In 1994 and 1995 Jim Cornette spent a good amount of time alongside Vince McMahon. But back in those days, Vince was just another announcer on television. McMahon still owned the company, but most of the fans didn’t know that. It wasn’t until 1997 when the Mr. McMahon character would rise from the ashes of a former babyface announcer.
On a recent episode of Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru, the should-be WWE Hall Of Famer went into some detail about what it was like to sit beside the owner of the company at the announce table.
“He does do a lot of preparation in the production meeting and then they have a meeting after the production meeting,” Corney recalled. “But it’s not necessarily preparation specifically to announce but it is preparation for the whole show because he was always the guy running it whether he was the announcer, behind the scenes or whatever.”
“It was fun working with Vince [McMahon], he — you know he wasn’t going to call a lot of wrestling and it was kinda different but at the same time he was a professional at actually just doing TV. Conversely I was being a heel color-guy somewhat and taking up for the heels rather than being a straight color-guy announcer so we could joist with each other, blah blah blah and actually it was fairly easy working with him.”
“I love doing live better than tape because if Vince knows it’s live you’re gonna get everything in one take and you’re gonna get in, you’re gonna get out. If Vince knows it’s on tape and it can be redone, or he can come up with — he will say something and say, ‘I could’ve said that better’ — he’ll come up with an idea. He’ll futz with the g-ddamn thing f–cking Tom Scholz would obsess over a Boston album if it’s on f-cking tape.”
So how much fun do you think you’d have sitting next to Vince McMahon calling the matches he booked while working for the company he owned? If McMahon called “cut” and called for another take it might not be the best time to really complain. Thankfully Corney has the luxury of having a podcast over twenty-years later.
Credit for the quotes in this article goes to Jim Cornette’s Drive-Thru and Still Real To Us for the transcription
