Cornette Face

About

Cornette Face refers to a photograph of American professional wrestling commentator Jim Cornette wearing a surprised-looking expression, which is often used as a reaction image or as an exploitable photoshop template in wrestling-related communities online.

Origin

While the source of the image has not been found, it is rumored to have come from an interview with Cornette held sometime in 2000.^[2] According to a thread on GameFAQs (as archived on LurkerFAQs)^[2] the reaction image from the interview was originally popularized on the drug enthusiast image board 420 chan (shown below).

Spread

On January 21st, 2010, the face was featured in the audience of episode 114 in the YouTube web series Botchamania (shown below, left). On February 16th, YouTuber Maffew’s 3rd account uploaded photograph of Cornette standing with a fan holding a print out of the Cornette face (shown below, right).

On April 25th, 2011, YouTuber Sorantheman posted a slideshow of various edited Cornette faces (shown below). On August 18th, 2011, GameFAQs member DrDedal posted a thread on the site’s Pro Wrestling: WWE board about the photograph and its origins.^[2] On August 5th, 2013, a page for the “Cornette Face” meme was created on the FWc Wiki.^[1] On February 25th, 2015, Redditor saigern uploaded a post about the meme to the professional wrestling subreddit /r/SquaredCircle.^[3]

Recognition

Jim Cornette has mentioned in various interviews and promos that he is a fan of Botchamania. On October 21st, 2010, the wrestleviewradio YouTube channel posted an interview with Cornette in which he discusses the Cornette face meme, revealing that he got “a kick out of it” (shown below). Cornette first referenced the meme in a tweet about TNA Wrestling’s Victory Road 2011 pay-per-view event, an event widely recognized as one of the worst wrestling events of all time. Cornette tweeted “Just watched #TNA…I have to come up with a new face.”^[4]

In August of 2017, Cornette debuted in TNA (which had since been renamed Impact Wrestling and again into Global Force Wrestling) as a manager and authority figure. During his entry, the Cornette Face made a display in the graphics (shown below). Cornette only spent a brief stint in GFW/Impact before leaving the company again and returning to WWE under a legend’s contract.

On March 12th, 2018, Cornette starred in an episode of WWE Photo Shoot, a web series on the WWE Network where WWE personalities are shown various photos from throughout their career and comment on them.^[5] One of the images shocked Cornette and caused him to reproduce his infamous face (shown below). Although the Cornette Face has surfaced on WWE programming in the form of signs displaying it in the crowd, this was the first time that the meme had been officially recognized on WWE programming.