Epitaph
05-23-2004, 10:18 AM
Dream The Impossible for May 18, 2004
WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG COMMENTARY! You may want to read it over two or three bathroom sessions!
I just noticed that I have not written since March 25 which means I have almost two months of stories and happenings in the world of the King of Old School to get to.
The last week of March I traveled over to Jolly Old England to make a surprise appearance in the FWA. To give you a little background on why this was so important we have to go back to last year’s Frontier of Honors show which was a joint FWA-ROH show. Elisar, who is one of the partners for FWA, contacted me to come to the show but they wanted me to represent Ring of Honor and if you are a Ring of Honor fan you would know that the last person Gabe wants representing ROH is me! I expressed my opinion about this and offered to represent PWF or even ZERO-ONE and Elisar understood but Alex Shane did not. A few weeks went by and I decided that I would rather sit out of the show then go against ROH’s booking plans to which Alex Shane wrote a “nice” little commentary on his site about me and The Amazing Red. There were some words thrown back and forth and I decided not to work for FWA again.
Shoot forward to the middle of March when Elisar calls me and tells me that Alex owns 50% of the company and his head has gotten huge and needs someone that will not back down from him and would do some good business for the FWA and their fans. I accepted the invite to come over and if you were in London that night you were probably as surprised as Alex was! It is great how sometimes even the wrestlers are shocked at what happens in our great sport.
To say I had a blast in the UK is not giving it justice. CM Punk and I ended up staying the whole FWA tour and I have to say that the British fans are unbelievable! I had such a great time wrestling for them that I can not wait to go back.
The first night I had a great match (in my opinion of course, and everyone knows my opinion is the only one that counts! LOL) with FWA champion Doug Williams. I have seen Doug many times on tapes from ROH and NOAH but you can not understand how good this guy is until you get into the ring with him. I would put him in the Top 15 of the best pro wrestlers in the WORLD with thinking about it.
After the show, some of the FWA staff wanted to take me and Punk out for a few “pints” and even though Punk (publicly) does not drink alcohol (BS) we decided to see what the Nightlife of London was all about. After about an hour of driving around with the very funny Playboy Barry, who Punk tried to kill by SLAMMING his hand in a door earlier in the night, we get to the place where we are supposed to go. I notice that we are not in a very nice part of London and it could get a little shady and that is perfect for me and Punk. As we pay our 10 pounds (about $20 US) for the cover charge the bouncer looks us up and down and we quickly realize that this is not a place that two guys like Punk and I should hang out in but we decide to humor ourselves anyway.
The bouncer has now stared at us for about a long 30 seconds before coming over and saying “Hey guys, you know tonight is TRANNY night right?” and without missing a beat Punk and I go “Yep, no problem”. I put up a great poker face but I will admit that I was not ready for what we were about to see. Actually I don’t think anything can get you ready for this kind of shock. I expected to see some good looking “girls” that actually were dudes underneath but I was wrong. These guys, beards and all, were dressed in dresses, high heels, and a ton of makeup. After ordering two quick Red Bull and Vodka’s for me and a Rum and Diet Coke minus the Rum for Punkhead I see this big (and no lie) 6’7”, 220 pound guy with pumps and a gown on comes up to me and says (In a DEEP voice) “Hi, where are you from?” Now I am looking up at this woman, I mean dude, scared more than I ever have been and say (Stuttering) “Ahhh, I am, ahhh, from, ahhh Philadelphia” and he comes right back with “Honey, you should go to Chicago”.
Now I consider Punk a friend and I know that you are not supposed to bury your friends, especially in this situation, but I had to think real quick and I decided it was either me or him so of course I turned right on him and said to this big she-male “My friend here is from Chicago!”
Punk, being the cool character that you would expect, doesn’t sell this a bit and starts a conversation with this guy. Then talk about a part of Chicago that both of them have been to (I would imagine they didn’t hang out in the same bar) and finally Punk tries to give this guy a High-5 and that is where all hell breaks loose.
Apparently the High-5 is not used much in a Tranny bar and the guy went for the Low-2 on Punk (Yep, he went for the boys) to which Punk raises his fist up and says words that me and Playboy Barry will remember forever. Punk looks up at this guy and says “I will kick your ass…I will punch you right in your F’ing Adam’s apple” and I just about lost it. It was funnier than you can imagine but the reality was that there was 250 Tranny’s in this bar and four heterosexual wrestling personalities! Can you imagine the headline on the Internet?
