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Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian-American professional wrestling trainer and former professional wrestler. , he works for the American professional wrestling promotion WWE as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center and as a producer for its developmental brand, NXT.
Corino is best known for his tenure with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1998 to 2001 and Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2002 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2016. Over the course of his career, he held titles including the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, MLW World Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and ROH World Tag Team Championship.
In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Yoshihiro Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Strap match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000, at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance).
Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV WCW Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship.
In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams.
As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003, in Queens. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Matt Bentley, C. W. Anderson and Veronica Stevens), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot.
Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate Eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match.
Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide.
On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat.
He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head.
On November 3, 2007, Corino won an eight-man tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and John McChesney in the finals. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American Championship against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany.
On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American Championship to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell threw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Championship on December 14, 2007, after defeating Erico in Michigan City, Indiana, United States.
Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced Jeremy Barnoff, Brick Crawford, and Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match.
Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on MySpace that while he enjoyed his time with WWE, he felt he was too "old school" for the company.
On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful.
On July 19, 2008, Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Nick Dinsmore. Later on September 20, 2008, he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ.
On June 26, 2010, Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event.
Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling.
On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane Sewell in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011.
On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012, in Orlando, Florida.
On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission.
In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black.
On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated.
On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way.
On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event.
While serving as commentator, Corino had a running feud with B. J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry saw Whitmer goading "Corino" to join The Decade, with Corino refusing. Whitmer eventually revealed that he was not talking about Steve Corino but rather his son, Colby Corino, who he successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he could not attack any ROH employee or he would be suspended. After Corino attacked Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary. Corino was ultimately reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle. However, Corino announced that he was scheduled to have neck surgery and that his career might end. He continued to serve as a color commentator under a mask as "Mr. Wrestling 3". During this time, Whitmer insisted that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino; he began convincing Colby that Corino had replaced him with his new wife and son. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as Steve Corino, stating that he did not want to be the "evil man" anymore, but that after Whitmer's deeds, he would do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World '16 in June 2016, Corino faced Whitmer in a Fight Without Honor, but lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan.
After losing to Whitmer, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody Rhodes, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016.
On August 27, 2021, Corino broke his retirement for a single night, appearing at the Premier Wrestling Federation's "Colby Corino's 25th Anniversary Show", where he unsuccessfully challenged his son Colby for the PWF Crystal Coast Oceanic Championship.
Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, Colby Corino (born August 28, 1996), who is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish people girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006, in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short.
Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000.
Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives.
Championships and accomplishments
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Categories: 1973 Births, 20th-century Male Professional Wrestlers, 20th-century Canadian Professional Wrestlers, 21st-century Male Professional Wrestlers, 21st-century Canadian Professional Wrestlers, American Male Professional Wrestlers, Canadian Emigrants To The United States, Canadian Male Professional Wrestlers, Canadian Sportspeople Of Italian Descent, Ecw World Heavyweight Champions, Living People, Masked Wrestlers, Nwa World Heavyweight Champions, People From Sea Isle City, New Jersey, Professional Wrestling Managers And Valets, Professional Wrestling Promoters, Canadian Professional Wrestling Trainers, Professional Wrestlers From Philadelphia, Professional Wrestlers From Winnipeg, People From Emerald Isle, North Carolina, Mlw World Heavyweight Champions, Wwc Universal Heavyweight Champions, Nwa Florida Heavyweight Champions, Nwa North American Heavyweight Champions, Zero1 Intercontinental Tag Team Champions, Wwc Puerto Rico Champions, Wwc World Junior Heavyweight Champions, Roh World Tag Team Champions, Professional Wrestlers From New Jersey
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