James Mark "Jim" Cornette was born on September 17,1961 and is an American author and podcaster who has previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler.
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Jim Cornette is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history, due to his extraordinary mic skills.
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Jim Cornette has had an extensive commentary career, most recently serving as a color commentator for Major League Wrestling, What Culture Pro Wrestling, and the National Wrestling Alliance.
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Jim Cornette is a member of the NWA, Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Memphis, and Professional Wrestling Hall of Fames.
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Jim Cornette is noted for his long-standing real-life feud with former professional wrestling booker Vince Russo; in June 2017, Russo filed a restraining order against Jim Cornette for stalking.
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Jim Cornette began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, timekeeper, magazine correspondent, and public relations correspondent.
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Jim Cornette made his ringside debut on September 25,1982, managing Sherri Martel, who herself would later become a wrestling manager.
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Jim Cornette was given the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match.
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Mid-South Wrestling had at that point been a territory featuring bigger wrestlers, and Jim Cornette has stated that The Midnight Express, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, and himself were probably the five smallest members of the roster when he arrived.
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Jim Cornette has stated he had seen a college movie at the time with an obnoxious rich kid carrying a badminton racquet with him, so he decided on a tennis racquet.
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At times Jim Cornette loaded the racquet with a horse shoe to guard against aggressive fans.
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Jim Cornette was enraged afterwards when Bill Watts replayed the incident on TV as he thought it was funny.
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In following weeks, the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette attacked and bloodied Watts leading him to come out of retirement.
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The stipulations were simple; if the Midnights won Jim Cornette would run Mid-South Wrestling for 60 days; if they lost, Jim Cornette would be stripped down and forced to wear either a diaper or a dress.
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Jim Cornette has consistently acknowledged that Bill Watts's philosophy of believable and credible wrestling, with an unwavering emphasis on toughness, athleticism and serious presentation, has had a major impact on how he thinks the business should be promoted.
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Jim Cornette has described the promotion as a military school for wrestling, where Watts' strict enforcement of kayfabe, exhausting travel schedule and passionate fans made it a learning experience like no other.
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Jim Cornette maintains enormous respect for Watts as a promoter, citing his ability to attract huge TV ratings and consistently sold-out arenas in a low population area, and describing Watts as a genius.
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At one point Jim Cornette worked 103 days straight before being ordered by doctors to have two to four weeks' bed rest.
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Midnight Express with Jim Cornette had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics.
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Jim Cornette later reflected that they were willing to give Dallas a try, as they welcomed living in a modern city, as well as the easier travel schedule when compared to Mid-South.
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Jim Cornette was at his best as a heel manager; fans loved to see the constantly yelling Jim Cornette and his equally annoying charges beaten and humiliated.
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Additionally, Jim Cornette suffered a severe knee injury during a scaffold match between The Midnight Express and The Road Warriors at Starrcade '86.
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Condrey, Eaton, and Jim Cornette discussed an alternative: Big Bubba Rogers, another wrestler of Jim Cornette's, would catch the manager.
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However, as Rogers was wearing dark sunglasses inside the arena he misjudged his position and Jim Cornette actually landed flat on his feet, three feet away from Rogers.
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Jim Cornette tore all the ligaments in one of his knees, broke a bone and damaged the cartilage.
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The injury was so extensive that when Jim Cornette finally saw a doctor to have the knee drained, the amount of blood and fluid filled an entire bedpan.
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Jim Cornette later said that he knew he might get seriously hurt when he was told he would have to fall off a scaffold, but that performing in front of such a large audience was more important than his own health.
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In January 1993 Jim Cornette briefly returned to World Championship Wrestling when WCW was doing a talent trade with Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
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Jim Cornette objected since he claimed that they weren't dressed for it, but the match still took place.
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The Express won the match by DQ when Eaton interfered in the match, and after the match while Lane held Morton, Jim Cornette put his tennis racket over Morton while Eaton delivered his "Alabama jam" on Morton.
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Jim Cornette then struck referee Nick Patrick, and then Jim Cornette helped his men beat up the Express.
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When Jim Cornette pulled the sheet off, it was Arn Anderson, Eaton's former tag team partner in The Dangerous Alliance, who was underneath; Jim Cornette then fell over in shock.
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Jim Cornette belittled Anderson and claimed that his men were far superior to him.
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When Jim Cornette climbed onto the ring apron and began to argue with the referee, the Express won the match by pinfall when an illegal outside attempt from Eaton, who had since come back to the ring failed.
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Firm believer in "old-school" territorial wrestling, Jim Cornette began the Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion in 1991.
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The move did not help the federation's finances, and Jim Cornette closed SMW's doors in November 1995 and sold all SMW rights and videos to the WWF.
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Jim Cornette later said that he chose the wrong time to start a wrestling federation because the business as a whole was in a recession.
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Jim Cornette went to the World Wrestling Federation in 1993 while still serving as promoter of SMW.
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Jim Cornette joined the WWF full-time in 1996 after the demise of SMW, and had a major role in scouting and developing new talent.
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At any given time, Jim Cornette's charges consisted of Yokozuna, Mantaur, Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog.
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Jim Cornette served as the manager of Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray during their brief stint in the WWF.
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In 1997, Jim Cornette became a member of the WWF announce team where he served as a color commentator.
