Steve Corino's 10-year career in professional wrestling has seen has seen its share of hills and valleys. From struggling early on in the indy scene, to almost landing a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), to his surprising success in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and to his career in Japan, Corino still finds himself competing on indy shows in the northeast as a successful headliners.

Corino had been working as a milkman when he decided to enter the rough and tough domain known as professional wrestling. Living in the northeast, this Canadian-born athlete sought schools near his home and found one in Reading, PA. In 1994, his training began under the guidance of Tom Brandi, who you can catch competing in National Wrestling Superstars (NWS) in New Jersey as the masked Patriot. He spent the fall and winter of 1994-1995 getting ready for his chance to live a dream.

After his training was done and Corino was ready to take it to the next level, he made his debut on April 6, 1995. The first promotion he worked for was Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling (PCW). He teamed with another student at his school, Bad Boy Oyo and jobbed to The Mess Bros. in the first round of the PCW Tag Team Title tournament.

Corino traveled around the New Jersey and Pennsylvania indy scene for several months before he started to make his mark. He began to compete in Jim Kettner's East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA) in the summer of 1995. In his debut for the company on August 18 in Rehobeth Beach, DE he defeated Kid Flash, who would also go on to greater success in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and WWE as Billy Kidman.

Corino formed a partnership with Lance "Simon" Diamond in ECWA and they teamed up to defeat Kid Flash & Ace Darling on November 17, 1995 in Wilmington, DE to win the ECWA Tag Team titles. They reigned as champs for six months before losing them on May 16, 1996 in Newport, DE to Boogie Woogie Brown and The Inferno Kid. Inferno Kid now competes for WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) as Danny Inferno and most recently teamed with Bryan Wenzel to form The Hybrid.

Seventeen months after making his professional debut, Corino was being noticed by WWE. At the time, WWE television programs had mainly squash matches. Guys like Corino were brought in to work the tapings to job to the WWE wrestlers. On September 24, 1996, COrino jobbed to Sal Sincere, who was Corino's trainer Tom Brandi, in Hershey, PA. Three weeks worth of Raws were taped in one night, so later that evening, Corino appeared in the front row as a fan that was attacked by Crush. The WWE was trying to get Crush over as a jailbird heel.

Corino traveled down the east coast to compete in Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance (IPWA). On January 11, 1997, he teamed with Adam Flash to defeat Joey Matthews & Mark Shrader for the IPWA Tag Team titles in Pikeville, NC. Corino continued his tag team success with Adam Flash that month and the duo beat former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and WWE Tag Team champions The Headbangers for the USCW Tag Team titles in Washington, PA on January 31. Corino and Flash would hold on to the IPWA Titles until March 22, 1997 when they would job the titles to Death & Destruction in Washington, PA.

WWE returned to the northeast for more tapings on April 21, 1997, this time in Binghamton, NY. At the time, Shotgun Saturday Night was one of their "B" shows, or recap shows with some squashes thrown in. One of those squashes saw Corino team with Aldo Montoya and Freddie Joe Floyd and job to D'Lo Brown, Crush and Savio Vega, who were representing the Nation of Domination. Montoya would achieve greater fame as Justin Credible and Floyd was former ECW Tag Team and NWA United States Tag Team champion Tracey Smothers.

Corino started the month of May on the right foot. His exposure in WWE was a huge asset to his career in the indy scene. On May 2, 1997, Corino won a tournament to become the first man to be recognized as the NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight champion when he defeated Christian York in the finals in Pikeville, NC. The NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Title was previously known as the IPWA Light Heavyweight Title. The very next night, in Freehold, NJ, Corino won yet another tournament. This time, he beat Adam Flash to win the vacant NWA Light Heavyweight Title. He vacated that title shortly thereafter.

Corino was booked to work shows for the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in Memphis, TN. The USWA was on its last legs in September 1997 and Jerry "The King" Lawler was no longer booking, just wrestling, and Jerry Jarrett had sold his share of the promotion. Corino did mostly jobs in the USWA and competed against Ric Titan aka Jim Ross' Razor Ramon, Rod Price, Paul Diamond, PG-13, and Spellbinder.

