Jim Cornette's Historical Wrestling Tidbits 

Wahoo and Ernie Ladd both played in the old AFL, then an upstart rival to the NFL.

I love that my 79 year old father and Jim both refer to it as “Google Machine”.

Jim Cornette might as well just teach a course of professional wrestling history at Harvard.

A wrestler from my little home town was in the first match on Wrestling From The Chase. He was at best a mid card guy or even a jobber. When asked in an interview why he went into wresting instead of a position at a Ithaca university he said "I will make more wrestling there than I will teaching here." He wrestled for 8 or so years then became a science teacher and phys ed teacher.

Relistening to this awesome segment because Drive-Thru isn't out yet. I just got home from work and need to unwind.

"Back than you could get away with so much shit, I'm telling ya" - Jim Cornette

In the 50s, a gentleman from my high school chose medical school instead of the NFL.

Thanks Jim. I love these historical tidbits. I can’t look up your questions fast enough.

Most football players had jobs in the offseason as the pay for football was so low. Even Jim Brown worked for Pepsi as a marketing rep. This carried over to the 70's when Roger Staubach joined a prestigious real estate firm as a broker when he started out. Thru this he became worth over $600 million. His salary in the early years was about $25,000 even after winning 1971 league MVP.

Mickey Mantle's first contract in 1951 was $7500. His last contract in 1963 was for $100,000.

This is the good stuff. I wish Jim would do more of these shows instead of the indi rant's.

These are my favorite parts of the podcasts.

Best Travis artwork yet, even accurate down to Big Cat and Wahoo’s AFL numbers.

Took until 1960’s for guys in baseball to be paid $100,000 (except Teddy and DiM)

Imagine "Mean" Joe Green as a wrestler in the off season

In 1958 Jonny Unitas was the highest paid football player 25,000 a year

No wonder why they took the summer off in Stl. The humidity is atrocious and the heat is real

Otto Graham of the Cleveland Browns was the highest paid player in the NFL, and he won five MVP awards and seven world championships and his salary at his peak was about $25,000 a year.

To Jim's point about football player salaries... I own a business card from the 1960s when Bart Starr was an insurance salesman in the offesason. Bart Starr played in his first NFL Championship in 1960 and won his first championship in 1961.

I couldn’t find any good lists on nfl or afl salaries from the 50’s and 60’s but I did find info stating this: in 1970 Terry Bradshaw was the number 1 draft pick, and he had to get a second job selling insurance to make ends meet. Hope that might help.

I grew up in Ukrainian Village and now live in the South Burbs. I love Chicago. The history is wide and varying

I must say, this is refreshing instead of the constant exposing of the AEW horror show. Was fun at first but for me personally, I usually skip most AEW related videos now. I stopped watching wrestling like 5 years ago and I stumbled onto this channel maybe a year ago and was hooked at everything about Jim, be it his rants, promos, inside knowledge etc etc. Still wont watch wrestling but seems I stopped watching before the circus fully took over the business. But will still listen to anything else Jim and Brian put out.

Well the median salary in the us in 1952 was $2,300

According to a quick google, the median US income in 1952 was $2300. So the top baseball players earned 40 times the average person.

More of these please

Damn, I sure wish my cousin Jason had found Better Help. I just found out that he basically drank himself to death. I didn't know him that well, but he is still family and I am still in shock. I hope he has found peace.

Ernie Ladd vs Kenny Omega in a pluck them feathers match.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jim Cornette might be the best oral historian in the USA today

Well Jim Brown On The Height Of His Carreer Made $60,000 In 1965

Great history lesson Jim it would be quite interesting if a documentary or movie was based of your life in wrestling

My Dad was born in Chicagoland in 1943 and grew up watching all that awesome TV and going to shows when he could. Of course I was a hardcore AWA fan growing up.

Gagne having a falling out with the NWA is kind of fitting, in that Gagne was making his name on Chicago wrestling, and NWA was focused in St. Louis. It's like the Chicago-St. Louis sports rivalry bleeding through.

Really interesting stuff, great history lesson that only Jim has the right combination of knowledge and popularity to give! Just want to point out, just because less tickets are sold now doesn't mean a company/wrestling is less popular. There's a lot of ancillary and internet-based income now, along with TV deals. RU-vid, website ad revenue, national broadcasters deals, merchandising, touring, etc., all contribute, along with, as Jim has pointed out, the higher ticket prices now (even including inflation). Still, very intriguing stuff.

johnny unitas had to have a job in the off season and he was one of the best qbs in the league.

Baseball pay started shooting up in the 60s. Avg football was 6k per season around the 50s. I do laugh though because Jim has mentioned dudes getting crap pay a week. lol. The avg pay for wrestlers was crap back then.

