This ought to be something...
WWE announced moments ago that Jim Cornette will do the honors when his old rivals the Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, enter the Hall of Fame on March 31 in Orlando.
Cornette managed the Midnight Express, the Rock ‘n’ Rollers main rivals in Jim Crockett’s NWA throughout the 1980s, and the tennis racket-wielding motormouth was as much a part of their epic feuds as wrestlers Dennis Condrey, Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane.
As he told WWE.com:
Superman needs Lex Luthor, Batman needs The Joker, and we were the antithesis of everything The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express stood for and their wrestling style. It just clicked.
I said these horrible, degrading things about these two, fine, young, upstanding examples of American boyhood and people, on numerous occasions, tried to kill us.
During more than a decade with WWE himself, Cornette served as an on-screen character and worked behind the scenes in creative & talent development. He was one of the leading forces behind Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) when it was the company’s developmental territory, and helped shepherd men like John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton & Brock Lesnar to stardom. He left the company in 2005, however, after a string of incidents, including slapping Santino Marella for something he did during a match (“no-selling” the Boogeyman).
After working for TNA and Ring of Honor over the past decade, Cornette’s taken up podcasting and other outside commentary jobs. In that role, he’s known to be critical of WWE’s “sports entertainment” approach to the business, and certain stars he’s had issues with in the past, like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
Throw all that in the mix, and his speech from Orlando’s Amway Center should be must-see. And you can do just that by tuning in to WWE Network on the Friday night before WrestleMania 33!