10 Times Jim Cornette Got It Absolutely Right

4. Vince Russo Helped Kill TNA

Jim Cornette
www.ewrestlingnews.com

TNA probably marked the last chance of a viable alternative to the WWE juggernaut. With serious money at its disposal, and capable of attracting many industry veterans, upstarts and darlings, it only needed a unique and patient creative approach to aim an attempted onslaught at its gigantic opponent.

Cornette, perhaps naturally, points the finger of blame for the company's abject failure to do so at Vince Russo - but not without some justification.

The root of Cornette's discord here isn't confined to Russo's second disembowelment of genuine competition, but one imagines he can't be happy with Russo's trademark procession of inanity, including but not limited to: the Last Rites match, the Reverse Battle Royal, the rushed and squandered Kurt Angle Vs. Samoa Joe series, the Claire Lynch angle...

No, Cornette took considerable umbrage with Russo's wallowing mid-2000s admission that he was "sick of writing fake wrestling scripts for wrestlers who didn't appreciate him."

He's not wrong. If Russo - or the "Sorry Sack Of Brooklyn Sh*t", as Cornette has it - could only see that wrestling fans are genuinely passionate about wrestling, and don't view it as a siphon through which to transfer tropes of his beloved late night cable dramas, he might have stood a chance of not becoming the object of their ire.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!