, in terms of a one-hour show, the commentators are serious and they're talking to you, not at you, and you believe them, and you get a lot of action, even when there's squash matches. They're not going long. And during those matches,

you're getting a lot of important information from the commentators who have credibility. And then in between that match and the next match, there's a commercial break, and you get local promos where the baby face to say something and then in a side studio somewhere where they're never really told,

the heel says something. All of this is happening and they fit it all into one hour and you watch those shows, you can't wait to see what's going to happen next week, let alone at the arenas. And you don't have that really right now. You don't have that at all, I don't think, from WWE right now.

Well, and again, that's the problem is they're making, ridiculous incredible amounts of money while giving and they've got stars that are very capable of performing but now they've made those stars so valuable they don't want them to work any more than necessary because they might get hurt

and they don't have to give people any more than they're giving them now because nobody's complaining about paying the highest ticket prices ever but that doesn't change the fact that especially for those of us who remember how much shit used to be going on in a wrestling program

this shit's like watching paint dry and it's not to say that the answer because then again some people with a simple superficial shallow understanding will say well they do everything in OVW and he hates that or in OVW. let me try that again they do everything they do everything in a ew and he hates that too i was looking at an obdb thing on my wall when i said that he does everything in aew w hates that too

yes there can be a middle ground between everything and absolutely fuck out all of nothing and when we talk about things always happening on an exciting territory wrestling program part of it was the actual matches. Like you said, they were moving. Even if it was a competitive match, you still only had eight or ten minutes maybe in a one-hour programs, you were moving. And if it was a squash match,

wow, look at that guy doing all that shit to that other guy for two and a half minutes. And then people were talking for two minutes. And it kept moving. That's what we're talking about. not necessarily a flamethrower and a goddamn Molotov cocktail all in the same segment kind of moving.

There's a difference. And I brought up the commentators, the way they talk to you or at you. Michael Cole will yell at you the entire broadcast. Bill Watts didn't, and Bill Watts may have been the best ever, so that may not be a fair comparison. But the points there, Gordon Solie didn't. Lance Russell didn't. Lance Russell, you heard more.

tones of his voice than any other wrestling commentator because you get, well, hey, Davey, you get that and then you get, ah, you get everything. You just get Michael Cole yelling at you, moving his hands constantly, because that's what you're supposed to do on TV, but speaking at you, not to you. And I think that's kind of been the entire generation of WWE commentators, more than a generation, this century,

and I think it even affects AEW's commentators obviously. But I think the way of, I think the commentary is the least effective kind of commentary you could have for a wrestling show. Well, they at least say a lot of words. But yeah, it's, it takes a long time to, uh, to watch the, the program, no matter how long it is, it seems longer. But what do I know? You were about to tell me. You know a lot. And of course, that's the state of WWE TV, I'm sure we'll have more to say about this. But whether it comes to applying the local promos of the past to

some sort of way of using that kind of promo today on TV, it's all about selling tickets. It's all about selling. Let's get rid of the word tickets and focus on selling. And of course, if you have products to sell, if you need some help for your business, if you have a business that just needs a little pick me up.

a little friend there that can help you that you can trust. This is going really well. We trust them with our business. And after this description, why wouldn't you trust them with yours? Jim, our friends at Shopify. That's who you're talking about. I couldn't figure it out there for a minute. Nobody else could either.

But folks, that's because Brian garbled that whole thing. But Shopify is a word on everybody's tongue. I don't know what's on your tongue. Brian, it sounds like a 10-pound dumbbell. But it's the sound of money-making opportunities. When you hear that, see, that's the thing, when you're sitting there in your house and all of a sudden you hear a vehicle going down the road, ch-ching, ch-ching like that, that's a money-making opportunity.

Run out and talk to the Shopify man and the Shopify truck. It's a white panel van with no windows in Missouri plates. There's no Shopify truck. There's no Shopify man, but man, what a great deal this is for you to be. able to have your business, have a wonderful partner that will help you along the way with no white panel trucks. Well, I heard they were cruising the neighborhoods because they're spreading the word. See, because that's the thing Shopify can get the word out.

If people hadn't heard about your brand, Shopify can help you find your customers with easy to run email and social media campaigns and they do fliring. They'll send these white panel vans out in a neighborhood and they'll put flyers in people's mailboxes, sometimes inside your screen door. Every so often, if there's an attractive young lady in residence, they'll leave flyers inside all of the rooms of the house. Not the way it works. So you'll know they've been there.

They won't be there. That's not the way it wants. That's why if you notice underwear missing. They're not going to steal your underwear. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a panty raid. What this is is your chance to raid the wallets of the consumer. I guess that's the wrong way to say it too. What you can do is sell your products safely.

securely, know it's going to get there. No, there's an online platform that's there for you. Shopify. Yes, they're the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world. And 10% of the e-commerce in the United States, I saw a website

the other day with that purple shop pay button on there where they were selling used lingerie on this website. It's a vintage lingerie thing, a big business. It's a big business? It's a big business. I don't know about that, but there are plenty of examples other than that that people can use for Shopify. Yes, because if you've got a product or a service, you want to start a business or a brand,

and you need somebody to help you out from the word go, from building your site to maintaining a platform, to selling your products. And boy, I'll tell you, these people, as I've mentioned, they've got their finger and everything over at Shopify. And they can get their finger into you if you, right now. Go to Shopify.com. Shopify.com slash Cornett, C-O-R-N-E-T-E, Shopify.com slash cornet. Shopify. com slash cornet.

My ears are ringing. You can get a $1 a month trial period and start selling, well, today if you go and get your, you know, it seems like it'd be hard to just start right now. But you, that's the line they use. Start selling today. you can sign up today. You can sign up any goddamn time you want to. Hurry.

You're already behind. They're really, they're waiting on you now. Shopify.com slash corn at $1 a month trial period. You will see how indispensable they are. And when the fliring crew comes to your neighborhood, you'll know to leave that back window unlocked or just leave the screen door open. There will be no crews.

They'll take care of the rest. There's no, first of all, lock everything, folks, just in case. And for this specific example, just locked everything. No one will be coming to your neighborhood. The only thing that will be coming to your virtual neighborhood will be great deals. And that's, I don't even know if that applies here,

but what we're talking about is a great partner for you. Help me. Well, go again. Shopify.com slash cornet $1 a month trial period. And you could even get on the fliring layout crew where you lay out some of the flyers that then the road crews and the neighborhood van crews

go and spread around the neighborhoods. Once again, I think we've established this is not how it works, but one last time, Jim, with a professional tone. What is that promo code? Shopify.com slash cornet. All right, well, there it is.

That's the official end of that. TIGA Da. They also have ice cream sandwiches inside the van, but they don't have. They got them just in a cooler, not a lot of ice in. You got to get in there quick and get to the bottom, get the ones that are still real frozen.

What are your thoughts on ice cream sandwiches? What are your thoughts on the Chipwich? Well, I like a good ice cream sandwich every so often. I'm not really in front of them a lot. I don't like to buy them and take them home from the store because they melt on the way and then they're all bleh. And when they refreeze, they've got ice crystals on them. But I'm not sure about, well, I occasionally go to a location like a fucking ice cream store that would have a nice ice cream sandwich that I would get or a dairy queen or a thing of that nature.

Oh. You just can't leave them out 15, 20 minutes and expect to get the entire experience. But the cookies and the ice cream, it's hard because then, again, I like my ice cream a bit on the soft side. but if you've got soft ice cream in between the two cookies, then it just goddamn shoots right out and splooges all over you. And then the cookie's soggy. You have to eat it before it gets too melted. Well, yeah, but then it's hard.

And I like a cookie microwave, a nice warm cookie. Well, yeah, if you microwave the chipwitch. Haven't you heard that expression? It warms the cookies of your heart? I believe Chipwich itself is a soft chocolate chip cookie. Other brands who do knockoff versions use a harder cookie, but I wouldn't microwave that. that's your first problem.

Well, no, I microwave any cookies, because then they get even nice and warm, and if there's chocolate chips in them, it gets gooey. If there's ice cream in between the cookies, you can't microwave it. Well, I know that's part of the problem. All right, well, now that we've established this problem. Stacy makes peanut butter blossoms for me,

a slightly underdone so that there's no brownness on the bottom, and you put them in the microwave, three of them on a plate for about 10 seconds, just as long as for the Hershey kiss on the, the top to start, when you put your finger on it at the top, you can smush it a little bit, and there you go. Well, there you go. That was the Chipwich update, folks.

Jim, what did you watch on WW Raw? Absolutely nothing. Is there a reason for this? Because I read the online recap dissertation of the episode, and it was a, even the same thing that we were just talking about a few minutes ago, whereas it follows the same pattern and the interview and they get in a fight. This time they had an interview. They didn't get in a fight.

This time they all just talking each other in between the miscellaneous matches that are put out there for these poor, struggling, young, starving artists to practice their craft. It was, you read the same thing. you peaked at the recap of the thing and we're like what in the hell is going on here well you you were watching some of it and zoned out didn't you i saw the beginning on mute because the first thing that happened was j uso came out so i had it on mute because i don't need to sit there and watch five minutes of him coming out to his music and dancing and then

saying it's over well it's not over here's more and then they do it a second time i don't need never be over. I don't care how much fun those people are having there. I'm not having that much fun at home watching it. So the World Series was on. I watched the World Series with sound. I watched Summer Raw. And then I got tired, and I went up to the bedroom.

And just the World Series was on TV at that point. I figured I'll watch it on DVR the next day. And I woke up today, saw the report from the wrestling news, the wonderful work as they do on a daily basis, Brian Solomon, Mike Simper Vivi, Lou Kippleman, Jason McAradow. I saw that report.

I read what was on that show. And I realized a little bit I saw at the beginning that I didn't care about was the highlight of the show. And it was just nothing I needed to see. Nothing I... See, I mean, that's what I'm talking about when I say this is like the promos

don't make you want to see anything. I didn't yearn to see Dominic and Rusev or whatever the fuck was happening. It's interesting. And if I was watching, I'd check it out. But it wasn't like, I need to see this. They may hate each other.

No, they're working together today. It may be a no right match. I wasn't in that zone. There are people out there going, they can't even be bother. It's their job to watch. No, it's not our job to watch every goddamn minute of anything put out by anybody.

We compare and contrast and critique the two programs because, well at first it was a fight and then after it became a runaway route you we are left with describing how that the WWE does the absolute least possible and is getting the most money

and we are also left to describe AEW in what the fuck are they doing and it takes so long to even tell you and you still don't understand it that sometimes we do go on, but the point is, for the reasons just quoted, we're about half-ass fed up with both. And I'm thinking that we're starting to see other people, the rank and foul folks who follow this as fans, are, you know, kind of think of the same way, at least as far as the apathy toward, it's a constant, big, show of the same kind of matches in both companies. What is different? For the AEW fan, what different

thing where people are they featuring that anybody wants to see? And in the WWE, yes, they're still selling the tickets, but as far as getting the people to watch, what are they doing differently on their big shows here lately that they that makes them stand out or is it just a blur over there because they got the Saturday night's main event and the premium live event and the goddamn special on I forgot what is Saturday night's main event on anymore what's that going to be on this weekend and we'll talk about that in a minute or so but that will be on peacock in the United States and YouTube throughout the rest of the world So that's the only thing we still need peacock for.

Yeah, and we'll be telling you about Surf Shark in a little while, too. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to get around this. But I guess point is both of them are kind of in a rut. AEW is in a rut where they can't get out of their own way, just doing shit old flame throwers, Molotov cocktails, fucking people being dropped from helicopters, screaming like turkeys that can't fly. and in the WWE they're making people pay record prices to watch them walk to the fucking ring and wave.

But we are seeing more feedback. You're hearing from more people that there are more tickets available, even though they're breaking gate records everywhere and making all this money. You are starting to hear that. I see a lot of the reports that Ressel Ticks puts out. It seems like they're pretty close to capacity still, but we're hearing from me. I heard from, there was a, I don't have any in front of me. I apologize to the listener.

Someone sent an email to Courtney Drive-Thru at Gmail.com. I believe they went to the last Smackdown. They waited until the day of the show. They were able to get a ticket for $40. And when they went, they said there were a bunch of empty seats. So who knows what's going on? Who knows who's buying the tickets? If it's people or if it's brokers.

But there is. Or if it's broke people. You are starting to see the blowback a little bit from the rank and file wrestling fans about WWE's pricing. So then you go past that, what's the one thing that could defeat all those issues if shit's hot? If I asked you right now, AEWWWE, TNA, New Japan, whatever it may be, who's the hottest star in wrestling right now, and what's the hottest feud in wrestling right now? Can you even give me an answer?

Who's the biggest? Who's the hot right now? Who's just the hottest? Yes. We had the mixed tag team match with Seth and Mrs. against Punk and Mrs. And that was the hottest thing. And we've had it.

We haven't seen AJ Lee since then and Seth's in the goddamn hospital. So that ixnays that. there's Seth Rollins and C.M. Punk is the feud that will never die, but Seth is gone, and that's, you know, that's, Cody and Drew was sped up. I don't think it's blistering. I mean, everybody wants to throw each other in the incinerator in AEW. How do you judge any level of nothing they have as hot? Yeah, I mean, that's the point. Darby is a big star to their audience. He's not hot to anyone outside of their audience, and he's not going to be the guy that causes that to happen more than likely.

Either will Moxley or Adam Page, let alone Kenny Omega, or any of the guys there are right now. But also, there's not a hot rivalry. Even if they like Darby, who do they want to see him against? Well, they've seen him in Moxley a couple of times. We know that much. But then you go to WWE, and they have all these big stars. No one's, like, really hot right now.

They're all either popular or not popular on this show that's going everywhere and making a whole bunch of money. But there isn't like a guy right now that's lighting up the industry. And that's hard to find. You can't just bump into a Steve Austin or a Hogan or a John Cena or whoever it may be. But sometimes it feels like it's not even, the system is not even set up for that to be able to happen. For someone to break out or break away. because I think a lot of that comes from being able to be natural and getting over by being kind of

something different than like Mercedes Monet out there giving the speech of her lifetime in front of a mirror, you know what I mean? It takes both, unfortunately, because it takes the guy or girl, the talent that can do it and the Booker or head of talent or whatever the position is that is smart enough to let them do it and produce them to where until they get it down, they don't fuck it up.

Don't let them do the shit they shouldn't do. Just let them do the shit they should do and be able to figure out which it is. And you got to find the talent that can do it. You can't just tell them to do it. They got to be able to do it. And whatever it is has to come from them. That's when you get something different. Well, Jim, before we move on completely, here's the lineup for Saturday night's main event, which, by the time some of you may hear this may have already happened, it's this Saturday, November 1st, 2025.

