Jim Cornette on Vince Russo's 1997 Ideas For WWE 

If Russo had booked the nWo he would have had Hogan and Sting reveal they were in cahoots all along at Starrcade '97. 😂

"Sunny can fit in, if you let them abuse her" has got to be the greatest line I've ever heard. I can't stop crying.

That picture of Yokozuna dressed like the Hitman is hilarious 😂

The biggest tragedy of our time was no Cornette versus Russo in a shoot fight at wrestlemania.

There you go, Vince Russo invented The Elite.

Foley (in the nicest possible way) requesting to skip WrestleMania had me howling

"This is not dated, but it's from 1997." For some reason I find that line hilarious.

That Japanophile Patriot angle was one of my create a wrestlers on the N64 game Wrestlemania 2000. I was 13. Russo literally had the creative capacity of a middle schooler.

This segment is a prime example of why I love this show. Where else are you going to hear genuine Vince Russo material from the Attitude Era? I always had a picture in my mind of how the WWE(F) creative process worked. I always pictured a bunch of idiots sitting around a room talking crap until something stuck. Turns out, it wasn’t even that advanced of a process.

I love Jim’s vast catalog of old Southern idioms. I learn a new one every time I listen. “Spare prick at the wedding.” Lol

“Sunny could fit in, if she lets them ABUSE her!” gets me EVERY time I listen to this 😂😂😂

This is a perfect example of Russo throwing a ton of ideas at Vince McMahon and Vince taking one of those ideas, filtering out the nonsense, and going through with it. Road Dogg and Billy Gunn did end up joining DX.

I think the “history” with Yoko and the Hart foundation would just be that he teamed with Owen and Bulldog in Cornette’s stable.

Perfect way to start the morning: Cornette talking about the Archduke of Talent-bury.

Listening to this explains all of the gimmicks and booking of early NWA TNA including the bizarre time given to Erik Watts. It's quite amazing

I love how some of these ideas start out like, “Hey, that’s not too horrible,” then immediately becomes “JFC.” Like, “Put Shawn, Hunter, Billy Gunn and Jesse James together .” Sounds good., obviously worked out. Then, “Add Erik Watts and Sunny, who they abuse.” I think it was Bryan Alvarez who said it best with the headline “Vince Russo Swerves into Tree.”

I laughed so damn hard when Brian goes "an Italian hitman tag team could work" and Cornette follows it with ".........with Tom Brandi and Rick Bogner?"

Yokozuna was in tag teams with Owen Hart and British Bulldog, so him joining Hart foundation isn't that far of a stretch. The funny part is Cornette was the manager of those tag teams and it seems like he forgot all that.

"Maybe Sunny can fit.... if they abuse her" Amazing haha.

Some of his ideas here actually aren't that bad, I don't think. Given the time frame, he was pushing for them to get away from the cartoonish gimmicks of the early 90's. He was basically saying to Flash Funk, Sal Sincere, and even Tiger Ali Singh and let them become a more natural version of themselves.

So this explains why Russo claims to have invented the idea of DX. I wanna point something out though. Back before King of the Ring, and a few weeks after "Revenge of Taker" In Your House, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels had that infamous in-ring confrontation where Bret Hart is in the wheel chair and cutting a magnificent heel promo. In that promo Bret refers to Shawn as a "Degenerate". That was the first time I recall it ever being used towards Shawn. Bret would use the same phrase again months later going into Survivor Series '97. So maybe it was Russo's idea to have them all as a group (though technically Shawn and Hunter were already close pals backstage), but I specifically remember the term "Degenerate" being used by Bret Hart first.

Erik Watts still being under contract with the WWF in 1997 is fucking crazy

Not for nothing but Scorpio, Ahmed, and Mark Henry vs Farooq, D-Lo, and Kama would have been a great mid card feud. And I find it hilarious that Jim can't think of a Hart Foundation/Yokozuna connection when he literally managed Owen and Yoko who were the freaking tag champs.

I hope we get many more lists from Sh*t Stain. These are comedy gold!

Maaaan that Honky Tonk Man comeback special would have been golden!

So basically, Russo invented Dx without actually saying the name.

Okay in all fairness, yoko with the hart foundation (if he got healthy) and 'the elite' consisting of dx, new age outlaws and Brian Christopher were solid ideas imo.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If there was ever going to be another member of DX it should have been Val Venis.

20:45 That Sunny line was freaking HILARIOUS! 🤣

Brian Last has an underrated 'Joker Laugh' the Russo "elite" stuff is comedy gold!!!

These are great! Glad Cornette hung on to this stuff.

So Vince Russo claimed that he created the Brawl for All because he wanted to see Bradshaw get his butt kicked but also wanted to push him?

