Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru Episode 77
Release date: Dec. 17, 2018
Recap by: Paul Briody
Top stories/moments of interest:• Brian Last asks Jim Cornette listener questions about current wrestling and wrestling history with great chemistry between the two.
0:00 – Intro. Jim’s burnt out after a busy festive period for Cornette’s Collectibles At www.jimcornette.com. Also includes a South Park discussion, which is always appreciated! Jim’s rendition of their Unfulfilled song displays his impressive memory.
10:29 – Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey didn’t synchronise their ring attire yet Bobby and Stan Lane often did, can Jim elaborate on this? Jim: “It was advancements in The Midnight Express’s disposable income and wardrobe functioning.” Jim talks about being ghosted by a seamstress prior to their Crockett debut, who they’d paid a lot of money to, and Dennis having some choice words for her. In their early days it was often a case of “what do we got that don’t stink“ but as they made more money they could afford more options.
15:05 – Does being a southpaw pose much of a problem in wrestling? Not really but it’s something to take into consideration. Interesting discussion about momentum flow within a match and how leading with the left arm can change things. Hulk Hogan used to do vertical suplexes on “the left side”, Jim: “That would’ve scared the s*** out of me.”
18:05 – In the territory days how would it be handled if a homesteading babyface turned heel and afterwards it became apparent that he couldn’t “call a match”? The fact that heels called the match wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule, it was just the usual way of doing things. Jim talks about Koko Ware in Memphis turning heel and being tremendous in-ring but referring to veteran babyfaces like Jerry Lawler to call their matches.
26:39 – Carl Fergie came into Mid South Wrestling as ‘the king’ but soon transitioned to a referee, did Bill Watts force this upon him? Jim: “He didn’t necessarily go down there with the thought of being a referee but Watts didn’t force him because he went down there with the thought of partaking in a paycheck.” Fergie was Jerry Lawler’s cousin and Lawler was scheduled to make a few future appearances on Mid South TV so it’s understandable that they dropped the king gimmick. He would’ve been making better money refereeing in Mid South than wrestling in Memphis.
30:12 – During a promo in SMW in 1993, Robert Fuller mimes putting a gun to his head before saying “I’m not going to do the ‘Von Erich thing’”, what was Jim’s reaction at the time and was there any blow back? Jim confirms he didn’t know about the comment in advance. Jim: “That was promos in those days, s*** got said, what can I say?” and “any time you see a crowd shot on Smoky Mountain Wrestling something looked phoney in the ring.” Interesting tidbit. Jim talks about not re-shooting promos in SMW due to not wanting to smarten the crowd up and telling New Jack to “go out and make white people mad… but obviously don’t say anything that’ll get us kicked off television.” Jim tells the story about have to re-shoot Al Snow’s debut match in SMW against George South due to time mismanagement on Al’s behalf.
37:30 – What are Jim’s thoughts on the current Impact? Corny recently watched the Impact Twitch special from an independent show “in a dark f*****’ barn” featuring “a completely grotesque, unprofessional fat f***” who’s “such a f*****’ corpulent, obese piece of s***, just a human f*****’ water bed” and “they were just doing slow motion bulls*** comedy wrestling.”
Jim: “Since Impact Wrestling decided to put their f*****’ name on that then they own it and they’re responsible for it so from me: f*** you!” Funny rant. A personal favourite was “making Haystacks Calhoun look like Tiger Mask… f*** that whole god**** thing.” I think it’s safe to say Jim’s not a fan of some of Impact’s recent creative decisions. Jim (to Impact): “Just get out of the f******’ way at this point… why would you want to be involved with Impact Wrestling if that’s the kind of s*** they’re putting out and validating?” Fair question.
43:45 – What are Jim’s thoughts on ‘Nature Boy’ Paul Lee and why doesn’t he stoke Jim’s ire when Kenny Omega and David Arquette do? Jim: “I don’t know the thought process behind equating somebody wrestling blow-up dolls and nine year old girls and f*****’ doing phoney blatant bulls*** in a ring to make a mockery of the wrestling business and a guy who’s whole gimmick is that he claims he’s the real ‘Nature Boy’ instead of the one that everybody knows as the real guy and he still goes out and has f******’ matches where he attempts to try to look like the s*** he’s doing is real.” Jim cusses Paul Heyman for being at Trump rally!