Enjoyed the history Jim and Brian. This video was insightful. Not only interesting for history but after hearing Jim refer to DiMaggio as “That other fella”. And not knowing Ted Williams, I realize why Jim goes bonkers about the new wrestling. ALL SPORTS, and yes I’m including Professional Wrestling as a sport have changed a great deal since the 50’s. Jim’s just not aware how much the other sports have changed,because he’s not a fan of other sports. I’m not saying you have to like today’s wrestling or any sport today. But they’ve all changed drastically. And if you’re only aware of how one sport you’re passionate about and contributed to has changed,it’s obvious why the difference between 1951 and 2021 bother you so much.

17:32 Ted Williams or was it that other fella you talked about? Joe DiMaggio? LOL

I’ve been wanting a throwback Ernie Ladd Jersey.

Teach your sons how to hit or throw a baseball. Tatis Jr just got payed 340 mil.

Yea but you also got to put into perspective that the cost of living in 1952 was a lot less too. I mean you could get a house for under $10,000 and a gallon of gas was 20 cents.

Did they take the summer off to do the normal carny tours of all the fairgrounds doing traveling carnivals?

I think it's worth noting that of course in modern day American sports, basketball, baseball and especially football are the most popular sports. But back in the 1940s and 50s, it was horse racing, baseball and boxing that dominated American sports. The NFL and NBA were both in their infancy so comparing basketball or football players to wrestlers would be a bit inaccurate.

I was looking up NFL salaries from that time and Brian is right that it is hard to find concrete information. The closest information I could find was that Sammy Baugh-one of the best early quarterbacks- was making $8000 in the mid 40s and he was making almost double of the next highest paid member of his team. Also Joe Schmidt-one of the best defensive players of the 50s was making $12000 in 1956. That leads me to believe that the highest paid player in 1952 couldn’t be making more than $15000.(actually $10000 seems more likely.)

I’d pay Cornett good money just for shows like this.

Jim's inflation calculator sux. Because this type of cslc uses increases of prices for a select few commodities and ignored capital gains, ie ignores house prices, rents, etc, and also ignored services. The $34 calc for eg, could've been more the the rent for a whole house in Chicago at the time. I prefer the new Cadillac system... how many caddys could you get for x amount of dollars. Eg $10 000 in 1970 might get you 5 caddys. How much would you need to earn today to afford 5 Cadillacs?

Jim your off a little in 1952 NFL players did make decent money, but, the injury parameters were different, if you got hurt bad, there was no guaranteed insurance then so you risked alot playing pro football back then.and wrestling then probably did make more because they were paid per show, not annually.

You the man Jim.

Ladd is gonna pluck them feathers.

No 30k at most for MLB in 40's. I would imagine! 100k seems High As I Am! Lol ✊🏾👊🏽 ok I thought we were talking averages!

Way to go !!! For the sober guy 🖤🖤

Is there a book, a substantive book (300 plus pages), on the history of the territories?

Yessssss , this is why I live .. I mean .. listen , this is why I listen 👂🏽.. I have reasons to life (nervous laughs)

More than inring style, which in the 40's and 50's was pretty fast paced, the crowds are more diffetent than anything. Every man was in a suit or at a minimum shirt and tie, all the women wore dresses often with a fancy hat. I'd like to see how ticket prices compared to other entertainment of the time. How much were wrestling tickets compared to a baseball game or movie and what did Thesz and Gorgeous George make in comparrison to Bob Hope or Jackie Gleason or Frank Sinatra or Cary Grant.

I wonder what happened the Korean war years, just for comparison?

For what it's worth all these years later. Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns received a $10,000 raise and topped out at $50k a year, making him the highest paid player in the league in 1964.

haha...love corny..."that other guy you were talking about" .... that other guy being Joe DiMaggio. That's a true wrestling fan. Joe-D is "another guy"

Love chicago getting recognition!Bob luce the ultimate carny.p.s.im no prude but nice not every word is a swear word.

Yes I am ready for the historical segment Jim I always like those more than hearing about modern crap along with the indie shit show... I do sometimes enjoy some modern pro wrestling but not much

Perfect!

The price isn't fair, u had 5 match cards vs entire team budget of course the main event would get nore

I could listen to jim talk about this kind of thing forever.

And now NFL, NBA and MLB stars make $50 million per year...tell me wrestling hasn't fallen

How does Hannibal fit into all of this?

I've been meaning to ask: why does Travis Heckel always make Ernie Ladd's skin that color? He is as fair skinned as Jim Cornette is in real life, lol.