4 WRESTLERS BEAT TO A PULP BY TRANNIE’S IN A LONDON BAR!
But all was well and we enjoyed the rest of night seeing how the other part of the world lives. In fact even though it was pretty disgusting seeing 65 year old men grabbing the “breasts” of a bearded “woman” it did give me something to talk about right away on stevecorino.com!
A few weeks later we did a dumb thing and ran WORLD-1 shows up against Easter weekend. I blame myself the most because I had heard from many promoters that Easter weekend was not good to run on but I did it anyway. The crowds were down from the first tour but they were actually louder. We had some inner problems but as far as the wrestling, it was some great shows. TCTapes.net has them available for sale and I think you will enjoy them. We will have a major announcement sometime next week on the future of WORLD-1 (a good announcement if you are wondering) so check out world1wrestling.com and zerooneusa.com for all the details.
Before I get into the recent Japanese tour, I want to apologize to all the stevecorino.com fans for not being on line and updating as much I have been in the past. My son is getting older and we are trying to fit more things into everyday when I am home so I don’t have as much time as I used to. But I do promise that I will update and get to emails as much as I can for the future. I don’t want my fans to think that I don’t care because without you guys there is no King of Old School.
Maxim, which is quickly becoming a magazine I will not only stop buying but stop borrowing from anyone on the ZERO-ONE bus, put out their Top 100 Most Beautiful Women list. I have to say that whoever picked this list might be on the crack pipe so I took it upon myself to make the Top 20 King of Old School Most Beautiful Women list. Once you read them, give me your thoughts at CorinoWrestling@aol.com or send your own list and we can post them in the next commentary.
20. Tiffany Amber-Thiesen (Not listed on the Maxim list)
See was hot on both Saved By The Bell and 90210.
19. Shannon Elizabeth (28)
The best part of American Pie. Of course besides Jim getting it on with the actual pie.
18. Debra Messing (NL)
Funny and hot. Even if Will and Grace weren’t so funny I would probably just watch it for her.
17. Kate Bosworth (44)
She is the only reason to watch Blue Crush, which I saw on a plane of course, if you were wondering.
16. Kelly Hu (56)
Yummy
15. Mandy Moore (73)
I dig the “girl next door” look. In fact I would gladly welcome her to my neighborhood anytime.
14. Naomi Watts (53)
Can’t wait for the Ring 2
13. Beyonce Knowles (2)
Yeah baby! Need I say more? CW says that she signs too. Who would have known?
12. Lindsay Price (88)
Went from a Toys R Us girl to Steve Sanders’ wife on 90210. Gets better with age.
11. Eva Mendes (59)
Loses points because CW likes her so much but doesn’t hit the pause button during that great scene in Training Day? You perverts, I was only kidding!!!
10. Zooey Deschanel (79)
Not gorgeous but very cute.
9. Jessica Alba (9)
That goodness for DVD box sets.
8. Catherine Bell (55)
Makes me want to shag when I am watching JAG! I really don’t know what is worse; the rhyme or the second Austin Powers reference in this list?
7. Vanessa Marcil (78)
Third 90210 alumni on the list.
6. Alyssa Milano (NL)
Where the heck is she on the Maxim list? Who’s the Boss, Charmed? Come on Maxim. Still hot at 31 but the tattoos keep her out of the Top 5.
5. Katie Holmes (NL)
Another HUGE Maxim blunder.
4. Elisha Cuthbert (21)
Can’t wait for the Girl Next Door to come out (on DVD of course)
3. Kelly Ripa (NL)
Another classic. Though I should not admit this but I have been a big fan since ’93 when I started watching All My Children every afternoon. If you were wondering I was laid up for 6 months after knee surgery.
2. Kate Hudson (26)
Two reasons; She is hot, and she married an ugly rock star which gives all us a fair chance with a great looking girl.
And #1: BRITNEY SPEARS (36)
Did you expect someone else? The best part of AOL 9.0 is that I can download her “Toxic” video.
That is the Old School Top 20. Send me your thoughts on post them on the Steve Corino Message Board.
Got to see a ton of DVD’s on the last 21 day tour of Pro-Wrestling ZERO-ONE. Cdub let me borrow the Ole Anderson shoot DVD that Highspots did. The quality and questions of the DVD are second to none. I really enjoyed it and if you read the Ole book you know what to expect in the shoot DVD. Highspots, who are now an Official distributor of ZERO-ONE tapes and DVD’s, do an excellent job.
Spanky let me borrow Kill Bill, which I thought was OK but very gory, and Swingers. I liked Swingers because I am a big fan of Vince Vaughn but the saying “Your so money” go on my nerves pretty quick.