Jim, four matches announced. I have the Wikipedia here, as I said before. It'll be on Peacock in the United States, YouTube for the rest of, or most of the other international markets, from Salt Lake City, Utah. CM Punk versus Jay Uso for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. I know they think that they're doing something similar to the long bloodline saga with this kind of an offshoot. It's a deal of Jay and Jimmy and their interaction and Romans' influence on Jay and blah, blah, blah. and you know I'm sorry I don't punk is best when he's able to cut a promo on somebody and really tear him down and get into the issue and he can't be a prick here because he's a baby faces so is Jay and I mean punk does a good promo regardless but I want to see the mixed tag level of animal or the punk and Drew or the punk and Rollins

level of animosity they're just they're stuck in a position of these guys are the two to crown the new champion but I don't think they're switching punk but I don't know what they're doing with Jay exactly but I hate it when

multiple of the baby faces are sniping at each other it makes people pick and hurt somebody's aura or standing in the pecking order. And you've got to figure there'll be some interference from Hayman and the bronze at a minimum. So we'll see what happens there.

I'm a little sick of the Uso's, I have to be honest. For the undisputed WWE championship, Cody Rhodes, the champion, versus Drew McIntyre. I think I wish the last thing I had seen from them was the match that they had with Cody and street clothes. Two weeks ago, yeah. Two weeks ago, and again, about eight minutes,

and boom, boom, tear the house down and get the fuck out of there. Now that they've had more time to talk about it and fight some more, that's another thing is they put themselves in a position to what we were talking about earlier where the promo so often end in a fight that now when the promos don't end in a fight,

that's such a minority of the time that you have a let down feeling like, is that all there is? And then that takes away from people who want to see the promos, which at one point years ago was the best part of wrestling. So I'm just thinking that they have to do too much between these people on TV that you've seen. By the time you see the match,

You've, you know, it's, it's, yeah. So, eh, it's going to be a wonderful match. They're great. They're, we're all great. But I don't think this is the hottest thing ever. It's going to be funny. It's not on NBC. It's on Peacock, yet somehow they'll still be commercial breaks

interrupting these matches. Watch. Well, yeah, and the thing is also the Saturday night's main event used to be an hour and a half. When you mentioned four matches, I'm like, well, that's, that's not bad. but on Peacock, I guess they can just go as long as they want, can't they? Well, you would think, but who knows?

For the WWE Women's Championship, the champion Tiffany Stratton versus Jade Cargill. Well, they didn't waste any time, did they? Um, does anybody really want me to comment? Tiffy's been good. Jade's going to practice heavily with them. and they're going to have a a wonderfully athletic

girls match for as long as they can figure out shit to do. Am I being diplomatic enough? Well, Jim, finally, in a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship, the champion Dominic Mysterio versus Penta versus Rusev. Jesus Christ.

Oh, it's a three-way you know, we're going to get what we're going to get. I love Dominic. Penta ain't been as bad as he was over the other place, but at the same time, we haven't been paying attention lately because he's only wrestling underneath shit that we don't give a fuck about. And Ruseb's back, and I don't know whether it's going to be his day or not. I'm hoping this is just to keep Dominic busy because he's levels of

these other two. And that's the lineup. That's the red hot lineup for Saturday night's main event. Of course, John Cena's last match will be next month on Saturday night's main event. Man, nothing's hot. Now he's seen as about that of his last match. They're going to make so much money on those tickets and those packages and the scene of gifting and everything else.

But who cares at this point? You can tell this ain't on network television because, hey, yay. All right. It's time for fun. We are back. More drive-thru. More Jim Cornett, the star of the show. Yeah, you got to make sure to get that in after the organ.

That might have run some people off. Oh, stop it. I don't think it ran anyone off. But Jim, speaking of stars, one of the classic stars of TV's past, whether it was Lassie or Lost in Space, June Lockhart, died this past week at age 100. Any thoughts and memories of June Lockhart? Well, I never met the lady, so I don't have any memories personally per se, but I couldn't believe. I didn't even think.

I realized when I heard that she had died, that I hadn't heard that she had died, and she was 100 years old. That's incredible. And I didn't even realize she was in a Christmas Carol, the 1938 version. Did you know that? I didn't know it until I read one of the obituaries and saw the picture of her as one of the kids. Yeah. She was like 13 years old. She was the daughter of Jean Lockhart, who was an actor in the 20s and 30s and probably further back than that in vaudeville, et cetera. But she was one of the kids in a Christmas carol. And, you know, we were talking about a couple of weeks ago when you sent me the Irwin Allen book, and I've always been a big Lost in Space fan. But at the time that Lost in Space went on the air, she was the, the biggest name star in the cast. And Guy Williams had been Zorro on TV and he had done some action movies, but she had

starred in Lassie, which was one of the hottest programs on the air. She'd been in movies. She'd had a career for 30 years at that point as a teenager. So at that time, and now maybe everybody thinks, oh, you know, Billy Moomy was in everything. and Jonathan Harris or what, but she was the star at that point. You ever think about if Billy Moomy had the career of Ron Howard? Like if their roles, if their lives were reversed,

how different things would be? Ron Howard would have been lost in space with a robot in Jonathan Harris and Billy Moomy would have been over there kissing up to A.B. You know, Lassie was a big hit, and she left it and went right to Lost in Space. It wasn't like there was like a three-year game.

gap or anything. It was just, she went from Lassie to Lost in Space. Are, I, are a lot of the kids out there now going, Lassie? What the fuck? You sound like Timmy. I get Lassie. I'm old enough. I'm old. I watched Lassie first run when I was a young kid because I love dogs as much then as I do now, but I'm old enough to have seen that program, but it was a big fucking deal. No, when I was a kid, started re-airing it on Nickelodeon. So a lot of kids my age, a lot of kids, now we're middle-aged men.

A lot of middle-aged men, my age, grew up seeing Lassie on Nickelodeon. But she was the perfect mother. That's why it was typecasting for Lost in Space. She was the perfect television mother. Well, no. Except she went from a farm to out in space. She was a great television mother, but I think the perfect television parents, hands down are June and Ward Cleaver.

So I would go with Barbara Billingsley. Well, I don't know. June Lockhart had more warmth to her. Now, I don't know about Ward. He might have been a fine fellow, but June Cleaver just didn't, didn't goddamn do it for me. She was a bit standoffish.

With who, Eddie? Well, just with all of them. You know, wearing the pearls and everything. she should have goddamn had some knee pads on and a scarf her at her neck and been putting in some elbow grease on that house. There was June Lockhart and Maureen Robinson. She was out there on a fucking dead planet in the middle of nowhere and she's in the hydroponic garden.

She's getting her hands dirty. She's using the laser guns and driving the chariot. What's fucking June Cleaver doing? Using a vacuum cleaner. That show taught lessons. I think that's the more important thing, as opposed to a whimsical and fun journey through space with a somewhat creepy doctor clinging closely to a young boy

on his robot on weird planets with weird. Sometimes they're furry, sometimes they look like humans, sometimes they're from the old West. You never know what you're going to find. Think about this now. The only one, the only one of the cast who never went anywhere was Mark Goddard. Because Billy Mummy was in all kinds of things. He was in a lot of stuff, yeah.

And Angela Cartwright was sisters with Veronica Cartwright. They were actresses and all a variety of, Veronica Cartwright was in Invasion of the Body Statures in 78. Jonathan Harris. When I was a kid, I thought you looked like Liza Minnelli when I would see the reruns of it. Yeah, but she didn't sing like her. Jonathan Harris had been on all kinds of program, but he was a character actor.

He never really starred in anything. He just, he was a character actor that embodied whatever he was doing and they let him run wild with Dr. Smith. Marta Kristen. Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard never went anywhere except outer space. Once again, this is a tribute to June Lockhart.

Not a roast of all her friends. She was probably, she was probably as disappointed and Judy as the rest of the family because Judy was the bland daughter and you just know that she was blowing Mark Goddard behind that fucking asteroid. Oh, stop it.

You stop it. Right at the end you have to go right to the filth. It would be incest or sex with a senior citizen if anybody had fucked besides Don and Judy. Once again, or some kind of

robot fucking hand job with those claw hands? How's he going to fucking, you might program him, but you know, fuck, that'd be like an Edward Cisorhands kind of thing. Once again, we're celebrating the life of June Lockhart, a hundred years old. I'm just saying, why, you think she didn't know what was going on? Thank God you're focusing on this instead of Lassie, I guess, considering the tone. I was surprised that every...

There was a farm involved. They didn't need to abuse the dog. I saw a few different articles on her. And like they all mentioned that I obviously didn't know this. that she was really into rock and roll. She used to be really into the stones and I was like, really? June Lockhart? There you go.

You can't see it. Boy, you should have seen her on Timothy Leary's shit. She was a wild chick back in the swinging 60s when she was in her swing in 60s. I think this was after the 60s. I think it was after Lost the Space and everything. She just like got really into rock and roll. They said she carried around one photo in her wall. it and it was a photo at David Bowie.

You know what I mean? She got really into it. I'm impressed. She didn't be in her 50s in the 70s. So that's, yeah, well, see, you can't judge a book by its cover. Maybe I was wrong about her and Dr. Smith. You never know. Let's end on an upbeat note, a great career,

and lots of memorable television shows that we could hopefully watch over and over again in the future. June Lockhart Jim speaking of Hollywood Have you seen the new WrestleMania trailer that I believe they debuted on the Pat McAfee show Well it's fitting that Cody

is in this because as his father said that now they make him made you most of pictures and sitcoms baby I think that and for those of you who haven't been treated to this cinematic masterpiece yet what in the world

I think there was just a large squirrel or some type of animal on the roof behind the wall behind my monitor either that or Stacy has climbed up a ladder and is on the roof for some reason I'm hearing claw marks anyway so I think that

the trailer again if you haven't seen it is very cinematic, wonderfully shot. It has Cody and Roman Raines and punk and who else was there, besides Triple H and Heyman. Brock, of course, how can we forget the Brockster? And they're all dressed up and they're around the poker table because WrestleMania is going to be in Las Vegas. And Triple H is doing the voiceover as he walks through.

about, you know, the poker faces and and then he and Hayman are standing there smugly looking at these four guys imitating playing a game of poker and yeah, they spent a lot of money.

They flew everybody to wherever this was and they lit it and they shot it with a professional crew and they've Does this make me interested in any of the fucking matches or what is going on? Or is this, they're a movie studio now because they're making enough money to be? I was waiting for Cheatham the dastardly midget to jump out like he did in WCW's little mini films. I think this is unnecessary, but I think it makes them feel really good about themselves.

I don't like these things. I didn't like the Cody Roman Raines football field meetup. as cool of an idea as it is. I forgot about that. Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing. As cool of an idea as it could be in your head or even like visually, if you think about it, when it actually goes down, you're like, what is this?

This is ridiculous. These guys think they're actors, and they're taking it really seriously. I don't care of Triple H's behind this. I don't care of Paul Heyman's behind it. I don't care of Moses is behind it. I just didn't like this and I don't like this tone. Again, it's pretending you're something you're not. You know, it's the whole Vince thing.

we make movies. And then they had to start a film studio. They made a whole bunch of movies that no one wanted to see that no one took seriously. So, again, I think it's something that... How's the... How's WWE films doing now?

I don't think it exists anymore, or at least if it does, is just an asset of the big company because they have intellectual property tied to it. I really don't know. Well, maybe they ought to bring it back and release this trailer to theaters.

Like, who is this supposed to pump up? Because if the whole goal of a WrestleMania a trailer is to announce something and hype you up for something is it supposed to hype you up to buy a ticket and go there or just to watch something that's not going to air for another six months or just to make a movie

a major move some picture I I again the most real because he didn't move everyone else like did their little like woman did his little thing and then you know he went to punk and he had to you know make some kind of motion. It was ridiculous. But that's again, I'm sorry. I know

they're in Las Vegas, but as far as making me want to see a wrestling show, I don't know what this had to fucking do with it, is all I'm saying. Well, that was the WrestleMania trailer. We'll see if anything

exciting happens. I'm sure there are some fans right now upset because there are no women in the trailer, but that's just the way it goes, I guess, Jim. Well, would they have rather had one of the women come in and be one of the hoochy-coochy dancers and drop down under the table for the high roller? Huchy-cucci-cucci dancers? Well, you know, that's what they got out in Las Vegas, them hoochy-cucci dancers.

Well, Jim, I have here a post from the Cult of Cornett Facebook group from Pascal Siner. I just heard your Mercedes Mone segment. is the way he spelled it, about the 10 belts she has. Now seriously, where did Brian find this horseshit list? I have seen at least half of those.

You know what? No, no, you know what? Mercedes has had her team on this because I've seen an inordinate amount of people on Twitter saying, where didn't Brian get this list? The information on the list is wrong. She beat Hoochie-coochy

instead of fancy-dancy for this belt or whatever. I think it is important that we correct the record. We always want to be honest. We always want to be correct here. But according to Pascal, at least half of the matches are false. So he said, please correct this Brian last. She won the EWA belt in Vienna versus Mila Smith and Lexi Vallo, not Mia Yem.

She won the P.W. So instead of Mia Yem, it was what, Mesa Schmidt? Mila Smith, S-M-I-D-T, right, Smith? Okay. And Alexa Vallow, not M-A-M. She won the P-W-T belt in Portland from Diana Strong, excuse me, not Portland, Poland. I said Portland.

Poland is a suburb of Portland. That's where they conduct their match. My apologies, folks, the P-W-T belted polling from Diana Strong, not Camille. Remember Camille was on that list? Well, yes. Apparently it wasn't Camille. So, okay, we'll go ahead. What are the other corrections?

Diana Strong, who's that? She won the Body Slam Belt from Alice Inc. It's spelled A-L-L-I-S-I-N-K, Alice Inc. not Regina Rosendahl if that's indeed a real name also she won the RevPro belt from Mina Shirakawa not Alex Windsor so there we're correcting the record

well so now hold on here you had gotten the information that you read off the interwebs there SCOOPS I believe I created them as I read it that's right I was about to say who as Terry Funk said in the NWA meeting that year. Who is the little midget that beat Andre in Afters magazine?

Who is the lying sack of shit? It gave you the wrong information. These people called S.E. Scoops. Apparently don't know their outlaw girl wrestlers from one another. Well, again, maybe it was just one of the writers there and hopefully they can make a correction and also apologize to the general public

for putting this information out there. Well, yeah, because you can't, you don't know what type of. of damage they've done by people thinking that Mia Yim was beaten by this brazen hussy when in fact it was Messerschmitt. And by the way, I've seen this almost exact same message posted in a bunch of places, and I'm looking at some of the comments, some of the other culticorne Facebook group members have left.

