Steve Corino

[jpchicago23]

Always thought he had a bright future but he came a few years too late. I thought he was an excellent douche bag heel almost the same style as some of punks stuff. Not really sure I can point to that one big match of his though. I like his roh stuff and his matches with homicide were good along with the dusty Rhodes from ecw but I dont know if those would be his stand out matches or not. He was a great blader too for what its worth. I know that's not a great quality to look for but I always thought he wore the crimson mask well and he looked good bleeding

[shoe]

His matches with Terry Funk in MLW were awesome. Just some great brawls.

[Dylan Waco]

Corino is a favorite of mine. Watching him carry Tommy Rich by bumping and bleeding like he was Tommy Rich in a match held LAST YEAR was one of the better "thank god for youtube" finds of 2012.

 

Really I doubt there is anyone who was more fucked by timing than Corino. If he had come around a few years before he did he would have been a massive star. A few years after and he might have been a massive star too. If WCW had signed him in 99 instead of 2001 it's easy to see him getting in on the ground level and being so over Vince would have picked him up for his talking skills alone. Even in ECW he was fucked by timing, as he was booked in a lot of clusterfucks and didn't hit the top til a lot of the better guys were gone.

 

I always thought Corino would have been ten thousand times better than HHH as the top heel of WWF in 99/00

[KB8]

I really haven't seen a ton of Corino, but that Tajiri match from Hardcore Heaven 2000 is fucking great and one of the better borderline extended squashes I've ever seen.

[Jingus]

Corino's size hurts his believability for me. His general style is that of a heavyweight, but he's awfully tiny for that sort of thing; and never in great shape, either. The dude just has the look of a jobber, not a top contender. Great mechanic, sure, but I wouldn't buy this dude as anything but an underdog against many of his oft-towering opponents.

 

I do dig his comedy spots, though.

[Cox]

Corino is one of those deceptively tall folks; he's actually 6'3", but he doesn't look like it because he's never had much of a body.

[soup23]

Is Corino pre 2005ish really in any worse shape than Jerry Lawler throughout his career?

[Dylan Waco]

No.

 

He was really skinny when he first started out in ECW, but that never bothered me. I always thought he had the same general look as a young Barry Windham

[jpchicago23]

Yea i never really noticed his size as a downfall. He always came off as the type that would do whatever it took to beat you. Lawler is a good comparison size wise as he was never huge either.

 

 

Dylan, what would you consider to be his best match or matches if one doesnt stick out. I've always liked Corino but i cant say i could point to a single match.

[soup23]

It honestly is kind of weird how Corino just started gaining weight. I looked up his age figuring him to be about 21-22 in his ECW run and was alarmed to see he was already 26 or so.

 

Corino definitely is a guy I will need to revisit down the road. I enjoyed a lot of his stuff when it happened fine but that was a point in my wrestling life where I was seeking out moves and spots more so besides his matches with Homicide, I didn't like his ROH run at the time. I also haven’t seen any MLW or other lower indy mid 2000's stuff. That match he had with Rich though was incredible and was one of the best matches I can think of with someone who is extremely limited in what they can do.

[Dylan Waco]

I haven't watched Corino on indies, Corino in PR, Corino in Japan, et relative to his ECW stuff. In ECW his best match was the Tajiri mauling from Hardcore Heaven 2000. He had a lot of matches in ECW where his performance was great, but the match was ruined by run-ins.

[soup23]

I would say vs. Homicide from Bitter Friends Stiffer Enemies 2003 would be a frontrunner.

[goodhelmet]

Corino discusses his weight gain in either a podcast (Cabana's?) or a shoot interview. He was told to gain weight to get a push in Zero One. he started eating to put on the pounds but when Hashimoto died, so did the idea he would be brought in regularly. I am sure a pro nerd can check the timeline to see if that is accurate.

