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by Alan J. Wojcik of http://alanwojcik.tripod.com
STEVE CORINO was the first person to be interviewed for the purpose of
posting on alanwojcik.com. Since our very long conversation in May 2003
many things have happened to the “King of Old School.” I was
able to speak to Steve hours before he lost the NWA Southern Heavyweight
championship to “Freedom Ryder” Mike Sullivan on March 20, 2004
in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Alan Wojcik: I know you have been busy lately. Let’s begin with the summer night you took the MLW World championship from Mike Awesome after he defeated Satoshi Kojima. I’d like to address a rumor that the title change happened the way it did due to you working for Zero-One and Kojima working for All-Japan?
Steve Corino: It wasn’t that way. It was a case of a match the Japanese fans wanted to see so we agreed to do it there but we haven’t gotten it booked yet. We have been a tag team that has some arguments but both (Keiji) Muta and (Shinya) Hashimoto have asked for the match to take place in Japan. Then we can take it around America. The plan was to take it off Kojima and give it to Mike. The decision to put it on me was made last minute. It had more to do with some indirect politics. Muta and Hashimoto are best friends one day and bitter enemies the next. If one of us lost we would have had to hear it.
AW: You had several title defenses against a man whose real age you changed with every promo you cut, that man being Terry Funk. I want to ask you about the match on January 10, 2004 where you and the Extreme Horsemen defeated Terry in a barb-wire rope, I Quit match. Was that fun or painful?
SC: I wish I could say it is fun being in the ring with Terry. Its fun knowing you get to work with a guy like Terry until he starts hitting you with those left hands. Dusty tells me Terry is in his 70’s but I think he’s 59. No matter his age he throws the hardest left hand punch I’ve ever felt. Every match he will go out there to punch you in the eye just for kicks. You know you’re going to have to fight him each time. You walk out knowing you are in a fight.
AW: At the MLW Wargames event in Fort Lauderdale you were supposed to have a man named Jerry Lawler as one of your opponents but as you said in your promo he was stolen away by sports entertainment. How much of that promo was a shoot when you unveiled PJ Walker AKA Justin Credible and the original Extreme Horseman Barry Windham?
SC: Everything I say on the mic is a shoot. It was crap. WWE knew where MLW TV was being aired and they could have told Jerry weeks before he couldn’t have done the event. You saw the promos they were shot in the WWE TV studios. Whoever pulled the plug knew what was going on. Instead of building up competition and improving wrestling as a whole, sports entertainment tries to keep wrestling down. It’s a shame because I think Jerry would have been a great part of the match, way better than Sandman.
AW: For fans that saw the ending of the match how much did that branding iron hurt?
SC: The branding iron hurt but the fire in the face was excruciating. Sabu came to me and said you’re taking the branding iron, that thing hurts. I thought oh great you’re telling me now. I got Sabu in the Boston Crab and I hear here it comes. Sabu is trying to sell and he keeps saying here it comes, you ready, it’s gonna hurt. It burned, then I turn around and before I could close my mouth here comes the fire right in my face. So I breathed in the fire. So yeah it was pretty bad.
AW: You were unable to defend the MLW World title against “the Franchise” Shane Douglas here in America but you did defend it against him in Finland. Did the fans know the storyline that been going on in America and Shane’s past with MLW?
SC: The best part of going to Finland was the fans weren’t dumb. We wrestled in front of 2,000 fans and they were wonderful. Shane is one of the top 10 heels of all time and that list includes Ric Flair, Buddy Rogers and Roddy Piper. He told the story and I have never been cheered that loud in my life. We did a twenty-five minute match and we had the crowd up and down the whole time. It’s a shame because I don’t know if the Florida fans would have accepted the story the way Shane told it. It was a fun time.
AW: As we sit here with MLW went under once more after going down last September and then being resurrected in the late part of the year only to go under four days before a February tour to Ft Lauderdale and Orlando. What were your thoughts when you got the call from Court Bauer telling you the shows were off and the company went under?