Is this Mercedes Burner account? Yes. I don't like her. And it's 12 belts now. Thank you for subscribing to Monet Mag. So we don't have to. It doesn't even sound like a real name, nice try Mercedes. They think it's her.

Well, that's because it's been the same general thing. All this information is wrong, who she won the belts from. It was this and that and the other thing, like somebody's keeping track over on her team, the people that help her find her way out of the woods. Well, there's a correction for the record. Jim, she has more belts now, I believe, since the last time we talked. And may be having more to come. How do you get out of this?

I think they ought to dress her up like a Christmas tree, but instead of tensile, have belts just hanging all off of it. Of course, these poor independent promotions, they better be kissing their belts goodbye, because they ain't never going to see them again. Now, say one thing, in her defense, somebody had put out the, well, you know what her price is for these independent bookings, $25,000.

I got news for everybody. She may tell people that she's charging $25,000 if she doesn't want to do whatever the fuck she's being asked to do, but I guarantee you, I'm sorry, not one of those promotions that she won those belts for, paid her $25,000 to be. These, they don't draw $25,000 for a whole show, for renting a goddamn, building and paying all the wrestlers and anybody that takes part in it,

there are not $25,000 in revenue and ticket sales or whatever the fuck. So I'm thinking, and because of the comments that Tony said, well, she's not doing, it's not about the money with her. She's talked him into subsidizing this thing to where they pay her what they can pay her, but she is probably getting a bonus to go win these fucking, belts but nobody no independent promotion i'm sorry i know that sometimes now we get carried away talking about money and wrestling when it's the amount of money that the wwe generates or the amount of money that tony con spins but no i don't know the t and a would when they had

staying under fucking contract would pay somebody twenty five thousand dollars a day he was making 10 grand a fucking week. It's a good deal for her. Hey, 25 grand did I get to keep your belt? I will pull you in Monet Mag. We'll make sure when she starts dropping them. We'll make sure to report every loss she takes in front of people on an independent promotion to give them their belt back.

And I guess the other question is, if her fee is 25,000, is that her fee or is that AEW's fee? because she's an AEW wrestler, right? You would have to still go through the office to book her, especially considering the way they're featuring all these belts on TV. Now we're applying the WWE protocol to a different company. Yes, I'm sure AEW would have to know that she's gone somewhere, but we don't know what kind of stringent precautions they have put in place

to make sure that when their talent that they allow to go and work on, all that you hear about all these guys working in various places around the world and indie promotions and Moxley doing jujitsu tournaments with Home Depot employees in Newport or whatever do you think the office is handling all that also and i would bet you what office well it again depending on who it is what their deal was and how much that AEW cares I'm sure a lot of this is left up to the talent, and they just got to notify, once they get the word, or just notify them, here's what I'm doing.

Because I don't know if I would trust that office to set up shit with people for me here and there, hither and yon around the world. Well, we'll see what happens with the travels of Mercedes-Money and her many belts, and of course, Jim, she's a fancy, extravagant woman. She's got lots of belts. She's got lots of hats. Maybe a lot of shoes.

Yep. But I don't know if she has the right pair of boots. I guess that's what I always think when I see Mercedes-Money out there. I think, you know what, that woman does not have the right pair of boots. Well, that's because she don't have the right pair of feet. That's the whole problem, Brian. She ought to get a new pair of feet. I didn't even think of that.

I'm blowing my mind. You see there? But I'll tell you what, folks, if you like your feet and you don't want to change them, but you want to wrap them and something that'll take care of them, that's where you need to go to bruntworkware.com. Because they got the boots that you need. These boots are made for working. And that's just what they'll do.

And one of these days, these boots are going to come to your town and beat your local champion for their indie belt. and leave without losing it. But right now, folks, you can go to bruntworkware.com. We've talked about them. I've been wearing them out in the yard all year to work. They're waterproof. They're comfortable.

They don't give you blisters. They stand up to anything. I'm telling the soul ain't going to flap off like my last pair did, no matter how many hills you climb or how many wheelbarrow loads of wheelbarrow that you wheel. they're going to go out there and they're going to keep your tutzies warm and dry and comfy and blister free and if you need to kick a son of bitch in the side of the head with them

they'll work for that too just so you know if you happen to be digging a hole and the guy in the hole next to you says something wrong or just boot him right in the nuts if you took the Marin Boot that I have the Marin Boot from Brunt Workwear It's a great boot. Let's just say it. Beautiful boot.

And you just kick somebody with it as hard as you could right to nuts. You would do some fucking damage. And let's not say that. Why don't we focus on the everyday practical uses of what is a fantastic and comfortable and stylish, I must say, wonderful boot, like the ones that come from our friends at Brunt. Let's not talk about any sort of juvenile assault happening in a ditch. Well, no. Where is this happening? Exactly.

It's in a ditch. You're out working. You many people are out working during the day, Brian. While you're enjoying the fruits of your labors in your spacious office there, other folks, the salt of the earth of America, they're out there at a hole working. And they're working in a yard, and they're working in the field, and they're working on the farm, and they're working on a job site. And their feet need protection.

and as well with the rest of them from heavy-duty work pants to weather-resistant jackets the brunt designs desirable or durable and desirable and reliable all those words work wear to keep you protected and productive and part of being protective is if you're on a job site with somebody and you realize you need to kick them right in the balls to get away well you can't be wearing flip-flops let's talk about the work you'll be doing on a job site or maybe just in your backyard, maybe on your property, maybe wherever you want to be, maybe you want to go to the lake and protect your feet, whatever it may be. Let's say you want to get up on the roof. You're on the roof. These things have a tread on the bottom of them. You could do the batwalk up the side of a building.

No, you can't. Will you stop saying things that people aren't going to be doing? Well, it just depends on whether you're a Batman or not. The batwalk up the house? And many other boots. Yes. Well, up the side of your house. it could go two or three floors. Most other boots require a significant break-in period,

but no, you put these on and your feet feel like they're being massaged by a Chinese foot therapist from the time that you put these boots on. And other workwear brands cut corners. And the boots are hard and they're stiff or they're not waterproof or they're not weatherproof. These they spare no expense because they're going to charge you for them. But we're going to save you money. Because right now, if you go to bruntworkware.com, again, that is bruntworkware.com, you're going to get $10 off when you use the code JCE at checkout. And whether it's the Marin boots or the omen boots or the jackets that,

that resist the weather. They need some of these in Jamaica right now. Some of these weather resistant jackets are graded up to 185 miles an hour winds if you also stick your feet in concrete. Let it set for 24 hours. Or the heavy duty work pants when you slip and shit and fall on your ass, nothing will stick up your sphincter because they're heavy duty. So many people workmen on the job, you know,

they fall and things slide up their ass accidentally. You hear about this and a lot of the hospital reports that people having things drawn out from their asses, this happens, work for ladies and Jim, you hear there maybe some music behind you. That, of course, indicates that it's time to get right back on track and tell people about the wonderful track that you could pave right now wearing these great, comfortable, they look good, they feel good, and they are exactly what you need.

And they are good. And that's from our friend at Brunt. Friend at Brunt, the friends, there are multiple people there. They are here. It's one like me, signing these books. This one guy sending these boots out.

Coming to the ring right now. Brunt! Geppetto is his name. He bills these things too. But yeah, the code moving on because the work-related injuries are a growing tragedy. But right now,

protect your feet go to brunt workwear.com use the code jCE you're going to get $10 off at checkout on the best booth that you've ever put on your foot to go out and perform highly on tough jobs or kick the shit out of people's nuts as we said a great boot brunt once again bruntworkware.com slash jce use the code jcee Jim, let's get some topics and some questions here on the show. I have a question here from the Cult of Cornette Facebook group.

This one was sent by Joe Galante. Is he a member of one of the families? I seem to remember that name. That's all Hollywood. With hindsight of how most of this year played out for John Cena's final year, how would Jim have booked Sinai's final year? If you can look at it, not week to week, obviously, but as an overall one-year arc, what would you have done?

I mean, we could have had multiple meetings about this and various boardrooms and gotten all the feedback from the various creative team members and all this other shit, or just you've got one of the biggest stars, one of the most popular baby faces, that he's more popular now than he was when people were booing him regularly 10 years ago, because now they've seen less of him

and nostalgia's kicked in, I wouldn't have turned him heel, obviously. And you can't just have a greatest hits tour where he comes, you know, 35 times or whatever the number of dates were and beats 35 different people or, you know, just do that. But what they have done

is they the thing they have done right is that they spread out his appearances between various television shows and different types of live events, whether it be pay-per-view, the premium live event or Saturday night's main event or whatever, you see what I'm saying. I would have, at the start of the year, had him three or four main opponents sketched out for the year that he wanted to work with and maybe wanted to, you know,

work with a couple of times, one or two of them. And then I would have had some other guys that, you know, it would have been a great money match or, you know, whatever the case, for a lesser event. And then just ran that plan and had him make the TVs to

not only to sell the tickets in all these major markets, but to do shit to build the matches, as everybody always does, but had a plan at the start where he's going to have the four main shows he's going to be on. He's going to have the four main opponents, and they're all going to be heels. And then maybe he could have a baby face match on one of the secondary programs. He and AJ Styles are,

whatever the case. And I would have tried to figure out two heels that it would advance their cause in life if they were to beat him. And let him do over the course of a year two jobs because people weren't wanting to see him lose. And they especially didn't want to see him get the teetotal shit beat out of of him by Brock Lesnar unless he's coming back to get even, which looks more and more unlikely. And I know they wanted to do things with Brock in the future and he's in the WrestleMania commercial

great. I think he's got enough standing in the community, Brock Lesnar, and enough cashé in the industry, he didn't have to just demolish John Sina and just bum the fucking people that paid all that money out. I think maybe he could have... I might even have said, what about Sina, loses one to this guy and then gets a rematch and wins, but the other one, he beats the guy at first,

but he gets a rematch and he loses, so that he'll get the last word. Would it have done good for Braun Breaker? Maybe it's still a little too soon, but might he have slipped up and been one of the guys there to actually beat John Sina? Just have that in his resume. but for the most part, it was a see John Cena one last time in this market tour,

and I would have made the people happy with major promo segments, angles when necessary, and matches where he was competitive, and it was main event opponents, but he won by the skin of his teeth in most, but not all. And the losses would come later on in the year. Does that make any sense? It does. Obviously, there's a whole lot of ways you could have gone other than turn him heel with the Rock and Travis Scott.

It's hard to believe that's less than a year ago. It just feels like a lifetime ago. And then just have him come out and just say the worst things where if somebody said this to you in person, you would fight him. And he said these things to the fans and about the fans, and the next week, does it never mind? Okay. Remember I was saying,

how is he ever going to apologize for saying these things? My God, it was like the relationship between the Hudson sisters and whatever happened to baby Jane. You know, again, a lot of their TV kind of rolls together. But didn't he turn babyface like the taping or the Smackdown before the pay-per-view? Like him and Cody were in the ring and he was like, you know, I thought about it. Yes, I thought about it, yeah. Shit.

Just been acting the fool. It's been a weird year, but I think it could have been, you know, when the idea first came up, I thought it was amazing. I was like, oh my God, their hot streak is going to continue. You have a year of Sina making last appearances, and they made the money that you would want to make. I just don't know if they had the... They didn't leave the memories that you would want to last.

I think the AJ Stiles match, as crazy as it sounds. is probably the SENA match that people loved the most over the past year. Yeah, it was the best one bell to bell, and also in terms of, they weren't wanting to boo Sina,

but they were confused as to what all was going on early in the year. Well, we'll see what happens. His last match is coming up. It's kind of crazy to think that it's weeks away and we're in the middle of it still,

and it just kind of feels like it already ended. But we'll see what happens. Jim, another question. This one was sent to corny drive-thru through at gmail.com. I'm banging all sorts of stuff on my desk. Sorry, Jace. Shut up, Anokey. There we go.

This was sent by Victoria Donovan. This was mentioned in passing on an entry of guest the program, but not elaborated on. What does Jim Noba Babe Sharkey's title claim? Oh, good Lord. That was in, what, in the 40s? And truthfully, he was just another guy that that that feffer had got involved with right and was trying to push

a different line of succession for the championship like he did with a number of guys Dave levin and various people trying to make a case for him right yeah babe sharky i want to say that right before the war ended in dallas he started seeing him in the programs like this is the real world's champion right here, not the other promotions champion. Babe Sharkey has a claim going back to whenever they concocted it. I don't have posters of his, but I do have some of the posters that they made for Dave Levin and they were trying to quote wins that Levin or that's what Fever and a lot of the promoters then would do. They would quote a win that a guy had in a certain place over this guy that proved then that when that guy went on to become the champion,

he'd already been beaten by this guy, so he ought to be the champion, that type of thing. You know, I just grab something here. I'm kind of fascinated, I always have been, with the different title claims, the ones that, if you actually go by wins and losses, are legit, that just trail off because whatever. And the ones that are bullshit, it. Obviously, it was a big part of Feffer's game was just all sorts of claims. Didn't even have to be a title, just claiming anything. But I have here, I may have mentioned this you a long time ago. You may have one too. I get such a kick out of this. It's from the, it's from, I think, the late 60s.

It says, coming soon, Bruno San Martino, world heavyweight wrestling champion. If you open it up, there's a photo of when he won the belt in Madison Square Garden. There's a photo of him here with Willie Gilsenberg and some people. from the Athletic Commission. There's a photo of him with Buddy Rogers in a... Not a bear hug. What am I thinking of? Backbreaker.

Backbreaker upside down from Madison Square Garden. And here's the World Heavyweight Champions list. And it pretends like Bruno won the World Championship from Buddy Rogers that he never lost the Luthez at the beginning of 63. Yeah. It's Bruno San Martino defeated Buddy Rogers, who defeated Pat O'Connor, who defeated Dick Hutton, who defeated Luthez, who defeated Billy Watson. on and so forth.