A friend of mine from Orlando burned me pretty much the whole 2003-04 season of Will and Grace. Although I love Will and Grace, Jack and Karen are funniest part of the show. I think Will and Grace are one of those shows that most guys don’t admit to watching but there was a time that me and CW were on tour in Australia and we actually stayed in the hotel and watched it instead of going out.
Me, Spanky, Jason The Legend, and Jack Bull all watched the Best of Will Farrell DVD about ten times on this trip. I pop big for the Behind The Music skit and the Jeopardy skit most of all. The only down side is that Jimmy Fallon, who could be the worst actor of all time, is on the DVD a lot. All this guy does is laugh in every skit.
This was a great tour for ZERO-ONE. All of the towns were up in attendance and me, Jack, and Spanky got to be a part of something very special in Kokura, Japan.
There are some times in pro wrestling when you get to see something that touches your heart and you realize how lucky we are to be professional athletes. This is the story of Osamu Namiguchi. Nami, as we call him among other things, is what the Japanese call a “young boy”. He became a part of the ZERO-ONE crew about 18 months ago and just started wrestling on the shows in November of 2003. Being a home grown young boy is very tough in Japanese pro wrestling. You are the first to get to the building and the last to leave. You have to put up the ring, carry the stars bags, pick the Gaijin up at the airport, escort your teacher everywhere, and pretty much be a punching bag until they decide that you are ready for a push. Nami is not only doing this but he is the smallest of the young boys, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in fighting spirit. It doesn’t matter if it is Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, or his hometown of Kokura, the Japanese fans see how hard Nami is working and they go crazy for him every time he is in the ring. Now that you have the background, let’s get to why Kokura was so special.
Nami, who has not won a match yet, wrestled his teacher and ZERO-ONE junior heavyweight ace Tetsuhito Takiawa in front of about 100 of his friends and family in Kokura, Japan. Takiawa spent over twelve minutes beating Nami half to death and then all of a sudden Nami started scoring all of these 2 and 99/100 counts to the point where me, Jack, and Spanky thought that Nami was going to get his first win. After kicking out of two of Takiawa’s finishers, Nami got put down by a second Death Valley Driver. After the match, Takiawa shook his hand (which if you knew Takiawa is big) and the crowd (and not just Nami’s family) gave the kid a standing ovation as if he was the main event.
The three of us were feeling really good for the kid but until he came into the Gaijin locker room we had no clue the feeling Nami had. Usually the Japanese don’t go into the American’s locker room and vice versa but Nami was so over come with emotion that he came into our room and started crying. At first we thought that he might have been hurt from the beating he took but he looked up with tears in his eyes and told us that he was so happy because his family got to see him wrestle and he felt like he made them proud. At this point me, Spanky, and Jack gave him hugs and told him how much we were proud of him and he just held onto us like he didn’t want the moment to end. For about ten minutes after Nami left the three of just sat in the locker room and said “wow that was something” and it took everything I could do not to choke up a little. It doesn’t matter if Osamu Namiguchi ever becomes a big name in pro wrestling, even though I have no doubt he will be, he showed everyone that if you work hard enough there is nothing stopping you from achieving your dreams.
It was a pretty normal tour for me. Almost hitting .500 again and that is my usual percentage for ZERO-ONE tours but I was very honored when Mr. Hashimoto changed the card in Matsuamya and booked me and Jason vs. Fujiwara and Riki Choshu. Choshu is a legend in Japan and to be in same ring with both him and Fujiwara at the same time, I was in my glory.
After the show we had a travel day before our show in Osaka. We thought that we were going to drive all the way to Osaka but unfortunately we were told that we would be staying in Okiyama. I can’t stand Okiyama. Well it’s not the city I don’t like, it’s the hotel. The hotel has a bed that has about a ¼ inch think pad for a mattress and a light that comes on around 9pm and shines through the windows. They only good thing is that we are usually on the 9th or 10th floor and there is a balcony there. Most adults would sit out on the balcony and relax on their day off but we are not those kinds of adults. We went to the 100 Yen shop (the Japanese version of a dollar store) and bought over 200 balloons to fill up with water and drop from our balcony. Now picture this: you have me, Jason, Spanky, Ki, Jack Bull, and Sonjay Dutt dropping water filled balloons over 100 feet off the ground onto unsuspecting people walking down the street. Sounds cruel right? I know it does, but it was very fun too! But sometimes things that are fun can get out of hand and this was one of those times. Now you have to remember that we had 200 balloons that we were trying to hit people with but none of us had any good aim and never got a direct hit on anyone. Well that was until one special Jason The Legend stepped up to the plate.
