Jim Cornette

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"They used the Cornette Face on my All The Tropes page?"

Jim Cornette is one of the all time great and colorful wrestling managers, promoters and personalities of The Eighties and nineties. His instantly recognizable southern accent and angry motormouth have entertained fans for over three decades.

With signature tennis racket in hand, JC has managed many great tag teams and wrestlers, most notably the Midnight Express, Jeff Jarrett, Yokozuna and Vader. He has worked with or for nearly every major wrestling promotion in the United States, from WWE to NWA / WCW to TNA as well as running his own wrestling promotion, Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Now having ditched corporate wrestling, JC is now proudly employed with Ring of Honor.

Jim Cornette has become popular with many fans on the internet for his insightful and often acerbic profanity filled commentaries on the 'Who's Slamming Who' podcast.

He's also known for his love of Wendy's triple cheeseburgers and seething hatred of Vince Russo.

Jim Cornette provides examples of the following tropes:
  • Arch Nemesis - Vince Russo first and foremost. Others include John Laurinitis, Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn, Ed Fererra, Eric Bischoff, Bubba The Love Sponge and Kenny Bolin. All of these are in Real Life.
  • Ascended Meme - The Cornette Face, including a Word of God endorsement.
  • Berserk Button - Say you're at a booking meeting that he's attending. You suggest bringing in Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Scott Hall (and possibly Kevin Nash), give them all a main event push and sweep the undercard under the rug and/or giving them all stupid gimmicks. Please stand back and enjoy the fireworks.
    • Or just say something nice about Vince Russo. Actually, on second thought, don't do that. The building would probably collapse.
  • Big Eater - JC is a big fan of Wendy's and hamburgers in general, so much so that he's had to go on a diet in recent years, probably to avoid becoming a Fat Bastard. And so he can outlive Vince Russo, since his life goal now is to piss on the man's grave.
    • On the other hand, he isn't a big fan of Dairy Queen, as one can find out easily on YouTube.
    • He isn't a fan of a very specific Dairy Queen. He's noted he does enjoy it overall.
  • Catch Phrase - "Fuck this company!", "I hope you fucking die!", "You couldn't believe him if his tongue was notarized." among many others.
  • Caustic Critic - Diversol levels of caustic.
  • Chivalrous Pervert - Once said that he loved sick sex things, just not in wrestling.
  • Cluster F-Bomb - JC's commentaries on Who's Slamming Who. Also the visit to Dairy Queen.
  • Deep South/Sweet Home Alabama - Louisville, Kentucky. Where he resides in 'Castle Cornette'. His real life personality is somewhat of a subversion to this trope. While James E is a staunch traditionalist when it comes to wrestling, he is a non-republican, pro choice, pro health care and reform, Obama supporter and an atheist.
  • Doing It for the Art - Despite a fear of heights, he agreed to wrestle a scaffold match and take a 20 foot drop from said scaffold. Unfortunately, the wrestler assigned to catch him had mis-judged his position, and Cornette suffered severe knee injuries upon hitting the ground.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas - The unseen "Mama Cornette" from his early career.
  • Fat Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit - His on screen persona fits this to a T but in Real Life this is harshly adverted. Cornette has a strong sense of values and morality and is not afraid to stick up for the young talent.
  • Flip-Flop of God: Cornette will alternately take credit for the Three Way Match (aka Triple Threat or Triangle Match) or give it to Paul Heyman. The correct response? "One of us did it, the other one ripped it off, and now everyone does it."
  • Forced Meme: Botchamania forced the "Cornette Face" meme.
    • "Fuck this company!"
  • George Jetson Job Security
  • Hot-Blooded
  • Hidden Depths - A southern traditionalist fervently against the glitz and glamor of Sports Entertainment...that just happens to be an atheist liberal firebrand that's very internet savvy.
  • I Know Madden Kombat - The tennis racket.
  • Impossibly Tacky Clothes - Bright red on pink, bright red on blue, and pastels in every color combination imaginable. Plus his tennis racket was for some time fitted with a boa.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One - When Eric Bischoff called and said he's eaten too many Big Macs and was 241 lbs. in a 12 oz. sack, Jim said he eats Wendy's Triples and he's a slim 231.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Pretty much every time you hear Cornette in an interview, he's a loud-mouthed, vitriol-spewing f-bomb machine that will eat up every second of time he can to bash everyone he hates in wrestling. However, this is because he loves the business and can't stand that the younger generation is being stifled by older stars that hog the spotlight.
  • The Jimmy Hart Version - The Midnight Express Theme was take on Giorgio Morodor's 'The Chase'. In ECW they gave him the real song.
  • Kick the Dog - "I've got to go kick some puppies, kick the cat's milk over and treat people lousy the way I usually do."
  • The Last DJ
  • Motor Mouth
  • Nerd Glasses
  • Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught
  • Precision F-Strike - His Fuck You's of the week on Who's Slamming Who.
  • Power Stable - Camp Cornette which featured Yokozuna, Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and later Vader and then the NWA 'Invasion' with Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham, and the New Midnight Express.
  • Power Trio - With the Midnight Express, Owen Hart, Yokozuna and others.
  • Real Men Wear Pink - And just about every other pastel color imaginable.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech - Tends to give these out like sweets on Halloween to pretty much anybody who's crossed his path.