It wasn't like this story was everywhere that, you know, there was a tournament or Bruno did this or that. This was... Well, see, the tournament story was reverse engineered because for people and they've gone back and guys like remember Big Andy Varga who was a big fan at the time, but Bill Apter has weighed in on this and some of the other fans that were around at the time. have stated that watching the television, at first, Vince Sr.

and the whole Capital Sports, you know, Northeast promotion, tried to just get away with that Buddy Rogers was still the champion, that he had not lost the belt in January and Toronto to Thess. That he was, they just stopped saying NWA World Champion, but as far as the people in the Northeast knew, Buddy Rogers was the world champion because he lost a belt in Toronto and there was no

the newsstand magazines were two or three months behind in those days from when something would happen versus when it would show up. And that was just a small group of people overall compared to who was watching the television and going to the matches at the Garden

and New York and etc. So they just kept referring to Rogers as the world champion. And then when he beat, or when Bruno beat Rogers, May 17, 1963, then he was the new champion. And it wasn't until several years later in the mid-60s when they were,

there had been some magazine publicity, obviously, that it infiltrated. And they were trying to come up with a, a title lineage that would be believable. And back in those days, that's where they came up with the Rogers winning the tournament for the WWWF championship. And then Bruno winning it from him. Yeah, and beating Raqa in the finals, right?

The previous big star. And they did the same thing with Paterson and the Intercontinental title in Buenos Aires or whatever tournament. but that was the original, they had reverse engineered it several years later because by then they were having relations with the NWA and trying to work on deals and things. And so as to totally not shit on them, they came up with a tournament story,

but they didn't tell it on TV at the time. They tried to get away with Rogers, never having lost the belt till he lost it to Bruno. You know, the Paterson one is always interesting to me because Ted DiBiase had just been there as the North American champion and a feud of Paterson over that belt. And then when he left, the belt left. And all of a sudden, Paterson was intercontinental champion. It's just weird that they had a belt that they just suddenly established on TV and then it left and they all of a sudden have this new belt. I guarantee you, well, Watts used the North American title, although at that point in time, in TV,

it may still have been the Leroy McGirk territory, but there were other North American champions. And I bet you somebody, whether it be Vince Sr., Vince Jr., kicked it in, or whatever, said, let's start our own and make up a new name and make it bigger than North America. Jim, our next question sent via the Colt of Cornett Facebook group was sent by Andrew Lambricks. I attended the survival of the fittest in Dearborn Michigan in maybe 2010 or 2011 Eddie Edwards was injured in his opening match after a dive to the outside he returned and finished later that night with a dislocated shoulder

winning the tournament what was the backstage decision-making like was he just adamant on finishing or was it a you got to get back out there because of the future plans for him? God, I am trying to, I'm trying to remember the specifics because I think if it was,

what year did he say it was? Either 2010 or 2011. I should have been there and I made a number of the shows in Dearborn. The thing that I remember Eddie Edwards getting hurt on was early in my run, and we'll get back to this in a second, but just to illustrate why I'm confused,

in that they had been, I did one of the New York shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom, but they had been in, I think, Boston the previous night. And this was probably in 2009. And I know Adam Pierce was still booking, and it was right after I'd started, because I think it's the first time I met Eddie, it was. point is

I come in in New York and there's a kid in the locker room over in the corner with a cast on his fucking arm and I said oh shit who's that that's Eddie Edwards yeah he broke his arm

last night in Boston and I said well shit that's terrible oh yeah he's in a ladder match tonight I said well who's filling in for him no he's going to work what he worked a ladder match with a broken arm and this was before that um i don't honestly remember the specifics of him get because again it's been a while and i remember the other injury

more prominently but nobody made him i certainly didn't i'm trying to remember if I was ever I don't remember anybody ever telling me hey anybody has a separated shoulder but they're going to go back and work their next match so I'm not sure of the specifics

that night this is one that may have escaped me did we know that it was a separated shoulder or was he just banged up and oh I'm okay and he got diagnosed later on or was his arm hanging limply at his side, I don't

I don't remember if I was given a heads up on anything like that that I would have said, yeah, it's probably a good idea. He goes out and works another fucking match. And as a blanket statement, yes, even if a guy's figured in, if he got his

bell rung or he got shook up or he whatever, but he says he's okay to go, okay, it's wrestling. But if something is actively separated or broken or something like that and I'm in the decision

making seat I usually would say we'll figure something else out just as a blanket statement all right Jim our next question sent via the cult of cornet Facebook group was sent by Luke Allen hi Jim I'm planning my 2026 summer

vacation now. Where should I go? I'll go wherever Jim tells me to if it makes it on the show. Well, does he say where he lives? He does not say where he lives. Fuck it, go to Switzerland then. Or Bolivia.

I mean, I would try to, if the guy said I live in South Carolina, I'd say, we'll go up to Gatlinburg. that's not a bad trip. It'll be nice or whatever. I don't... I don't know. I don't know where to tell this guy to go. Maybe I do.

The guy says, I'll go anywhere you tell me, and you have no idea where to send him. Well, I don't know what he likes. I don't know what he doesn't like. Don't know what he looks like. Don't know how much money he's got. How much you're willing to spend? If you're willing to spend enough,

maybe I'll take you. All right. So, uh, enjoy. I'll take him one way or the other. Enjoy that vacation. Yeah, why don't you just... Here's the thing. Probably the best thing to do

would be just go and just fuck off. And then when you get there, just continue fucking all the way off until you fucked all the way off to where you've come around to fucking met yourself again. Jim, our next question sent via the call to Cornette Facebook group

was sent by Joe Malley. Did Jim ever consider just for fun to work a dark man under a mask? No. It's not like that if I had a match as Jim

Cornett, the manager, expectations were low and I probably could and did on many hundreds of occasions, pull it off. But if I was just some fucking masked guy, the fucking masked mighty

golden fucking hawk or whatever, then people would be saying, well, look at that fucking guy. He's a shits. Because they would expect me to be as good as a wrestler and throw drop kicks and shit. And I would be just getting beat up by somebody because I'd be a job guy. All right. You see what I'm saying there? Great questions today, ladies and gentlemen. We're doing well. Well, I mean, why would you do that? Let's examine this. What benefit would it be for me to do that? I don't know if there would be any benefit.

You know, there was always that rumor for years that Vince McMahon loved wrestling so much and he was in such good shape that he would wrestle squash matches under a mask that you wouldn't know it was him. What? Where was this rumor? It was obviously not true. It was just a rumor you used to hear around.

I know, I've never heard this. It was actually Danny Davis. It wasn't Vince McI. But I guess the idea that you love wrestling so much that you just couldn't contain yourself just booking or mass. managing or running the show, you would also have to get out there and a dark match. Just for somebody, if I was working for someone else, nobody would have ever done that because

if I was working for Dusty or Fritz or Watts or even Vince or whoever, if they put Jim Cornett in a match against a baby face to get beat up, it would mean more than if they put some mass nobody. and as I said if I just went out there if I was working for myself there would be no reason for me to do it because then I would just be a bad masked wrestler

instead of a halfway decent manager wrestler All right we're head home runs today here folks Jim our next question was sent via email to corny drive-thru at gmail.com from James I'd like to know Jim's thoughts on wrestlers

wearing high top basketball shoes like Air Jordans and tennis shoes instead of traditional boots. Does the lack of padding on the shoes pose a danger to wrestlers? Well, this has become a thing because I guess everybody wants to be, it looks stylish, right?

Where they got all the new tennis shoes and everything, the sneakers. That's what I wore. Again, we're going back to me wrestling as a manager, that's what I wore. All those years was not only the long tights and the pads down the arm and pads down the leg, but also the high top tennis shoes. Because I was trying to give the impression that I was not a wrestler,

that I was a manager forced into this fucking thing. And I'm trying to pad myself up, but also I didn't want wrestling boots because that would look like I was trying to. be a manager. So I got the high top tennis shoes that I could give my ankles a little bit of support, but for the shit that I was doing, it wasn't like, again, I wasn't doing leapfrogs and drop kicks. So my ankles didn't need a ton of support to get beat up, but it looked like I didn't, I didn't belong because I wasn't professionally dressed out.

and now with the guys that are wearing the fucking sweatpants or the parachute pants or the goddamn sneakers or the street clothes or whatever the fucking deal is it to me it's always looked indie outlaw low budget whatever unless every once in a while it's somebody's gimmick and then you can make a case for it but it's it's gone if anybody could wear the tennis shoes maybe the

usos can't. But for the most part, it just, it started in the Indies because the guys couldn't really afford gear to begin with. And then the indie guys started, even when they got to money, they didn't want to change their look. So it just, it looks bleh. Jim, and our next question was sent via the Cult of Cornette Facebook group by Justin Glenn Fallon.

What are Jim's thoughts on Dick Slater as a worker? I've been watching a lot of 80s wrestling lately, and in my opinion, he stands out as one of the best workers in that era. Starcade 1983, he did the best overall work on the card, in my opinion. Well, Slater was tremendous. As a worker, he had the fixation with Terry Funk that we've talked about,

where he incorporated so much of Terry's shit into his own, I mean, facial expressions and kind of things in promos as well as matches, moves and things, that you could have put a mask on him and done some kind of, they did that in Knoxville. When Terry Funk was the NWA champion, he was going to come in to defend or whatever, do something,

but they didn't have a video so that they put Funk highlights over the audio of Dick Slater doing an interesting, is Terry Funk and nobody knew. But on his own, Slater was a great worker, and he had spent so much time in his early career in Florida and Georgia working with the top guys in the NWA. And he was just a natural. He didn't have a great physique, but he was a tough guy. He, who was the football player he knocked out?

Was it Matusik? No, it was, uh, who was it? Fuck, now I'm forgetting who it was. Oh, God damn it. And he got the guy, he died an early death, not from Slater knocking him out, but he had some other type of health issue or whatever. But point being, in Tampa. It was John Matusick. Was it?

Okay, John Matusick. That's right. But in Tampa, everybody knew about Slater, including the football team. Don't fuck with him. That's why that, you know, not only. he did the thing with Sting where Sting just apparently innocently, who knows, gave Dark Journey a ride to the matches. Next thing he knew his head was stuck in a toilet.

But at the same time also, Slater developed not a bad reputation, but just not a good reputation in the business for just, you know, I'll either I'll leave if I don't like it or I'll whatever the fuck, or I may just punch somebody. And that's why I was so nervous. He was the Booker for Crockett for the Georgia end when the Midnight Express we first went to work there. And that's why I had to call fucking office on him one time. We're on the northern tour of West Virginia and Ohio,

and Dusty had given instructions. The Midnight Express goes over every night. Well, it was Saginaw or Lansing or wherever it was. was Slater and Buzz Sawyer, they said, well, we're going to go 30 minutes through. For what here in front of nobody, right? They didn't want to do the job. So the next day I called the office, talked to Jimmy Crockett because Dusty was on the road. I said, well, I just want to let you know we didn't go over last night.

I'll take care of it. So we get to the town that night, I've got my fucking hot dogs and everything. I sit down to the locker room and Slater peeks his head and says, Cornett, can I see you? Like, ah, shit, can I eat my hot dogs first? I was afraid it's going to be my last meal. He said, you may not want to after I finish talking to you. You call the office today.

I said, Dick, we were told by Dusty Roads, who we came here to work for. We went over every night or were to go over every night, and we didn't. I just needed to relay that information. He said, well, they're not telling me what kind of cards they're giving me up here next month. I don't know what's going on. They were phasing the Georgia end out and him and Buzz and all of that and Roop.

And they didn't really want to fucking tell him what was going on until he couldn't bitch about it. So I didn't know what of the, you know, beat us or beat you or whatever. He was bullshit. He just didn't want to do the job. I was, okay. No problem. I got my hot dogs. He didn't beat me up, but he was gone very shortly after. So was Buzz. What happened first? Did that conversation happen first, or Buzz Seleier storming the room and

Dennis reaching for his gun? Oh, that was back down in Georgia. That was probably a month later that that happened. But Buzz was still around, but Slater was gone by then. See, it didn't all happened instantly. They kept Buzz and Brett around until probably about a one. week after he fucking got mad when he does anybody know what we're talking about there i hate to tell all these stories twice you know i i don't know i always assume they do and then i feel bad if i ask you something that we've asked you know that you've talked about before it's a great story so i don't mind you telling them well i know it's been years since i've told it but i'm we were in some place in suburban atlanta some goddamn dirt floor rodeo barn type of thing for a spot show and

And they were about to close up the Georgia towns and take all of us to Charlotte. And as I mentioned, Buzz didn't go along. And we were working with Buzz and his brother, Brett. And they were getting the heat on Buzz. And as they, Bobby drapes him over the ropes, takes the referee. So I go over and choke him with the tennis racket in a working way. And a minute later, he's in the same place. takes the referee. He wants me to get a little more heat, so I go over there. And besides the

fact that, again, Dusty had said, we're just been there for six weeks or whatever. Nobody touches Cornette. Well, it's a fucking rodeo barn in front of 500 people in a goddamn shithole in Georgia. I don't care. I'll work with you. But when I walked up, he fucking open-handed slapped me in the front of the face, right on the nose. Bam! Nose starts bleating. I got pissed. I took the racket, turned it to the side, and used the edge. And Buzz Sawyer was noted for when you would give him a post

into the ring post, he would actually run his own head into the metal ring post hard enough where you could hear it. Thud. You've seen it, right? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Well, I decided to see how hard that fucking head was. You slapped me in right, flat in a face, motherfucker so I took the edge of the ragged I crowned him right now for it about three or four times

and he starts growling and leaning over that bottom rope and coming out and reaching for me but Bobby's got a hold of his legs and he can't and yes right in the middle of the heat right Bobby pulls him back in and they keep getting the heat on him and I'm fucking feeling my nose and he ain't happy and they ain't going to let him get another chance at me So they finished the fucking match. So we go back in the locker rooms were trailers like Winnebago's in this place. It was more an outdoor horse thing with a cover than it was a building. And so me and Bobby and Dennis and the referee, what was it?

Who was it then? Good Lord. It might have been Mike Fever, though, referee in a spot show. I don't know. but anyhow, we're sitting there and I'm like, what the fuck is with this fucking guy? And we hear, won't, won't, boom, apparently Buzz has stormed out of the baby face locker room

and as he comes in, tries to come into our trailer, he pulls that Winnebago door open and just pulls it off the hinges. It just as flimsy anyway. And he gets flummoxed coming up on the block of wood they put to step up into this thing. And he comes in this goddamn room and what the fuck are you just?

it hit me like a mark because he knew i had the fucking edge of it right i said what the fuck are you doing hit me like a fucking mark and that and as he's starting to yell dennis conry is over in the side with his hand right down in his bag because he's like this fucking mental lunatic we didn't like him anyway most people didn't he took advantage of the job guy he would come to tv Atlanta TV on Saturday mornings after having probably never even been to sleep and he'd say I forgot my bag and he would borrow tights and boots from the job guys

and then leave after TV's still wearing them and the guys that only might only have one set of tights or one boots they're scared to ask him for him back fucking prick you know it's so interesting you say that I never even thought about it there are times you see him on Georgia Championship wrestling and he's wearing an outfit you never saw him wear before yeah

And I mean, besides the people that he took money from to try to train him to wrestle in his latter days of his career when he'd burnt all of his bridges. And Magnum and all those fucking people. Yeah, Magnum would never take anyone's money. Well, but I'm saying back then. But he was just, he was a prick. He was an asshole.