After throwing balloons at Tengu, Hidaka, Kasai, Kuroda, Sakata (Spanky paid for that one in Osaka), and Otani, we knew we were getting out of hand but there was this one guy who kept riding his bike up and down the street and we kept throwing at him. He even went in and told the front staff and did we stop? Heck no, Jason threw one at him too!
Finally we decided that we had to stop or we were going to get in trouble but Jason wanted to throw one more and that one was all he needed to write his history as the champion water bomb tosser. He threw this balloon at the same guy, the same one that has gone by five times and also told the front desk on us, and hit this dude point blank on the top of his head buckling his knees! It was awesome! But our fun wouldn’t last long because this guy ran to the front of the hotel and before he could get to where he was going, someone threw a balloon from the stairwell missing him by about 2 feet. This guy thought he was being attacked by the Water Bomb Squad so he did what any other guy in his position would do-he went and told the police!
As we see this unfolding we decide to all hide in Low Ki’s room, which was on the 10th floor. We are not too smart because you figure that there are only two sets of Gaijin rooms so we had to be somewhere! About five minutes later there is a stern knock at the door and we know we are in deep poo poo. After letting the door be pounded for a few minutes we decide to ask (OK tell) Sonjay to get the door. Luckily it was not the police but it was Otani, Kuroda, and Sakata and the cops had stopped them and asked them about the water balloons and they said that they would take care of it. Could you imagine the headline in the Japanese newspaper?
6 PRO WRESTLERS BUSTED FOR WATER BOMB ATTACK!
After busting out of Okiyama, where I am sure we will never be welcomed back, we headed to Osaka for a really good show. Jason, Jack, and I wrestled Hashimoto, Tengu, and Fujiwara in the main event and Jason had the honor of pinning Hashimoto in the middle of the ring. Hashimoto does not get beat much but he has already been beat three times this year and I think the fans realize that he is hurt (shoulder and knee) and that losing every once in a while is great for ZERO-ONE’s business.
We headed back on the bus to Tokyo for a week off after our April 30 show but me and Spanky planned on being at Korekan Hall every day for all of the pro wrestling shows that were going to be on. We had planned to sleep in and then head off at 5:30 to the JD Star show to watch Simply Luscious and Ariel make their Japanese debuts but we didn’t know that the show actually started at 12:30 not 6:30. Luckily Oki from the ZERO-ONE office called me at 12 and woke me up and me, Sonjay, and Ki headed over to the show. The Americans did well but Akino stole the show. With Kayo Noumi retired, Akino is now my favorite Japanese joshi pro wrestler!
On the 30th we returned to our home at Korekan for a great show. I mean this was what we had been missing for a while. It was very well booked from top to bottom and the crowd was louder then they had been for a long time. The main event between Ishii and Takiawa was unbelievable and something that had to be felt and seen in person. I would have no problem saying that this was one of the greatest live matches I had ever seen and over my 23 years of being a fan I have seen Flair-Steamboat, Otani-Tanaka, Misawa-Kobashi, Ki-Daniels-Dragon 3 way from the first ROH show all live and this was right up there with it. Just amazing and I know the tape will not do it justice.
After a day off, me and Spanky headed off to see the All Japan Women’s show and a kick boxing show. If you ever get a chance to see New Japan Kick Boxing (not to be confused with New Japan Pro Wrestling) pass on that. On the 3rd we had a great time at the DDT show, where Spanky had to buy a shirt of his new favorite wrestler-Dino.
Amazing Kong gave me and Spanky some tickets for Tokyo Disneyland so we spent the afternoon of the fourth there and then went to see the IWA show that night. Tokyo Disney is pretty cool except for the lines, but it was Golden Week so that is a good excuse but we had a great time anyway. After Disney we rode right to Korekan to watch Mike Rotondo’s last match and to hang out with Barry Windham. The IWA gave Mike a great sendoff and even though I didn’t ask the office I showed my respect for Mike by getting in the ring and presenting him with a rose and posing for pictures. To say Mr. Nakamura was a little shocked would be an understatement!
On the 5th, Spanky and I spent the day in the ZERO-ONE office designing t-shirts with Fugo Fugo Yumegi. My new t-shirt will be available not this upcoming tour but next tour. They are pretty cool if I don’t say so myself!
Well after over 4000 words I think I bored my fans long enough! Until next time Dream The Impossible
He He He!!!
Corino and Punk, In London in a Tranny Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I can just Imagine Punk now chatting to the dude :winkok: Corino is a Class act IMO, I've followed him since his ECW Days (Oh Yes 1999)!!
You get the impression when he's in Japan and US, It's like one BIIIGG family, IMO Corino Rock's!
