Jim Cornette Critical Of AEW For Celebrating ECW
Jim Cornette doesn’t appreciate the narrative playing out on AEW programming that appears to be painting ECW in a positive light.
Extreme Championship Wrestling was arguably the most famous hardcore wrestling promotion of the past four decades. From the wrestlers it showcased to the show’s overall aesthetic, ECW presented itself as a true alternative to the biggest established promotions like WWE and WCW
But ECW was a controversial promotion for many reasons, and many of those controversies prevented the company from staying afloat after the Monday Night Ward ended and couldn’t stop WWE from buying the company outright in 2001.
Jim Cornette questions AEW’s insistence on wrestlers defending ECW
Even though ECW closed over two decades ago, some within AEW still see value in that brand, to the point that mentioning it in anything but a positive light is cause for boos from the audience.
This was on display in the 199th episode of Dynamite when Jack Perry took shots at ECW’s legacy, which prompted current AEW coach and former ECW wrestler Jerry Lynn to confront him.
Speaking on the Jim Cornette Experience, Cornette thinks it doesn’t make sense for a current young wrestler to be trying to get cheap heat by running down a long-defunct promotion, and he thinks worse of someone in the company having to come down and defend it.
“What is the big demo? ‘Uncle Dave’s demo’ that he likes so much? [Brian – 18-49, the key demo] okay. ECW paved the way. What was it now? 27 years ago. So, nine years of that demo wasn’t born.
It’s Tony being a 90s f***ing Attitude Era Monday Night Wars ECW garbage match mark. I like Jerry Lynn. That’s the thing. Is this really a hot button issue to inflame people’s emotions that Jack Perry is running down ECW? Not only another wrestling promotion, but a wrestling promotion that went out of business 22 years ago.
And Jerry Lynn, who is a producer for AEW, the company that’s doing this television production, has to come out to take up for it.”
The segment in question led to another showdown between Jack Perry and Jerry Lynn on the 200th episode of Dynamite. However, since Lynn has been retired from in-ring competition since 2013, he found someone else for Perry to wrestle, that being Rob Van Dam.
h/t Inside The Ropes