He was a loose nut. And he died on his fucking porch of a drug overdose because he was a fucking irresponsible asshole. But nevertheless, back to this. So Dennis has his hand in the bag. And he just screaming. And I'm standing there like, there's four of us and I know Dennis's arms.

So I believe it's about even if this motherfucker goes off. And he just screamed and slobbered like he did on his promos about how I'd fucking hit him in the head. And then he left and took the door the rest of the way off. And I think that was probably the last week he was wrong. round. We might have seen him one or two times after that. But fuck him. You want to talk about a crazy buddy film of epic proportions?

It goes to Mid-South, where Slater becomes the booker somehow. And he's booking for Bill Watts. And at this point in time, he's wearing a fedora. Slater's dressing nice for Slater. So he's riding around with himself, Buzz Sawyer, and Dark Journey. Like, what a fucking combo? That must have been on the road. And we were talking about Slater, we got a sidetracked on Buzz,

but Slater was a tremendous worker, and he could have an NWA World Heavyweight title match with any champion, and it would be impeccable. And he could talk, and he had that fucking oomph to him, but he just, and he got weirder as he got older. Wasn't he, I hate to accuse people of things, but was he the guy I'm thinking about that got in some kind of,

legitimate legal trouble after his wrestling days where he fucked with somebody or fucked him up bad. I don't remember the exact details, but I remember seeing mugshots. That's the only reason why I think you're right about that. Yeah. Yeah, and then after Mid-South, it becomes the rebel Dick Slater in WWF and his career, I'd never recovered from that. But he and Bob Orden Jr. were...

Oh, 94? I was there? Well, no, but he and Bob Orton Jr. in 82, 83, or what was it, 81, 82, 83, and the Carolinas were probably the best in-ring heel team in the business. And I researched a couple of their things for the Midnight Express. And then that's why I had them at the Night of Legends. Slater and Orton were a phenomenal team. And to work the Legends match with Ronnie Garvin and a stomper. If Mac McMurray, the legend referee, hadn't fucked up and seen the last false tag,

it would have been even better. But that was the best work match of the night. No, that match was so much fun. It was like a big surprise that night in the building. It was a 1977 main event fucking southern tag team match. And just, it just, it was flawless until, as I said, the referee fucked it up at the end. But, you know, but they were a wonderful tag team. But yeah, Slater had issues outside the ring in several occasions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will return after this short commercial timeout. Dearly, beloved, we are gathered here today to speak to the wrestling fans. Place your hands on the radio. All right, we are here in the future. Ladies and gentlemen, time travel was a bit odd this week, but I heard a sermon, so I decided to stop and listen to that I started playing again. But we are here, that's the point in the future. Jim

Yes This morning as we are recording I received an email Did you get an email from Amazon About the AEW pay-per-view? No, what? I got an email this morning

from Amazon Now if you remember Are they complaining about it too? AEW wrestle dream I complained about the fact that I couldn't see the main event Not that I would want to

But I have to review it I have a thing I have to talk about here Yes, you have a duty It literally cut off before all the death and destruction. Like it cut off before the fish tank before the Claudio throw. I didn't get to see any of that. I got a $15 rebate or credit to my account and the ability to still access the show.

They offered me a full refund. I chose this option so I could still access the show in case I need to see something. I got an email this morning saying, I'm getting a full refund now. on top of the $15 credit I already got and I still have access to the show as of five minutes ago

so I have profited from Russell Dream I have made money you probably did better than Tony but well they wouldn't email me they'd email Stacey because all this fancy Dan streaming Amazon

horseshit is she is in charge of all of that So she's got my $50? Why, I'm going to go down there and, no, I don't know. And I'm assuming that she doesn't check her email. She's got unteen email addresses and probably what Amazon emails her at to something she probably wouldn't check.

I don't know. I'm going to delve into this. But how much did that cost AEW then? Or did it? Here's the email. Who's, what, but wait, wait, but did anybody establish whose fault it was? That that happened on the, the live showing of the Amazon Prime video, whatever the fuck. What, what was that glitch?

Whose fault was it? We haven't heard any reasoning or what happened. The only thing we know is that it didn't happen on other platforms, only on Amazon Prime. Well, but wasn't that right about the time they went past, some hour window like that was the four hour mark or the five hour mark on the or did they do one of those things where it's like nobody believed it could last that long i don't know if that's what they did i mean it would be nice to think that's the reason but we have no reason we don't know anything here's the email i received hello we understand that you recently had issues watching a w wrestle dream pay-per-view event through prime video we apologize for any inconvenience you may have

experience throughout the evening and want to make things right. We have applied a full refund for the event to your account, which will be applied back to the original payment method in five to seven business days. If you previously requested a refund, your refund has already been processed. Refunds usually go through within five to seven business days, and you will see this amount credited on your next statement. Please note, this does not include processing time by your bank. We place high value on our relationships with customers and recognize you have multiple options

when choosing your pay-per-view provider. We thank you for purchasing through Prime Video. Sincerely, Prime Video. Well, at least we know who it's from. But again, does that... That's coming out of A.W.'s pocket, too, right? They're not covering their part of the bargain. I mean, you would think that they're not going to pay AEW

if they're giving everyone full refunds. Again, I got a $15 credit first. Now I'm getting the full refund. I feel like Ticketmaster, I got to hit them with a fee. My inconvenience fee is $15. Now I want my money back. And also I want to continue to watch this show whenever I want. You would think AEW didn't make any money from this.

We don't know what percentage of people went through Prime. They're pushing Max or HBO Max. but you did. You know, for once I got to be I got to be on Tony Kahn's side that if he did nothing wrong if it's Amazon's problem. That's right. Well, if the technical malfunction was on Amazon's end,

then, you know, then they need to do whatever they need to do. But if it was on Tony's end, yeah, you know, then he's going to have to suffer also. But I would think somebody in AEW would be checking into this. And again, the tone of the email is, I think the big point, maybe at the end, we recognize you have multiple options when choosing your pay-per-view provider. That's the key thing. They want you to come back and buy something there again.

And I think about the main event going off into being a purple screen. Well, and they're probably not altogether happy that I don't understand how these pay-per-views, if any one entity is going to get behind the screen. them fully if they're available in four or five different places. Do you see what I'm trying to awkwardly say here? Yeah. It's like the marketing or the merchandising or the placement of the event on where the screen where people can find it or whatever, you'd be more likely to want that to succeed if you were the only place that was offering it.

But if it's everywhere, well, you know, what the fuck? Then it becomes as another brand of potato chips on the shelf. Well, we'll see what happens. Sounds like Amazon 8 price and a half from me. Again, I mean, I made out on this pay-per-view. I mean, it's a good experience. By the way, it's a thing that no promoter has done before. Make sure that the fans really profit.

The real fans, not like the models in Georgia, but the real fans get paid to watch the pay-per-view events. Well, remember, what was that guy's name, Paul Alperstein? Oh, the AWF. the American Wrestling Federation, he actually paid a thousand people 20 bucks apiece to come sit in a building and cheer and boo for his TV taping one time. This was what, 1992-ish? No, 95-ish. Because he wanted to get Tito on the night of champions, didn't he?

Yes, Tito was a commissioner or something, wouldn't he? On the Super Bowl, no, Tito was the AWF world champion. And I think, if I remember right from what you said back then, they tried. to get Tito on the show and you just thought it was too late. I mean, at least that was a nice thing you were saying. Who knows? But it didn't happen. That was 95.

Oh, that's right. I forgot about that too. Well, thank you for reminding me now about shit that I was involved in. But yeah, the joke was at the time he was the first guy in history that had a negative $20,000 house. We had people had lost 20 grand before in wrestling, but not by pay. the audience to come and sit there. Slaughter was the commissioner

is who it was at the time, wasn't it? I think so. That may have been it. Because there was a lot of AWA people involved. Yeah, that was I think the last place I ever saw Tom Zink wrestle was some squash match on, it was a terrible show. Like, there was no, it was just like squash

matches in front of a paid audience. But people loved it. They cheered and booed. You know, it was not good. It was just not good. But Tito was their heavyweight champion. I guess we're finishing up. That was the Amazon Prime Refund story.

It would be very interesting to see what fallout there is from this. But Jim, we haven't talked about retro figures in a while. Let's talk about some of the latest figures that various independent toy companies have put out to recapture that feeling of the old Hasbro or different figures, different things. Recapture that feeling of the old. stuff you thought you were going to get from Power Town. You know what? I got a Power Town update. You want to hear a Power Town update?

What is the Power Town update? This is maybe one of the more pathetic updates I've ever had to give here on the show, ladies and gentlemen. What we last covered was Greg Gagne and Magnum T.A. doing a podcast where not only did it not say where anything was, they made it sound like, if you push us too hard, you'll get nothing, and I'll go home. I don't have to put up with this. It was one of the more stunning and tone-deaf things I've ever seen.

Needless to say, multiple toy companies have delivered lots of product to lots of people since that time. They're the only ones still unable to get anything that may or may not have been manufactured sent here to America. They said they're going to come by airmail. But anyway, that was the last thing we heard. Then everyone went radio silent because obviously that didn't go well for anyone involved in that production. Yeah. Remember Magnum said that they had unlimited storage space in a warehouse in Alabama? Yes, I do remember that statement there. There's a warehouse. I don't even think I should say their name here, but there's a company in Alabama, because I have their address, Gulf Shores, Alabama. That's all the way down on the Gulf Coast, by the way. That sells power town figures. You'll get email.

from them and they're always marked way down, like they just keep marking them down, but they must have a lot of inventory there. A lot of stuff. But I've even bought a few things from them just to use them as gifts to give the people before I realized, boy, they really have a whole lot of these. I got an email from them. So this is the store. Again, it's a store selling Power Town stuff.

And here's the email. We have had the honor of working with Mike Rotunda. and getting to know him the last several years. The impact that Mike left on the wrestling industry dates back decades, and is still being felt today. Join us in praying for Mike and his family during these difficult times, and then they have a bunch of Mike Rotunda merchandise here they want you to buy. Mike Rotunda Autograph 8x10s,

Mike Rotunda T-shirts, they use this as an opportunity to try and sell Microtunda merchandise. Just when you think, none of this, like none of the people involved in this can go any lower. What the hell is that? Who thought that was a good idea? And where are the figures? And where's the money?

But again, we have no answers to anything, but that's the latest update. Oh, all right. Well, now was there any statement like in all of the money that we take in from the sales of Mike Rotunda's merchandise listed here is going to the family in this trying time or anything like that or just, hey, we really hope he gets better here. Here's some merchandise. No, it's an email where it says,

Featured legend, the iconic legacy of Mike Rotunda, and it's just a bunch of merchandise they're just selling after they ask you to pray for him. Pray for him. And by the way, if you're really thinking about him, buy this t-shirt. So... Well, I got a Power Town update.

Oh. Because I actually found... Remember, I told you that I had Stan send me the contract that Greg Ganya had... told me he'd signed already and he said i didn't sign shit i just told him to send me the you know the deal and i forgot to mention one thing when i said well you know they'd have to sell millions of dollars to for stand to make x or whatever the fuck also do you know the term of the deal no did i mention that i because i reminded myself of that when i looked at this the term of the deal

on the talents part is basically for fucking unless they were to breach, which obviously they've breached everything they've, they've had in their britches, but they could like, ex nay the talent, you know, okay,

and then there was a sell-off period of one year where they're allowed to sell whatever they've manufactured and this and that, but they could part by mutual arrangement, but otherwise there was no time limit. It was like the fucking guy was assigned to them, forever more and how long, as we mentioned, would it take for them to, in the best of circumstances, if they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, manufacture and sell figures for over 200 talents.

So hopefully some of those people had signed up were in their early 30s because it's going to take a while. The contract you saw, Stan's contract, was it explicitly just for a certain size of wrestling figures, or was it for merchandise beyond that? Was it for any wrestling figure? What was it? Oh, it's, I don't have it here where I can grab it, but it's for a variety of merchandise and different thing,

intellectual property and your likeness and image and et cetera. But, no, they had grand plans for all kinds of. of different types of things. And, you know, and also, well, it's not a secret. Apparently it is to them, but Stan Lane's real name, and why I think I mentioned it why he always hated to be called Stanley, is Wallace Stanfield Lane. His dad's name was Wally, Wallace, and his middle name is Stanfield.

And when they made the contract up, they have made it to Wallace Stanfield, aka Stan Lane. His real last name is Lane. They got that wrong. We were so close to the Magnet Express, beautiful Bobby and wacky Wally. Yeah, Wacky Wally. Wonderful Wally. So, Amy don't hear too much anymore.

The Mets had a great second baseman, Wally Backman. but you don't hear too many Wally's anymore. And there was Wally Gator. That's true. Me TV Tunes. Well, it's your show. Well, that was the Power Town update, ladies and gentlemen. Yes.

Of course, we'd only hope these guys all get sued. 8775. Oh, Steve. Stephen P. New. Get even with Stephen. New law office.com. Jim, let's talk about a topic that has arisen.

let me open this email here because a bunch of people started sending this over in the last day have you seen the controversy over I guess it started with Goldberg's comments about Oskah Oh my God I didn't hear the comments

but I saw a transcript of the basic gist of it is that he's thinking that the WWE had Oscar break his record of the streak or whatever it was that she broke, just to get even with him or to make him look bad. Is this basically the gist?

Here's the quote from Real Talk with Mike Burke. Some girl at WWE. They did it on purpose. I have nothing against the girl by any means. But yeah, I was a part of WCW and we were kicking their ass in the Monday Night Wars. I didn't know what was going on at the time. I was just on one of the sides. Now one side dissolves and the other side consumes everything so they can treat everyone and everything the way they want. I think there's always going to be the bird in their ass that I was a part of a company where I was a champion in a very short period of time and we were beating them in the ratings. So that's the full quote there. What are your thoughts? So was it the win streak? I mean, I don't know what they did with Oscar. Our friend's

over there. It was a winster. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But she's fighting girls. Is anybody going to confuse that with Goldberg's Wind Street that was the hot thing for a period of time in the Money Night War?

