Like most professional wrestling fans, Jim Cornette spent his Memorial Day Weekend watching a pair of wrestling shows in Night of Champions, WWE's “Premium Live Event” from Saudi Arabia, and Double or Nothing, AEW's Pay-Per-View from Las Vegas.
Now, if you know Cornette, you can probably assume that there was a lot exhibited by both Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Tony Khan that didn't sit particularly well with the long-time wrestling manager – more on that later – but one match he did like, at least with an asterisk, was the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between Seth Rollins and AJ Styles. While Cornette didn't feel like the match had stakes, a big issue considering the contest was for one of WWE's top honors, he acknowledged that the proceedings produced one of the better modern-style wrestling matches you will see.
“They opened up with the finals of the tournament for the World Heavyweight Championship number three with Seth ‘Franklin’ Rollins and AJ Styles. And even though both guys are babyfaces, they were clearly on Franklin’s side and doing the singing and ect. And AJ opened up fairly aggressive, and here’s the thing, these are two of the most athletic guys there and two of the most experienced workers. And they’re stiff and snug when they need to be and as a match performance, this is top level. I understand when these guys do it why people like the modern style of match where it’s not really a wrestling match with big moves but it’s a performance where guys punch and kick each other in the middle to set up for big moves,” Jim Cornette said.
“But at the same time, I guess, with no heroic babyface or evil heel and that match that’s supposed to be of monumental importance but it didn’t really seem like a World Championship match because nobody had even held the belt at that point and they made it up as we’ve talked about over the past few weeks out of thin air. This was a great wrestling performance but did anyone buy it as being for a World Heavyweight Championship?”
Is Cornette correct? Did WWE whiff on the build-up to the new World Heavyweight Championship and leave fans feeling underwhelmed? That depends on who you ask, but based on his take on MJF's booking in AEW, it's clear he prefers this booking to a considerable degree.
Jim Cornette really didn't like MJF versus the Four Pillars.
If Jim Cornette felt the build-up to Seth Rollins versus AJ Styles didn't have the stakes needed to make it feel valuable, then the former proprietor of Camp Cornette had the opposite problem with AEW's Double or Nothing main event, as he does not like how MJF has been booked at all as a champion.
“The problem is he’s the one of the most talented guys to ever come along in the modern era that has a mind for wrestling and how to be a heel and how to put matches together and make things make sense. That’s not a common occurrence these days. The problem is he’s at the mercy of being in a company where not only Tony, let’s face it, yes, AEW fans wanted this company to succeed from the start, because they were mad at the WWE,” Jim Cornette said via TJF.
“They didn’t like the product, they hate Vince whatever the case, they love this cosplay style of wrestling. But only the blind can say that Tony’s booking from the start has made really any sense. Every once in a while the top guys, especially when MJF was interacting with CM Punk that was gold because they just do what they want, they set their sh*t up. But unfortunately, I don’t think MJF has got to the point now where he can put his foot down as much as he ought to be able to. And that’s the problem.”
“MJF wins the title, who had been his challengers? Who are his challengers? He doesn’t want to work with Jericho again. Jericho nearly sapped all of his f*cking over the first time. Because Jericho was a over sapper, he’ll sap all of your over away from you and you’ll be left under. And I’m sure you don’t want work with the f*cking plumber Moxley, good God. And Moxley would sell nothing and f*cking bury him just like he does. Everybody else doesn’t have his garbage matches.”
“The whole four pillars thing is because Tony’s a Japanese wrestling nerd. And they had four pillars, so he’s going to have four pillars and they determined who the four pillars were are at the start of the company. Well, one of the pillars has been a massive stone column worthy of the f*cking druids construction, MJF, and the other three have been f*cking pogo sticks.”
On paper, it's hard to argue with Cornette's assessment, as basically no one, not even Jungleboy's girlfriend, believed anyone but MJF would come out of Las Vegas with the titles. Still, for MJF to have a legitimate challenger, AEW needs to build up another performer to his level, which is a lot easier said than done. Title vs. Title versus Wardlow, anyone?
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