Pro wrestling legend Jim Cornette recently took to an episode of his Jim Cornette Experience podcast, where he discussed a number of topics such as how the match between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley at WWE Crown Jewel is following the same blueprint Paul Heyman has set out for them and how the match is not going to have a hip toss or an arm drag. Cornette also discussed how since he believes the Heyman type of match works for Lesnar and Lashley they maybe overdoing it to the point that the match is not working as well as it once did.
Jim Cornette said:
“So they [WWE] start out with Brock and Lashley. My God, what are we doing? And Lashley jumpstarts it because he’s the offended party from last time as I recall, and he hurts Brock’s leg to give Brock something to sell and it’s an all big move match. They’re just gonna, this is kind of like the [Paul] Heyman blueprint that he’s putting on these guys. 2 Spears and then a Spear through a barricade and another Spear, and then Brock comes back with a German and another German and another German and an F5 for a two count.”
“Nobody’s gonna grab a headlock, there’s gonna be no hip toss [or] arm drag. But with these guys, there shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, I think the bad thing is because this kind of match works, they’re overdoing it to the point where it’s eventually not going to work as well. It may be already there where it doesn’t work as well as it once did. But anyway, so again, you know, Bobby does his post thing where he runs the post while he’s over his shoulders. Goes for a Spear, Brock foils it, Bobby hits a Spinebuster, gets the Hurt Lock.”
“And the thing that Brock showed here in this match is that he can sell his a** off and he will when it’s called for. Because he was not only selling that leg like a champ earlier, but he sells the Hurt Lock. And it’s believable, you know, there was emotion to this.”
“And I’m thinking, ‘Boy, this is really, this is going good’, and then all of a sudden while he’s in the Full Nelson, the Hurt Lock, Brock kicks off the turnbuckle and they do the, was that Bruno [Sammartino] and [Stan] Stasiak? Or was that Pedro [Morales]? Who was that? One of the oldest f*cking finishes in the world when somebody needs to get a fluke when [they] kick off the turnbuckle, a guy’s got the Full Nelson, but he’s pinned 1, 2, 3.”
“But nevertheless that they were doing good and I was like in the match it is two big f*cking monsters and then all of a sudden [it’s over]. That was kind of a letdown, I wrote really?? with two question marks on my notes. I know they want to extend it and they can’t beat either one of these guys flat-out convincingly with no out or b*tch or room for gripe or whatever, but boy that wasn’t exactly a Pat Patterson f*cking special finish there. ‘Okay, just kick off the buckle and pin him’. That kind of led me down at the end.”
You can check out Jim Cornette’s full comments at this link. H/T to Inside The Ropes for transcribing the above quotes.
