A Look Back At Jim Cornette’s Early Days

With the recent announcement that legendary wrestling manager Jim Cornette was managing for the last time. It’s interesting to look back at some of his early years in professional wrestling when he was just a 20 something-year-old kid from Kentucky.
Cornette, like many in the business in those days, had grown up a wrestling fan, mainly of the Memphis territory going back to the early 70s. He and his best friend Kenny Bolin (who would, later on, be known as manager “Starmaker” Bolin in OVW, a company that Cornette owned at the time) were big wrestling fans of Nick Gulas’s and later Jerry Jarrett’s wrestling territory. When Jim was old enough he eventually got to live his dream and became a ringside photographer for Memphis wrestling starting in the late 70s and keeping that job until the early 80s. Here is a clip of Jim making his on-camera debut in wrestling in 1982.

Cornette soon became the wrestling manager he always dreamed of being. Jim quickly adopted the character of being the prissy mama’s boy whose rich mother could get him whatever he wanted He had a bit of a rough start as the veteran wrestlers of Memphis didn’t take to quick to the new kid trying to sign talent.

Jim’ s struggle was not in vain however as months of looking finally landed him his first client.

Thre’s an answer to a trivia question somewhere.
There were many more to follow as both by himself as well as being the junior manager with Jimmy Hart in “The First Family”. Cornette really got his first big break when he and some of the Memphis Territory wrestlers were used for Georgia Championship Wrestling Superstars. A small offshoot of GCW and Ole Anderson to fill in the void as the GCW stars were “on tour” as TBS’s reach grew around the country. Cornette and a few of the lower card Memphis wrestlers were given the shot.

 
And within two months the project was shut down by Anderson himself for being awful.

 
But of course, Jim was already well on his way to becoming one of the greatest wrestling managers of all time. He would eventually work for places like Bill Watt’s Mid-South Wrestling, Fritz Von Erich’s WCCW, Jim Crockett’s NWA, WCW, the WWF, Ring of Honor, TNA, and his own territories such as Smokey Mountain Wrestling and OVW.
 
So while the Louisville Lip won’t be shying away from his podcasts and his outspoken statements on just about everything, he gives what was once his life’s greatest goal one last go around.

YES! @TheJimCornette announces he’s managing for the last time during the #WrestleCade SuperShow on 11/25 in Winston Salem, NC! pic.twitter.com/RRmZEWl93I
— WrestleCade (@WrestleCade) October 8, 2017

Maybe. Memphis wrestling never did stick to such stipulations very long. But we at Allwrestling.com salute you salute you anyway!