The Context 

Here we have Jim Cornette at a live show with Jim Ross, apparently answering a question about Abyss. He talked about when he was in TNA, the company had done every hardcore thing they could with Abyss by that point, and that he needed a break from TV. They took him off television, and within a month, he was being thrown off a stage through a flaming table with thumb tacks. Obviously, Cornette was not a fan. 

This led Cornette to talk about Kevin Steen/Owens and a show where he had a match with Mark Briscoe in ROH in front of a few hundred people. Steen wanted to jump off a balcony and give Briscoe a splash from the table, and Cornette thought it was way too much. He joked that everyone said he hated Steven, but he didn’t. He wanted to make sure his career would last, that he had lost some weight because he was playing the role of a professional athlete, and casually mentioned maybe trimming his beard. He said if he hated Steen, he wouldn’t have made him a champion for nearly a year. 

Analysis 

I guess it’s dependent on your perspective, but Cornette was probably too rigid in his thinking when he worked in TNA and ROH. He was probably spot on with guys doing too much. Would anyone at the ROH show not come back without that splash from the balcony? Probably not. Would other local fans have watched it later on tape and gone to the show because of that spot? Again- probably not. 

As for the Owens weight issue, would ROH fans have been more engaged with a slimmer Owens? It’s the same answer to the two questions above. I’m also highly skeptical that any non-ROH fan would see Kevin Owens at 250 lbs. instead of 280 lbs. (the weights Cornette gave), with a lined-up beard, and that would have made them give ROH a chance. In that case, Corny was probably hanging on to the past a little too firmly.