Rassle Inn #3

Originally, this edition of Rassle Inn was going to have a (slightly) different focus.  Then time happened.  What can I say?  I can be as lazy as I am eloquent, which puts a sizeable crater in my pride.  Anyway, I was moved to write on a (slightly) different topic when I listened to the latest episode of Jim Cornette's podcast.  He reviewed AEW's Double or Nothing, and I wonder why I bothered.  I predicted - to the letter and to the magniloquent turn of phrase - what ol' Corny would say.  I knew which matches he would extol (two of them, basically), which matches he would execrate and which wrestlers he would verbally mangle.

So why did I listen?  For the same reason he hasn't been socially exiled despite saying all manner of controversial, near-deplorable (I'm being generous) things that classify as "over the fucking top."  He's funny!  Not to mention knowledgeable.  I don't agree with many of the claims he makes, or at least the way he makes them.  How about the Dana Brooke comments?  Most folks agree that men and women take plastic surgery too far.  In private quarters, most folks (yes, most) pellet aspersions onto others for their looks, especially celebrities.  Cornette mentioned that it seemed as if a mad pyromaniac had set fire to Dana's face and put it out with an axe.  Yep.

He doubled down, but the point is that this was one of his less infamous cracks.  With regards to the in-ring product, he fucking loathes All Elite Wrestling.  Hell, he has loathed Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks for years now.  I can't comment on personal dealings (every "star" could be a dickhole for all I know), but from where I'm sitting, his issues with their presentation of professional wrestling is easy to figure out.  The business evolved; Jim Cornette did not.

However, that doesn't mean that 100% of his ravings are rooted in falsehoods.  He is extremely old-school, yes, but his approach to booking and laying out a match does hold merit.  Tony Khan would do well to utilize some - some - of Corny's ideas.  I wish I had time to be more specific, but I don't.  I'll attempt to tie this up with one word.  It's a word I used in the first paragraph.  Pride!  For better or worse, Cornette is a prideful son of a bitch.  If he takes pro-wrestling too seriously every once in awhile, I can understand why.  For decades, it's the business that fed and supported his family.  He grew to love it.  After loving it, he became protective of it.  Makes sense.

Unfortunately, wrasslin' as it existed in 1985 does not exist anymore.  The same goes for 1995.  To be honest, Corny should probably shy away from annotating modern stuff, be it WWE or AEW.  Satan in heaven, I have to admit that the pull-apart brawl between Mike Tyson and Chris Jericho was godawful.  We don't need that shit to go viral.