Jim Cornette Talks Past Heat With WWE, What He Said To Vince McMahon When He Returned, WWE HOF
Earlier this year, Jim Cornette made his first WWE appearance in 12 years when he inducted The Rock 'n' Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame. He recently joined the Talk Is Jericho podcast and discussed his return to the company for the special occasion.
Cornette has a long history with The Rock 'n' Roll Express, which consisted of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, dating all the way back to the early part of their careers in Mid-South Wrestling. He said when he got the call asking if he was available to induct them into the Hall of Fame, he put aside any animosity he felt towards the WWE.
"They called me from that infamous '203' area code, which usually when you see that you are either fired or hired, and it was a gentleman from Talent Relations asking if I could do it," Cornette said. "I couldn't be the prick in that instance and say that I didn't want to to do and that I was mad at them, besides, many people that I was mad at are out of the way."
He said he enjoyed his experience during WrestleMania weekend. He didn't have to deal with anyone he had previous issues with and even had a cordial run-in with Vince McMahon himself. It was a case of distance making the heart grow fonder.
"It was great. Everybody treated me fantastic, and I didn't have a problem with any of the boys, or production people. I even saw Vince McMahon. He said to me, 'Welcome home, Corny. I know you haven't always felt like it's your home.' I said, 'Well Vince, I never had words with you, but several people who worked immediately underneath you,'" Cornette said. "It's like the difference between a guest in your home who you treat well and bring out the best liquor and the good food and everything and your drunk brother in law that is sleeping in the spare room. When you are there all the time and you are under foot they don't treat you as nice, but when you come in every 10-15 years and pop in and out. It's like, how can I miss you if you won't go away?"
Cornette explained that his previous issues with the company stemmed from his time as lead booker of OVW, the WWE's developmental brand at the time. He said that he had ill feelings towards the company for a long time over how he was treated, but he's passed that now.
"Well, I don't want to say mad, but there was 'heated' exchanges back in the closing days of OVW when I said that I was running our own business there in OVW and they said, no, we are running their storage closet.," Cornette said. "They didn't actually say that, but that was how they treated it. I thought we should be able to do whatever we wanted since we were paying the bills and signing the leases and they thought we should do whatever they wanted to do with our business.
"I was looking at it like as running a territory that was contracted to train and give development to the WWE talent," he continued. "As they got their hooks further and further into us–there was times when they would pay us not to do business with people they were mad at."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.