James Mark Cornette (born September 17, 1961) worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler. Cornette is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history by fans and publications, as well as industry personnel.

Cornette began working at wrestling events at the age of 14, serving as a photographer, ring announcer, timekeeper, magazine correspondent, and public relations correspondent. During this time, from attending matches at the Louisville Gardens, Cornette got to know promoter Christine Jarrett, who was the mother of Jerry Jarrett, promoter of the Continental Wrestling Association (commonly known as the "Memphis territory"). Cornette has credited her as a major influence on his early career and praised her business acumen.

By 1982, Cornette was writing programs for arena shows, having photographs published in wrestling magazines, and contributing to the Championship Wrestling Magazine. In August, he traveled to Memphis to see the TV match between Jerry Lawler and Ric Flair. After the show ended, Cornette was offered a wrestling managerial role on television by promoter Jerry Jarrett. As Cornette has recalled, despite his presence being tolerated at shows and TV tapings for nearly a decade, the first time he was allowed into the locker room was only after he had become a manager.

Before making his managing debut, Cornette decided to adapt the ring name James E. Cornette in tribute to legendary wrestling promoter James E. Barnett. Cornette made his ringside debut on September 25, 1982, managing Sherri Martel, who herself would later become a wrestling manager. Cornette was given the gimmick of a rich kid turned inept manager whose clients kept firing him after one match.

In November 1983, Mid-South promoter Bill Watts recognized his business was down and was looking to reinvigorate his territory. Watts asked Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler to visit a TV taping and offer their opinions. Jarrett suggested a talent trade and invited Watts to Memphis to see who he liked. After watching a Memphis TV taping, Watts took singles performers Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton to create a new tag team, and also took the existing team of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson as The Rock 'n' Roll Express. Watts also noticed the brash young manager in Cornette, and in his own words, recalled "He was so obnoxious I wanted to slap him", and "I knew he was instant box office if he could get me that riled up". Watts took Cornette to manage his new team, who decided on the name The Midnight Express.

It was during this time that Cornette acquired his tennis racquet which became his trademark. He has stated he had seen a college movie at the time with an obnoxious rich kid carrying a badminton racquet with him (most likely the 1983 film Screwballs), so he decided on a tennis racquet. At times Cornette loaded the racquet with a horseshoe to guard against aggressive fans. Cornette and The Midnight Express debuted on Mid-South television on November 23, 1983.

At a TV taping on March 14, 1984, Cornette and the Midnights staged a celebration for winning the tag team titles, complete with champagne and birthday cake. While Cornette's back was turned, The Rock 'n' Roll Express ran in and shoved Cornette's face in the cake. Cornette was enraged afterwards when Bill Watts replayed the incident on TV as he thought it was funny. This led to a heated altercation between the two, which ended with Watts slapping Cornette. In following weeks, the Midnight Express and Cornette attacked and bloodied Watts leading him to come out of retirement.

In a series of matches termed "The Last Stampede", Watts and his masked teammate Stagger Lee (suspected to be Junkyard Dog under a mask) faced the Midnight Express and Cornette all through the territory. The stipulations were simple; if the Midnights won Cornette would run Mid-South Wrestling for 60 days; if they lost, Cornette would be stripped down and forced to wear either a diaper or a dress (the outfits varied by venue). Over 5 weeks, the Last Stampede series shattered box office records for Mid-South.

Cornette's time in Mid-South was also notable as it marked the beginning of the rivalry with the Rock 'n' Roll Express. Starting in May 1984 immediately following the Last Stampede series, the two teams feuded the remainder of the year to packed crowds throughout the territory. In particular, the two teams set attendance records in Houston, Tulsa and Oklahoma City, making 1984 the most successful year in Mid-South history, and The Midnight Express and Cornette national stars.

Cornette has consistently acknowledged that Bill Watts's philosophy of believable and credible wrestling, with an unwavering emphasis on toughness, athleticism and serious presentation, has had a major impact on how he thinks the business should be promoted. He has described the promotion as a military school for wrestling, where Watts' strict enforcement of kayfabe, exhausting travel schedule and passionate fans made it a learning experience like no other. Cornette maintains enormous respect for Watts as a promoter, citing his ability to attract huge TV ratings and consistently sold-out arenas in a low population area, and describing Watts as a genius. At the same time, he acknowledges the grind of constant matches, long drives, and fan riots was a grueling test of endurance. He and the Midnights were so hated, in fact, that they had to be escorted by police to and from the ring at the house shows and have a police escort to the city limits for fear of being attacked by overzealous fans.

In 1989, Cornette became the color commentator for Jim Crockett Promotions' nationally syndicated NWA television show, and later took over the same role on the Saturday night TBS broadcasts alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Ross. In 1989, Cornette became a booker on WCW's creative team. As such, Cornette helped write storylines and shape the format of its television shows. Due to friction and animosity between himself and WCW head Jim Herd, Cornette quit the company after Halloween Havoc 1990.

In early 1993, Cornette briefly returned to World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as part of a talent trade with Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW). WCW executive vice president Bill Watts had brought The Rock 'n' Roll Express back into the company and billed them as the Smoky Mountain tag team champions, which incensed Cornette since his team The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard) were the reigning champions. This lead to a his most notable feud in the company.

A firm believer in "old-school" territorial wrestling, Cornette began the Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) promotion in 1991. SMW promoted shows in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. By this point, however, the nature of U.S. wrestling had already changed irrevocably, leading Cornette to seek a working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1993. This did not change the new national perception that regional promotions were "minor league", and also did not help SMW's finances. Cornette shuttered SMW in November 1995 and sold all its rights and videos to the WWF.