The pinnacle of this "icon" garbage came at last night's cage match between Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, to determine--in their minds only--who the real icon is. WCW had the gall to say "this is the greatest cage match in history," but it was only the greatest in three weeks since Hell in a Cell. But here you've got a 46-year-old bald movie star wannabe who looks like Uncle Creepy with a good build taking on a guy with an artificial hip that hasn't wrestled a full schedule in ten years. It's a tribute to the massive egotism (in my mind) of both men and an indictment of WCW promotional policies that this match even took place, much less being the main event, when the card was probably the best that WCW was capable of having! By the ten minute mark, they were sucking wind so bad the first three rows passed out of oxygen deprivation (would've been funny if it wasn't so sad). Well, I'm sick and damn tired of guys claim to be the "icon," especially when it usually comes from guys who just didn't know when to quit. Roddy Piper was my idol when I was a teenager, but that was twenty years ago. Hulk Hogan during his best years was 50% media creation, and those are long gone. This match was a slap in the face to every wrestler that takes pride in his profession! And in my mind, no one man is bigger than this sport, but if there is an icon, it would be a man who has great ability inside the ring and professionalism and maturity outside of it! Let's leave all the petty backstabbing, I-make-more-money-than-you BS with the hat-check girl, and concentrate on talent and attitude! The Undertaker, Ric Flair, and Steve Austin have never claimed to be icons, which means they're big candidates to be just that! And on a personal note to Hulk Hogan: you are a household word, but so is garbage; and it stinks when it gets old, too.

  • The Rival - Paul Heyman, in a more Worthy Opponent manner than some of his other rivalries, they respect each other as bookers, but aren't fond of each other as people.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man
  • Sissy Villain - Invoked this trope during his early career, wherein he talked about his (unseen) "mama Cornette" and how she apparently paid for his tennis lessons (which explained why he carried around a tennis racket)
  • This Is Gonna Suck - How he described the infamous 25 ft. scaffold match. "Boys...the University of Alabama Crimson Tide couldn't 'catch me like they catch the girls at the football games'..."
  • Ungrateful Bastard: He considers Dave Bautista this. Batista was pushed as the top guy during his run in Ohio Valley Wrestling, winning the OVW heavyweight title and going over such wrestlers as Kane and The Undertaker, and only doing the job a few times, once to Kane and on his way out to John Cena. Later in his career, Batista would run down his time in OVW, saying it was his Old Shame and disrespecting Cornette and Danny Davis. Cornette was furious.
  • Weapon of Choice - A tennis racket, usually kept inside a gaudy, fur-trimmed case.
  • You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses - Averted during his career as a mostly Heel manager. Comes with the territory.

"...fuck this company!"

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