47:28 – Why was Bobo Brazil’s October 1962 NWA title win over Buddy Rogers not recognized by the NWA and is this why Ron Simmons is recognised as the first African American world champion and not Bobo? Jim: “Well, no, it’s because no one remembers Bearcat Wright either.” The finish of the Bobo/Rogers match featured Rogers going for a leapfrog, Bobo headbutting him “in the nuts” and Rogers being able to continue but Bobo, being a babyface, wouldn’t accept the victory. It was one of Rogers’ “creative finishes to not get beat but not beat the babyface.” Good spit-ball title lineage discussion centred on the Buddy Rogers era. Jim: “For a guy who didn’t want to ever do any jobs he was responsible for a lot of shady title switches” with Brian adding: “Everywhere he went he caused trouble.”
52:59 – Great Antonio discussion. Jim: “He was this giant f******’ freaky looking f***… big fat guy… he never wrestling anywhere for long because he was apparently so spectacularly s***** that you could never really see him and want to come back and see him again.” They then talk about Antonio Inoki getting frustrated at his lack of selling and “shooting on him” during a match.
55:53 – Brian suggests an interesting comparison between Buddy Rogers in 1961/2 Shawn Michaels in the mid-90s. Jim: “Well Shawn Michaels was playing checkers and Buddy Rogers was playing chess.” Rogers was trying to manipulate the business on a much more cerebral level than Michaels, to the point that Jim considers Kevin Nash (without the in-ring) as being a better comparison to Rogers. Good stuff, so effortlessly informative.
58:33 – What are Jim’s memories of working in Homer, Louisiana, where wrestling events have recently been banned by the athletic commission. Why?! Jim: “Now I would like to ask some questions. Why did they ban? What the? Just ban events? It’s that kinda town!” Whenever Jim worked the (around 800 capacity) rec center in Homer there was almost a riot every time, the Cajun accents were heavy and the locker room was “just a brick holding cell with not even a window.” Jim talks about being involved in an altercation there after an irate fan threw a full beer can at Dennis Condrey (who ducked and beat him up) and being saved by the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. Sounds like a pretty wild, unsafe place to work and Jim didn’t like going there!
1:04:33 – A follow-up on the New Age Dog! He’s a local wrestler in Marshal, Texas who runs small, poorly attended shows.
1:05:06 – In a shoot interview Erik Watts claimed he threw Rick Rude around “like a rag doll” in a WCW locker room in front of Sting and Vader, can Jim shed any light on this? Jim: “‘Throwing around like a rag doll’ does not compute” but they may have had a friendly catch bout where Erik scored a point on Rude.
1:06:44 – What are Jim’s favourite Christmas movies/specials? A Charlie Brown Christmas and How The Grinch Stole Christmas for specials and It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, and Holiday Inn (1942) for movies with an honourable mention to Christmas Vacation.
1:09:08 – Funny outro featuring Brian’s quip about co-hosts sending nudes which long time listeners of the show will get.
Plugs: Twitter: @TheJimCornette, @GreatBrianLast #CornyDriveThru; CornyDriveThru@gmail.com; JimCornette.com; tinyurl.com/officialcornyyoutube; 605pod.com; kfrpod.com; the law offices of Stephen P. New: newlawoffice.com, Arcadian Vanguard Podcasting Network.
Rating: 7.9
Timestamps:
10:29 – Midnight ring attire synchronicity
15:05 – Southpaws in wrestling
18:05 – Koko Ware
26:39 – Carl Fergie
30:12 – Robert Fuller and SMW TV editing
37:30 – Impact
43:45 – Nature Boy Paul Lee
47:28 – Bobo Brazil/Buddy Rogers/Great Antonio
58:33 – Homer, Louisiana
1:06:44 – Christmas movies/Outro
About Paul:
I’m just a guy, from England, who watches wrestling and listens to podcasts!
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