Jim Cornette - Career

Career

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Cornette always loved wrestling, reportedly installing a ten-foot antenna on top of his house as a youth so he could watch as much regional wrestling as possible. He began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, magazine correspondent, and public relations correspondent. In 1982, promoter Jerry Jarrett made the 21-year-old Cornette the manager of Sherri Martel and gave Cornette the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match. The most notable wrestlers in this angle were Dutch Mantell and Crusher Broomfield (who would later gain fame as The One Man Gang and Akeem, The African Dream).

In 1983 he managed a trio of wrestlers in Nashville consisting of Carl Fergie, Norman Fredrich Charles III, and the Angel, a trio that he called the "Cornette Dynasty". At the end of 1983 he would take on his best-known role becoming the frontman for the Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton, and later Stan Lane). With Cornette as manager, the team were 2-time National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag Team Champions and 2-time NWA United States Tag Team champions. As a manager, Cornette was known for both his loud mouth and for his ever-present tennis racket, which Cornette often used to ensure victory for his wrestlers, with the implication that the racket case was loaded. Cornette was at his best as a heel manager; fans loved to see the constantly yelling Cornette and his equally annoying charges beaten and humiliated. He and the Midnights were so hated, in fact, that they had to be escorted by police to and from the ring at the house shows and have a police escort to the city limits for fear of being attacked by overzealous fans. Additionally, Cornette suffered serious injuries to his knee during a scaffold match between the Midnight Express and the Road Warriors at Starrcade '86; when dropping to the mat from the edge of the 20 ft. high scaffold, Cornette didn't allow his legs to buckle quickly enough because he hoped to have a waiting Big Bubba Rogers there to cushion his fall. Rogers was supposed to catch Cornette in mid-air, preventing any damage. But because Rogers was wearing sunglasses he misjudged his position in the ring. Cornette actually landed three feet away from the man who was supposed to catch him and ended up blowing out one of his knees when it folded inwards. Cornette, who is legitimately afraid of heights, later said that he knew he might get seriously hurt when he was told he'd have to fall off a scaffold, but that performing in front of such a large audience was more important than his own health. Cornette would later recall the incident in a shoot interview.