Jim Cornette on His Tape Collection
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- From Episode 436 of the Jim Cornette Experience
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
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So much possible “LOST MEDIA” in Jim’s Collection that NEEDS to be DIGITIZED & SAVED ASAP.
It really does, I'm sure some of them didn't survive still.
I agree!! It needs to be saved! People may say how they hate this era but one of the best thing that ever came from this era is you can digitally save old footage which lower it's chances of being damaged.. Thank You to the person/people who came up with that idea of digitally saving everything.. That is genius..
Seriously. I thought that immediately, how is this not already done.
@@joeybegoode9067 Jim is a digital luddite.
The longer those tapes sit, the worse they will get and more likely they will break in transfer
Those tapes belong in the Library of Congress to be preserved. They're historical documents from a long neglected era of regional and national history
Jim should talk to the Library of Congress Packard Campus, which handles media like all your beta and vhs tapes. I bet they would be interested in preserving it.
I always said Jim should do a book on wrestling but not the stuff we already know. Not the moves or any of that but the stories and angles. A how to guide. Think of the Savage Steamboat storyline from wm 3. How to pull it off
Internet archive is a good source too
Knowing Jim, he surely recorded each broadcast; commercials, station spots and all, in the best quality, on the best tapes, possible at the time. His collection is bound to be a veritable treasure trove of classic television. That's not even considering the goldmine that is the actual wrestling programs on the tapes. A truly legendary collection, indeed. Not only wrestling, but television historians and preservationists in general, would surely love to get their hands on it
You’re weird bro
He admits he sacrificed quality for quantity, purely because he couldn't afford to otherwise
He needs to make them all digital.. Seriously..
It’s almost like Jim talked about this on the video.
@@MrSniperfox29 you're right about that. He actually has digitized a small portion of OVW footage to send to some of the wrestlers who worked there, and I've seen a few matches from that footage, and it's extremely low-quality VHS.
I never get tired of hearing the little extra things Jim would do during his prime in wrestling.
When I was young I just assumed like most, he managed his team and then sat at a hotel till the next show. Crazy to hear all this chaos and extra projects just one guy did behind the scenes.
Your technical knowledge of beta and vhs is impressive as hell Jimmy. Then again you're such a good talker you could make a glass of milk entertaining and thoughtful.
Aaa VCR the memories! I still remember the panic when tape got stuck in the player and it was a film that you were "too young to watch"
😆 😆
Jim is the only man in the 80's whose VCR did not say 12:00.
don't u mean 00:00
@@smoosev89 no.
probably cuz your American and don't use 24hr clock like in europe
@@smoosev89 probably because most people just never bothered to ever mess with them because back then they had 5 buttons and setting the clock was kinda hard....... Any other dumb questions, comments or concerns?
Uh wdym by that? The comment and the timestamp dont make any sense
My collection progressed from VHS tapes to transfers onto DVDs to storage onto hard drives. So nice to progress from an enormous amount of storage space to a box slightly less than the size of one shoe box.
Finally finally finally. Literally been waiting for years for someone to ask about Jim’s tape collection
i still have a VCR just to watch some old Mystery Science Theater episodes I recorded off Sci-Fi in the 90s
You like Robert Denby?
@@kevindouglas5333 he's so illusive
We need his wrestling knowledge. Don’t hide it. You’re a living legend in professional wrestling. Love you Jim.
Jim's videotape history knowledge taught my something and I studied film for a brief time in my younger years. I hope he gets around to digitizing his archives, it'd be so much fun to watch.
Imagine someone in the 1970's throwing away 1950's-1960's wrestling footage because they thought it was a waste of space.
Hell, that's why there are about a hundred missing Doctor Who episodes. A lot of companies didn't see the value of old media in those days.
@@MichaelSmith-fq6hz Because there was no home video for retail sales, and at the time TV networks assumed they would never repeat things.
There was no retail sales of movies, let alone wrestling really. And what you COULD get of movies were like $100+ per tape.
The same goes for outtakes reels of movies and the final edits of media for TV such as commercials or music videos done on film before being transfered for TV broadcast tapes, since for decades those were meant to be seen on screens no bigger than 32/36 inches instead of wall sized TVs.
