What does Jim Cornette think of Vince McMahon returning to WWE?
The legendary pro wrestling personality spoke about this, as well as rumors of a potential WWE sale during a special episode of his “Jim Cornette Experience” podcast.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode.
On his reactions to the news: “He could just do this, apparently all along, so I don’t know actually now why it took him this long. But I’ll tell you, we’re going to analyze what’s going on here folks. But the motivation comes down to one or two things. Either they have been intending to sell the company this year, along with the media rights and he said, nobody is going to do that except me or he has decided now as Vince often does when he gets an idea in his head that this is the right thing to do, that they’re going to explore sales and the media rights at the same time and ain’t nobody going to do that but him. But one way or another, when somebody hands some other motherfucker a check for five billion dollars, that other motherfucker receiving it is going to be Vince McMahon. I can’t blame him. It’s his crop, he planted the seeds, he watered it, he cultivated the soil, he did all this and now by God he’s going to walk across hell with gasoline britches on to make sure that nobody gets handed that check but him.”
On if Vince should run WWE after a sale of the company: “You know, if he was younger, Vince still has to be somewhat realistic deep down in there somewhere. If he was younger, I think that would almost be a certainty, but at this point now, does he just want the final I’m going to wipe it across the face of the board and everybody told me to retire, I’m going to come back, the stocks are going to shoot up through the roof. We’re going to get this thing sold. Somebody’s going to hand me five billion dollars and then, boom, and I’m onto my next thing. Yeah, I don’t know at this point if he would say, I’ve got to be, you know, that would be a sticking point on the deal, I got to be in charge.
“I’ll say right now, he wants the big check and he wants to be responsible for the sale and he wants to take the glory at this point. I think he may realize that it’s coming to an end, one way or another. Because here’s the thing, would Vince rather run the company for another five years and only get two billion dollars for it then or would he rather get five or six billion now, it’s the total on the tote board for Vince, he would consider that a bigger win than if he ran it longer and got less. He really would, he would consider he did a better job, so it wouldn’t be like, I’ve failed, it’d be like, I’m doing a better job doing this. Now it’s better, the conditions of the world and the rights fees and everything, now’s the time.”
On if Vince would scare away the wrestlers that have returned to WWE: “Well, I think they’re probably all freaking out, but in all honesty, I think that’s the least of their issues. Vince isn’t coming back to fix the fucking creative. Vince is coming back to sell this son of a bitch. And in this year, they’re going to be reviewing the media rights deals and trying to get more money from whoever. They’re obviously now going to be entertaining suitors to buy the thing, outright. Do you think that Vince is coming back like, fucking Johnny Gargano is on Raw, god damnit, pal? Back in the day, if the creative wasn’t any good and the ratings weren’t any good, the ticket sales, the PPV’s weren’t any good. I don’t know that he’s going to have time. I think if it took long enough, he would probably get there, but I think the main focus and especially with people obviously trying to, I don’t want to say undermine, but not let this happen, even though it’s already happened, apparently, the people that were against it, he’s going to have to be navigating all that shit. If it was another couple of years, yeah, he’ll probably get down to that, but I think at this point, he’s going to concentrate on the major things of making this as valuable as possible.
“Will he talk Steve Austin into coming back and doing something? Will John Cena show up again? The Rock, are we going to throw money at him? He’s going to prioritize the main shit, as well as spend all of his time with the lawyers and the negotiators and the accountants and all this stuff. I don’t think he’s going to be micromanaging creative again in two weeks. This is a big deal. This is bigger than the boys, right now. Here’s the thing, they may benefit from this if the stocks are already up, the people want a sale, apparently. It’s not like they want Vince back in charge, they want a sale. So, if they give them a sale, the company’s going to be worth more money, maybe more real world business will treat the talent better from a financial standpoint or from a benefit standpoint or whatever. But then also some complete entity that’s completely removed from wrestling, even if Triple H is still there, if Stephanie is still there, whatever, they may turn it into a clown show to make AEW look like Mid-South Wrestling, so who knows. But I don’t think that the individual boys that came back because they didn’t want to be booked by Vince are currently going to have anything to worry about. This is bigger than that.”
Check out the complete episode of the Jim Cornette Experience podcast by visiting Apple.com. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
