Jim Cornette Discusses Who Could Solve AEW Backstage Problems

Jim Cornette has gone in to some detail as to what he steps AEW need to take if they’re going to steady the ship and smooth out their backstage issues – seeing one man as having a key role.

The news of the backstage altercations following All Out and its intense media scrum have become widespread, with several championships vacated and wrestlers put on suspension. It’s also been suggested by many that there’s no way back to the company for former AEW World Champion CM Punk.

In a discussion on his The Experience podcast, wrestling legend and former owner of Smokey Mountain Wrestling Jim Cornette has broken down the steps he feels need to be taken if Tony Khan is to keep the networks happy. The first of these is to bring Jim Ross in to a role was very familiar with in WWE, Head Of Talent Relations.

Bring Jim Ross in and put him in charge of talent relations. See who else is mad at who and how it can be fixed. Immediately, regardless of if they ever come back or if they f*ck off forever, do not let the executive vice presidents be executive vice presidents anymore. No wrestlers with any type of office affiliation. If they want to leave over that, then help them carry their bags over to the f*cking car.

With Punk, yes he has been pushed and coerced and instigated, provoked, etc. But still, you got to do something because he buried Tony at the press conference, saying all of that in front of him, and of course, Tony buried himself by not doing anything about it in private. But Punk is going to be out for 8 months, so that is punishment enough right there. He is punishing the company, and he sure as hell isn’t gonna wanna sit at home and recover from another surgery.

And also it is going to punish the company because they are not going to have Punk for ratings or for pay-per-view buy rates.

After I put Jim Ross on the case of who else is going to try and strangle each other, and make sure that everybody’s contracts that I want to keep for the future are not only written properly but still have time on them. Then I would get Jim Ross and a few other people there, the William Regals of the world. I would get their opinions to find out which person or persons might be good to start booking the show with absolutely no input from Tony Khan.

And they would be in charge of booking, writing the show formats, and working with them to make a cohesive television programme from week to week that would start getting people over and building issues that you want to see instead of bringing people in from all over the place and you never see them again and it doesn’t make sense.

Then someone is a heel one week and they are a babyface the next. ‘I like this guy’s costume, so I will let him go 20 minutes in the main event…’ or whatever the f*ck.

Jim Cornette continued, saying that he would have an overhaul of senior executives so that they were not so closely integrated with the talent, and then Tony Khan himself would have to take one big step which he feels would be the stumbling block in the whole issue.

So far, everyone I have seen in power that was not in the wrestling business before either wants to be friends with the wrestlers or is intimidated by them, neither one is a good thing. So, once I have revamped my talent relations department, I have revamped my booking team, and I have revamped my legal department to make sure that the f*cking legal head is not with the people storming my top star’s locker room.

Then I would go to my network and I would say that I have taken all the steps to make sure that the sh*tshow that happened a couple of weeks ago never happens again, especially on your network. Okay, he says ‘Well I suspended everybody.’ ‘Well you did but the horse left the barn before you did, what are you going to do to make sure that it doesn’t happen again?’ That is what the network is going to say.

[Tony Khan should say] ‘I’ve got a new head of talent relations, I’ve got a new creative team, I’ve got a new head of legal. I’m stepping back, experienced people are in charge, and we are going to have a cohesive programme here on out where either everybody is getting along, or they are out the door.’ That is what you tell the network. But he can’t, because he is not doing any of those things.

Amidst the chaos The Young Bucks were two of the men suspended by AEW, and Jim Cornette has also assessed their chances of making a move to WWE.

With thanks to Inside The Ropes for the transcription.