@@maxxdahl6062 Some of episodes survived by simply being sold internationally and not being returned (or found) until after the BBC had stopped junking things
Jim spending hundred of dollars in 70s to tape wrestling is just another proof of a savant he id
beta max player like that would have been 2000+ dollars not hundreds, the cheapest just players you could get were in the $500 range for both beta and vhs there were 2 or 3 other home vidoe formats too...laser disc and rca had one too they looked like records there were ced's and vhds and vhs won out it wasnt just vhs vs beta
@@cultureshock5000 I think he was talking about just the cost of the tapes he was purchasing. Im willing to bet he spent more on tapes than the equipment itself
@@cultureshock5000 Could you imagine the price on laserdisc in the late 70's? That had to be even more sky high.
@@maxxdahl6062 they were cheaper than tapes like a tape would be 80 bucks a laserdisk would be 30 there were different brands of them and there was aanother older format that looked like a record that was even cheaper .... vhs winning that war was a just a gimmick too
@@maxxdahl6062 they were finnicky tho they got wrecked easily and teh machines werent reliable
I would hope he digitizes them or something before he gets too old. Man's holding onto history. Thank you Jim!
He needs to do that quick as possible.. before the old films get deteriorated..
Jim should start a Kickstarter or something to hire a company to transfer everything he owns to somewhere. Not just because I wanna see all of it (I really do) but because it would genuinely be historically important. And I'd personally prefer ALL of it being available. Sure, a small promotion with an episode with Jimbo the crusher vs Blumbo the conqueror as a main event might not be must see tv, but its history that I'd love to see preserved. Hell make a streaming platform for what you can get the rights for. I'd pay for it.
Just when I thought Jimbo the Crusher was funny Blumbo the Conqueror walks through the curtain down the aisle! 😅
Jimbo the Crusher had an underated elbow drop but its nothing compared to Blumbo's suplex
I wager the Cult of Cornette would fund that in a day, myself included.
These podcasts are so much fun to watch because I learn so much about the wrestling Territories
We are so lucky Jim Cornette exists. What a unique and clever man.
I would love to see Jim's collections of old tapes, programs, and more. Jim has a treasure trove that if it's not persevered will be lost forever.
When they made the 9 1/2hr tape in ep mode was such a blessing!
They were always advertised as “10” hour tapes, weren’t they?
What a history lesson about keeping your old tapes in good shape to the best of your abilities
I bought a vcr from a thrift store about a year ago. It's been a nostalgic ride ever since.
I got one for $5. Sometimes I get lucky 🤑
Nowadays if you don't have a CRT tv its mandatory to have a external DVD recorder for watch the tapes, not for make transfer to DVD with them but instead for use the built in time base corrector that many of those have in order to watch the tapes without dropping signal or without annoying distorsions, especially for rewatch old stuff recorded on LP and EP speeds.
I want one with the dvd player/ recorder I have some ECW Saturday night episodes from 98’, IWA KofDM 94’
(Cactus crimson mask)
FMW 1996 Event, FMW v. ECW 97’, some Attitude era WWF Stuff lol
I still own my vcr from 1997 it works perfect 8 heads svhs
Gotta love that auto tracking
Jim speaking about the adult entertainment determining the video format of the era.
... they still do!
He's friends with the head of AVN (at least the guy that started it) so he would have unique insight.
Yep, Blu-Ray beat HD DVD partially because of adult films overwhelmingly being put on Blu-Ray.
In all honesty a personal goal is getting an arts and entertainment preservation group of some sort going. Preserve and restore old shows, movies, music, that sort of thing. There's a lot that falls through the cracks in terms of corporate media. Though wrestling sounds like its kind of wider spread, for Memphis to fall through is surprising just given its prominence.
Could listen to Jim talk about old tapes all day long so much better than anything on raw or smackdown today
(Regarding Jim's comments around the 7:00 min. mark) Beta was better than VHS. I still had a Beta in 93 and recorded the first Slamboree. Upon playing it back I was like, "DAMN!" the picture quality was great!