Cornette went to the WWF in 1993 while still serving as promoter of SMW. As in other promotions, he held several positions in the WWF, including manager, color commentator and member of the booking committee. Cornette's most notable managerial role in the WWF was as the "American spokesperson" of WWF champion Yokozuna. He joined the WWF full-time in 1996 after the demise of SMW and had a major role in scouting and developing new talent. On-screen, Cornette led a top heel stable of wrestlers referred to as "Camp Cornette". At any given time, Cornette's charges consisted of Yokozuna, Mantaur, Vader, Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. The Heavenly Bodies (Stan Lane and Tom Prichard}

In 1997, Cornette became a member of the WWF announcing team, where he served as a color commentator. It was during this time that he also began performing a series of controversial "worked shoots" where he would praise what he felt was right and condemn what he felt was wrong in professional wrestling. Although the segments were produced by the WWF, Cornette did not hesitate to give praise to wrestlers in rival World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that he felt deserved it. For several years Cornette also became active behind the scenes working within the booking committee, before being removed after frequently butting heads with writer Vince Russo.

Cornette was also part of the television production staff during this time, but eventually left in part due to evolving conflicts with both Russo and producer Kevin Dunn. Cornette later recounted that things came to a head in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the summer of 1997. During a production meeting for Raw – which was to feature newly signed wrestler The Patriot – Cornette repeatedly tried to steer the discussion towards the treatment of what he thought was a new top-of-the-line heroic character. Dunn told Cornette that he found him "tiresome" for continuing to harp on about this issue, which enraged Cornette to the point where he mocked Dunn's buck teeth and threatened to assault him in front of everyone in the room. He was eventually forced to apologize to Dunn for his actions.

In 1999, Cornette became head booker and part-owner of WWF's lead developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), then being run by "Nightmare" Danny Davis. As a talent developer in Smoky Mountain, he had already been instrumental in the careers of then-current and former WWF stars Kane, D'Lo Brown, Sunny and Al Snow, and WWE also credits Cornette with helping foster other world-famous superstars, including John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar.

In May 2005, Cornette was suspended for several weeks by WWE after slapping OVW developmental wrestler Johnny Geo Basco (Anthony Carelli) backstage after Carelli had "no-sold" fellow wrestler The Boogeyman by laughing at him during a live OVW event. Shortly after Cornette returned from his suspension, a separate incident occurred and the WWE released him from his contract in July 2005.

In 2006, Cornette joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as the new face of TNA's management. He held the title of "Management Director" according to the press releases following his premiere at the Slammiversary PPV event on June 18, 2006, in Orlando, Florida. Cornette was released from TNA on September 15, 2009. He has said that he was released because he was not "100 percent" behind TNA's creative team, headed by Vince Russo.

On September 8, 2010, Ohio Valley Wrestling announced that Cornette would resume his duties as the head booker of the promotion. Cornette left OVW in November 2011, when the promotion announced a working agreement with TNA.

Cornette worked with writer Vince Russo in the WWF during the 1990s and in TNA during the 2000s, and regularly conflicted with him due to his views on the business, which emphasize entertainment storylines over actual in-ring action to the point of intense hatred on Cornette's part. Cornette has criticized Russo publicly since his departure from TNA in 2009, which Cornette has stated was a result of his lack of support for Russo's creative direction.

In March 2010, Cornette sent then-TNA official Terry Taylor an email in which he said: "I want Vince Russo to die. If I could figure out a way to murder him without going to prison, I would consider it the greatest accomplishment of my life." TNA sent the letter to a California law firm, who characterized his comments as a "terroristic threat" and said "any further threats to contact Vince Russo or any other TNA personnel (directly or indirectly) shall be viewed as acts in furtherance of such threats and shall be pursued and prosecuted accordingly."

During a 2017 podcast, Cornette challenged Russo to a fight. Russo responded by filing a restraining order (EPO) against Cornette for "stalking him across state lines since 1999." As a response, Cornette began selling autographed copies of the restraining order on his personal website, with all proceeds being donated to the Crusade for Children.

The Russo vs. Cornette rivalry was prominently featured in Viceland's Dark Side of the Ring episodes covering the Montreal Screwjob and WWF's Brawl for All, which aired in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Cornette also noted on his podcast in 2021 an incident with Russo where he wanted to book multiple disqualification finishes on a Raw episode, leading to Cornette calling him out in front of the writing team. Russo then went over Cornette's head to McMahon, who went to Jim Ross who later asked Cornette to apologize. Cornette refused, continuing a feud that has lasted now for over 20 years.

In 2009, Cornette signed a contract with Ring of Honor (ROH) to be their executive producer for the Ring of Honor Wrestling show on HDNet. Cornette made his surprise return to ROH at Glory By Honor VIII: The Final Countdown on September 26, announcing he was the new executive producer for the show. Cornette made his first appearance on Ring of Honor Wrestling on the December 7 episode.

In November 2012, it was revealed that Cornette had left the promotion. The reason for Cornette's absence stems from an outburst he had at the November 3 ROH television taping. At the taping, ROH talent Steve Corino suffered an injury, and no ROH officials were still at the venue to be able to pay for Corino's immediate medical attention or even arrange for an ambulance to be called. This left Corino in pain for hours and Cornette to be the only person there with enough power to handle the situation.

In 2017, Cornette retired from managing.

Cornette has a criminal record which includes a number of assaults, mostly stemming from incidents involving fights with fans who attacked him while he was a manager in the 1980s. The record has made it difficult for him to work in Canada, and he was turned away from the Canadian border in November 2010. A notable altercation involving the Midnight Express and fans at the Raleigh County Armory on May 29, 1987, eventually made its way to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in Massey v. Jim Crockett Promotions, Inc. The case was cited in West Virginia law textbooks and studied in university. One of the issues in the case was whether it was possible for a person to string as many profanities in as short amount of time as the plaintiffs claim Cornette said that night.

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