[goodhelmet]

Steve Corino vs. Chris Marval (Texas Heat Wrestling 2/24/13)

 

So on Sunday, Corino wrestled Chris Marval in front of 100 fans at a local VFW. Corino does a pre-match heel promo running down the fans for not buying his horror movie and then mentions the last time he saw Marval was when he broke his leg in Ring of Honor back in 2002 which is true. He vows to break Marval's leg again and spends the entire match destroying the leg and it was glorious. Unfortunately, San Antonio and Austin has a bunch of fans more interested in getting themselves over instead of watching the match. None of them are as smart as Corino however. After a few minutes of trading insults with the fans, Corino was fucking up the leg of Marval so bad that he eventually had the fans eating out of the palm of his hand. All Marval had to do was sell the leg the entire match and make the babyface finish at the end. Corino took care of the rest.

[Laney]

That sounds awesome. I didn't even realize Chris Marvel still wrestled or that he even came back to wrestling after his leg broke. His leg breaking was absolutely sick too, his leg was rotated 180 degrees.

 

Anyways, back to Steve Corino. I was a fan of his during his ECW run but I kind of soured on him after he gained weight and it seemed to me that he wasn't as interested in wrestling post-2003 after his feud with Homicide seemed to be finished. I will need to revisit his ECW work as I haven't watched any of that in quite some time.

[MojoJsyn]

Watched that Rich match that Dylan talked about. Really good brawl. Rich still throws great punches and Corino takes the beating great.

 

Corino I always liked in ECW and what little I have seen from him after. Underated bumper and seller. Love him on the mic shit talking fans and just being d-bag. I'll have to check out more of him since I really loved that Rich match.

[JazeUSA]

I worked Steve Corino back in the mid 1990's in Raleigh, NC when he was a mainstay in ECWA & MCW indies, I think it was 97 or 98 when he was living in Wilmington NC, It was me vs Steve vs Joey Matthews (Mercury) in a 3 way latter match, the match took place in a bar full of drunken NC State college kids, Corino wore UNC basketball jersey to the ring & was literally attacked by 3 or 4 guys, we had no real security in the building & it turned out to be a huge mess, the ceiling in the bar was very low, compared to a regular building so he gets the idea to jump up onto the light fixtures in the ceiling like spiderman to get away from all the drunk guys who were beating him senseless, upon doing this he blows up the transformer that the electricity was run off of in the bar LMAO, causing firework like sparks to shoot & scatter everywhere in the building, all of the electricity went out because of this & we were still wrestling in the pitch black dark when the fire trucks showed up, they shut down the show & cancelled our match, at this point Corino decided it would be a good idea to get heat by picking a fight w/ a fireman, what he got in return was a night in jail, a legit ban for life from the bar we wrestled in & a court date for assault, that guy was freaking hilarious, crazy, & insanely ring smart all at the same time, I Love Steve Corino & will consider him a friend for life. Great times we had on those indy shows back in the day.

[bradhindsight]

I worked Steve Corino back in the mid 1990's in Raleigh, NC when he was a mainstay in ECWA & MCW indies, I think it was 97 or 98 when he was living in Wilmington NC, It was me vs Steve vs Joey Matthews (Mercury) in a 3 way latter match, the match took place in a bar full of drunken NC State college kids, Corino wore UNC basketball jersey to the ring & was literally attacked by 3 or 4 guys, we had no real security in the building & it turned out to be a huge mess, the ceiling in the bar was very low, compared to a regular building so he gets the idea to jump up onto the light fixtures in the ceiling like spiderman to get away from all the drunk guys who were beating him senseless, upon doing this he blows up the transformer that the electricity was run off of in the bar LMAO, causing firework like sparks to shoot & scatter everywhere in the building, all of the electricity went out because of this & we were still wrestling in the pitch black dark when the fire trucks showed up, they shut down the show & cancelled our match, at this point Corino decided it would be a good idea to get heat by picking a fight w/ a fireman, what he got in return was a night in jail, a legit ban for life from the bar we wrestled in & a court date for assault, that guy was freaking hilarious, crazy, & insanely ring smart all at the same time, I Love Steve Corino & will consider him a friend for life. Great times we had on those indy shows back in the day.