WWE held it's first ever Raw taping at Madison Square Garden on September 22, 1997. For months, this show was the talk of the Internet. Fans speculated as to what was going to happen at the show. The show proved to be huge, and somewhat lived up to its expectations. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin gave Vince McMahon a Stunner for the first time. Cactus Jack made his debut and defeated Triple H in a Falls-Count-Anywhere Match. In the afterthought, Corino made his MSG debut and defeated "The Wiseguy" Jimmy Cicero in a dark match.

Corino continued his indy travels and continued winning tournaments. On October 11, 1997, Corino returned to NWA 2000 and defeated Eddie Brown to become the first NWA 2000 American Heritage Title. It was a belt he held on to until November 26, 1997 when he jobbed it to future tag team partner CW Anderson in Raeford, NC.

During his stay in the USWA, booker Dutch Mantel took a liking to Corino and recommended him to the brass at World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico. He toured WWC in November, and when he got there, one of his roommates was Sean Morley, who later found success in WWE as Val Venis. On October 29, 1997, Corino toppled Halcon Negro to win the WWC Junior Heavyweight Title in Gurabo, Puerto Rico.

Corino was a big success on his first tour of Puerto Rico. He stepped in the ring and defeated the likes of Negro, Glamour Boy Shane, Sean Morley, Jim Ross' Razor Ramon, and Skull Von Crush aka Big Vito. At the end of the tour, he jobbed the WWC Junior Heavyweight Title to Jerry Estrada in Cobo Rojo, Puerto Rico on November 16, 1997.

Corino was working WWE tapings on a more frequent basis. On November 24, 1997, he teamed with Venom, Cham Pain and Mike Maverick to job to Crush, Chainz, Skull, & 8 Ball of DOA. Venom would later go on to work for WWE as Joey Abs of the Mean Street Posse. And if memory serves me right, Cham Pain and Maverick went on to become members of The Dupps.

1998 was looking to be a big year in the career of Steve Corino. With his stock rising on the indy scene and his frequent bookings at WWE tapings, Corino was looking at achieving big things. On January 29, 1998, Corino defeated Joey Matthews to win the Southern Championship Wrestling (SCW) Junior Heavyweight Title in a Ladder Match. Corino would later be stripped of the title.

WWE was also taping shows for their Spanish affiliates called Super Astros. These shows were taped before Raw was, and this was before Sunday Night Heat came along. On April 13, 1998, Corino was once again summoned to a WWE taping in Philadelphia, PA and jobbed to El Mariachi during a taping of Super Astros. The WWE bookings continued on May 11, 1998, when he teamed with Julio Sanchez to job to Jim Cornette's New Midnight Express in Baltimore, MD during a taping of Shotgun Saturday Night. Sanchez is indy wrestler Julio Dinero and the Midnight Express made up of "Bodacious" Bart Gunn and "Bombastic" Bob Holly.

Corino remained a fixture on the northeast indy scene, and ventured into Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance. On June 20, 1998, Corino won a battle royal to become the first PWA Heavyweight champion in Philadelphia, PA. He held onto the title until July 19, when he jobbed it to the last man he eliminated in the battle royal a month earlier, Patch.

Corino was a busy man and was on the radar of WWE, or so he thought. On June 30, 1998, Corino jobbed to one-time promising indy star Reckless Youth in State College, PA in a dark match. Corino showed up to work on July 13, 1998 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ and defeated Julio Sanchez in a dark match.

Corino reformed his partnership with Lance Diamond in July 1998, this time in the NWA. The duo defeated The Misfits on July 31, 1998 to win the NWA United States Tag Team Titles in Mt. Holly, NJ. They held the titles for less than a month when they jobbed them to The Pit Bulls in Mt. Holly, NJ.