This is amazing information. I remember beta and VHS but didn't know why one was more popular than the other.
VHS having longer recording times was the major reason Plus a lot of different companies had licenses to make VHS machines which brought down the price of the machines very quickly
You know I miss all the old stuff too but in no way do I miss all the old RCA plugs and video plugs and all the miles of cords etc! 😂😂😂
Hearing Jim talk Old tech is great
Nice! Thanks and safety to ya all as always!!
i have a shit ton of boxes filled with vhs tapes because i would record tons of ecw, wcw, raw, ppv's and weekly shows for a few years in the 90's. i cant imagine the sheer amount of tapes jim has. he has yearssssss of every show. he really needs to do something to have backups because those tapes wont last for ever and god forbid he pops a tape in and his vhs player just eats it.
You're right. I forget how many years before they completely degrade but they definitely do degrade.
It's insane how much wrestling from the attitude era is completely gone/sitting in an archive rotting. You would think with the insane viewership and fairly easy recording that it would all be there. but most of the smaller programs are poorly archived. Shotgun saturday night for example. Most of 1997 is nowhere to be found. Really sucks too, because that includes the majority of Pillmans WWF run. Lost to time, possibly
@@pillagerthevillager3860 most of 1997 is out there - at least ripped from VHS. only 3 episodes missing.
6:55 He is exactly correct, this is why VHS won the format war in the US and Betamax tapes were higher quality. Ironically when I bought Starrcade 85, it came on VHS and I had to dub it to Beta. 14:55 blank tapes being $25, I feel Jims pain here being a pioneer in the CD recordables front as I had my first burner in 1994 and blanks were $15 so when you made coasters life really sucked. I've converted most of VHS collection to digital by now but obviously didn't his quantity of wrestling collection as I was a computer software pirate in the 80s & 90s.
Someone should make a documentary about Jim’s collection
i agree. he has a quick tour video he gave bobby heenan years ago but id love a full on 3 hour tour of everything he has. its literally like a museum.
There is. Ring Of Honor did one with Bobby Hernan. It's on DVD. I have it. RF Video did one too, I think.
Id pay considerable money just to see Jim's museum. Just an hour.
Sorry - 80's kid old-school tech memories. I think it's hard for the kids who've never had any experience of VHS/tape (Hell, they don't remember DVD at this point) to understand just how good Beta was as a format.
The first video we ever had was a top-line, top-loading, Sony SL7200A with a wired 'remote control', straight from the 'back of a lorry'. This thing was basically the height and width of 3 XBox 1's on top of each other, but all the other kids had the slimmer, cheaper (and crapper) VHS format. Which, as a stupid kid, I assumed had to be better, and I knew for certain I couldn't watch their Manimal or He-Man tapes on my Beta.
Beta also had 'hidden features', too: I remember putting one of our guinea pigs on top of the tape eject slot with an Action Man (GI Joe 12" scale) parachute for safety, and the eject was so violent, that the cavy squeaked like hell and shot up about a foot and a half in the air. Fortunately, the parachute engaged, and ol' Sebastian landed safely, but somewhat traumatised, on the floor. So, it had that going for it at any rate.
In the UK, with no significant indigenous porn industry (very, very few homegrown videos were recorded and widely distributed in the UK: the UK's 'porn industry' served to distribute badly overdubbed loops or 'movies' from European and American distributors, legally or illegally) the two factors that killed Beta were typically British issues - price and practicality. VHS was longer, and cheaper. VHS players were waaay cheaper. So, by 1983/4, Beta video recorders were rarities, and dead by the middle of the decade.
I've seen revisionist idiots saying that as a 'whole product', VHS was better. It wasn't. If you wanted to record from television, or dub from one Beta to another, in the highest quality resolution possible, on the best quality, most robustly built, long-lasting tape format in the early 1980s, Beta was 'the guy'.
Jesus, is anyone interested in any of this? Probably not....
I read it. I bet you watch Techmoan videos like I do. I'm always interested in vintage technology.
Beta was a better format, but the selections at the video store all would suck. My uncle had a video store so I got both format VCRs.
But did you rewind?