Interesting Read!!
Thoughts?
WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG COMMENTARY! You may want to read it over two or three bathroom sessions!
I just noticed that I have not written since March 25 which means I have almost two months of stories and happenings in the world of the King of Old School to get to.
The last week of March I traveled over to Jolly Old England to make a surprise appearance in the FWA. To give you a little background on why this was so important we have to go back to last year’s Frontier of Honors show which was a joint FWA-ROH show. Elisar, who is one of the partners for FWA, contacted me to come to the show but they wanted me to represent Ring of Honor and if you are a Ring of Honor fan you would know that the last person Gabe wants representing ROH is me! I expressed my opinion about this and offered to represent PWF or even ZERO-ONE and Elisar understood but Alex Shane did not. A few weeks went by and I decided that I would rather sit out of the show then go against ROH’s booking plans to which Alex Shane wrote a “nice” little commentary on his site about me and The Amazing Red. There were some words thrown back and forth and I decided not to work for FWA again.
Shoot forward to the middle of March when Elisar calls me and tells me that Alex owns 50% of the company and his head has gotten huge and needs someone that will not back down from him and would do some good business for the FWA and their fans. I accepted the invite to come over and if you were in London that night you were probably as surprised as Alex was! It is great how sometimes even the wrestlers are shocked at what happens in our great sport.
To say I had a blast in the UK is not giving it justice. CM Punk and I ended up staying the whole FWA tour and I have to say that the British fans are unbelievable! I had such a great time wrestling for them that I can not wait to go back.
The first night I had a great match (in my opinion of course, and everyone knows my opinion is the only one that counts! LOL) with FWA champion Doug Williams. I have seen Doug many times on tapes from ROH and NOAH but you can not understand how good this guy is until you get into the ring with him. I would put him in the Top 15 of the best pro wrestlers in the WORLD with thinking about it.
After the show, some of the FWA staff wanted to take me and Punk out for a few “pints” and even though Punk (publicly) does not drink alcohol (BS) we decided to see what the Nightlife of London was all about. After about an hour of driving around with the very funny Playboy Barry, who Punk tried to kill by SLAMMING his hand in a door earlier in the night, we get to the place where we are supposed to go. I notice that we are not in a very nice part of London and it could get a little shady and that is perfect for me and Punk. As we pay our 10 pounds (about $20 US) for the cover charge the bouncer looks us up and down and we quickly realize that this is not a place that two guys like Punk and I should hang out in but we decide to humor ourselves anyway.
The bouncer has now stared at us for about a long 30 seconds before coming over and saying “Hey guys, you know tonight is TRANNY night right?” and without missing a beat Punk and I go “Yep, no problem”. I put up a great poker face but I will admit that I was not ready for what we were about to see. Actually I don’t think anything can get you ready for this kind of shock. I expected to see some good looking “girls” that actually were dudes underneath but I was wrong. These guys, beards and all, were dressed in dresses, high heels, and a ton of makeup. After ordering two quick Red Bull and Vodka’s for me and a Rum and Diet Coke minus the Rum for Punkhead I see this big (and no lie) 6’7”, 220 pound guy with pumps and a gown on comes up to me and says (In a DEEP voice) “Hi, where are you from?” Now I am looking up at this woman, I mean dude, scared more than I ever have been and say (Stuttering) “Ahhh, I am, ahhh, from, ahhh Philadelphia” and he comes right back with “Honey, you should go to Chicago”.
Now I consider Punk a friend and I know that you are not supposed to bury your friends, especially in this situation, but I had to think real quick and I decided it was either me or him so of course I turned right on him and said to this big she-male “My friend here is from Chicago!”
Punk, being the cool character that you would expect, doesn’t sell this a bit and starts a conversation with this guy. Then talk about a part of Chicago that both of them have been to (I would imagine they didn’t hang out in the same bar) and finally Punk tries to give this guy a High-5 and that is where all hell breaks loose.
Apparently the High-5 is not used much in a Tranny bar and the guy went for the Low-2 on Punk (Yep, he went for the boys) to which Punk raises his fist up and says words that me and Playboy Barry will remember forever. Punk looks up at this guy and says “I will kick your ass…I will punch you right in your F’ing Adam’s apple” and I just about lost it. It was funnier than you can imagine but the reality was that there was 250 Tranny’s in this bar and four heterosexual wrestling personalities! Can you imagine the headline on the Internet?
4 WRESTLERS BEAT TO A PULP BY TRANNIE’S IN A LONDON BAR!
But all was well and we enjoyed the rest of night seeing how the other part of the world lives. In fact even though it was pretty disgusting seeing 65 year old men grabbing the “breasts” of a bearded “woman” it did give me something to talk about right away on stevecorino.com!