By this time, there were several indy prospects the WWE was looking at. There were others they were sure we going to remain on the roster, but still needed some seasoning. The WWE was in trhe midst of setting up an invitation-only camp for a few select would-be WWE superstars. Before that came to fruition, Corino was still lined up for more WWE TV squashes. On August 31, 1998, he teamed with Julio Sanches to job to Kai En Tai members Fuanki & Teioh in New Haven, CT for a taping of WWE Shotgun. On October 12, 1998, he once again teamed with Sanches to job to DOA at The Nassau Coliseum.

Dory Funk Jr. was brought in to run the WWE "Funkin' Dojo" in October 1998 in Stamford, CT at the WWE Headquarters. Corino was one of three indy wrestlers invited to train there. Such future superstars such as Kurt Angle, Test and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams were brought in to learn from the former NWA World Champion. "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels and Devon Storm were the other two indy wrestlers competing in this dojo. During this dojo, Corino was able to step into the ring with the likes of Shawn Stasiak, Kurt Angle, Christopher Daniels, and Giant Silva. At the end of the dojo, everyone remained with WWE, except for Corino, Daniels and Storm.

The NWA celebrated their 50th anniversary on October 24, 1998. The event was held in Cherry Hill, NJ. New Jersey had become a state the NWA regularly ran shows in. The main event of the show was a Steel Cage Match, which saw Cornio team with Lance Diamond, Rik Ratchet and Doug Gilbert to beat Stevie Richards, Dead Man Walking and The Pit Bulls.

Despite not earning a WWE contract at the conclusion of The Funkin' Dojo, Corino was contacted to work one more taping. In his final WWE match, Corino teamed with Lance Diamond & Jimmy Cicero to job to The Oddities in Baltimore, MD during a taping.

Corino's accomplishments thus far would not go unnoticed, like they did in WWE. Paul Heyman and ECW took notice of Corino and brought him in for a try-out. On December 19, 1998, he earned a job with ECW when he jobbed to Nova. During his early entrance into ECW, Corino was portrayed as a comedy character that jobbed all the time. He faced and lost to the likes of Chris Candido, Chris Chetti, Nova, Tommy Dreamer, and Balls Mahoney. Corino made his PPV debut on March 21, 1999 at Living Dangerously when he was soundly defeated by Balls Mahoney. It wasn't until May 25, 1999 that Corino got his first win in ECW when he defeated Skull Von Crush in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Corino was then repackaged as a manager and seconded the likes of Rhino and Tajiri. Corino was followed around by Jack Victory and Corino dubbed himself "The King of Old School" and waged war against those that were for hardcore wrestling. Corino started to pick a fight with Taz, which would result in Tajiri turning heel and aligning himself with Corino. At the 1999 Heat Wave on Augus+6t 2, Corino interrupted Tommy Dreamer, who was on the verge of announcing his retirement. Corino ended up being pinned by Dreamer's manager Francine to end the segment.

That summer, ECW gained national exposure when they gained a timeslot on The Nashville Network, which is now known as Spike TV. For months, Cyrus was on television, but played no role...Until then. Working as a color commentator for their PPVs, Cyrus always made reference to "the office" when talking to play-by-play man Joey Styles. It turned out the office he was referring to was TNN. During the launch of ECW on TNN, Corino eventually sided with Cyrus and formed The Network, which was a group headed by Cyrus and at times had Tajiri, Rhino, Scotty Anton, Lou E. Dangerously, and Corino in this faction. The group had waged a war against Team Extreme.

During an episode of ECW on TNN, which was taped on November 20, 1999, Corino was seen in the locker room area thinking. As he was thinking out loud, he complained to right hand man Jack Victory that the Limp Bizkit concert next door was so loud he could barely hear himself think. Corino took it upon himself to crash the Limp Bizkit concert in Peoria, IL. On stage, Corino confronted front man Fred Durst. They exchanged words until Balls Mahoney, Axl Rotten and New Jack made the save and attacked Corino. The incident was great crossover exposure for ECW as it was covered on MTV.

Corino was making a name for himself in ECW, and it was because of his big mouth. As "The King of Old School," Corino was looking to make an impact. On December 2, 1999, ECW taped television in Atlanta, GA. It was there Corino began his angle with the former NWA World champion, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. This would be Corino's first major feud, as all the other ones he was mainly just a manager.

