Former AEW star Max Caster made his TNA debut at Sunday’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view. His entrance rap included a line about recent bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Less than 24 hours later, TNA cut ties with Caster for “making light of violent attacks.” Max then issued a statement on the matter where he ultimately said, “I can’t apologize for anyone being offended, but it’s not my intention to make people upset.”
The wrestling world is still reacting to what happened, and that includes Jim Cornette
discussing the situation on his podcast. Cornette says the blame should fall on TNA’s producer for the match.
“When I turned on the Twitter machine and saw the news, I was like, what the fuck did he say? And then I listened to the clip. And after I listened to the clip, I was like, what the fuck did he say? I know the one thing that was probably problematic, but having said that, there wasn’t really a reason to fire the guy because who was producing him?”
In a hypothetical scenario where Cornette was the producer, it would be part of his job to make sure he knows what Max plans on saying in his rap.
“Max does have a history of being edgy. So, hear the promo. If I would have heard that, I would have said, take out Riyadh. People got killed, blah, blah, blah. Put something else in. And there’s nothing else that’s an issue. He didn’t say ‘fuck.’ He didn’t violate any broadcast standards. And then we’d go over their match, and their finish, and the blah, blah, blah.
And if he really said, ‘Oh god, no. I gotta say this. My career depends on me getting out this greatest line that I’ve ever come up with.’ Then because I’m just the producer, I’m not the boss, I’m going to go to ‘insert name here,’ depending on whoever the boss is on scene of whatever production this is in this fictitious world, and say, Max wants to say this, this, and this. Yay or nay? And then let him plead his case or whatever, if it’s that big a deal. And most of the time it’s not.”
Unless Caster went rogue and intentionally lied to TNA ahead of time about his rap, Cornette doesn’t understand how this happens when producers are there in part to make sure it doesn’t happen.
“When people are mad about something and TNA hears about it, I wouldn’t have called Max Caster. I would have said, who fucking produced this shit?
…Who didn’t ask him what he was gonna say? Who produced the thing? Did [Max] not tell him? If he told him one thing and did another, well then all the heat’s on Max. But for trivial bullshit like this that could have been easily addressed before it became an issue, I don’t understand how this happens.”
Cornette’s line of reasoning sure makes sense to me. TNA did admit “the responsibility is ours” in their official statement, but those words seem pretty empty when Caster is the one taking the fall.
Do you agree with Cornette’s take on TNA firing Max Caster over his Riyadh joke? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
