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Jim Cornette Calls WWE Gimmick Overhaul “Worse Than The Red Rooster”

By TJR Staff • Published 9th July 2022
Jim Cornette at ringside

Jim Cornette has highlighted the talent of one WWE Superstar but says he is “embarrassed” for them after their recent gimmick change.

During his NXT run, LA Knight was a highlight of the show and had memorable feuds with the likes of Cameron Grimes and Grayson Waller. However, when the star was called up to the main roster as part of SmackDown, he’d undergone a complete character overhaul.

On the May 20th episode of SmackDown, LA Knight walked into Adam Pearce’s office and introduced himself as Max Dupri before proclaiming he was the CEO of the new modelling agency, “Maximum Male Models.” He revealed that his goal was to find a new generation of Superstars who would be just as comfortable headlining Paris Fashion Week as WrestleMania.

Then, on July 1st, he unveiled the first members of his group to the world, former RETRIBUTION star Mace and the Saudi Arabian star, Mansoor. The two will now be known as ma.çé [pronounced mass-ay] and mån.sôör̃ [pronounced man-soir].

On the latest edition of his podcast, Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru, the legendary wrestling manager hit out at the change, saying he felt embarrassed for Knight.

“It was Mansoor and Mace, and now it’s mån.sôör and ma.çé with Max Dupri (…) Where do I start? I was so embarrassed for – I met this guy when I did the NWA commentary and also he was in TNA when it was Global Force [Wrestling] and him talking as Eli Drake (…) when he was Eli Drake and later when he was LA Knight, he could talk, he was glib (…)

“In NXT there, he was experienced, he could work, they put him in with these other green guys to have good matches, he was a classic pro-wrestling style pro-wrestler (…) Whatever we saw on Friday night on SmackDown was the first time I’ve ever seen it.”

Jim Cornette went on to compare Max Dupri to a poorly received character of the past, saying the whole thing might be worse than the time Terry Taylor portrayed the Red Rooster.

“But the thing is, I was embarrassed and I felt bad for Eli/LA. Because he’s talented. This is worse than The Red Rooster. First of all, the fans, just this presentation, within seconds were ‘What-ing’ him out of the building. And the problem was, he is so uncomfortable at doing this.”

H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the above transcription.