Living Dangerously was to be the night Corino would face Rhodes for the first time. On March 12, 2000, Corino challenged Rhodes to a "Bullrope Match." The legend was able to overcome the brash athlete that night. But Corino gained a measure of revenge the following month at Cyberslam at the ECW Arena. Corino beat Rhodes in a "Bullrope Rematch."

Corino spent most of the time as a mouthpiece, despite his feud with Rhodes. That summer, things were going to change for Corino. On august 4, 2000, Corino and Jack Victory became faces when Corino refused to take orders from Cyrus, ending their relationship. Corino thought Scotty Anton was on his side, but stayed loyal to The Network. At the ECW Arena on August 20, 2000, Corino defeated Anton.

Corino was in the midst of a monster push. On October 1, 2000, he was booked to face CW Anderson in a #1 Contenders Match at Anarchy Rulz in Minneapolis, MN at the Roy Wilkens Auditorium. Corino won the right to face the next ECW champion. Later that night, Jerry Lynn defeated Justin Credible to win the ECW Title.

November to Remember was the WrestleMania of ECW. That was their big event. There was history behind this event. This was the event Chris Benoit earned his nickname "The Crippler" when he dropped Sabu on his head. In 1995, Mikey Whipwreck successfully retained his ECW Title by pinning "Superstar" Steve Austin. In 1996, Terry Funk emerged from "retirement" to help Tommy Dreamer in his war against Shane Douglas & Brian Lee. In 1997, Shane Douglas beat Bam Bam Bigelow to win his final ECW Title near his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. 1998 saw the unlikely tag team of Sabu, Taz and Rob Van Dam defeat The Triple Threat. The final November to Remember took place on November 5, 2000 in Chicago, IL at The Odeum. Corino will have the unique distinction of becoming the last man to win a match at that event. A Double Jeopardy Match took place, which two matches were going on at the same time involving Corino vs The Sandman and Justin Credible vs Jerry Lynn. Corino pinned The Sandman and Credible beat ECW champ Jerry Lynn. Corino then pinned Credible to win the ECW Title.

ECW had been on shaky ground, financially, at this time. Many of the wrestlers were allowed to compete on indy shows if their schedules permit. As ECW champion, Corino toured the International Wrestling Association (IWA) in Puerto Rico in November 2000. In his only successful ECW Title defense, Corino defeated Justin Credible and Jerry Lynn in a 3 Way Dance on December 3, 2000 at The Massacre on 34th St. in New York City. December 23, 2000 was the last show ever held by ECW in the ECW Arena. The main event of that night saw Corino retain the ECW Title in another 3 Way Dance, this time against Credible and The Sandman.

January 7, 2001 will go down as the last ever televised ECW show. It was Guilty As Charged, which was also held in New York City at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Corino lost the ECW Title to The Sandman in a 3 Way Dance, which also involved Justin Credible. All three broke character after the match and shook hands with each other. This would be Corino's last night in an ECW ring.

As his ECW career came to an end, a new one was supposedly set to begin in WCW in 2001. Dusty & Dustin Rhodes had been involved in a feud with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. Corino was supposed to join in on this angle. However, Corino got a call from Dusty just before the last WCW PPV and told Corino that WCW was about to be sold. Because of that, Corino never made his WCW debut and WWE had gone on to kill off WCW.

Corino was now back on the indy scene. Dusty Rhodes had begun to promote shows in the southeast and called the promotion Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling (TCW). Dusty used some former WCW wrestlers like Glacier, Scotty Anton and Luther Biggs. Corino wrestled several of the promotions earlier shows and had matches against Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham.

Capitalizing on the ECW momentum, the NWA brought Corino in to compete for the NWA World Title. On April 24, 2001, Corino defeated "The Colorado Kid" Mike Rapada to win the title in Tampa, FL. Corino was now one of the few people able to say he has held the ECW & NWA Titles. As the NWA champion, this gave Corino an opportunity to wrestle around the world to defend the title. He impressed many in Japan, and would make several trips their over the years.

