During a recent episode of his “Drive Thru” podcast, Jim Cornette expressed his criticism of AEW’s decision to have Excalibur lead the commentary team for the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door II pay-per-view event instead of Kevin Kelly, who is an AEW employee and the established American announcer for NJPW.
Cornette strongly criticized Excalibur, as he has often done previously, referring to him as “a mark who got lucky.” He said,
“He [Excalibur] had to do all of the Forbidden Door PPVs they had done up until now because of course he’s the lead announcer and even though in the past Jim Ross has done New Japan announcing and even though he [Excalibur] is a f*cking Japanese mark and even though his friends gave him this job even though he had never done a television show in his life before he debuted on TBS. But now they have legitimately hired NJPW’s American announcer currently, he’s been doing it for the past 3,4,5 years, Kevin Kelly.”
Cornette further criticized Excalibur’s reluctance to acknowledge Kelly’s expertise and hand over the lead announcing duties, suggesting that it stems from Excalibur’s own insecurity and lack of experience compared to Kelly. He said,
“But yet when they do a co-promotion between AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Kevin is there alright but he’s sitting in the B chair, next to sock face who’s never worked a f*cking day for NJPW in his life, because he still doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to say ‘You know what, you know what you’re doing here and I’m a mark who got lucky, so since you’re here Kevin, you can do the show.’”
While Cornette has frequently directed many of his infamous rants toward Excalibur, he has had nothing but praise for Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness, who form the announce team for the recently debuted AEW Collision.
