10 Huge Bust-Ups Between Wrestlers And Bookers
3. Jim Cornette Vs. Santino Marella
To accurately represent the toxic relationship Jim Cornette and John Laurinaitis shared, imagine a well-kept, humble home in perfect working order.
Everything works. It mortgages itself. The kids are prone to misbehaviour, as kids naturally are, but the patriarch of the home is an effective disciplinarian. The furniture will, one day, fetch a huge price on the secondary market.
Then imagine a bird-brained beach bum taking a sh*t all over the floor. Every floor. The beach bum kicks the kids out of the house, and makes them get jobs as traffic wardens when they're qualified to be doctors.
This was the Jim Cornette/John Laurinaitis dynamic in Ohio Valley Wrestling, and eventually, Big Johnny's bullsh*t became too much to bear. He ordered Cornette's rock star babyface to shave his hair. He ruthlessly disrupted OVW's storyline continuity. He messed with Cornette's business as much as Cornette enhanced WWE's. Cornette, apoplectic in his resting state, and as keen on kayfabe as Laurinaitis was on swimsuit models, eventually kicked the cat. When Santino Marella no-sold the Boogeyman - Cornette bangs on about AEW as if he once booked the UWF-i - Cornette slapped the sh*t out of him, leading to his eviction from said home.
Who was in the right?
WWE - you cannot lay a hand on a talent - but it's a bit like being sent to the back of the class when your friend was talking.
Motherf*cker.