John Elway became first NFL player to ever make $1 million a year when he signed his first contract with Denver in 1983

Every one gives Billie Jean King credit as the first woman to make 100k in a year but Mildred Burke did it back in the 30s

THE CFL players was paid more than an NFL player a that period of time.

Also now it's all content, the live shows especially for WWE mean nothing. So comparing times makes as little sense as comparing any sports from different eras.

Baseball players not making money had nothing to do with how many people are going to see baseball and everything to do with the owners not paying them enough the owners are making money hand over fist and they weren’t paying the players nearly a high enough percentage. It wasn’t until the 70s that Kurt flood broke the reserve clause and baseball players became free agents and were able to demand what they want to be paid

Waiting on MITB reviews… 😃

That A.W.A. DVD is like the bible of wrestling, that's were I gained a lot of my wrestling history and also the history of the World Heavyweight Champion DVD were wrestling had to be staged because one match would last for hrs with just boring holds.

Go chargers

10 minutes before first fact 😂

5 hour matches????

Best as I could find the average NFL player was making around 6 grand a year back in the 50s.

I love the great wrestling history stories!! Minus the stupid plugs 🤦

Finally the first one....Love ya Jim!!!

Football salaries with very much in line with hockey and most hockey players barely broke near 20,000 up until the mid 70s Then those flipped in for the longest time from the $77 made 2000 football players are making the most now it's basketball players in the US The big bad for person making 35 to 40 million a year only a few players make over 30 a year

I watched a GOOD independent wrestling show today. But Cornette's tidbits were still better.

How do these guys not have a tv show? Put this podcast on tv and joe Rogan's show would have legit competition, and enthusiasm for pro wrestling would probably come back.

Who else is waiting for Jim to review the Money In The Bank PPV?

Good stats but you forgot the other top boxers besides the champion that were making more then any wrestlers and should belong in that top 5 list of yours!

You talk about trivia tidbits let me ask you Jim do you remember Don and Al Green I know you remember Eddie Marlin Tommy Gilbert you remember saw winegrove Carl and Kurt von broner sir Clemens Sputnik Monroe Sweet Daddy watts I can go on about buzz Benson in Paducah cowboy Fraser I remember the diamond ring angle that him and Jerry Lawler played but Lawler took the ring back from him and made plowboy cry on TV and of course they never get away with Sweet Daddy Watts stuttering like he did that would be like a unpolitically correct right now just going on and on about some old stuff that I remember and I you probably remember too I mean I can remember that Roy Welch Nick Lewis when they were the announcers of slickback hair Nick gulis

CORNETTE RULES

Hammond Civic Center had a Raw house show a few years ago, but I don't think any major promotion has been to Gary in the last few decades.

So the top wrestlers of today make 5x what the old timers made. Even the scrubs like Zayn make more than the old timers top guys.

❤️🏆🍿

NFL pay off we’re less than 6k in 1950

They should have wrestling seasons nowadays, to give the workers time to rest injuries, to prevent overexposure, and to gin up excitement for season finales and premieres. Edit: Wow, some of you guys take this shit _way_ too seriously. You come off like a bunch of marks. Again, I don’t really care enough to argue an offhand comment with a bunch of strangers on the internet, so all I’ll add is this: Professional wrestlers the world over (other than Mexico, who already have one) deserve their own union so they can bargain collectively for fair wages, a healthy work environment _and_ a paid off-season. Because their health and well-being is more important than your personal entertainment and Vince McMahon’s-or any indie promoter’s-bank account. And so, as they say in Canada, _peace oot!_

Successful baseball team can you get 4 million ticket for the home game 81 home games to get 4 to 4 and a half million tickets sold Between all the top of my shows in Little House shows they do have WWE mask put on wet 150 200 shows a year only get 1.5 million

The football player-pro wrestler relationship has existed for 100 years. Bronko Nagurski, a collegiate & pro football HOF'er from the early days of the NFL transitioned to wrestling in the 1930's. He played for George Halas (A notorious cheapskate) Bears and realized far more money could be made in wrestling. At some point in the late 30's, I think Bronko beat a young Lou Thesz to become World Champion.

Brian isn't a stupid guy, but c'mon. I googled "average NFL salary in 1950" and came up with a TON of results instantly

Hello Jim CORNETE! I appreciate you. If Vince offers you wk please take it and make um better. And the same for AEW

Corny!!!!!!!!

Early for once

Jimmmyyy

lol the "atheist" putting himself in the hospital 2 times in a year from drinking lol. get a grip guy

More of this, less aew pls

The guy saying every therapist he went to used religion. Sorry champ your church run AA meeting doesn't count as seeing a therapist.

Yawn...lol