@@danielburger1775 Of course. I'd prefer not to burn in hell lol
Oh hell yes
I hope he really gets started on transferring the tapes and discs because tape rot and disc rot are both a very real thing, and may one day claim all that history that Jim has.
It sucks because Digital is there and reliable but non materialistic..u cant put digital content somewhere in your home to collect dust or be a coaster for your drinks etc….
My 10 year old EP recorded VHS tapes looked lousy 20 years ago. Jim's collection could easily be more than half gone already.
@@jC-kc4si It depends on the quality of the VHS/Beta tape. Not all tapes were created equal.
I believe he said it's already underway, it'll just take forever.
@@tobiasfarragut292 Except external drives can do that
Awesome thank you Jim for caring about this stuff. The world needs it.
What will be really interesting, is if Vince McMahon’s personal tape collection is ever found. He’s probably had a lot of Sunny days, partied from dusk til Dawn, and tickled the Ivory once or twice.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Who knows??
Wouldn’t blame him for Ivory..she was hot in her day tight and athletic thats almost good enough for a board dismissal
Ivory? As much as she talks shit , I dunno
He May of had a romp when he got more Moolah, or possibly in his travels to Chyna, probably had some “sensational” times. I wouldn’t discount “sunny” days but after that I think it “dawn”ed on him that he should stop sexually harassing Sable.
I know Bret from the History of FMW podcast said the FMW video library is quite scattered. There's the Onita era FMW, the post Onita era up until the DirectTV deal, the DirectTV era, and post DirectTV. All different rights holders. And I think he said there's some footage that no one knows who properly owns it.
Really enjoyed listening to this! Always a great history lesson. I wish there was some more footage of Bobby Eaton and Dennis and the Freebirds in Gulas. I grew up on that. I remember when they showed the clips of George vs. Harley for the world title on TV in Nashville and Gulas crying about how he should be the world champion. That would be awesome to see that match and Harley's greatness if a copy could ever be found.
2am with a blunt and a brand new Cornette clip. Top of the world 😁
Puff puff pass homie
Pass that over bro 😎
Cheers mate.
Cheers, i always hear Jim clips while smoking too.
Its so interesting hearing about his stories and the way he sees wrestling.
Rollin my Dutch to get my stocks up 🧑🏼✈️
The ONLY TH-cam channel where I don't skip through the sponsor.
2022 I Still Collect/Trade/Dub VHS Tapes to Preserve the Past & Explore What Was Captured Way Back When! This Segement Was Very Interesting and I Really Hope That JC Gets to Transferring and Uploading Some of the More Rare Stuff He Still Has. It Would Be Epic To See! 📼
This brought back fond memories. I only had 2 vhs machines. My first one in 79 and the other followed in 81. I didnt tape wrestling, I taped musicians. Like Corny I spent a grand a piece for mine. Fortunately we had stores in town that sold tapes by the case as well. $12.95 for 10 compared to $19.95 a piece.
My first VCR was $300 mono sound. 2nd was probably have that price with stereo and 19 micron heads for better 6 hour recording. By that time there were 7and 8 hour tapes.
Man wee need the vice Magazin coming back to jim and make a format like"the past times of the ring"!!! My brain is running on super high when i think of jc's collection!!!
Somewhere there is a box of several years of Wrestling at the Chase and mid 80s WWF stuff i made when i was a kid... i need to find those back
Awesome video, could listen to this 4ever!
Now I wanna see all these lost tapes!
Credit to the guy who asked the question! This was a very engaging half an hour!
I need all that New Japan tv from 1985 aka the Bruiser Brody run with commercials included! Please!!
Awesome Shoot Today Jim!!😎🐐🐐
This is making me rethink the value of Beta. Although I've almost never seen it in my area from the 90's on.
So glad someone brought this up, this stuff NEEDS digitizing for history’s sake
LOVED this segment ! So much id kill to see !!! Im not even gonna name all the stuff .
I started transferring some of my DVD and some videos onto MP4 for space and the quality is great as I watch it through my TV.
