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Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 08:41
by cero2k
Source: nationalwrestlingalliance.com

Effective immediately: Jim Cornette has resigned from the National Wrestling Alliance. As an announcer on the November 19th edition of NWA Power, Jim made remarks during a singles match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch that were both offensive and do not meet the high standards of decency and good faith of the National Wrestling Alliance.

To ensure that such an error can never happen again, we've established new procedures of review for all NWA programming going forward.

We sincerely regret our failure in this regard.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 15:30
by XIV
Ugh. The world’s gone soft.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 19:58
by Bob-O
XIV wrote: Nov 20th, '19, 15:30 Ugh. The world’s gone soft.
This.

I completely understand how I look right now, lowish middle class white male with my two kids, my dog, my white picket fence in my all white neighborhood. I'm missing the outrage of ACH, and I'm really not seeing any blatant racism in Cornette's remark. Just like ACH's shirt, you have to MAKE it racist. Maybe I'm blinded by the light coming off the end of the silver spoon in my mouth, but I sincerely don't understand this witch hunt mentality.

He said Fried Chicken because he's from Kentucky and EVERYONE loves fried chicken there... they even named a goddamn Chicken Restaurant after that state. He said Ethiopia because it's the stereotypical "starving" country. It's tasteless, it's insensitive... but it's not racist. If that's what he was going for he'd have said The Bronx or something along those lines.

I understand why starving Ethiopians might be offended by his remarks, but most of them are probably too busy looking for clean drinking water to be watching NWA Powerrr on YouTube anyway.

On that note, I am also going to resign from NWA commentary.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 20:19
by cero2k
Whether you guys like it or not, the world has changed to call this shit out and there is no place for comments like that, malicious or not, on ANY type of product. If they wanna be racist on twitter, go ahead, be human scum, but doing stuff like this on a show KILLS the show for everyone. If people boycott NWA because of Cornette and Lagana, that hurts Cabana, and Starks, and Kamille, and Thunder Rosa, and Tim Storm, and everyone in production.

The world hasn't gone soft, people are just tired and not putting up with the discriminatory status quo anymore. racists need to stay in the closet

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 20:28
by Big Red Machine
Bob-O wrote: Nov 20th, '19, 19:58
XIV wrote: Nov 20th, '19, 15:30 Ugh. The world’s gone soft.
This.

I completely understand how I look right now, lowish middle class white male with my two kids, my dog, my white picket fence in my all white neighborhood. I'm missing the outrage of ACH, and I'm really not seeing any blatant racism in Cornette's remark. Just like ACH's shirt, you have to MAKE it racist. Maybe I'm blinded by the light coming off the end of the silver spoon in my mouth, but I sincerely don't understand this witch hunt mentality.

He said Fried Chicken because he's from Kentucky and EVERYONE loves fried chicken there... they even named a goddamn Chicken Restaurant after that state. He said Ethiopia because it's the stereotypical "starving" country. It's tasteless, it's insensitive... but it's not racist. If that's what he was going for he'd have said The Bronx or something along those lines.

I understand why starving Ethiopians might be offended by his remarks, but most of them are probably too busy looking for clean drinking water to be watching NWA Powerrr on YouTube anyway.

On that note, I am also going to resign from NWA commentary.
You're grasping at straws. Maybe he didn't mean it that way, but even if he didn't, he has clearly become a liability for his proclivity to say such things. I wish there had been enough uproar about Steve Corino's ROH commentary to get something like this to happen.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 20:37
by NWK2000
cero2k wrote: Nov 20th, '19, 20:19 Whether you guys like it or not, the world has changed to call this shit out and there is no place for comments like that, malicious or not, on ANY type of product. If they wanna be racist on twitter, go ahead, be human scum, but doing stuff like this on a show KILLS the show for everyone. If people boycott NWA because of Cornette and Lagana, that hurts Cabana, and Starks, and Kamille, and Thunder Rosa, and Tim Storm, and everyone in production.

The world hasn't gone soft, people are just tired and not putting up with the discriminatory status quo anymore. racists need to stay in the closet
The thing was he could've used any number of non-racist analogies to say, "He's so disliked people would avoid a needed resource if he had it." But he went for the racist analogy instead. Shows a lack of intelligence and forethought.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 21:19
by Bob-O
I know I make light of many things that I probably shouldn't, and I'm not trying to troll by any means, but I really do want to talk about this because I honestly don't understand.

I heard the comment "live" and thought, "Wow Jim... you're trying a little too hard."

I hit Reddit and saw it blown up over "Cornette's racist commentary" and had no idea what anyone was on about. I needed it explained to me. Ethiopians are black. Fried chicken... black people... OOOOH... gotcha, but I don't think he meant it like that. Pretty sure it was just a starving people joke. Probably not the best go-to for wrestling commentary, but meh. It's Cornette not Gordon Solie, what else is going on...?

