Jim Cornette Recalls 2017 Hall Of Fame Appearance
Legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette has recalled his brief return to WWE in 2017 when he inducted The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express into the WWE Hall Of Fame.
Cornette has never been afraid to speak his mind and in the past has notably taken aim at WWE figures including Kevin Dunn, John Laurinaitis, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, and Shawn Michaels to name but a few. So the prospect of the outspoken podcaster appearing on WWE programming with a live microphone naturally raised questions about what might go down.
Speaking exclusively to Inside The Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh for issue 4 of Inside The Ropes magazine, Jim Cornette addressed whether he felt any apprehension to how he might be received:
“No. I didn’t care, because I figured that if they didn’t want me there, they wouldn’t have called me.”
“They called me and said, ‘Do you want to induct Ricky [Morton] and Robert [Gibson] into the Hall Of Fame?’ If they’d called me and said, ‘Do you want to come and appear on TV?’ I would have said: ‘No.’ ’Cause I didn’t. But how could I be a pr*ck and say that I didn’t want to induct The Rock ’N’ Roll Express into the Hall Of Fame? I said that I would sign something, a release, for just that night, but there [had] to be no Legends contract involved, no long-term thing or other appearances covered. That was [the agreement]. When I got there, I didn’t know whether I would see Stephanie [McMahon] or Triple H or not. They came up to me at the Axxess thing. [We had a] handshake and hug. Well, why not? But, otherwise, I was going to induct The Rock ’N’ Roll Express.”
Jim Cornette then spoke about the people that he did get to spend more time and was happy to see, and one person he just decided it would be best to breeze right by:
“I saw a bunch of guys: I got to hang out with Bradshaw and Ron Simmons in the locker room at the Hall Of Fame thing that we had. Teddy Long told some great stories. I saw a variety of people that I really do like and enjoy being around. I saw Kevin Dunn in the hallway. He looked at me, I looked at him. I walked right past him and he didn’t say a word to me. And that’s exactly the way it was supposed to be. I mentioned that I would be professional, but I wasn’t going to f*cking speak to that pr*ck . . . They weren’t going to beat me up or they wouldn’t have asked me to be there.”
Jim Cornette recently paid tribute to his friend and former Midnight Express member Bobby Eaton after his untimely death at the age of 62. Cornette also took time to thank AEW President Tony Khan for the company’s own tribute to the illustrious ‘Beautiful’ Bobby.