Wrestling legend Jim Cornette has had his say on which WWE star he thinks Tony Khan should trade almost anybody that is All Elite for.
2021 has been a huge year for movement of talent between wrestling companies with WWE alone releasing over eighty of their stars during the year.
Among those former WWE Superstars that have become AEW staples are Ruby Soho, Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo, Bryan Danielson, Tony Nese, Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly. Mercedes Martinez became the latest name to add to that list when she made her surprise AEW debut at AEW New Year’s Smash attacking Thunder Rosa.
According to Jim Cornette, speaking on his Drive Thru podcast, AEW’s President Tony Khan should be moving heaven and earth to get one WWE star that doesn’t even compete in the ring:
“If I was Tony Khan, I would give Vince McMahon anybody for Paul Heyman. Tony has plenty of wrestlers, some of them are even good. A lot of Vince’s wrestlers, if you put them in Tony’s environment, they won’t be as over as they are in Vince’s, it’s different stylistically and the fanbase takes everyone different.”
“If I was Tony, I wouldn’t give away CM Punk or Bryan Danielson, but if I was Tony, I would say ‘Vince, you can have anyone else except for Punk and Danielson, but give me Heyman.’ What’s he’s got, not only do I not have and can’t get it anywhere else, nobody has got it.”
Cornette continued in his inimitable style saying Khan might have to worry about Heyman’s wrestling brain undermining his own position in the company:
“But then he would have to worry that Paul E in the next 18 months would take the company away from him. Now you are a local yokel working at the K-Mart, and you are dealing with an international broker. Paul would probably be adopted by Shahid Khan in 18 months and Tony would become an emancipated minor.”
“Except for the danger that Paul Heyman would take over the entire company, the one thing that Tony needs is above any other wrestlers is Paul Heyman’s brain. If Paul Heyman is still so interested in making a large amount of money or just the love of the game that he goes to these shows every week and flies to Saudi f*cking Arabia. One would think that if you said ‘OK Paul, come here and figure out what is wrong and fix everything.’”
“He’s the closest one I can think of to a wrestling doctor that would give a sh*t and would want to fix stuff.”
As far as who Jim Cornette could see moving in the opposite direction if such a trade was ever a possibility, he suspects WWE could have one eye on the future:
“Well, they would have to ask for some of their property back. Anybody worth a sh*t, they have probably had them. Would you go for a pick that would make a difference not now but down the road? Then you enter the MJFs or the Powerhouse Hobbs, but that’s a long shot.”
“Punk would be a benefit to their program, but he don’t want to be there and they don’t want him there, because they hate him. Danielson was just there but left on purpose. For Vince to get somebody from AEW, it would have to be one of the young guys. It wouldn’t be Darby Allin, because he wouldn’t fit.”
Paul Heyman could well be looking for a job after he was “fired” by Roman Reigns as Special Counsel on SmackDown recently, although reports state that Heyman may not be missing from WWE TV for long.
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