Corino made his Zero-One debut on July 12, 2001. He teamed with Rapada and jobbed to Shinjiro Ohtani and Ishakawa in a match for the vacant NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Titles. Corino would go on to have a working relationship with Zero-One.

Corino had the opportunity to defend the NWA Title at the 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial Show on August 9 in Cincinnati, OH. That night saw Randy Orton defeat The Prototype aka John Cena, Terry Taylor beat Bobby Eaton with Ricky Steamboat as the guest ref, Dean Malenko & Perry Saturn defeat Justin Credible & Raven, and The Hardy Boyz defeat Edge & Christian and Diamond Dallas Page & Kanyon in a 3 Way Dance. In the only heavyweight title defense of the show, Corino retained the NWA Title by defeating David Flair.

The NWA held their 53rd Anniversary Show on October 13, 2001 in Florida. The main event saw Corino defend against Japanese star Shinya Hashimoto. Corino's title reign came to an end when the official declared that Corino could not defend himself in the match, and thus the title was held up. December 15, 2001 saw Hashimoto defeat Corino and Gary Steele in a Triple Threat Match to win the held up NWA Title in McKeesport, PA. Corino got another shot at the NWA Title the next night when he faced NWA champ Hashimoto, Steele and Dylan Night in Huntingdon Valley, PA. Hashimoto left the United States with the NWA Title.

Corino was a hot commodity on the indy scene and was wanted by everyone. His exposure as NWA champion helped give Corino tremendous credibility. Corino made his Pro Pain Pro Wrestling (3PW) debut on February 15, 2002 in Philadelphia, PA. He defeats Crowbar and The Sandman in a 3 Way Dance.

In April 2002, Corino once again had a run-in with WWE. This time, they wanted his services in a different capacity. They were interested in Corino as a color commentator. Corino got the try-out, and obviously never got a call back.

Continuing to compete under the NWA banner, Corino ventured back to Florida on May 25, 2002 to defeat Danny Doring to win the NWA Florida Title in a tournament final in St. Petersburg, FL. Doring made sure Corino didn't hold the title for long as he beat Corino before the night came to an end. The next night, Corino made his way up the east coast and made his Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) debut in Seaside Heights, NJ, defeating Low Ki.

Corino wrestled most of his indy dates in the northeast, to be close to home. On June 7, 2002, Corino made another appearance for JAPW, this time jobbing to JAPW champ Homicide in Bayonne, NJ. The next night, Corino made his debut for Frank Goodman's USA Pro at the Big Dick Dudley Memorial Brawl and jobbed to USA Pro champ Balls Mahoney.

Court Bauer ran a promotion called Major League Wrestling (MLW), which began operations in late spring 2002. On June 15, 2002, MLW began a tournament to crown their first MLW champion. In Philadelphia, Corino jobbed to Shane Douglas in the first round. Four days later, NWA:TNA began to run weekly shows on PPV. Corino competed on the initial broadcast and competed in the Gauntlet For The Gold, which was for the vacant NWA Title, which was previously held by Dan "The Beast" Severn. The Gauntlet was eventually won by Ken Shamrock.

Corino was becoming a fixture in JAPW and wrestled only high-profile matches. In his third match in the company, Corino faced off against the man that eliminated him from the MLW Title Tournament, Shane Douglas. Corino jobbed, yet again, to "The Franchise" on June 22, 2002. Corino returned to JAPW on August 10 in Seaside Heights, NJ, and jobbed to Jerry "The King" Lawler. Seven days later, Corino returned to USA Pro in Franklin Square, NY and jobbed to current USA Pro US champ Chris Candido.

MLW was trying to make a bid as a promotion to be reckoned with. On September 26, 2002, MLW held a show at The Manhattan Center, which was the site of the first series of Monday Night Raw shows. Corino competed on the show, and defeated Vampiro and The Sandman in a 3 Way Dance.

