Wrestling legend Jim Cornette has explained in his own inimitable way just how he would handle the backstage problems currently plaguing AEW.
The issues faced backstage in AEW are well known with suspensions following a physical altercation between the company’s executive vice presidents and former world champion following the All Out pay-per-view.
Jim Cornette has addressed the issues facing AEW on his Experience podcast and offered solutions to Tony Khan on how to fix them. The man who formerly booked and owned Smoky Mountain Wrestling says Khan’s first move should be to lean on the experience of former Head of Talent Relations in WWE, Jim Ross:
“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 did stop there and also took aim at AEW’s Chief Legal Officer Megha Parekh who was said to be with The Young Bucks when they turned up at CM Punk’s locker room door:
“Then I would see about a new legal head since Megha is in over hers. I’d tell Megha to go and p*ss up a rope, then I would get a legitimate male attorney that is 50 or 60 years old and has seen every goddamn thing in the world and is a f*cking barracuda when it comes to contracts and negotiations. Then I would put them in charge of my legal department because a guy like that is not going to be intimidated by wrestlers or want to make friends with them, either one is bad.”
“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.”
Cornette wound up his comments by explaining his final move would be to go and smooth over any issues with AEW’s broadcast partners but he doesn’t think this will be done as he doesn’t believe Tony Khan will make any of the changes he thinks are necessary:
“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.”
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