And does he realize that the sheik had a goddamn streak in Toronto? For seven years he never fucking lost. And he sold about in that time three or four million fucking tickets. And I think there's a streak going back to, I don't know, when Luthez was the champion for eight fucking years, he didn't do a lot of jobs, did he? What is he on about, as our friends crossbind would say? I'm thinking maybe Brett Hart put a curse on him. Like, you will be miserable to, you know. Well, yet now, is this becoming a, it's becoming a bitch off.

And I like, and I like Brett Hart and I like both guys, but, you know, it's. Where did this come from? Where? I just, I know, but I'm telling you that it comes from all directions. A lot of these guys are marks for themselves because of something or other.

Either because in Brett's case, he legitimately was one of the best and that he believes he's better than that. And in Goldberg's case, he wasn't ever smart to the business before he was on top of it. so he doesn't know how the fuck it works or what the fuck is done. But to say, well, a girl wrestler in modern day, one more matches in a row than I did when I was a ratings draw

and a fucking ticket seller, nobody's going to goddamn confuse those. And he didn't invent a winning streak. Every top box office draw that has ever been had one. How long you think Rocco went without doing a job? Yeah, that's why Aska had the streak. They wanted to get her over. That was their goal.

We want to get her over. She's really good in our eyes. What are we going to do? That'll make her stand out from everyone else. How about not lose? There you go. Well, here's Aska's response on Twitter. At WWE Aska, the legendary Empress Aska, Goldberg's comments about me are all over the news right now. But honestly, I'm not bothered by it at all.

What he said came from his own perspective, and that's fine. So there's really no need to make such a big deal out of it. Listen to my philosophy. It's not about what I accomplish. It's about what I try to create. Philosophy and vision, that's where the real value is. I don't find meaning in anything without beauty. I've achieved every record,

Every title. But those are just milestones. What really matters is opening a new era. Creating the moment that separates before Oscar and after Oscar. Having the power to change an era. That's where true value and beauty exist. I don't chase records or championships. Jesus Christ, he don't chase brevity either.

They're the ones that come to me. There's not enough art in this world. Oh, there's not enough art in the world. What are your thoughts on, what are your thoughts that Aska's response to Goldberg? Well, first of all, my thoughts are that I got English as her second language and she writes better than Russo. Uh, I, I, I, I, I, I'm glad she's not bothered by it,

but I don't know that that particular thing deserved that long of a an explanation, but bless her little heart is all I've got to say. Bless her little heart. I think they're all nuts. I think every single fucking last one of them is nuttier and a goddamn fruit cake. Full of shit is a Christmas turkey.

How about that? You think it would be a good WrestleMania match, Goldberg-Rasca? Old streak versus old streak? What about if you think he'd be able to spear her, but without hurting himself? Taring a quad or something at this point? I don't know. Man, he's, he really must be pissed off still. And again, I don't blame him for the way they treated his retirement match.

Well, no, that was a complete botch of live television and just it was a mess. So I don't blame me for being pissed off at that. But again, a lot of these things can be true. Brett said Goldberg wasn't smart to the business. He wasn't really still probably not. it relates to how somebody who was involved in it for years and years at a high level, you know, would be. And, you know, one last thing. And Oscar's a philosopher. One of the comments here was an old tweet. It does not have the date of it, but it's a, you can tell by the image it's Oscar from years ago. And this is, I guess, when she first had the streak, she tweeted out, I respect Goldberg so much.

He is amazing. I am honored to be the undefeated champion with the longest streak in WWE history, hashtag WWE, hashtag WWNXT. To which Scott Hall replied, You're much more talented than Goldberg. So this feud goes back in ways, it appears, Jim. you know. Oh yes, they call him the streak.

There are people... Look at it, look at it at. There are people that think maybe Goldberg is unhappy because of the current state of things. Yes. If he wants to see Saturday night's main event or the next premium live event or raw or Smackdown,

he has to get all these different streaming services, one here, one there, what is he going to do? It's expensive. It's expensive, it's a pain in the neck. He just wants to watch his wrestling. We know what he's going to watch. away. Oh, that's the wrong sound. We know away, ladies and gentlemen. That's the wrong one, too. What the hell? We have a solution for you from our friends at Surf Shark. Well, we just hope

we have a sound effect for our friends there at Surf Shark. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's come to this now to watch the wrestling, the entertainment of the masses, of the populace for so many years now. You've got to be a millionaire. You've got to buy every streaming service. You got to jump through the hoops, but our friends at Surf Shark, not only can they secure your privacy where people can't invade your home through the internet lines and come in there and shuffle about in your underwear drawer of your home and take things and take naps in your kitchen for heaven's sake. That happened to me one time. Came right through the wall and then right into the kitchen and couldn't wake him up.

I guess whatever this story is, we should just stress it has nothing to do with Surf Shark. Well, Surf Shark's going to prevent all this from happening. They're going to keep all of the evildoers on the internet from coming through your internet lines and they're going to tell people that you're wherever you want to be so you can get access to all the things that they get around the world that we have to pay for. Or that maybe you want to be in Canada.

where the Canadian Netflix doesn't have commercials on the WWE. Or maybe you want to be over in, I don't know, Switzerland, where they can watch donkey porn at all hours the day or night. It doesn't matter what you want. It matters. I don't think that is appropriate, no matter what country you're in, but let's talk about wrestling. Let's stay to.

It just depends on whether there's a strong donkey lobby in the country. Let's go. Let's speak to metaphorical donkeys, the, wonderful independent contractors known as wrestlers and wrestling all over the world wherever you are here in america you want to see what they see on one service you could do it with surf shark well that's right because not only do they secure your privacy not only do they give you access to all of these wrestling programs from around the world if wink wink nod nod you're in the right place but at the same time there's a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee

and if you use our link and our code, then you're going to get four extra months of Surf Shark service with no extra charge. When you sign up, boom, they're going to add four months on that thing. If you just go to surfshark.com slash JCDT for Jim Cornett Drive-Thru. Seems like it ought to be Brian last drive-through, but... Well, no, it shouldn't. You're the star.

You're the star. I was about to say that would be a massive labeling mistake. But anyway, go to surfshark.com slash JCDT. Use the code J-C-D-T at checkout. You're going to get four extra months of surf shark at no charge on top of what you sign up for. And then you're going to be. to be wherever you want to be. You can just move around the world and watch things that are related to these other countries that don't get screwed up the old Hershey Highway

like we do here in the United States of America. That's right. Once again, Surf Shark, if you are watching this on YouTube, there'll be a link in the description, but surfshark.com slash JCDT for Jim Cornett's drive-through, naturally. Where in the world? Can you get a deal like that way you can be anywhere you want to be in a world and get a deal like this, long as you're dealing with Surf Shark. All right, well, you can go where you want to go and be who you want to be.

Do what you want to do. Go where you want to go. Jim, here we are. A couple more things. I mentioned retro figures. Instead, we talked about Power Town, so a few retrofigure. Oh, well, they really are retro, aren't they? I mentioned this company before, because I like their name so much, Latuni. Latuni!

From their wrestling Everest series, no it's not Darby Allen with a flag, it is a giant, I guess a foot and a half long macho man Randy Savage. My God,

when you said giant foot and a half long, I didn't know where you were going with that. From what I understand, Vincent McMahon also has a toy he calls a giant foot and a half long macho man.

We have this one. It is really cool. I have one displayed next to the creature from the Black Lagoon in the library right now. This is from Latuni, and it says, and as some of his catchphrases on the side here, Jim, what are your thoughts on some of these catchphrases here?

Too hot to handle, too cold to hold? Of course, oh, yeah. When did he ever say that? He must have said it in a promo at some point. He did a lot of promos. Well, I've seen a lot of his promos. That sounds a little more like Tom Bugaloo Shaft. We're in space, and space is the place.

place. What the f. He definitely said space is the place. I've heard him do that. Have you heard him say space is the place? You never heard him say space is the place. I don't believe this. You actually saw ICW. I heard him when he was saying ace is the place for the helpful hardware man. I know. When he did that hardware store commercial, but I mean, well, I don't. I don't. I'm the Tower of power too sweet to be sour. That's dusty. And that's superstar. and that's actually, I believe, at one point, Austin Idol. 10,000 years as Intercontinental Champion, ooh, yeah. That's him, I would assume.

I'll buy the ooh, yeah. And expect the unexpected in the kingdom of madness. But this is very, very cool from Latuni, a giant, giant macho man. But where's guaranteed personified, man? Other than, ooh yeah, what would you say? say from all the Randy Savage you saw throughout your life, what would you say is his main catchphrase? That's what I'm on the ICW show where I first saw him and where he was, you know, 20 minutes

of the 60 minute show probably a lot of weeks. Oh yeah, guaranteed personified. He would say guaranteed personified about 16 times per fucking promo. What about freak out, freak out? freak out freak out macho man yeah dig it dig it was another one a lot of those promos from the ICW period he almost sounds hoarse like it's a it's a more desperate sounding macho man and a lot

he was hoarse because he was doing those fucking promos for all their goddamn towns he probably couldn't talk for five years Jim speaking of people that I think work for ICW at one point from KWK there are K-Fabe Heroes line. These are in the retro Hasbro look. The first ever Ox Baker figure. Oh, my God. There are three variants, red pants, yellow pants, black pants, all with ox on it, because that's the way it looked. What color do you associate with Ox Baker when you think of his trunks?

Well, I know he branched out into the lighter colors, you know, at later points in his career, you always think of ox in either the like the black or the gray the dark because they and he didn't just wear trunks he wore the long tights because did you ever see ox baker's legs i don't think he ever i don't think so displayed his legs but uh but you know the the dark colors and then did you ever see his legs well no no that's what i'm saying he never wore shorts i meant pants he's not wearing well that's where I'm going also but he wore the tights

the tights rather than pants now he later on actually I think worked in like a pants type of outfit but back in the in the Dick the Bruiser days in the early 70s he had the dark long trunks and tights on and the black boots with ox on a side of them

and he would wear that what do they call them a tunic like a leopard or tiger print tunic that accentuated his big shoulders or some kind of shit like that. And then I love it. He did it in Texas. He never did it in Indianapolis. But sometimes he would come to the ring with a stretcher.

The old-fashioned, just the two strips of wood like the broomsticks or whatever and fucking canvas in between it type of stretcher. And he'd lean it up in the corner next to him when he'd be introduced and it would say Ox Baker's carryout service. And just that type of stuff I don't associate him with colors because he was See I thought red red was the first one I went to based on the photos I always saw of him

I remember seeing pictures of him and red I don't know that I ever actually saw him wear red That may have been the what 80s Florida run No I think like What color was he wearing during the riot? Oh god damn I don't know I never thought to look I'm now going to look because I'm not sure I'm just going to Google

Ox Baker Riot and it comes right up He's wearing red Wow, there it is He's wearing red Well, son of a bitch Well at least it matched his head After the guy busted him open with the chair

I understand Sean Ng from KWK's Working on at Johnny Powers now We're removable hair You could just take right off and put back on There's some fans laughing at that somewhere But thank you Sean, hello And a very cool figure here He also just put out a couple of

Berserker's John. Are Ox's fist taped? His one fist is taped, his other hand is in a claw-like position. There you go. Okay. All right. Well, that's Ox Baker from KWK and their K-Fabe Heroes.

Jim, Zombie Sailor has put out another batch of toys. This first one here, he's known best as Ahmed Johnson. This is Tony Norris, six foot two, 305 pounds. Pearl River, Mississippi.

Jim, what's up with the look of, was it elbow pads on his thigh on top of the knee pads? Like, there were a lot of pads on his legs and it was a weird look. Well, yeah, and they were knee pads, but they were on his thighs,

but I don't think anybody makes an elbow pad go running them fucking thighs. But yeah, it was a style choice that I've not seen. I mean, again, I did it in a completely incomparable way to Ahmed Johnson when I was a man wrestling

forced into be in a wrestling match as a manager, I would put like three or four knee pads down my whole leg from my thigh to my fucking ankle or whatever and do that type of thing. But he just, I don't know, maybe he didn't think his thighs were big enough.

I don't fucking know. Or it just looked good to him, but I've never seen anybody else do that. No. We talked about him. wearing them on their shins, but not on the thighs. Not all the way up for my shin to upper thigh. Just all the way up to the edge of your dick hair, just yeah.

Who was the first person you remember complaining about Ahmed Johnson? Who was the first person he worked with? I mean, he was not a popular opponent for anybody because he was big, he was strong, he was awkward and unpredictable. So it's not like anybody ever said, oh, it's a night off tonight, I got Ahmed.

So I don't really know who the first individual person was. Jim, also from the zombie sailor, wrestling's heels and faces line, someone I have good memories of from his brief run in WWE, known best as Hakushi,

Jinze Shenzaki. What are your memories of Hakushi? he was a nice guy and a good worker and I think remember Brett Hart had that match with him we were talking about bread earlier because Brett believed in him and had a tremendous match with him at a paper view yeah and in your house I think the problem was he just didn't fit in the WWF of that time and you know they tried to remember they gave him the full body a Japanese character tattoo gimmick, which... Well, he was doing that in Japan. Was he really? He was like the only guy from Michinoku Pro

who kind of looked like he could be a heavyweight. I don't know what he really was. He was probably a light heavyweight, but compared to like, you know, Super Delphin and the great Suzuki and I should say Saske, we call it now, but back then it was Suzuki. He was a grown man, is what you're saying, yeah. Well, this was before, this was 94, 95, before I got on a creative team.

when I saw him show up and at him like, ah, geez, they had to overly make him Japanese. I didn't know he was doing it beforehand, but that's the problem is that he didn't do a very good promo. And he, you know, just that was the personality he had. He's got writing all over him. But Vince wasn't going to go very far with that just because he didn't see it. Brett loved him.

He was a great technician, and Brett wanted to help him and had that match with him. and he was not an unpopular person. Everybody liked, he was a good worker, but he just wasn't going to be focused on because that's, maybe there's a lesson there. That's all he was, was a good worker. But I think a lot of it, too, depends on where you go in the era.

I think if they had given him a Jim Cornett, they would have helped him. They gave him Akiyosato, who looked cool, but he didn't do anything as a manager. He just had his face painted white and just stood there with him. Well, I think I'm trying to remember, because again, this four, I was on a creative team.

They might have given him Sado because I don't know how his English was. And Sado had been around and lived in America for years and years. And there were go-to guys back in those days in many of the territories or a number of the territories where if you brought Japanese talent in, you know, they were the guy you'd put them with because they could speak the language or they could, you know, Show them the circuit, whatever the case, because their communication. That's why they put Fucci and Oneida with Tojo when they came into Tennessee, because he'd carry him around.