Ring of Honor (RoH) began to run shows in 2002. During the first set of shows, Corino served as a color commentator, and was pretty good. He was not a Jerry Lawler-type color man, but like Tazz, where he explained holds. After spending time in the commentating booth, Corino picked a fight with Rudy Boy Ganzales, who was one of the trainers at Shawn Michaels' wrestling school. On October 5, 2002, Corino wrestled twice on the show. He defeated Gonzales in one match, then appeared as Homicide's partner and turned on him in a match against The Backseat Boyz.

Corino was running shows out of Pennsylvania called Premier Wrestling Federation (PWF). On October 13, 2002, he teamed with CW Anderson to defeated The SAT for the PWF Universal Tag Team Titles in Pottstown, PA. Corino continued to collect gold in PA when he beat Jack Victory in a tournament final to win the NWA Southern Title in Boyertown, PA on October 15, 2002.

The second weekend in November 2002 was set to have some big shows in Pennsylvania. RoH and PWF were set to run shows with wrestlers from Japan. On November 9, Corino teamed with Low Ki to job to Shinjiro Ohtani & Masata Tanaka during the RoH show in Philadelphia. The next night, at PWF Vast Energy, Corino & CW Anderson lost the PWF Universal Tag Team Titles to Tanaka & Ohtani.

Corino continued to work shows for MLW. By this point, they were running shows primarily in Florida. They ran a show on December 20, 2002 called King of Kings in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Corino scored a huge win over former NWA & ECW champ Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes in a 3 Way Dance.

On December 28, 2002, Corino ended the year with a tremendous match in RoH. In a 4 Way Match in Philadelphia, Corino battled Low Ki, The American Dragon and Samoa Joe to a 45-minute draw. Corino started 2003 with a bang. He travelled to Japan at Korakuen Hall to defeat former ECW World & Tag champ Masato Tanaka to become the first Zero-One United States champion.

Corino made his return to USA Pro on January 17, 2003 to face off against his nemesis Homicide. At the time, Homicide was the USA Pro US & Xtreme champion. He would defend the titles in two separate matches. This night was no exception. In two straight matches, Corino jobbed to Homicide in Queens, NY. The next night, Corino made his return to JAPW and ended his losing streak when he beat Slyk Wagner Brown.

Corino and Homicide had been at each other's throats in RoH. RoH set up a match between the two at the First Anniversary Show in Queens, NY at the Elks Lodge on February 8, 2003 in RoH's only appearance in New York City. Corino got the win over Homicide, but after the match a riot broke out. The riot was worked with wrestlers-in-training acting as fans. The next night, Corino ran another PWF show and defeated Mikey Whipwreck to win the vacant PWF Universal Title. He lost it immediately to Justin Credible.

During February and March of 2003, Corino briefly returned to NWA:TNA. He teamed with The Sandman during the first shows he was on and competed in his only singles match on February 12, 2003, beating Low Ki by DQ. Corino's stay was forgettable and left because the company wanted him to limit his schedule of Japanese dates.

Corino ran another PWF show in Pottstown, PA on March 16, 2003. The main event of the show saw Corino defeat Justin Credible to regain the PWF Universal Title. Corino debuted for Pro Wrestling NOAH the following month. He teamed with Universal Pro Wrestling (UPW) star Tom Howard throughout the tour. Corino also returned to Zero-One on May 2, 2003 to team with CW Anderson to beat Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa in Tokyo to capture the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team titles.

On the week of June 11-18, 2003, Zero-One held the Gun Tag Festival. Corino paired up with Kendo Ka Shin and unfortunately, they jobbed to Shinjiro Ohtania & Masato Tanaka in the first round of the festival. Naoya Ogawa & Katsuhisa Fujii were the eventual winners.

Corino added another heavyweight title to his resume on June 20, 2003 when he defeated former ECW World & Tag champ Mike Awesome in Ft. Lauderdale, FL for the MLW Title. Corino would be the last man to hold that title. Corino did defent the MLW Title overseas in Helsinki, Finland, defeating Shane Douglas on September 27, 2003. Corino did have a successful defense While he won that title, he lost another one. On July 4, 2003, he lost the Zero-One US Title to The Predator in Niigata, Japan.

