Jim Cornette Corrects Accusation Regarding Santino Marella Incident

Former WWE Superstar Santino Marella and Jim Cornette got into a heated altercation earlier this month at a wrestling convention where they exchanged some words with one another. Marella wrote an open letter explaining what happened at the convention and Cornette responded on an episode of his podcast, Talking Sense.

When video emerged of the altercation Marella called Cornette “a racist mother f***er,” while Cornette said that he has slapped Marella multiple times in the past and would do it again. Their beef with one another stems back to 2005 when Cornette slapped Marella at WWE’s then-developmental program of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). The incident led to Cornette losing his job as OVW booker.



Marella’s letter explaining the incident claimed that Cornette had left him a scathing message. Cornette originally denied that accusation, but it seems that he’s now changing his tune on the matter:

“I may have very well called Santino Marella and left him a nasty message (laughs),” Cornette said. “As I said, I have no memory of this and I’ve never had this guy’s phone number, etc., etc. But he gave more details, he said that a friend of his immediately texted him afterwards and said, “Oh my God, dude, I didn’t know he was going to do that.” … So apparently by that evidence I’m able to at least entertain [that I did that].”

Cornette claims that fans regularly come up to him and ask him to cut promos on their friends over the phone, noting it’s also possible a fan approached him with the opportunity to do this to Marella:

“So I assume now, since I have no memory of this because it was so important to me, that some knucklehead came up [to me] and said ‘Hey, I’ve got Santino Marella’s phone number,'” Cornette said. “At which point did he ask me to cut a promo on him, or he thought I wouldn’t do it, or was I in a grumpy mood, or did I even believe it? I don’t f***ing know because I don’t remember it. But it is a correction that I will admit that I could’ve happened.”