So, a little belatedly, we get on with this cracker of a debate. Now, I do not know much about TNA but I do know that Jim Cornette is far superior to Eric Bischoff an authoritative role. Now, over the course of this debate, I will set out to prove that point and hopefully get you to subscribe to that view also.
So, let’s get on with this thing!
Authority does not mean name value!
Have you ever met your icon? I once met my icon at an ATM at a petrol station and boy was I excited. He signed a piece of paper for me and we got a picture together. It was very nice. In Scotland, Henrik Larsson is a god amongst men. He was the all-time top goal scorer for my favourite football team and an absolute legend in his own right. This may seem like a digression but it is actually a very pertinent point.
You see, Henrik Larsson is a huge name all over the world. Be it in Scotland or his native Sweden, Larsson is regarded by many as being a fine footballing talent. The point I a trying to get at here, is that just because he was and is a big name, it doesn’t make me respect him any more. Rather, it how he composes himself and displays that talent to others that really gain respect. Name value means absolutely nothing when it comes to authority.
Let me pose this hypothetical situation to you. Your mother tells you to jump off of a cliff. She tells you that nothing will happen to you if you do. Your sporting hero also tells you to jump off a cliff and tells you the exact opposite of what your mother told you. If you jump, you will surely die. Now, if you had no idea how big the cliff face was who would you believe?
Would you believe a man or woman who doesn’t know you and has no impact on your life? Or would you believe your mother, someone who has known you for as long as you can remember and have a basis of trust with? I, personally, would believe my mother and that is the most telling sign of all.
Being a position of authority does not mean that you are a big name. It is the trust and capability of the figure that matters most.
Business 101.
A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to get a promotion after all of my hard work in my job. I worked closely with people for my full tenure and built up a basis of colleagues and associates that I knew I could trust. We helped each other out and when I was promoted, they were the first people to congratulate me.
However, at the beginning of my new role, people saw me more as a friend than a superior. They would try and take advantage of my kind nature but I realised that my job is not make friends. My job is to ensure that the company is running well from my point of view. Mutual respect went a long way in making that happen. Without being a respectful employee, I would never have gained that position in the first place and without the team-work ethic that I had built from my original role, I would not have been able to make the new role my own.
When you are in a position of power, you really must be the best person for the job. You have to lend an ear to your subordinates and be aware that the company is in your hands. Jim Cornette was more than aware of that. Jim Cornette is a man who eat, sleeps and breathes wrestling. His time in TNA was incredible and he ate that place up. With TNA’s acquisition of Ed Ferrara and Vince Russo, Cornette was basically forced out of the door. He could not do his job of being an authority figure any more and Eric Bischoff was brought in a very similar role.
Now, if Jim Cornette was not happy with his role as an authority figure in TNA, that would tell me that he didn’t have the tools to do that job any more. Nothing has changed and Eric Bischoff now occupies that role. One could say, that Eric Bischoff is happy being the watered down authority figure that Jim Cornette refused to be.
Eric Bischoff is a polarising figure!
WCW… Need I say more?
As an authority figure in WCW, Eric Bischoff let the inmates run the asylum. He may be a very good booker but his promotion went down the tubes and his attitude towards people make him a polarising figure to this day. I would suspect that some of the people who now work for TNA still resent him for the way that WCW was run.
I guess it all comes back to my Business 101 class that I listed above. Without the respect of your co-workers and subordinates, how can you expect to run a promotion as an authority figure? The answer to that is that you simply can’t. There will always be people unhappy with the way you do things and sniping will always be prevalent in your promotion. You will not be able to rule the people who have no respect for your decisions and that is Erc Bischoff all over.