A few weeks later we did a dumb thing and ran WORLD-1 shows up against Easter weekend. I blame myself the most because I had heard from many promoters that Easter weekend was not good to run on but I did it anyway. The crowds were down from the first tour but they were actually louder. We had some inner problems but as far as the wrestling, it was some great shows. TCTapes.net has them available for sale and I think you will enjoy them. We will have a major announcement sometime next week on the future of WORLD-1 (a good announcement if you are wondering) so check out world1wrestling.com and zerooneusa.com for all the details.
Before I get into the recent Japanese tour, I want to apologize to all the stevecorino.com fans for not being on line and updating as much I have been in the past. My son is getting older and we are trying to fit more things into everyday when I am home so I don’t have as much time as I used to. But I do promise that I will update and get to emails as much as I can for the future. I don’t want my fans to think that I don’t care because without you guys there is no King of Old School.
Maxim, which is quickly becoming a magazine I will not only stop buying but stop borrowing from anyone on the ZERO-ONE bus, put out their Top 100 Most Beautiful Women list. I have to say that whoever picked this list might be on the crack pipe so I took it upon myself to make the Top 20 King of Old School Most Beautiful Women list. Once you read them, give me your thoughts at CorinoWrestling@aol.com or send your own list and we can post them in the next commentary.
20. Tiffany Amber-Thiesen (Not listed on the Maxim list)
See was hot on both Saved By The Bell and 90210.
19. Shannon Elizabeth (28)
The best part of American Pie. Of course besides Jim getting it on with the actual pie.
18. Debra Messing (NL)
Funny and hot. Even if Will and Grace weren’t so funny I would probably just watch it for her.
17. Kate Bosworth (44)
She is the only reason to watch Blue Crush, which I saw on a plane of course, if you were wondering.
16. Kelly Hu (56)
Yummy
15. Mandy Moore (73)
I dig the “girl next door” look. In fact I would gladly welcome her to my neighborhood anytime.
14. Naomi Watts (53)
Can’t wait for the Ring 2
13. Beyonce Knowles (2)
Yeah baby! Need I say more? CW says that she signs too. Who would have known?
12. Lindsay Price (88)
Went from a Toys R Us girl to Steve Sanders’ wife on 90210. Gets better with age.
11. Eva Mendes (59)
Loses points because CW likes her so much but doesn’t hit the pause button during that great scene in Training Day? You perverts, I was only kidding!!!
10. Zooey Deschanel (79)
Not gorgeous but very cute.
9. Jessica Alba (9)
That goodness for DVD box sets.
8. Catherine Bell (55)
Makes me want to shag when I am watching JAG! I really don’t know what is worse; the rhyme or the second Austin Powers reference in this list?
7. Vanessa Marcil (78)
Third 90210 alumni on the list.
6. Alyssa Milano (NL)
Where the heck is she on the Maxim list? Who’s the Boss, Charmed? Come on Maxim. Still hot at 31 but the tattoos keep her out of the Top 5.
5. Katie Holmes (NL)
Another HUGE Maxim blunder.
4. Elisha Cuthbert (21)
Can’t wait for the Girl Next Door to come out (on DVD of course)
3. Kelly Ripa (NL)
Another classic. Though I should not admit this but I have been a big fan since ’93 when I started watching All My Children every afternoon. If you were wondering I was laid up for 6 months after knee surgery.
2. Kate Hudson (26)
Two reasons; She is hot, and she married an ugly rock star which gives all us a fair chance with a great looking girl.
And #1: BRITNEY SPEARS (36)
Did you expect someone else? The best part of AOL 9.0 is that I can download her “Toxic” video.
That is the Old School Top 20. Send me your thoughts on post them on the Steve Corino Message Board.
Got to see a ton of DVD’s on the last 21 day tour of Pro-Wrestling ZERO-ONE. Cdub let me borrow the Ole Anderson shoot DVD that Highspots did. The quality and questions of the DVD are second to none. I really enjoyed it and if you read the Ole book you know what to expect in the shoot DVD. Highspots, who are now an Official distributor of ZERO-ONE tapes and DVD’s, do an excellent job.
Spanky let me borrow Kill Bill, which I thought was OK but very gory, and Swingers. I liked Swingers because I am a big fan of Vince Vaughn but the saying “Your so money” go on my nerves pretty quick.