I've seen a couple of YT videos of World Class shows that aired on channel 11 from Fort Worth but they are a lot rarer than the Sportitorium shows
I worry that that those old tape are degrading if they don't get digitized
Would Love to see the Tape Collection of both Vince McMahon & John Laurinaitis … 👀
I'm sure Jerry McDevitt's law library is full of these tapes as he has to quantify a price value for each one and then cut the check for all these female employees. Company funds were obviously used for these girls pay raises and or promotions.
@@curthennig9448 You're gonna assume it's all women?
@@ryanjacobson2508 hah!…seriously he doesn’t know or forgot about the WBF 😂
@@ryanjacobson2508 Great point Ryan! I had almost forgotten about the rumors of Vince getting it on with Shawn Michaels and The Ultimate Warrior!
Adult films didn't flip the format war but that is a common rumor. In reality Beta lost because the tapes were shorter, cost more and Sony had draconian licensing terms with regards to allowing other companies to make machines and tapes.
And people couldn't record an entire football game on Beta.
I also remember some pre-Blockbusters businesses would have everything on VHS, but only a selection on Beta.
Surely if you’re at all au fait with disaster recover and backup procedures you’d need to be making digitised versions of these tapes and storing backups somewhere off site etc. Heaven forbid if something happens to Jim’s house then the entire thing is gone
Jim needs one of those monster PCs to use as a video station!
So Corny was the best Master-Beta of video tapes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Only joking Jim. Please share these on TH-cam for us please
Jim would be great doing a TED talk on how wrestling adapted to media technology. Tape trading, pay perview, streaming online services which was key to wrestling expanding.
The porn thing is a myth, Vhs beat Bata because the machines were much cheaper and more people were able to buy VHS. More manufactures made VHS bringing the cost down! $400 vhs VS $600 BETA. Also the 4 hour record time with VHS was a reason to buy in the late 70's early 80's
22:08 LMAO I literally just watched one of Godbold’s promo videos yesterday. 😂
I used to tape USWA and ECW every week once they moved them to 2 and 3am Thursday mornings on channel 57 in LA.
What a horrible time slot lol
ECW always seemed to be the same show or just promoting an upcoming PPV.
@@jC-kc4si Superstars and Wrestling Challenge were always the same show. You'd at least get matches on ECW's syndication show.
my uncle used to tape the old wwf ppv the one i remember the most was judgement day when taker return in the biker gimmick, summerslam with the tlc was a classic one, mania 17 off course, then invasion 01, the rumble when benoit and angle had a 5 stars match too, then i think in 04 or 05 they stopped putting those ppv in cable tv, canal CUATRO big up my panamenian fellas out there yes sir.
I have all my VHS 📼 tapes still never going to get rid of them! Possibly have them barried with me 🤣
I may be wrong but I think VHS could hold more time wise (especially with extended play)
Yes, they could. But as stated, Beta would be better picture quality.
I had all of Knight Rider on VHS
As a collector of some obscure (non-wrestling) stuff myself, this was one hell of a fascinating segment.
In 30 years, the tape collectors are the Peacock/WWE Network subscribers.
Talking about vhs tapes and vcrs brought back so many memories
Glad to have spurred this conversation.
Imagine Jim puts out a streaming service for his personal digitized library where Jim provides commentary for specific footage that he, himself, owns. Of course, one would have the option to watch commentary free but the commentary pieces would be gold.
LOL at all the youngsters in these comments. "WTF is beta?"
Those segway to ads crack me up!!!
heck i myself still have vhs an dvds of the entire tv runs of smw,wcw,ecw,continental,and the attitude era stuff.i got the paul bosch houston shows as well.midsouth,memphis,and some florida shows.hell my personal collection numbers in the 1000s
Taping off tv, i almost always used 4hr speed fot tv shows and 6hr for movies. At one point my family had over 1200 chs tapes with at least 3 movies on each tape, and about 1/3rd had 4 movies and I had watxhed every single movie at least once and many of them repeatedly. We had 3 VCRs at one point, and i would chain them up to mix my own mixes of my fave movies. 1 tape for all 3 Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Rambo, Lethal Weapon, Bevery Hills Cop, and most movie/sequels from '81 to about 1998, then slowly phased in dvds. Mow, not including seasons, collected over 1000 dvds and another 150 or so complete tv series. We went 10yrs without cable and my parents didnt have internet for streaming, so they bought dvds and seasons.