This morning I'm like, holy shit! People are REALLY bent out of shape about this! Good lord, internet... I see the connection, but "RACIST" seems a little harsh... I mean, he probably is, but base that on The Gangstas vignettes, not this...

I get home from work tonight and see that he's been removed over it... and I'm blown away. I mean, seeing the social commentary, I get it - they didn't have much of a choice given all this outrage - but really? What about this was so racist? The fried chicken? The Ethiopians?

I'm completely fine with him being let go for insensitive commentary... I work for a corporation, I get it, you don't get to choose how people feel... but "RACIST!!!!", I'm back to the ACH thing. That's a very strong accusation that I don't think should be left up to interpretation.

Hogan's bullshit? Yup, racist as hell. Nobody can deny that. Cornette's not even close here in my opinion, but I'm open to explanation.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 20th, '19, 22:35
by NWK2000
Bob-O wrote: Nov 20th, '19, 21:19 I know I make light of many things that I probably shouldn't, and I'm not trying to troll by any means, but I really do want to talk about this because I honestly don't understand.

I heard the comment "live" and thought, "Wow Jim... you're trying a little too hard."

I hit Reddit and saw it blown up over "Cornette's racist commentary" and had no idea what anyone was on about. I needed it explained to me. Ethiopians are black. Fried chicken... black people... OOOOH... gotcha, but I don't think he meant it like that. Pretty sure it was just a starving people joke. Probably not the best go-to for wrestling commentary, but meh. It's Cornette not Gordon Solie, what else is going on...?

This morning I'm like, holy shit! People are REALLY bent out of shape about this! Good lord, internet... I see the connection, but "RACIST" seems a little harsh... I mean, he probably is, but base that on The Gangstas vignettes, not this...

I get home from work tonight and see that he's been removed over it... and I'm blown away. I mean, seeing the social commentary, I get it - they didn't have much of a choice given all this outrage - but really? What about this was so racist? The fried chicken? The Ethiopians?

I'm completely fine with him being let go for insensitive commentary... I work for a corporation, I get it, you don't get to choose how people feel... but "RACIST!!!!", I'm back to the ACH thing. That's a very strong accusation that I don't think should be left up to interpretation.

Hogan's bullshit? Yup, racist as hell. Nobody can deny that. Cornette's not even close here in my opinion, but I'm open to explanation.

That's what I mean, in itself what he said wasn't racially insensitive but Cornette made it that way.
That should be the takeaway, not that Jim said something racist, but the fact that he had nothing in his vocabulary at that moment that could've made it not racist.
The internet is taking it as a "wrongthink detected" kind of thing, but we as human beings, especially someone as witty as Jim, can think harder, he can be more clever, he's just choosing not to be.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 21st, '19, 04:27
by XIV
And yet, not a single Ethiopian was offended by this remark.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 21st, '19, 07:10
by NWK2000
XIV wrote: Nov 21st, '19, 04:27 And yet, not a single Ethiopian was offended by this remark.
phpBB [video]



I have SO many jokes.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 21st, '19, 07:46
by Thelone
I've read three reviews of the show before this all blew up (Csonka, Hall and cero's here), and not a single one mentionned that line.

Yes, it was a very stupid line and Cornette should know better judging by the amount of trolls he has to deal with every day on Twitter. Yes, he should also notice that everything in the wrestling business moved past 1985, not just the in-ring product. Apparently, he said that exact same line in the early 90's during a Backlund match and didn't get fired over it.

Now, this shit has been taped weeks ago and the line wasn't removed, which tells me that either they didn't review the footage before airing it (which I find hard to believe) or Corgan/Lagana/whoever is in charge of editing the footage didn't see anything wrong with the line and kept it in. Also, I kinda doubt no one would have said a thing if Cornette said beef or rice instead of fried chicken, but again he should know better and realize that even a company as low profile as the NWA is trying to be PC and family friendly.

So yeah, Cornette should probably update his repertoire a bit so he doesn't make at "best" a bad dated starving ethiopians "joke" or at worst a racist one (or he could just say something else to point out how X is a tough son of a bitch), but the NWA is equally to blame to have let this air no matter what their process is.

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 21st, '19, 09:12
by NWK2000
Thelone wrote: Nov 21st, '19, 07:46 Yes, it was a very stupid line and Cornette should know better judging by the amount of trolls he has to deal with every day on Twitter. Yes, he should also notice that everything in the wrestling business moved past 1985, not just the in-ring product. Apparently, he said that exact same line in the early 90's during a Backlund match and didn't get fired over it.
You do realize we're talking about Jim Cornette right?

Re: Jim Cornette Resigns From NWA Following Racist Commentary

Posted: Nov 21st, '19, 09:55
by cero2k
Thelone wrote: Nov 21st, '19, 07:46 I've read three reviews of the show before this all blew up (Csonka, Hall and cero's here), and not a single one mentionned that line.
Gonna be honest, I didn't noticed it live. WWE taught me to pay as little attention to commentary as possible, which i'm still rehabbing from.