This was a peek into what he would do at WCW in 2000.

Yokozuna with the Hart Foundation made sense. Owen and Yoko were tag Champs before. That's how he came to that conclusion. That's about all that made sense

Yoko as Bret? Oh boy can't wait to hear these, though I will say seeing Yoku in brets attire would have been funny lol

Don’t forget that Yoko & Owen were tag team partners. Plus the Hart Foundation’s anti-American angle was huge in 97. So that’s not too outlandish.

As always, the only story Vince Russo knows how to tell is "They were working together all along!" Also, love the stable of Evil Japanese Wrestlers, featuring exactly zero Japanese wrestlers.

"Eric Watts is now #ALLELITE" -Vince Russo, 1997 (citation needed)

The Yoko to the Hart Foundation idea is silly,but I kinda get it. He feuded with Bret for a couple years and was also tag team champions with Owen,as well as Bulldog was aligned with them both. So I can see how the history would play out for it to work.

The angles where the heels turn babyface and then turn heel again are usually really really stupid. It's like "Ha! My friends kicked my ass and put me in the hospital and then I came back and fought them for a while and then I joined them again! Don't you feel stupid!?" It's like, "No. You beat each other up just to trick us. You're the idiots."

I like his idea on Scorp. Hear him in shoot interviews and even some of his old ECW stuff and his personality is entertaining as hell in addition to the high flying stuff, plus nobody liked the Flash Funk gimmick. I wouldn’t have minded him feuding with the Nation.

This is just speculation, but I think Russo's idea for using "real Italians" was referencing the Full-Blooded Italians when they were a comedic stable in ECW (the joke being how the majority of the members weren't Italian).

Test could have worked in DX. Like how Kevin Nash was HBK's heavy Test could have been Triple H's heavy and done some cool things before eventually the big turn.

They actually tried his idea with Mero and Sable. It only lasted a few weeks because no one really cared but if you remember, when Mero rebranded as "Marvelous" Mark Mero and came out every week like a boxer, he even changed his finisher to the "TKO" which was the exact same thing as Brock Lesnar's F5 before Lesnar existed. But Mero would come out and then angrily send Sable back to the locker room if the fans were cheering for her. Salvator Sincere (Tom Brandi) eventually was the babyface they used to come to her rescue a few times which set up a fued between Mero and Sincere that didn't go anywhere.

Russo's ideas were not that bad. I mean, Let's say Billy Gunn was released along with Honky Tonk Man, we all would have remembered him as a Smoking Gunn cowboy and Rockabilly and the idea of him being a member of DX today would be absolutely hilarious and silly.... but he was an excellent member of DX, so there's no way of knowing how these ideas would have worked out or not really. They are just quick ideas - talent would have had a say in what they did, Vince McMahon would have changed some things around, Cornette and Jim Ross and others would have made suggestions and everything would have fallen into place.

People knock Russo but he wanted everybody to have something and you can't fault him for that. I would hire Vince and Corny if I was opening a wrestling company.

Wow, Russo is a wrestling genius. He invented The Elite while those marks were still marks.

Imagine how amazing a promo battle between Brakkus and Ahmed could've been if they eventually feuded.

Mark Metro was criminally underrated and underused. He could have been a massive star with his talent is WWF had the slightest clue how to push him

Just imagine how much more Sunny would have been able to get away with in life if they ever ran with "The Elite" abuse angle. All the mocking, pushing, and slapping on camera each week from wrestlers would have probably even convinced some of her victims that it's not her fault she turned out the way she did.

I’ve watched this video several times. I forget about it then remember it and have to watch. Never fails to improve my day

Truthfully he didn’t have the name right but he was right about DX. He called the core.

Mick did. "I hate it, Corny, I really hate it."

Yoko in Bret’s attire is the best thing ever!! I don’t give a shit, I would love to have seen some of these ideas play out!!

Vince knew his life was on the line when he's visited by the Samoans.

Russo's totally elite bro. It's great to see inside the mind of VR. Was it written in crayon?

Half way through this video and I cannot contain my laughter! LOL

Russo did have some good ideas. Pairing Gunn, and James with Michaels and HHH was a pretty great one. It also sounds like he laid the groundwork for the Nation of Domination here, too. 99% of his ideas, as well as helping destroy WCW....can be categorized as not so great.

10:42 “…with Tom Brandi and Rick Bogner.” Killed me.

I think my absolute favorite part of this entire thing is the fact that SOME of these ideas Vince took with him to WCW. Does anybody else remember Jim Duggan turning heel and joining Team Canada? Or does anybody else remember the Misfits in Action (aka The Truth Commission in WCW), or Macho Man/Scott Steiner and their whole jealously over a woman storyline?