A friend of mine from Orlando burned me pretty much the whole 2003-04 season of Will and Grace. Although I love Will and Grace, Jack and Karen are funniest part of the show. I think Will and Grace are one of those shows that most guys don’t admit to watching but there was a time that me and CW were on tour in Australia and we actually stayed in the hotel and watched it instead of going out.
Me, Spanky, Jason The Legend, and Jack Bull all watched the Best of Will Farrell DVD about ten times on this trip. I pop big for the Behind The Music skit and the Jeopardy skit most of all. The only down side is that Jimmy Fallon, who could be the worst actor of all time, is on the DVD a lot. All this guy does is laugh in every skit.
This was a great tour for ZERO-ONE. All of the towns were up in attendance and me, Jack, and Spanky got to be a part of something very special in Kokura, Japan.
There are some times in pro wrestling when you get to see something that touches your heart and you realize how lucky we are to be professional athletes. This is the story of Osamu Namiguchi. Nami, as we call him among other things, is what the Japanese call a “young boy”. He became a part of the ZERO-ONE crew about 18 months ago and just started wrestling on the shows in November of 2003. Being a home grown young boy is very tough in Japanese pro wrestling. You are the first to get to the building and the last to leave. You have to put up the ring, carry the stars bags, pick the Gaijin up at the airport, escort your teacher everywhere, and pretty much be a punching bag until they decide that you are ready for a push. Nami is not only doing this but he is the smallest of the young boys, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in fighting spirit. It doesn’t matter if it is Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, or his hometown of Kokura, the Japanese fans see how hard Nami is working and they go crazy for him every time he is in the ring. Now that you have the background, let’s get to why Kokura was so special.
Nami, who has not won a match yet, wrestled his teacher and ZERO-ONE junior heavyweight ace Tetsuhito Takiawa in front of about 100 of his friends and family in Kokura, Japan. Takiawa spent over twelve minutes beating Nami half to death and then all of a sudden Nami started scoring all of these 2 and 99/100 counts to the point where me, Jack, and Spanky thought that Nami was going to get his first win. After kicking out of two of Takiawa’s finishers, Nami got put down by a second Death Valley Driver. After the match, Takiawa shook his hand (which if you knew Takiawa is big) and the crowd (and not just Nami’s family) gave the kid a standing ovation as if he was the main event.
The three of us were feeling really good for the kid but until he came into the Gaijin locker room we had no clue the feeling Nami had. Usually the Japanese don’t go into the American’s locker room and vice versa but Nami was so over come with emotion that he came into our room and started crying. At first we thought that he might have been hurt from the beating he took but he looked up with tears in his eyes and told us that he was so happy because his family got to see him wrestle and he felt like he made them proud. At this point me, Spanky, and Jack gave him hugs and told him how much we were proud of him and he just held onto us like he didn’t want the moment to end. For about ten minutes after Nami left the three of just sat in the locker room and said “wow that was something” and it took everything I could do not to choke up a little. It doesn’t matter if Osamu Namiguchi ever becomes a big name in pro wrestling, even though I have no doubt he will be, he showed everyone that if you work hard enough there is nothing stopping you from achieving your dreams.
It was a pretty normal tour for me. Almost hitting .500 again and that is my usual percentage for ZERO-ONE tours but I was very honored when Mr. Hashimoto changed the card in Matsuamya and booked me and Jason vs. Fujiwara and Riki Choshu. Choshu is a legend in Japan and to be in same ring with both him and Fujiwara at the same time, I was in my glory.
After the show we had a travel day before our show in Osaka. We thought that we were going to drive all the way to Osaka but unfortunately we were told that we would be staying in Okiyama. I can’t stand Okiyama. Well it’s not the city I don’t like, it’s the hotel. The hotel has a bed that has about a ¼ inch think pad for a mattress and a light that comes on around 9pm and shines through the windows. They only good thing is that we are usually on the 9th or 10th floor and there is a balcony there. Most adults would sit out on the balcony and relax on their day off but we are not those kinds of adults. We went to the 100 Yen shop (the Japanese version of a dollar store) and bought over 200 balloons to fill up with water and drop from our balcony. Now picture this: you have me, Jason, Spanky, Ki, Jack Bull, and Sonjay Dutt dropping water filled balloons over 100 feet off the ground onto unsuspecting people walking down the street. Sounds cruel right? I know it does, but it was very fun too! But sometimes things that are fun can get out of hand and this was one of those times. Now you have to remember that we had 200 balloons that we were trying to hit people with but none of us had any good aim and never got a direct hit on anyone. Well that was until one special Jason The Legend stepped up to the plate.