I mean, Tojo was from Hawaii, but he kind of halfway could communicate with him. The difference, though, was also Tojo was established there. The fans knew who he was. They knew what kind of heal he could be. Sato, they didn't even reference that it was the same guy from the Orient Express a few years earlier, five years earlier, whatever it was. But it was cool looking, but it went nowhere. Yeah, Sato wasn't a good manager.

But Vince didn't care. Because he didn't care anyway. That's what I'm saying. That was just one of those deals. Well, Jim, one more from this line, the wrestling heels and faces from zombie sailor. Someone who was there when you first got to WWE and then quickly was kind of phased out,

even though he had a feud going with The Undertaker. Mr. Hughes. Oh, good Lord. The Big Cat. This is a pretty cool figure. It has a movable tie, holds an urn, which you could take out of his hand. It has a removable hat. What do your memories of Mr. Hughes?

Right? Was he still there when you got there? He was, right? Yes. We were two ships that passed in a night briefly a couple of different places. But he kind of, you know, I liked him the times I was around him. And I kind of liked the look because he kind of updated the Big Bubber Roger. look type of thing with the suit and the whole nine yards.

And that worked for him. And when he was Lugar's bodyguard in WCW, the kind of the big bubba position or whatever, I've told you this before, I think, but he had a great fucking gimmick he would do where he didn't have to, on the road, he didn't have to pay for hotels because he would actually go

to the front desk of whatever hotel, Lugar was staying in and tell them that he was Lex Lugar's bodyguard and he was going to be in the lobby all night to make sure that nothing happened and he'd sleep on a couch in a fucking lobby for free. And he was a narcoleptic, right? He could just fall asleep like that. Yes, he could just boom, just go to sleep and, you know, sometimes when he didn't want to. And I think that's, you know, that's probably one of the problems he had.

was just dropping off to sleep in the middle of things. But he was an interesting guy and had the size and everything and a good look. Nice. I'm trying to remember, didn't he have some other, he was in and out of the business for a while at the end. Did he have an injury or a problem or something? And then he was back and then he was gone again. I'm not sure.

It was really weird the way he would reappear and disappear. He was there in 93 for that feud with The Undertaker, then he was gone. and then I think he reappeared in what, 95? Was he with Triple H at one point? I think so. Was he with Jericho at one point? Maybe I completely wrong about it. He kept reappearing

with, again, I'm just randomly throwing out names, but I think he was there like three or four times where he just kind of popped up and then he was gone pretty quickly. Consistency is the key. That's what he didn't have. Well, Jim, two more I'll hit you with here from Hastel Toys and their grapplers and gimmicks lines.

Dean Douglas, the first ever Dean Douglas figure. It comes with a paddle that says the dean. He comes with a paddle. And, of course, this is from 1995. Were you surprised that they gave Shane Douglas that gimmick considering you would think of you're going to try to sign Shane Douglas based on what he's been doing the last couple of years? That may not be what you would do.

Well, here's the problem. and again it goes back to Shane opened his fucking foolish mouth in the meeting with Vince. Because remember I said Vince, the first time that he would ever see a lot of these guys ever, not just in person, but in any form, he wouldn't have seen, he didn't watch any other wrestling, wouldn't have seen any video. He has a meeting with guys and he asked them about what they do in their fucking wrestling. real life or their spare time or their hobbies. He wants to get to know the person.

And that's how poor Bill Irwin ended up being the goon with those fucking goofy hockey blade fucking boots. And that's how poor old Tony Anthony ended up being a fucking plumber because he was helping his dad with his plumbing company. Well, who did he say that to, though? Tony Anthony didn't sit and meet with Vince, did he? No, he would, again, with this, it carried over to Bruce. and to the people that would funnel information to Vince,

whether, you know, but, but yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't sit down, you know, and go over at least notes that Bruce might have or whatever about a guy. But with, in this case, it's another example of, well, this guy, it is, you know, real life or spare time or whatever. I mean, in some cases it works. that's where Percy Pringle got Paul Bear's spot because he was legitimately a licensed mortician. It wasn't a rib. And he had known Mark from Dallas before.

So sometimes it works out. But who were we talking about originally? The dean. Dean Douglas. Oh, Douglas. So at the time, Shane had gone to school or was going to school or was doing something. kind of substitute teaching or whatever.

I don't remember his whole resume, but point is he was either teaching or going to be teaching or had taught something over in Pittsburgh. And so that's what Vince fixated on. And because Shane does have a way of speaking, when he's trying to be professional and speaking, he sounds like or tries to sound like he's a very educated person. And I bet Vince thought, well, he can use big words and get heat as a heel, whatever. I don't know. How does Vince's mind work?

But that's what doomed him because, you know, God, I didn't expect Shane Douglas to come in as the franchise like he was at ECW because he wouldn't be the franchise. Because there was a lot of guys, let's just, I mean, be honest and recognize real life. He wasn't better than Sean Michaels and Brett Hart and a number of other people. But to make him a school teacher and a long blue gown and a fucking, the hat and the goddamn paddle was just, it was destined for failure. It was another one was goofy lifestyle or not lifestyle, but career gimmicks.

This guy's a teacher and this guy's a plumber and this guy's it. They can't make any money in wrestling. they got to be, got to have another line of work. So that's what happened there. You know, if only Shane had said something else, because the one story we heard is fans back then, not as like, you know, I'm in the business, but as a fan. Shane Douglas is a teacher, and he could always go back to that. And also, Shane Douglas, it was either he's thinking about medical school or he's going

to be a doctor or he wants to go to medical school. I don't know if you remember hearing that, but that was what we would hear. That's what he should have said to Vince. He would have had a better success rate as some bad doctor as opposed to a bad teacher. Well, but wait a minute now. Because that was the year before Isaac Yankham. That's a dentist. It's a different school.

He would have had Shane Douglas given gynecological examinations or something. Well, like I said, this is the very first Dean Douglas figure with a paddle. And one last one here, Jim. from the Hastel Toys Grapplers and Gimmicks line, an underrated tag team that we probably don't really talk about too much. Better known as Strike Force, it doesn't say that here, but Tito Santana and Rick Martel, and they come with little jackets that mirror the Strike Force jackets of the 80s.

What are your thoughts on Strike Force? You know, people always ask you about if the Midnight Express had wrestled the British Bulldogs or the Heart Foundation. Strike force was a, or even demolition, in between all that was strike force, and for a moment there, they were pretty big. Yeah, well, I mean, Rick Martel was a tremendous worker.

We talked about him here on one of the programs, last month or whenever it was, just a tremendous worker as a baby face or a heel. You know, he had it, and he was such a good-looking guy. And Tito, again, tremendous worker. excellent in-ring talent and the two of them together you know they were good looking guys and they had baby face appeal so yeah I think the Midnight Express and they would have been an excellent match

I don't I don't know honestly to whether it would have clicked like the Midnight with the Rocker Roll or the Midnight with the Fantastics you had with the Rock and Roll you had Ricky Morton selling with the fantastics you just had, they were both, there wasn't one standout, although Bobby's promos were better than Tommy's. Tommy was a better athlete than Bobby, but Bobby's work was actually better than Tommy's,

but they were just so young, underdog white meat baby face. It clicked like that. But I think, you know, if Martel and Tito had been in the NWA rather than the WWF, I think they might have gotten over better because, again, they were a little just ordinary, regular baby face wrestling for Vince to just go to the moon with.

You know, Rick Martel was really good as a heel when he became the model, and sometimes you only think about that, but when you go back and watch footage of him as a baby face, you know, years earlier even than Strike Force, him and Tony Garria, even before then, he's almost a perfect baby face. Like, the way he would get fired up

didn't seem unnatural, even though if you'll watch it, it's really corny, just the pump in your fist and shaking your head. Like, it's somewhat believable with Rick Martel. He really pulled it off well. Well, because he's, he's French. He's French Canadian. And they have that, ooh, yeah. Is that what they have? Oh, yeah. That's what they always say. Yes, ooh. Bertrandeer Burr is writing a book right now called, E. Yahr! Yeah, see, that's a ooh, yeah. All right. And what about Tito? What about Tito?

Well, and Arriba, see? Ooh, yeah. And Arriba. That's your final thought on Tito, Arriba? Yes. Well, that's what I'm saying. Together, they would have those. Tito had Arriba and Rick Martel could go, ooh, yeah. My oldest daughter years ago when she was in elementary school had a teacher who somehow came up and she said that, you know, she grew up in the area or in the county. her teacher, her Spanish teacher,

had been Mr. Sois, you know, Tito Santana. And all I'm thinking is, if you walked in there one day and just said, Arriva, would he send you to the dean's office? Like, would he be pissed or would he be cool? Would he do it back to you? I think he would be cool with it as long as it wasn't disrupting class because Tito's a nice guy, but he's a very professional fellow. Tito and Rick Martel were a good tag team,

and they were kind of awkwardly put together. There was a backstage promo where they figured out that they're going to strike with force, so they might as well call themselves strike force. But they were a replacement for the Can Am connection, which were Tom Zink and Rick Martel. That's right. And then Tom Zink, whatever it was, he got mad at the money Rick Martel was making or he thought Rick Martel was making. Whatever it was, he just had like a meltdown and walked out and wouldn't come

back and they had really hard feelings about it. They think about lawsuits. But what do you think of that tag team versus Tito and Rick Martel? One where Rick Martel is kind of the leader of the team and one where you have two guys that have equal experience. Anytime you can trade Tom Zink for Rick Martel or Tom Zink for Tito Santana, either one, you've traded up. Because I don't mean to speak ill of Zinc, but he wasn't, he wasn't.

he wasn't the brightest guy and he wasn't the most polished worker, but because he was a good-looking fellow with a nice body, not only did he get a number of chances he might not have got otherwise, but he believed that he deserved all of those chances and more. And I'm not saying he was going around being a prick and just, I'm not going to put anybody over, but he would just, you know, he was not, he wasn't that good, he just looked good.

I remember him in Pilman That's Yeah We'd get We'd do most of the spots with Pilman And get the heat on Pilman And then suffer through Zink's comeback You were on a booking committee

When they brought him in as a Z-man, weren't you? Yes Whose idea was? Well, that's the He was Where had he been beforehand? Was he in the Midwest beforehand Or was he in New York beforehand?

No, he had not been in New York for a few years He left in 87, Midway through 87. He had been in the United States. the AWA at the beginning of 89 briefly, but I mean, whatever that constitutes being in the AWA and 89 where they were running. Well, that's what it, that's, you know, that's what it was.

He needed an exit strategy and they see he's a big, good looking guy. They need new talent, new baby faces, but it just, you know, he was just the one that was a step off or whatever. I remember the cross body on the clash of champions. Nobody will ever forget that. but it was and I felt bad for him but it wasn't like he was an asshole he just wasn't he was a good looking guy that like a Barbie and Ken doll it just wasn't much go he couldn't cut a promo necessarily and then I remember he was there when they first started drug testing I

first started I think they first and last drug tested sometime in 1990 in TBS and Barnett was going to go talk to him personally because he failed for marijuana, which is like the most minor thing, right? And actually, I think only joked one time. If we flunk everybody for everything, the only ones that'll be here is me in Cornett. But he zinc flunked so spectacularly.

His level was so high that they wanted to talk to him and see if he had a problem. Maybe that's why he can't remember the spots. Well, Jim, that was our look at retro figures here today. Of course, if someone wants Midnight Express figures, let alone Jim Cornett figures, they can go to Cornett's collectibles at Jimcornet.com. What's going on there, Jim? And they can get them for cheaper than ever before now,

or I should say more inexpensive because they're still high quality. Jimcornet.com, it's the holiday sale, in addition to heroes and friends, the new book that is taking up so much of the oxygen, $10 off all remaining Jim Cornett action figures, $20 off the Midnight Express and Heavenly Body's tag team sets, and $40 off the Midnight Express four pack that also comes with the Certificate of Authenticity and the collector's book. And of course, all the figures come, or all the tag team figures come with autographed pictures as well,

Jim Cornett.com for more information. All right, we'll have a little bit more about that at the end of the show, but Jim, let's wrap things up with some guest the program. It's been a while, and I've got a bunch of programs here. Let me grab this pile. Aye. All right. Jim, of course, guest a program is where I go through programs from my collection,

usually things I need to file away, and I hit you with the card, and you will give us all the information that you can come. conjure up, usually we try to guess the date and the location, but sometimes much more detail than even that. In the borderline mystical way that I have, I'm going to try to divine these things without ever having note. And also, these programs have been sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Jack Feffer's porch since noon today.

All right, Jim, this one here. Match one, 30-minute time limit. $1,000 on a pole tag team match, the Davidson Brothers versus Chris Adams and Tom Pritchard. In a one-on-one gladiator match, the wrestler must drag his opponent around the ring. Mean Mike Masters versus Tony Rodriguez. The next match, one fall, 10-minute time limit.

Originally, it was going to be Chucko Flores, but written in Pedro Hernandez versus the assassin. There will be an intermission followed by a one-hour time limit grudge match Victor Rivera versus John Tolus. Another intermission.

And finally, one fall 30-minute time limit, Al Madrille versus Killer Ox Baker. Well, we're in the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and I'm still going to work on the year because that's the only place that Chris Adams and Tom Pritchard would have ever coexisted with John and Rick Davidson.

At first, someone might say, well, could it been Portland, but Portland would not have had Madrille, Rivera, Tolos, and Oxbaker on top. and the question is Adams was in Dallas by this Tom started boy this is boy this is the

the Davidson brothers they were a big biker looking tag team and they had worked for the chic in Detroit in I'm going to say 1979ish maybe 80ish from the time that Tom turned pro

to where he would have had time to go to Los Angeles and Adams would have been there at the same time, I've got to think this is Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium 1981. Well, Jim, the card, Los Angeles, the Olympic auditorium, or as it says here, the new Olympic, Friday, February 27th, 1981, 8 p.m. Time.

Boom! There you go. There you go. Warning, no throwing anything into the ring or touching wrestlers at any time. You will be fined or arrested if caught doing so. Also in here. Championship Wrestling TV, Channel 34,

Saturday morning, 11 a.m. The action's better than ever. This is as the territory was going out of business. Yes, the action is better than ever, but fewer people are watching. Also, Doscarus is coming to town Friday, the 6th at the Olympic, or March 6th, I should say, March 7th in Fresno. You know, I always thought Doscarus was two-faced. That's just me.

Very good there. Jim, here's our next program. The opening contest, one fall 20-minute time limit. Angelo Savaldi versus Tony Altamori. Special midget tag team match, two out of three falls, 45-minute time. time limit, Sunny Boy Cassidy and the Jamaica Kid versus Cowboy Bradley and Fuzzy Cupid. Oh, the fuzzy one. A special handicap match, one fall 20 minute time limit.

