Jim Cornette Quotes

If you're an outsider, you don't know how to get signed by the WWE. It's not like football where you can sign up and segue your way in. You've got to know somebody.

At one time, I wanted to be a WWE wrestler. I still do. I want to go in the ring once and mess around and jump off the ropes and do a Stone Cold stunt.

When I got a little older, like, 10 or 11, my dad would run a training school every month, teaching people how to become wrestlers. I would get in the ring now and again and mess around with one of my brothers, and he'd teach me some stuff.

The Dream didn't need to struggle. He's homegrown talent, straight from the WWE Performance Center, trained by the best coaches in the world: Norman Smiley, who's known from coast-to-coast, Matt Bloom, head trainer, and I am protege of the one-and-only The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels.

Growing up, my wildest dream was always to be part of the WWE, and I'd been in NXT by that time for two and a half years, so I felt very, very ready to go.

Being born into the business, I had the connections. A lot of guys aspire to be professional wrestlers, but you need to get trained the right way. And then, once you're trained, you need to get to that next level, and really, the WWE is the only place to do it.

I would love to see TNA get a developmental program.

I don't think Roman Reigns should for one moment of his life be worrying about earning the respect of the WWE audience. Because what he has is their willingness to pay to see Roman Reigns whether they respect him or not.

I went to a wrestling school in Canada. That did not work out well, I think I was out there for like a week.

To go from a small wrestling dojo to the Performance Center was just mind-blowing. The sheer scale - I didn't think anything like that could possibly exist.

At least you knew when you were on a Hulk Hogan card you were going to get paid.

I started out with Buzz Sawyer in Sacramento. He had me shoot on guys and beat them up. They tossed me a few bones here and there. But, after Buzz passed away, I started seeking training elsewhere.

After being signed by WWE, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, Giant Silva, Test and Ken Shamrock all trained at my house. I had a pool room with an indoor pool and a garden behind it. I took out the garden and put in a wrestling ring.

The WWE has a great school in Orlando and most of the trainers are of my upbringing.

I started training when I was a senior in high school. I trained at the Combat Zone Wrestling Academy in South Philadelphia.

Eventually, and thanks to my dad, I started working for Total Nonstop Action for $1,000 a show. He was the boss, right under Dixie Carter. TNA wasn't doing too well at that point, but I had a job making okay money.

I did a year and a half of independent wrestling before I got into the WWE. It was nothing really. I didn't make the towns. I don't even say I was an indy wrestler.

All of the pivotal moments in my adult life are connected to the wrestling business.

Dave Taylor, who was my tag partner in WWE, had a wrestling school close to where we both lived in Georgia for a while.

My brother was going to go to England to wrestle, but then we found out they were opening a wrestling school in Bray, County Wicklow. I thought, 'I'll go along and try that.'

When I wasn't wrestling, I got back into school a little bit. In Dallas, there was VIP Wrestling, and in Atlanta, AR Fox has a great school, so it's good to get back in there and continue to learn.

The Performance Center in Orlando is the best place to go if you want to be a professional wrestler.

I've been around in WWE for quite a while now and before that had - even in Florida - I've been all around the world and seen every type of style in opponent; the way I was trained and stuff, I got a lot more tricks up my sleeve.

I trained under Bill DeMott. I did a lot of my promo work with Dusty Rhodes.

A lot of people are successful in this business because of a catchphrase or athletic ability or charisma or wrestling; Ric Flair is the personification of all of those things, much like his daughter Charlotte, as she is already a multiple-time champion after only a few years in the WWE.