 

I asked Steve to share this story on a future Steve Corino Show. That is awesome.

[bradhindsight]

I haven't watched Corino on indies, Corino in PR, Corino in Japan, et relative to his ECW stuff. In ECW his best match was the Tajiri mauling from Hardcore Heaven 2000. He had a lot of matches in ECW where his performance was great, but the match was ruined by run-ins.

 

I sought out the Hardcore Heaven match today and it was one of my favorite hardcore matches I've seen in recent years and definitely my favorite of his in ECW. Nothing contrived or overly transparent. Believable violence (heck Corino separated his shoulder and broke his nose in the match) and one helluva blade job.

[anarchistxx]

Corino is a cool guy, he talked to me for about twenty minutes in a locker room once when he could have easily just cleared out and gone home. His work never particularly enthralled me, except for the brilliant Homicide feud in ROH.

[(BP)]

I haven't seen much of his ECW/ROH stuff, but I've seen him work live twice. Once in an armory in '98 with Jerry Lynn. The card was made up of barely trained indy kids and a couple of names like Sid and Sheik. They went out and had a great 30 minute match, and I really thought he'd be picked up by WWF or WCW in no time. I saw him again last December at an Extreme Rising show, where he was the mystery challenger for Stevie Richard's title. He cut a terrific heel promo on Stevie, and I thought we would see a great brawl. Instead they had a 5 minute match built around thumb-to-the-butt heat segments. It was still one of the best matches on the card since it was Extreme Rising.

[C.S.]

Corino was one of the highlights - if not the highlight - of ECW in its final years.

 

WWE really missed the boat not picking up this guy at the time. He could have been - dare I say it - a modern Piper. By that, I mean undersized heel who could talk massive shit but was credible in the ring.

[Sidebottom]

 

I haven't watched Corino on indies, Corino in PR, Corino in Japan, et relative to his ECW stuff. In ECW his best match was the Tajiri mauling from Hardcore Heaven 2000. He had a lot of matches in ECW where his performance was great, but the match was ruined by run-ins.

 

I sought out the Hardcore Heaven match today and it was one of my favorite hardcore matches I've seen in recent years and definitely my favorite of his in ECW. Nothing contrived or overly transparent. Believable violence (heck Corino separated his shoulder and broke his nose in the match) and one helluva blade job.

 

 

Heel Corino 2000 was great and he was building momentum and recognition the right away. I've always felt him going face and winning the title (in an absurd match concept) was a bad move.

[Migs]

I think Face Corino worked pretty nicely in the 2000 ECW environment. With RVD otherwise occupied, he did very nicely as the guy going after Justin. The character quickly shifted into more of a tweener mode after he won the belt, and that was probably the best place for it (like Shane Douglas in much of 94-95). There was a certain contingent that was going to cheer him, but the character was definitely better as a heel.

[Johnny Guitar]

 

 

I haven't watched Corino on indies, Corino in PR, Corino in Japan, et relative to his ECW stuff. In ECW his best match was the Tajiri mauling from Hardcore Heaven 2000. He had a lot of matches in ECW where his performance was great, but the match was ruined by run-ins.

 

I sought out the Hardcore Heaven match today and it was one of my favorite hardcore matches I've seen in recent years and definitely my favorite of his in ECW. Nothing contrived or overly transparent. Believable violence (heck Corino separated his shoulder and broke his nose in the match) and one helluva blade job.

 

 

Heel Corino 2000 was great and he was building momentum and recognition the right away. I've always felt him going face and winning the title (in an absurd match concept) was a bad move.

 

 

Corino and Tajiri were the brightspots of ECW's last year.

 

The promo where he trashed Dusty Rhodes for killing JCP and cutting Magnum's brake lines was tremdous. Heyman should have let him build on that.