Arnold Scholland, that's spelled S-K-O-L-A-N-D, and Gino Brito versus Prince Iucaa, a one-fall-30-minute match. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. now? What now? You said, Scoland and Gino Brito against Prince Iakea and who? It's a handicap match. A special handicap match. Oh, okay. Well, then, okay, so that's Curtis then, Iacaea. That's King Curtis, that's right.

Da Bull. Of course, there was a Prince Iokia years later in WCW because Kevin Sullivan named him after King Curtis's early name. There you go. Okay, that's just wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page. One fall 30 minute time, we met Baron McHale Sucluna from the Isla Malta versus Chief Bigheart. An extra bonus, I'll name the championship for the U.S. heavyweight championship, the champion Bobo Brazil versus Tarzan Tyler,

and the main event, two out of three falls, one hour time limit, for the United States Tag Team Championship, Dr. Bill Miller and Dan Miller, the U.S. tag team champions, versus Bruno San Martino and Johnny Valentine. Ooh. Okey dokey. Angelo Savoldi, we've talked about the Savoldies many times. Hopefully he had recovered by that point from being stabbed by Danny Hodge's father.

Tony Altimore was one of the Sicilians with Lou Albano as a team for years. the four little fellows led by Fuzzy Cupid, who was the senior midget in this match at that point and probably the biggest name. Arnold Scholand, obviously a long-time WWWF employee, not only on camera as Bruno's manager and things, but he ran the White Plains Civic Center for the matches there and was an office employee.

and worked in ticket offices for years. With Curtis Ikega coming in, Prince Iekea, and he's still a heel and he's in, this is the Northeast, it's the WWWF territory. That puts it in early mid-60s. Sikluna, Varen McHale, Sikluna was again, long-running northeast heel, Chief Bigheart, brings it back more to the early 60s, I think.

Bobo Brazil was the U.S. champion sometimes there, but I didn't think that he really defended that outside Washington, D.C., which that was kind of his town, and they gave him extra special treatment in Washington. and that's a James Dudley, Vince Sr's limo driver who got in a Hall of Fame as a manager. He was Bobo's manager, a baby face. He just went and got and brought Bobo's belt back. Tarzan Tyler was a big heel in Florida in the 70s,

but this ended in the late 60s. This is earlier than that. And then the Miller brothers against Bruno and Johnny Valentine, with Bruno going for the U.S. tag team title, If this has got to be 19... Is it 61 or 62, I'm thinking? And I don't think this is a Madison Square Garden card, but I've been fooled before, but would this be in...

Would it be in Washington? In 1962. Jim, the date? Wednesday, January 19th. 1966 oh shit Baltimore Maryland Baltimore all right

40 miles from Washington you know what I fucked up then because I was trying to make this before Bruno won the belt because I couldn't see he was world champion here in this match yeah why would he be going for the

U.S. tag team type but it was a grudge match I bet a personal issue with the Miller brothers and him and Valentine all right Jim this is program here. In the curtain razor. Okie Shikina

versus Don Kindred. A special event? Ray Gunkel versus Sunny Kerges. The semi-final. Pat Fraley versus George Penchiff. Good Lord.

And the main event, a championship match. The champion Jack Claiborne versus Bobby Managoff. Okay, is that, uh, geez, so Pete, well,

Oki Shakina in the opening match and Ray Gunkel being on the card at first I thought we were in Georgia. I don't know that we're still not, but it's not as easy as it, I thought it was going to be. Oki Shakina, they told me this story when I first went to Georgia. That's why I never liked

Columbus, Georgia. He's working as a heel one night, and he's an oriental heel in the, I guess by the time I heard this story, it had been maybe the late 60s. He's coming back from the fucking ring, and some guy took a knife and stabbed it in his side

and walked halfway around him, and fucking took off. And down he goes, obviously, and the cops are just like, well, yeah, he's fucked. And his wife happened to be there. And she begged people to call an ambulance or getting to the hospital or whatever the fuck, because they were just like, yeah, yeah, he's fucked. And he lived in the old Columbus Municipal Auditorium down there.

Anyway. So, and Ray Gunkel was not only one of the top baby faces in Georgia, but also the Booker and part owner in the office and led to the whole Georgia war in 72. Pat Freley was a journeyman who could have been wrestling any fucking where. I've never heard of Gunkel's opponent or Freely's opponent. And Jack Claiborne, he was one of the top black stars around the time of also the black Panther Jim Mitchell and a few others

and Bobby Managoff was an old-timer that had been wrestling since at least the 30s. So a gunkle started in the early 50s. Good Lord, I have we're in Atlanta

in 19-fucking 53. We are in Honolulu, Hawaii. There you go. At the Civic Auditorial Sunday, October 9th, 1949.

Yeah, that... By the way, the championship is the Hawaii Junior Heavyweight Crown and the belt is one of those belts that has the ring logo, and then it says Junior Heavyweight Champion, Territory of Hawaii,

and it has Nat Fleischer's name on it. So that was the belts here for Jack. Yeah, that one was pretty obscure there, pal. All right, well, I got to mix it up. I can't make them all really easy for you. Here, I'll do this one next. Where is the actual card here? Here are the T-shirts for sale.

Here are the ratings. Here's the card. All right. What's the town? Here's the card. What's the town? They have to come back to this. What it doesn't say what town it's in?

What? You don't know the answer that you're trying to get me to tell you? Well, I think I do, but it actually doesn't say it here. I need to double check this one. Let me come back to this one moment. Jim, let's go to this one here. Here we go. This is a fun one. The opening contest, Pedro Godoy

versus Tommy Siegler. Red Lions versus Frank the Alaskan Monty. Dory Dixon versus Mike the Alaskan York. Double main event. First, the champion. I won't name the championship. Crusher Stasiak versus Bearcat

Wright and the second main event Boris Melenko versus Red Bastine if Red Loses his mustache will be shaved off in the ring following the match

but if Boris loses then his manager Bronco Lubich will have his mustache shaved mustache versus mustache. Well I already knew we were in Texas, but you just stooged it. This is, it's the world-class or actually big-time wrestling, Fritz's company.

It's either Dallas or Fort Worth. We'll narrow that down in a second. Pedro Godoy, just, you know, he had a name on the card at that point. I think at one point he was one of the masked Russians. Tommy Siegler was a good-looking. guy that didn't have a long career in wrestling, but he was one of the guys that Barry Rose had in the fan club called the thrill seekers,

him and Rocky Johnson and God damn it, who was the other one, Brian? Help me. Oh, Rocky Johnson. Rocky Johnson, Tommy Siegler, and the fan club was the thrill seekers, and that's what I stole to name Storm and Jericho. Frank Monty and Mike Yorke. were the Alaskans.

Mike and Jay York were also the Alaskans and Jay York worked as an Alaskan by himself, but in the let's say 1973 to 1975 time period, it was Monty and York and they were in Tennessee

for a run. And this is where the time period we're at now, Billy Red Lyons, Dory Dixon, Stan Stajak and Bearcat Wright, Bearcat, right, showed up in Tennessee in 1975 of managing the Mongolian stomper.

I think he had heart issues or something as to why he quit wrestling. And Red Bastine, of course, tremendous baby face, Boris Melenko. I'm going to say this is the Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas, 1973. The date, Friday, August 11th, 1972

Houston, Texas. Houston? I thought that's what you were saying, I stooge myself up when I said there was such an extravagant gimmick for the Mellenco Red Nasty match. But I was just because of Bronco, because of Bronco Lubic, I knew that, you know, then we were in Texas,

but I thought Dallas in the Dallas office rather than Houston. Son of a guy. There's at least two different things here. again, in K-Fave, but considering what would end up happening, it's funny. One here about NWA lectures Funk Senior for obstructing title bouts. And the other one, Funk Family in an Uproar. When the National Wrestling Alliance criticized the tactics of Dory Funk Senior and the Funk family

in trying to avoid contracts, it caused an uproar amongst the Funk's. They wanted to fight everyone present without the title at stake. the smoke is not cleared and the turbulence is not subsided so no tangible results are available to announce but promoter Paul Bosch is striking while the funks are hot famously

getting awful funky in here famously I guess a year later right 73 yeah Paul Bosch thought he had the NWA title change where Jack Briscoe would defeat Dory Funk Jr. to win the championship.

And depending on whose side you believe, either Dory Funk Jr. had an accident on the farm with a tractor or the... No, he was driving his truck. He was driving a pickup truck. And supposedly went over the side of a gully wash and turned over in it. On the other side, some people think that the Fung's just decided we're not dropping the belt of Jack Briscoe. it's not going to happen. And that's when Harley race got his first title run.

Because Harley was the middleman. The fun, see, the Funk senior apparently did not want Dory to lose to another baby face, which is what Briscoe was everywhere except if he came to Texas. But at the same time, he knew that sooner or later, Dory was going to have to give it up. and also Harley was acceptable to all parties because the NWA knew that he would have a good match with Dory and he could probably take it if for some reason things went south in the ring.

He had the standing for the fans in their eyes to be a world champion. And they also knew that he'd turn around and put Jack Briscoe over two months later or whatever the fuck it was. In Houston. In Houston, where, and again, they had promised Bosch title change. And this is, Paul, the 70s and Paul Bosch and the NWA were always having problems with each other because either the champion wouldn't show up or his title change he was promised would get postponed or whatever the fuck. But anyway, that it worked out.

but yeah, there were pictures of Dory in a hospital bed with a sling in his arm and everything. But at the same time, that was easily done in those days sometimes. So nobody's ever really come to grips on 100% what the story was. If you ever see that famous photo of Jack Briscoe, when he won the belt, Harley Race is kind of on his knees, like looking incredulous.

He can't believe what just happened. Yeah. And Briscoe looks like he just had a really tough, match. Paul Bosch looks like he's having the time of his life. Yeah. He's having a party in the middle of this because he got the title change. Go see that photo. I mean, it's so funny. All right, Jim, let me hit you with this one. One more. I got to get this one. If you don't, you know, one more. Yeah, I mean, yeah, let's see how you do with this. The opening bout. Sound like you're all confident. Keith Franks.

Huh. Versus Yasu Fuji. The second bout. Ivan Krancovich from Croatia versus Jack Ruffin. The third contest? Susan Green versus Paula Kaye. We have a six-man tag team elimination bout.

Mike Kelly, Pat Kelly, and Jimmy Snooka. Oh! Versus Siegfried Stanky, Professor Lewis, and Scott. Dale Lewis, right? I believe so because it says 260 Atlanta, so I think that's who would be.

Yeah, Professor Dale Lewis. And Sky High Morse. Also, Jim, Dennis Stamp versus Gene Knesski. Good Lord. And finally, the main event for the World's Heavyweight Championship, Jack Briscoe versus Don Leo Jonathan. Oh, boy, okay, Keith Franks. would later become Adrian Adonis.

So this puts it, as does Briscoe being the champion, between 1973 and 1975. Jackie Ruffin was the son of Les Ruffin, who was a longtime promoter and wrestling personality in Cincinnati and that part of Ohio. Sue Green and Paul McKay were two of Moola's top girls at this time. The Kelly Twins and Snooka against Siegfried Stonke, Gene Lewis, and Sky High Morse.

I have no idea. Is there a picture of Sky High Morse? Do you know who it is? I don't know who it is, and there doesn't appear to be a picture in this program. In that case, I'm thinking that was something the Booker tried with somebody to didn't fucking work. Because I have no idea who that would have been.

Dennis Stamp obviously is noted for being from Amarillo and a close friend of the funk family and the guy that never got booked and beyond the mat. But he used to get booked when he was working. And because he's working Gene Kineski and in the main event, Donalio Jonathan challenging Brisco for the world title, that means we are either in the Pacific Northwest or Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. And because it's Snooka,

and I am remembering like I'm on Iron Chef, if memory serves me, one of Snooka's first pushes in a territory was the Portland territory for Don Owens. But at the same time, if this was a major event in Vancouver, which Knesski had part of the office then, and he obviously had pulled with the NWA, they would have used Oregon talent, or is this the Seattle, when they were running Seattle

about that time, and who was the goddamn promoter in Seattle? Help me, his name. Well, Dean Silverstone wasn't promoting their shows. Dean Silverstone, was he promoting yet? He was kind of opposition to the NWA. Yes. By the NWA's choice, I believe, I think Don Owen came after him pretty hard.

So, God damn it. Is it a big show in Seattle? It looks like it's, it would only be the Portland sports arena, and maybe it's big for that, or is it Van, it's Kineski's on a card, it's it, we're in Vancouver in 1974. Jim, it's a Thanksgiving Day spectacular.

Monday, October 13th, 1975. Wait a minute, what? Canadian Thanksgiving. Oh, Canadian Thanksgiving. Vancouver, British Columbia. All right, I got one year off and I got the town. All right.

Thanksgiving Day, October, whatever. You thought you're trying to bullshit me. I forgot they have one too. They have one. And with that, that is guest to program here this week. We have more guest to program very soon because we have a whole lot of more, A whole lot of more We got a whole lot of more programs over here

Just waiting to be All over my body I can't find my usual one But with that the drive-thru is closed Have I just a slide whistle Uh, where is my slide whistle Oh here it is All right

Good Lord Of course We'll be back next week here on the show And in a few days on the Jim Cornett experience don't forget, Cornets Collectibles at Jim Cornett.com. If you haven't ordered your book yet, do it, Jim. Cornett's Collectibles. Yes, they know already.

My God, it's going to take me weeks to sign all these books as it is. Please hurry, ladies and gentlemen, I want you to have a Merry Christmas. From Jimcornaet.com, of course, you can hear us on YouTube. Go to YouTube, search for Jim Cornett. It'll come right up the official Jim Cornett YouTube channel, full of episodes, Clips City episodes, Omnibus Collections, the very popular George Livonitis artwork, and so much more, the official. Jim Cornett, YouTube channel.

Don't forget, patreon.com slash cornet. For $5 a month to get access to the archive, going back to 2013, patreon.com slash cornet. The Wrestling News, each and every day, wherever you find your favorite podcast for free. Get your wrestling news from the morning wrestling newscast, the wrestling news.com, or wherever you find, your favorite shows. The Loves of Stephen P. News sponsors this show. 877-50, Steve.

Get even with Stephen. You hear that, Magnum? Get even with Stephen. Newlawoffice.com. But until... He's opening an action figure division, I heard. Until the party continues on the experience in a few days. And next week back here on the drive-thru for Jim Cornett,

I'm the great Brian last.