Russo never ceases to amaze me 😂 he's such a screw up that he's become a gem for us fans to laugh at all these years later

Russo was never afraid to take a chance on an idea (even if he couldn't spell or enunciate it properly); nevertheless, his "shit against the fan" approach occasionally garnered a *great* idea. He might not have been consistently as good as Jim, but Vince kept him for that strange, far-flung idea which he could adapt into a money-maker. On his own he's clueless.

I guess Jim forgot Yoko was tag team champion with Owen Hart twice. lol

"The one thing you'd get from this guy is alot of ideas." Yes, when it came to ideas, he was full of it.

I think we all kinda wish Yokozuna lost the weight and had a second phase of his career regardless of what it was. #ripbigman

😂 The part where Mick Foley requested not to be on Wrestlemania because he was working with Marc Mero.

Man I remember the picture of the Hart Fountain in the ring and a large shadow of Yoko behind them in WWF Magazine and up till now I thought I imagined it.

Rick Bognar (fake Scott Hall) who passed away three years ago, was from Surrey BC, Canada. During his time in FMW he was known as Big Titan and captured their Tag-team Championship once with The Gladiator aka Mike Awesome and their Heavyweight Championship.

Out of all those idea, I felt Yoko in the Hart Foundation was a pretty decent idea

Irony is that Russo’s ideas through the Cornette filter would probably equal good shit for the most part

Knowing Vince, I am surprised he didn't go for all of these lol. My friend still says Vince sent Russo to WCW ruin them

It's hilarious that Cornette refers to Russo as "sh*t stain" and everyone just knows who he means.

Imagine calling in Rikishi in to fire him and he shows up with Afa, Jamal and Rosey lol

I was driving while listening to this on my way to work this morning and was crying laughing. I thought I was going to crash my car or have to pull over to the side of the road.

I actually thought Mero was Little Richard when I was a kid. Lol

Not firing rikishi and hiring 3 of his relatives is hilarious

Yokozuna is the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.

Jim & Brian love the drive thru. As I'd was listening to this one I got to thinking what was it like in the territory days with creative? Was a guy like Watts responsible for all talent top to bottom or did he focus on a few and delegated the others? How did you do it at Smokey Mountain or WWE? Who was doing creative in the AWA? Just Verne or a group? Did the talent get involved in a big way or minimally? Sorry for all the questions but this came to mind while listening to the Russo list. Thanks again for the Drive Thru.

2 Cold was so underused. His best days were in ecw. Former TV champion and was in the finals of the NWA world title vs Shane Douglas.

They kinda went back to the Furnas and LaFon idea with Lord Tensai!

To think some of Vince Russo bookings would be kin of the rambling of Nostradamus is nothing short but a spectacle.

Awesome Shoot Today Jim!!😎🐐🐐

Russo Is the definition of "Throwing shit at the wall n see if it sticks" but instead it's throwing a shit load of bullshit at da wall(Creative/Vince) to see what sticks lmfao smh.

I think the Droz idea could work, it takes an aspect of reality, bends it to a way where it fits wrestling, and could make a good story. But I DO NOT want Vince Russo booking that idea.

Knowing what we know now, I think we can surmise what Sable’s purpose was in WWE. And why Bruce and Vince were so adamant about keeping her around.

I believe that Russo originally wanted the Undertaker to be the babyface that came to Sable’s aid.

That Mark Henry thing was just Russo having a conversation with himself, only he wrote it down on paper.

As a fan of both Russo and Corny I can honestly say this list isn't as bad as I thought

If i had to wager a guess, maybe Russo figure that since Yokozuna was tag champions in past with Owen, that's why he'd fit in with the Hart Foundation

Awesome show.. great content

“What about a fight in a bakery?” 🤣🤣

I want to hear all these Vince Russo emails. These are hysterical!!! 😂🤣😂

NGL, that art has me kind of wishing we'd gotten a version of The Hart Foundation with Yoko in the fold. Not because it makes any sense story-wise, but because Yoko looks pretty amazing in the pink n black

I guess Jim was so set on bashing Russo that he forgot the history with Yokozuna is when Yokozuna, Owen Hart, and Davey Boy were all members of Camp Cornette.

I spit my soda out @ 21:08 Then that laugh had me laughing harder

Well, Yoko was a tag team with Owen and the bulldog

Before I read the title I saw Yokozuna in the thumbnail and somehow knew this was a Russo story.....

This is awesome. I can listen to this for hrs

Funny story: I didn’t know Yokozuna was actually Samoan until his hall of fame induction until Rikishi was up there with the rest of the family making a speech on how they missed him. I literally thought Yoko was Japanese LOL.

Cornette and Russo should have a pay per view shoot fight. It could be called Brawl For All 2: Russo’s Reckoning