Though they haven’t always seen eye to eye, Kevin Nash opened up about the time he found respect for Jim Cornette.
In 1996, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were about to depart the WWE for a new contract with WCW. At their final appearance in Madison Square Garden, Nash – then appearing as Diesel – took on Shawn Michaels in the main event, and Hall had wrestled a young Hunter Hearst Helmsley earlier in the night.
The event is infamous for ending in a so-called “curtain call” where Nash, Hall, Helmsley, and Michaels embraced and took a bow after the match, breaking kayfabe as babyfaces and heels appeared together.
Speaking on the debut edition of his Kliq This podcast, Kevin Nash spoke about the infamous event, maintaining that the group wasn’t trying to do anything to hurt the wrestling business with the incident.
“Yeah, my whole thing is this. So if you’ve ever watched that thing in its entirety. I take the superkick, I sell it. Shawn walks out of the cage, touches the floor and comes back in and I’m still selling it. He bends over like smacks me around, I think he bends down and kisses me on the forehead. I still sell the superkick.
“Down comes Scott and Paul, I’m still selling the superkick they get me to my feet. I staggered to the corner, I’m still selling. Because I mean I’m just breaking kayfabe like a motherf*cker as I sell my way to the corner. That’s why the first hug when you see that photograph, we’re all in that f*cking turnbuckle because I was using the turnbuckle to keep myself up.”
Jim Cornette has famously been critical of the Curtain Call, saying that the breaking of kayfabe on that occasion was unacceptable and disrespectful to both Vince McMahon and his father who built the company before him, especially as it took place in Madison Square Garden. Kevin Nash responded to this criticism, saying that they weren’t trying to be disrespectful or break the wrestling business with their actions.
“We weren’t trying to f*cking destroy the business. We weren’t trying to show everybody that it was, if it would have been a work I would have f*cking jumped up and f*cking done ‘It’s entertainment!’ I mean like he does, like before you open your mouth, look at it. And he will now, and I didn’t like Cornette. I didn’t like him until we got to TNA.
“Me and Cornette would be in a room and these guys would be laying the sh*t out. Him and I at the same time, [we’d] be like ‘whoa, whoa, wait wait a minute, that doesn’t make f*cking sense.’ I looked at myself I said, ‘Oh my God.’ I said as you get older your psychology and there’s so many things that change on how you look at the business.”
Though he butted heads with Cornette in the past, Kevin Nash praises the legendary manager for being smart and understanding the wrestling business, even if he believes neither one of them is great at booking a promotion.
“But you know, Cornette’s smart. I mean he’s a smart guy, he does know the business. He can’t book a territory nor can I book a territory, but us together with a couple other guys with Shawn and a couple other people? Yeah, we could we could definitely do some damage.”
If you use any quotes from this transcription, please credit Kliq This and link back to this article with a h/t to Inside the Ropes.