So you have the original Star Wars TV versions instead of the crap special edition versions that exist today.
@@Bo_Knows_Tecmo the original theater release version before the rarely mention 1st vhs edit. OG palpy was played by a woman and scenes were changed or cut. Palp was always man but a woman played the role at first.
Lucas has always tinkered with the movies and the VHS/home media releases were always a little different to what premiered in theaters.
There's a bunch of old wrestling on Tubi
How sad it was when film was converted to tape - film can be upscaled to hd but tape had defined resolution and will never be the same live quality.
I would love to see the Smoky Mountain promo outtakes.
I taped a lot of WWE wrestling from the 90s on VHS. I used to tape the Pre shows before the WWE PPVs since they were never on the tapes we bought. Even have the PPV that the WWE won't ever put out since it was the one that Owen unfortunately fell to his death. They are still in a box 📦. Have been wondering if I took them in would a business transfer them to disc or refuse since I taped them off the TV ?
I am seriously asking this because they are taking up room. Also have box of Sunday Night Heats.
Some of the stuff on these tapes will be priceless!
I know in my area mid Atlantic Virginia it was hard pressed to buy beta tapes besides the recordable ones. Beta was atleast twice as expensive.
Weasel Dooley... if I had a wrestling promotion, my number one heel manager would be named that.
He might come out of hiding to sue….
With stephen p new
New Law Office 888-692-8084!
the library of congress should come a knocking. these tapes without question represent an important slice of Americana (one that is gone) which should be preserved for antiquity
Convert your tapes because they don't last forever even if stored in great condition!
Unedited World Class with original music intros are priceless
If preservation is the goal rather than monetization, The Internet Archive might be a great resource. And if the SAP soundtrack was available at the time (and recorded) it would provide easy searchability.
Imagine back in the 80s you could have called Jim a tech nerd
I say put it on TH-cam for free and if possible have Jim, Jerry Lawler
, and JR do the commentary. That would PRINT money.
I have hundreds of tapes of the 90s and early 2000's and i dont know how to put it on a computer
I was using my VCR the other day to watch Star Wars
May the Force be with you 🖖
but you'll miss out on all the CGI Comedy Outlaw Mudshow George Lucas added.
@@takerdust 😂
@@takerdust No I won't because that's the only version we can see anymore
I would love them to release the originals unedited
@@takerdust I remember being so excited when those versions were released in 1997. Now, I wish I could go back and see the originals from my childhood. I’m also glad I got all of the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes on DVD before CBS/Paramount added CGI in 2006.
I had everything I could, myself, record from 1989 thru around 2006 from everywhere I could pick up, including the North Georgia Wrestling Alliance. Plus, I'd gotten into tape trading for a number of years from late 1989 thru late 1995.
Also had every single VHS tape of Wrasslin there was, including the Best of Starrcade. I actually traded & sold everything to another collector some years ago for various other stuff mixed with cash. So at least it was in good hands & they still have everything too lol. 🤔
A kickstarter project would be ideal for this. I'm sure many fans would chime in for financially, getting the best equipment and actually doingthe work. Jim probably has one of the best collection in terms of screen quality since as he said he did his best to capture them in best possible quality. I do vhs to digital as a hobby and doing it for a collection would be awesome.
One of the big reasons VHS sold better than Beta in the U.S. was that VHS tapes could tape longer, and people had trouble taping 3 hour sports games on Beta.
My God! Think of how rare some of those 30 minute, Tony "Shiv-on-tay" syndicated shows are?
"But nobody's got paperwork on anything, cuz it was the wresslin business. So there you go."
You guys should watch Classic All-Star Wrestling with Adam Parsons. It airs every Sunday morning at 12:30 AM on YTA
You should watch Joshi Princess Wrestling 👸🏻🧚🏻♀️🦋✨
Ironic the lengths Jim went to to record show back in the day given his issues with dvr + aews overruns