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Jim Cornette became active behind the scenes working on the booking committee for several years before being removed after frequently butting heads with writer Vince Russo.
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Jim Cornette was part of the television production staff during this time but eventually left this position as well due in part to constant conflict with both Russo and producer Kevin Dunn.
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Jim Cornette later recounted that things came to a head in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the summer of 1997.
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Jim Cornette was eventually forced to apologize to Dunn for his actions.
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In 1998, Jim Cornette led an NWA invasion, based on the old Crockett Promotions territory, with a stable including Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham and The Rock 'n' Roll Express.
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Later that year, Jim Cornette managed Dan Severn and a new version of The Midnight Express before he stepped back from managing.
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Jim Cornette then did some color commentating, primarily on Sunday Night Heat, before disappearing from television.
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In 1999, Jim Cornette became lead booker and part-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE's lead developmental territory at the time, run by "Nightmare" Danny Davis.
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WWE credits Jim Cornette with helping foster numerous successful superstars including John Cena, Dave Bautista, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar.
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In May 2005, Jim Cornette was suspended for several weeks by WWE after slapping OVW developmental wrestler Anthony Carelli backstage after Carelli had "no-sold" fellow wrestler The Boogeyman by laughing at him during a live OVW event.
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Shortly after Jim Cornette returned from his suspension, a separate incident occurred and the WWE released him from his contract in July 2005.
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In 2006, Jim Cornette joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as the new face of TNA Management.
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Jim Cornette has said that he was released because he was not "100 percent" behind TNA's creative team, headed by Vince Russo.
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In 2009, Jim Cornette signed a contract with Ring of Honor to be their Executive Producer for the Ring of Honor Wrestling show on HDNet.
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On September 8,2010, Ohio Valley Wrestling announced that Jim Cornette would resume his duties as the head booker of the promotion.
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Jim Cornette left OVW in November 2011, when the promotion announced a working agreement with TNA.
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On October 6,2016, Jim Cornette made his first appearance doing color commentary in two years, debuting for What Culture Pro Wrestling at their Refuse to Lose event in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
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Jim Cornette would be joined on the announce team by his long-time friend Jim Ross, who he had not done commentary with in over fifteen years.
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Jim Cornette then provided commentary for their next event True Legacy, which took place a few days later.
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Jim Cornette returned to WCPW at their April 1,2017 State of Emergency event.
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Jim Cornette was featured in an episode of the WWE Network Original series Table For 3 alongside Eric Bischoff and Michael Hayes.
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Since then, Jim Cornette made another appearance for WWE, starring in an episode of the WWE Network Original Series Photo Shoot in March 2018.
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Jim Cornette returned to Impact Wrestling, which had formerly been known as TNA, and was attempting to rebrand as Global Force Wrestling, on August 17,2017, at Destination X and fired Bruce Prichard.
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Jim Cornette made the decision to book Low Ki as the twentieth entrant in the GFW World Heavyweight Championship gauntlet match.
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Jim Cornette had been brought in by Jeff Jarrett and the original agreement only included one set of tapings.
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Jim Cornette was joined on commentary by Tony Schiavone for the main event NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes.
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Jim Cornette returned to the promotion for the NWA's Crockett Cup tournament on April 27,2019.
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Jim Cornette had previously made the same comment on commentary during the March 6,1995 episode of Monday Night Raw.
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Jim Cornette then returned to the commentary desk for their April 2019 events, Rise of the Renegades and Battle Riot II.
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Jim Cornette has criticized the physical appearance of wrestlers; for example Marko Stunt's height or Kevin Steen and Joey Janela's weight.
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Jim Cornette has garnered some support from industry personalities including former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, who wrote an article for Flagged Sports defending Jim Cornette and his position as NWA commentator after a separate article asked promoters to stop hiring him.
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Jim Cornette worked with writer Vince Russo in the WWF during the 1990s and in TNA during the 2000s, and regularly conflicted with him due to his views on the business, which emphasize entertainment storylines over actual in-ring action to the point of intense hatred on Jim Cornette's part.
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Jim Cornette has criticized Russo publicly since his departure from TNA in 2009, which Jim Cornette has stated was a result of his lack of support for Russo's creative direction in the company.
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Russo vs Jim Cornette rivalry was prominently featured in Viceland's Dark Side of the Ring episodes covering the Montreal Screwjob and WWF's Brawl for All, which aired in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
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All Elite Wrestling executives The Young Bucks have accused Jim Cornette of being a shock jock who says disparaging things about the company to get listeners for his podcast.
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Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter agreed with the shock jock characterization, said Jim Cornette had engaged in hate speech and had influenced a fan that tried to run into an AEW ring in July 2021.
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AEW commentator Jim Cornette Ross defended him and referred to him as a "Kentucky-fried Howard Stern" but said he had always had outspoken views and that he just has a bigger platform now.
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Jim Cornette had previously described himself as a Democrat and acknowledged having voted for Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
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On December 17,2017, Jim Cornette stated that he is a democratic socialist.
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In March 2018, Jim Cornette voiced his support for the March for Our Lives rally; he made additional statements advocating for gun control and criticizing the NRA.
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Jim Cornette is an atheist and is highly critical of religion.
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Jim Cornette has a criminal record which includes a number of assaults, mostly stemming from incidents involving fights with fans who attacked him while he was a manager in the 1980s.
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