It’s time to banish Jim Cornette

It doesn’t matter how wise you think he is, how accomplished you think he is, or how much you want him to reply to your tweets. Jim Cornette is a bigot who harasses people online, and it’s time to take away his voice in wrestling.

Formerly a Major League Wrestling color commentator, Jim Cornette’s real job is torturing professional wrestling fans with his bigoted nonsense on social media.

Thanks to his army of snitch-taggers, Cornette has eyes and ears everywhere, meaning he can flood any wrestler’s mentions with hate speech and vitriol that essentially makes him the leader of thousands of troll accounts.

Cornette’s most recent brigade of cruelty was directed at successful Impact Wrestling performer Jordynne Grace, who made an interesting, thought-provoking tweet about whether or not wrestling should be referred to as a “Sport” or “Performance Art”.

What followed was absolutely disgusting. The snitch-taggers called for their father’s help, and Cornette, once again, showed his misogyny.

These tweets are linked and not embedded due to NSFW language.

Independent wrestler David Starr spoke out against Cornette, who then threatened him. One of Starr’s responses included reminding fans about the time Cornette made a racist rant that included the “n” word.

Cornette’s gross, sexist comments against Grace come just months after his ignorant, homophobic comments directed towards All Elite Wrestling star Sonny Kiss, which included the use of a slur for trans people. The full rant is disgusting, and the link should only be clicked with caution.

How on earth Cornette has a job with MLW baffles me, except maybe for the fact that MLW condones his behavior and enjoys employing a total bigot on their announce team. That is, if he still has a job with MLW, if Ryan Satin’s tweet is to be believed that Cornette hasn’t been with the company since July 6. Although, it appears that MLW is open to work with him again at any point in the future. Even though they shouldn’t.

Fans of Cornette point to his wisdom and experience in wrestling, but if he were such a great manager, why is he no longer getting successful booking today? And how wise can a racist, homophobic, and sexist person be? The answer is they can’t.

What scares me is that most wrestling fans probably don’t understand how harmful Jim Cornette is to the community. He’s worse than just the “Old Man Yelling At A Cloud” or the guy who hates highspots and The Young Bucks. The man is legitimately spreading hate speech, trying to normalize it, and gatekeeping wrestling from people different from him.

If Cornette incited directed anger towards an individual in a public space or used slurs and hate speech, he would be arrested. I find it interesting that people are willing to excuse this type of behavior online because it seems more detached and easier for people to spread hate, but what Cornette does is encourage targeted harassment and abuse towards women and gay men in the wrestling business without any consequences. He uses slurs, he insults people, and he gets his devout followers, who hold the same awful views, to do the same.

Cornette isn’t reasonable, wise, or a misunderstood relic of the past. He is dangerous to the wrestling community. And yet he survives because of this hatred. Since 150,000 people follow Cornette on Twitter, apparently 150,000 people endorse Cornette’s brand of misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Apparently they tacitly or explicitly approve of the things Cornette has said about Priscilla Kelly, Jordynne Grace, and Sonny Kiss in the past year alone.

It’s so important for wrestling fans to unite together against people like Cornette, who is essentially making a living and brand off of hate. His actions have consequences for how fans treat LGBTQ performers, women, and essentially anyone else who doesn’t look, act, or think like Jim Cornette and his rabid group of online abusers.

Now is as good of a time as ever to make sure Cornette no longer has this platform where he can make money and build a brand off of bigotry. It’s time to cut down on his ability to make people’s lives miserable via harassment and abuse. The term “Internet troll” shrouds the tangible real-life impact that these actions have, and it’s a huge reason why wrestling remains in the dark ages when it comes to stopping abuse at live crowds.

People like Cornette normalize and encourage this type of behavior in person, because what happens online does not exist in a separate sphere from reality, even if it is easier to get away with this type of behavior on social media.

Jim Cornette isn’t ONLY a troll or a grumpy old man. He is pro wrestling’s worst enemy in 2019. I would encourage anyone who stands against racism, sexism, and homophobia to tell MLW to think twice about using his voice, to force Cornette to be accountable and apologize for his actions, and to avoid following him or anyone who endorses him. It’s time to take a stand against hate.