SC: I wasn’t surprised since there is only so much to you can do when you have investors that want fast results and you never know when the plug will be pulled. I’m sure Court had his own money in MLW but when his investors didn’t see any results from the January events they pulled out fast. It happens to lots of businesses. Court is good guy and you can’t say MLW failed because we drew a $15,000 dollar house in Ft. Lauderdale something ECW did a couple of times. Then we came back for Wargames and drew a $12,000 dollar house. That’s real good for indy promotion, actually its unbelievable. I’m sad to see MLW go but you move on.
AW: People that read our previous conversation know you were part of the NWA Intercontinental tag team champions with CW Anderson. But you lost the belts to the team of Masato Tanaka and Shinjiro Otani in August 2003.
SC: It’s almost like a day off but then you get in there and it’s a real fight. I consider Otani and Tanaka two of the four best pound for pound wrestlers on the planet and that includes Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels. Each time CW and I wrestled them it was fun. They came over to Philadelphia and beat us for the PWF titles. We took the NWA belts off them in May then we beat them two weeks before the title loss and then we beat them in a non-title match. I considered them the best team in the world but now they broke off to single careers. Working Tanaka and Otani was a dream; Otani can control the crowd like only few can.
AW: On several occasions in Zero-One matches you were partnered with Tom Howard, a man that seems not to be able to catch on in America. How does he compare to some other partners?
SC: Tom is a good guy. He’s not a leader in the ring, he’s more a follower but he is great at it. He has an awesome look. At 6’3’’and 270 pounds he is incredibly athletic. He can fly like a 210 pound guy. They have him in a killer gimmick and he shouldn’t be flying around like it. We have also teamed in Pro Wrestling Noah and it has been a fun partnership.
AW: On one occasion you and Tom teamed with Dusty Rhodes to take on Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras and Sicodilco Jr. Any memories of that night wrestling some older gentleman and I’m not saying Dusty Rhodes is old.
SC: You can say it Alan, Dusty is old. I’m actually going to have a t-shirt designed called the over-50 club; it will list all the guys that I’m going to lose to in 2004. I’ve got a ton of names and its only March (laughs.) Originally they wanted Tom to take the pin from Mil. They have wrestled each other about a hundred times when Tom used to work for AAA as the character KGB. I went to Hashimoto saying it would be an honor to take the cross body from Mil. Before the match Dusty and I were talking and he told me in thirty-five years he has never wrestled Mil. I came up with the idea that they should never touch in the match. Watch the tape the crowd is going crazy because they never touch. Each time they would be in there I tagged back in. Mil is one of those guys that doesn’t like to sell for anyone. So if the match was thirteen minutes and ten seconds I was in for about eighteen minutes. I set a record for the amount of flying headbutts taken. Mils is 68 years old but Dusty claims he is 71. It was an honor to be in that match.
AW: As we sit here you are still suffering some hearing problems stemming from a match with Homicide on a Ring of Honor show. What do you remember from that night and do you hold any animosity towards Homicide?
SC: You can’t hold any animosity towards anyone when an injury occurs unless they are being unsafe. We don’t get along outside the ring which is a shame. Our personalities always have clashed. Homicide trained Low Ki yet I am friends with Ki so it causes problems all the time. Homicide is a hell of a talent and it’s a pleasure to wrestle him each time. When you have a history it makes the match that more real. I don’t hold him responsible. It was an open hand slap that I caught a bone from his palm in my ear. It would take 999,000 more times for the same thing to happen again. Looking back it was one of the best matches in Ring of Honor history.
AW: Speaking of history you have some with the man known as Teddy Hart. Hopefully I don’t waste many tapes on this but for those that don’t know give your feelings on Teddy and truth or rumor, the two of you were being put by RF video in a empty arena match?
SC: I’ll be brief this time to save you tapes. That match was being talked about and we agreed in principle but we’ll see what comes of it. RF has some issues of their own to handle. Teddy is a guy that doesn’t realize he has so much talent but a ten cent mind. He is so immature and doesn’t realize how many people are trying to help him instead he acts like an asshole and because of it the boys hate him. It’s a shame because if he had a great attitude in five years his in-ring work could make him better than Bret and Owen combined. But he needs to pull his head out of his ass.
AW: You made mention of RF Video having issues, what are your thoughts on Rob Feinstein‘s troubles and his leaving RF video and Ring of Honor. Plus being a parent would you work for Rob again if he got back into promoting shows?