After throwing balloons at Tengu, Hidaka, Kasai, Kuroda, Sakata (Spanky paid for that one in Osaka), and Otani, we knew we were getting out of hand but there was this one guy who kept riding his bike up and down the street and we kept throwing at him. He even went in and told the front staff and did we stop? Heck no, Jason threw one at him too!
Finally we decided that we had to stop or we were going to get in trouble but Jason wanted to throw one more and that one was all he needed to write his history as the champion water bomb tosser. He threw this balloon at the same guy, the same one that has gone by five times and also told the front desk on us, and hit this dude point blank on the top of his head buckling his knees! It was awesome! But our fun wouldn’t last long because this guy ran to the front of the hotel and before he could get to where he was going, someone threw a balloon from the stairwell missing him by about 2 feet. This guy thought he was being attacked by the Water Bomb Squad so he did what any other guy in his position would do-he went and told the police!
As we see this unfolding we decide to all hide in Low Ki’s room, which was on the 10th floor. We are not too smart because you figure that there are only two sets of Gaijin rooms so we had to be somewhere! About five minutes later there is a stern knock at the door and we know we are in deep poo poo. After letting the door be pounded for a few minutes we decide to ask (OK tell) Sonjay to get the door. Luckily it was not the police but it was Otani, Kuroda, and Sakata and the cops had stopped them and asked them about the water balloons and they said that they would take care of it. Could you imagine the headline in the Japanese newspaper?
6 PRO WRESTLERS BUSTED FOR WATER BOMB ATTACK!
After busting out of Okiyama, where I am sure we will never be welcomed back, we headed to Osaka for a really good show. Jason, Jack, and I wrestled Hashimoto, Tengu, and Fujiwara in the main event and Jason had the honor of pinning Hashimoto in the middle of the ring. Hashimoto does not get beat much but he has already been beat three times this year and I think the fans realize that he is hurt (shoulder and knee) and that losing every once in a while is great for ZERO-ONE’s business.
We headed back on the bus to Tokyo for a week off after our April 30 show but me and Spanky planned on being at Korekan Hall every day for all of the pro wrestling shows that were going to be on. We had planned to sleep in and then head off at 5:30 to the JD Star show to watch Simply Luscious and Ariel make their Japanese debuts but we didn’t know that the show actually started at 12:30 not 6:30. Luckily Oki from the ZERO-ONE office called me at 12 and woke me up and me, Sonjay, and Ki headed over to the show. The Americans did well but Akino stole the show. With Kayo Noumi retired, Akino is now my favorite Japanese joshi pro wrestler!
On the 30th we returned to our home at Korekan for a great show. I mean this was what we had been missing for a while. It was very well booked from top to bottom and the crowd was louder then they had been for a long time. The main event between Ishii and Takiawa was unbelievable and something that had to be felt and seen in person. I would have no problem saying that this was one of the greatest live matches I had ever seen and over my 23 years of being a fan I have seen Flair-Steamboat, Otani-Tanaka, Misawa-Kobashi, Ki-Daniels-Dragon 3 way from the first ROH show all live and this was right up there with it. Just amazing and I know the tape will not do it justice.
After a day off, me and Spanky headed off to see the All Japan Women’s show and a kick boxing show. If you ever get a chance to see New Japan Kick Boxing (not to be confused with New Japan Pro Wrestling) pass on that. On the 3rd we had a great time at the DDT show, where Spanky had to buy a shirt of his new favorite wrestler-Dino.
Amazing Kong gave me and Spanky some tickets for Tokyo Disneyland so we spent the afternoon of the fourth there and then went to see the IWA show that night. Tokyo Disney is pretty cool except for the lines, but it was Golden Week so that is a good excuse but we had a great time anyway. After Disney we rode right to Korekan to watch Mike Rotondo’s last match and to hang out with Barry Windham. The IWA gave Mike a great sendoff and even though I didn’t ask the office I showed my respect for Mike by getting in the ring and presenting him with a rose and posing for pictures. To say Mr. Nakamura was a little shocked would be an understatement!
On the 5th, Spanky and I spent the day in the ZERO-ONE office designing t-shirts with Fugo Fugo Yumegi. My new t-shirt will be available not this upcoming tour but next tour. They are pretty cool if I don’t say so myself!
Well after over 4000 words I think I bored my fans long enough! Until next time Dream The Impossible
He He He!!!
Corino and Punk, In London in a Tranny Bar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I can just Imagine Punk now chatting to the dude :winkok: Corino is a Class act IMO, I've followed him since his ECW Days (Oh Yes 1999)!!
You get the impression when he's in Japan and US, It's like one BIIIGG family, IMO Corino Rock's!
Interesting Read!!
Thoughts?