Jim Cornette

In 1984, Cornette had a short stay in World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) as the manager of the Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton), where they feuded mainly with The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers).

With Cornette as manager, the team were two-time World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Tag Team Champions and two-time WCW 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. Additionally, Cornette suffered a severe knee injury during a scaffold match between The Midnight Express and The Road Warriors at Starrcade '86.

In 1989, Cornette became the color commentator for WCW's television show, and later took over the same role on the Saturday night broadcasts alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Ross. Cornette quit the company after Halloween Havoc 1990.

In January 1993, Cornette briefly returned to World Championship Wrestling. On the February 6, 1993 episode on *WCW Saturday Night*, Jim Cornette, the Heavenly Bodies and Bobby Eaton (who Cornette once again began to manage) confronted the Rock 'n' Roll Express during an interview. Bill Watts came out and suggested the Bodies should wrestle the Express. Cornette objected since he claimed that they weren't dressed for it, but the match still took place. The Express won the match by disqualification when Eaton interfered in the match, and after the match while Stan Lane held Ricky Morton, Cornette put his tennis racket over Morton while Eaton delivered his "Alabama jam" on Morton. Cornette then struck referee Nick Patrick, and then Cornette helped his men beat up the Express.

The following week, Watts came out with Bob Armstrong, who stated he was very upset with Cornette's recent actions, and demanded that Cornette come out to apologize for what he had done. Watts stated that the Express was scheduled to wrestle the Wrecking Crew (Rage and Fury) at SuperBrawl III, but then said the Express should wrestle the Bodies instead. Armstrong agreed with Watts and then told Cornette if his Bodies did not wrestle the Express at SuperBrawl III that he would be heavily fined, the Bodies would be stripped of the title, and that he would be suspended. Cornette was very angry and claimed "That he hated WCW!" and later came out to the ring with his men, and attacked two jobbers after a match, one being Joey Maggs. The Express then came out and attacked Cornette and his gang.

During Cornette's second stint in WCW, his Heavenly Bodies teamed with Steve Austin and Brian Pillman in 8-man tag team matches against the Express and the Unified Tag Team Champions Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas. The Bodies, Austin and Pillman lost two of those matches, one on a February 27 episode of *WCW WorldWide* by disqualification when Cornette interfered, and one by pinfall. In one of these matches, the Express had a person covered by a sheet in their corner, and after the match Cornette with his men came to the ring to see who was under the sheet and began poking, and kicking at the sheeted man. When Cornette pulled the sheet off, it was Arn Anderson, Eaton's former tag team partner in The Dangerous Alliance, who was underneath; Cornette then fell over in shock. Eaton then tried to shake Anderson's hand, but Arn decked him. Arn said the reason for this was because after he was injured by Erik Watts at a gas station, Eaton never once called him to see how he was doing. Cornette belittled Anderson and claimed that his men were far superior to him. When the Bodies faced the Express at SuperBrawl III, Eaton came out with Cornette; he was, despite Cornette's protests, forced to return to the dressing room. When Cornette climbed onto the ring apron and began to argue with the referee, the Express won the match by pinfall when an illegal outside attempt from Eaton, who had since come back to the ring failed.

Cornette went to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993. As he had done in other promotions, Cornette held several positions in the WWF, including manager, color commentator and member of the booking committee. Cornette's most notable managerial role in the WWF was as the "American spokesperson" of WWF Champion Yokozuna.

On-screen, he led a top-heel stable of wrestlers referred to as "Camp Cornette". At any given time, Cornette's charges consisted of Yokozuna, Mantaur, Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. He also served as the manager of Tom Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray during their brief stint in the WWF. In 1997, Cornette became a member of the WWF announce team where he served as a color commentator. It was during this time that he also began performing a series of controversial "worked shoots" where he would praise what he felt was right and condemn what he felt was wrong in professional wrestling.

In 1998, Cornette led an invasion with a stable including Jeff Jarrett, Barry Windham and The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Later that year, Cornette managed Dan Severn and The New Midnight Express, before he stepped back from managing. Cornette then did some color commentating, primarily on *Sunday Night Heat*, before disappearing from television. Cornette returned to WWF television for one night at WrestleMania X-Seven in Houston, where he took part in the "gimmick battle royal" but was quickly eliminated by Hillbilly Jim.

Cornette was released from his contract in July 2005.

On March 31, 2017, Jim Cornette made his first appearance with WWE in twelve years when he inducted The Rock 'n' Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2017. Cornette was also featured in an episode of the WWE Network original series Table for 3 alongside Eric Bischoff and Michael Hayes. Cornette made another appearance for WWE, starring in an episode of the WWE Network original Series Photo Shoot in March 2018.