Kenny Omega believes Jim Cornette may have painted himself into a corner with his hateful comments on modern wrestling.
Cornette is regarded as one of the best heel managers of all time and managed some of the best heels of all time. He is probably best known for managing the Midnight Express and feuding with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. Starting in the wrestling business at a young age Jim Cornette has seen it all and had worked in a lot of the big name territories at the time like WCCW, Mid-South Wrestling, WCW and big current promotions including WWE, TNA/IMPACT and NWA. However, he is best known now for his very controversial statements on modern wrestling and wrestlers.
Jim Cornette has never shied away from his criticism of many of the top modern wrestlers including Kevin Owens weight, Young Bucks’ breaking kayfabe and Omega’s comedic spots.
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Omega recently made a statement on CEOGaming Twitch channel on Cornette and his fans called the “Cult of Cornette” due to their fanatical devotion to him and his opinions.
“I think Jim Cornette has backed himself up into a corner where, now, he’s found this group of extremely pathetic human beings who have no other thing to aspire to become, or no one to base their life off of, no one to listen to, no one to adhere to their commands,” Omega said. “And so, when it became a character that he could play as though he was still traveling up and down the strip in the indies, like back in the old days, now he’s got this group of people hanging off his every word. And all he has to do is sit and talk on a podcast with some other guy.
When he realized he could make money by delivering hateful speech, he backed himself into a corner and now, if he wants to make rent, if he wants to buy his fancy McDonald’s double cheeseburger meal, he has to talk about the things that are going to get attention and a lot of the time, that’s going to be your’s truly.”
H/T To Wrestling Inc. For Transcription
Wrestling Is Subjective
Wrestling is an art the same as acting, writing, sculpture or painting. The artist, or in this case the wrestlers, are telling a story or trying to elicit an emotion or series of emotions. Sometimes it doesn’t work and other times it does, but not for everyone. It is very subjective. However, Jim Cornette is making money on being hyper-subjective and hyper-critical of modern wrestling.
People listen to Jim Cornette for the hate and feed on it and the hate is what they want to hear. Wrestling fans have the wrestlers they hate or don’t get why they are so popular, myself included. However, when someone, in this case Cornette, shares the same opinion it validates their beliefs. It becomes an echo chamber for hate and builds up and up.
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However, because of this desire to feed into the negativity it forces Jim Cornette to be hyper-critical at all times and if he isn’t he may lose fans. I believe it is a character like Omega alluded to. The real Cornette is probably 50 percent hateful and he turns it up for the podcast.
Jim Cornette Commands An Amount Of Respect
It is easy to write off Cornette as a fan or a wrestler, especially an accomplished one. However, for younger wrestlers his opinions carry a lot of weight. This is because he accomplished a lot in wrestling, is well respected and was very good at what he did. Not all of his comments are off base and some are very true. It could be very hard for a younger wrestler to tell the difference and to not take his comments to heart.
Kenny Omega also talked about how Jim Cornette’s comments affect the AEW and I’m sure all wrestling locker rooms.
“That seeps into our locker room too. Yeah, it does,” Omega said. “Everyone is so afraid of the f*cking cult of Cornette army and people that have like, you know, anti-AEW sites that they want to be, they want to do whatever the f*ck they can to stay safe.”
I didn’t see a rebuttal to Omega’s statement about Cornette backing himself into a corner with his hateful speech. Maybe Cornette doesn’t want to break character.
Omega is currently out with injuries which kept adding up. We hope to see him return to the ring soon, but the last time he wrestled was in November when he lost the AEW World Championship to Adam “Hangman” Page. I’m sure when he does return Cornette will have plenty to say about it.
Are you a fan of Jim Cornette’s podcast? If so, why? Do you think his hyper-critical opinion and negativity has a place in wrestling? Do you share his opinion of modern wrestling and wrestlers? Let us know if you think Cornette backed himself into a corner and if you think his fans would stay if he was less hateful.
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Sources: CEOGaming, Wrestling Inc.