SC: I’m not going to get into that too much because on www.stevecorino.com my next commentary is dedicated to the whole situation. It’s something that happened and I was shocked as anyone. It’s a sickness and he needs help. I talked to my family about it and I would go back to ROH if he wasn’t there. Its 2004 and no one cares if someone is gay. That wasn’t the problem; wanting little children is the problem. Log onto my site and read my true feelings so I don’t run your recorder into retirement.
AW: You are part of an American off shoot of Zero-One called World–One. Tell the fans how you got involved in the promotion and how much influence you have?
SC: Well World-One came about from sitting down with Zero-One General Manager Yoshika Nokimura. We hang out and had been talking about it his love of American wrestling. He felt the Japanese style could get over in America and it happened when the group debuted last month. We will tour with three shows a month and even might go to six when we aren’t working in Japan. TV will be soon airing in Boston and Philadelphia and it already airs in Japan. We shall see how it goes. We want 300 at event and we achieved it on the first dates. The Pottstown event was a concern when we drew 304. But in Falls River we turned away 300 people which was amazing. We had 410 and the officer at the event said one more person and the event is off. We will definitely be running in the New England area and might be coming to Florida soon. There is even some talk about dates in Los Angeles but we are taking it one step at a time.
AW: In 2003 you did some dates with NWA: TNA. Would you consider working for them if your busy schedule allowed for it, possibly bringing the Extreme Horsemen with you?
SC: Not as long as Vince Russo is there, he is bad news for professional wrestling. He believes in sports entertainment and I grew up watching and became a professional wrestler. I have tons of respect for championships while he sees them as a prop. TNA still looks likes WCW-lite. If the time comes when the management changes I might consider it. But I don’t need it since I am in Japan two to three weeks a month and I’m happy there.
AW: From this interview and our other conversation fans know you are a staunch opponent of the WWE product. Have you had a chance to see their recent storylines and do you let Colby watch the shows?
SC: Absolutely not. I can’t let him watch it. What am I supposed to do, let him watch Smackdown to see a fight over who should be in Playboy Magazine? Come on that’s ridiculous. I’m a heterosexual as the next guy and I love big breasts but not on my wrestling shows. WWE isn’t pro wrestling anymore, they don’t use the word WRESTLING unless they are mentioning the company name. They have become the Harlem Globetrotters of wrestling. It looks like basketball but you know they aren’t and I don’t want to be part of that kind of wrestling.
AW: Truth or rumor, your son Colby has a shoe contract in the works and is doing Japanese commercials?
SC: He doesn’t have shoe deal and that would be nice but he did do a soda commercial. He has been over to Japan a few times and the fans love him. We had to buy another luggage bag due to all the toys fans gave him on the last trip he took. He will be traveling with me to England soon. He is a great kid. I was away for thirty-one days on the last Zero-One tour and when I walked in the door he gave me the biggest five minute hug. We‘ve been hanging out this week and I had to come here for the title defense. His mom wouldn’t let him miss a day of school or he would have been here tonight. He has no intention of wrestling he wants to be a priest.
AW: Tonight is the first time you are wresting the man known as “Freedom Ryder” Mike Sullivan.
SC: I have seen his matches on tape from IPW/NWA FL and the ECWA Super 8. I study my opponents and his work is outstanding. I hope to give the fans a great match that should be better than any four minute Thursday night TV encounter. I am looking forward to it
AW: I think I know the answer to this having been around you with some people what is the dumbest thing a fan has ever asked you?
SC: I get some dumb ones as you have been witness to. The recent one is “do you know the Rock?” I used to get “do you know Stone Cold?” Soon it will be someone else. I think the fans believe everyone knows everyone. Another one I get “is wrestling fake?” No do I ask you if your job is fake? Those get on the nerves but it’s the grain of salt theory.
AW: Hopefully it’s not one that I’ve asked you over these conversations, but is there one question that made your hair change color?
SC: Have you ever worked for ECW? (Laughter comes from a gathered crowd)I swear to god someone asked me that.
I wish to thank Steve Corino for if it wasn’t for him alanwojcik.com wouldn’t exist. Be sure to log onto www.stevecorino.com , www.NWAFlorida.com , www.zero-one.to and www.world1wrestling.com .