For some of the summer and most of the fall 2003, Corino found himself criss-crossing between countries and indy feds. On August 16, Corino had another match against Homicide in RoH. Unlike the First Anniversary show, Corino passed out to the STF. Corino then found himself in the middle of the CM Punk-Raven feud. Corino got a win over the former ECW champ Raven on September 20, 2003 thanks to CM Punk. Corino didn't want Punk's help, which set up a match between the two on October 25, 2003. The match ended in a 20 min20-minute Corino and Punk continued to feud, and were pitted against one another in a 4 Way Match, which also invovled "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels and current RoH champ Samoa Joe. Corino and Punk double-pinned the other two.

Corino's championship resume got fatter when he returned to Japan during another Zero-One tour. On November 7, 2003, he upended Sean McCully to become the first ever NWA New York-New Jersey champion. Back in the States, Corino's war with Homicide grew into two indy feds. On November 8, Corino teamed with Raven and they jobbed to Homicide and current JAPW champ Dan Maff in Secacus, NJ during a JAPW show. On November 28, 2003, Corino battled Josh Daniels, but the match was marred by interference as Daniels got the win with help from Homicide. This set up their match the following night in a Barbed Wire Match. Corino got the win over his hated adversary when Homicide's second, Julius Smokes, threw in the towel.

To end 2003 and to begin 2004, Corino spent time competing for Zero-One. In some of his more high-profile appearances on this tour, Corino competed on the PPV called Infinity on December 12, 2003. He teamed with former nemesis Jerry Lynn to job to Hiro Yokoi and Kohei Sato. Zero-One then held Hustle I on January 4, 2004. He teamed with Dusty Rhodes and Tom Howard to job to Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras Sr. and Sicodelico Jr.

By this time, Corino had folded the PWF for several months. He decided to run Zero-One shows in the United States in a company called Pro Wrestling World-1 (PWW1). The promotion ran their first three shows on February 6, 7 and 8. On the first night of the shows, Corino jobbed to Masato Tanaka in Pottstown, PA. The next night, he teamed with Justin Credible to job to CW Anderson & Simon Diamond at Viking Hall in Philadelphia. On the final night of the weekend shows, Corino teamed with Jerry Lynn to beat "Hurricane" John Walters & Spanky.

By the end of the month, the busy Corino embarked on another series of shows for Zero-One. Zero-One held their Third Anniversary Show on February 29, 2004. Corino competed in a big 10 man tag team match teaming with CW Anderson, Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, & Yoshito Sasaki to defeat Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Jun Kasai, Osamu Roko, & Akashi. Corino also competed on Zero-One's Hustle II event on March 7 and defeated CW Anderson. 13 days later, Corino returned to the states and lost the NWA Southern Title to "Freedom Ryder" Mike Sullivan in St. Petersburg, FL.

On May 8, 2004, Zero-One held a big event called Hustle III. That show saw Mick Foley, as Cactus Jack, wrestle his first match in Japan since 1995 challenging Triple Crown champ Toshiaki Kawada and jobbing to him. The Outsiders also reunited in Japan to job to Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa. Corino competed on the show and jobbed to Dusty Rhodes.

Corino's indy schedule has been limited as of late. He recently returned to compete during a weekend for a couple of shows in New Jersey. First, on June 12, Corino made his return to JAPW and jobbed to Slyk Wagner Brown in Trenton, NJ. The following day, Corino challenged International High Powered Wrestling (IHPW) champ "The Ragin' Beast" Bryan Wenzel in Lyndhurst, NJ, and jobbed.

Corino recently sold his stake of PWW1 to Jack Victory. Victory will begin to run shows in August in Florida, in which Corino is slated to appear on. PWW1 recently cancelled shows in May and are looking to start over fresh in August. Corino is booked through August to work for Zero-One. Corino is also scheduled to return to USA Pro on September 17 in Queens, NY. Other than that show, and the PWW1 shows in Florida, Corino is not booked for any upcoming indy dates in the States as he is keeping busy competing in Japan.

For more information on Steve Corino, check out http://www.stevecorino.com/

John Gjoni
johnftw7533@aol.com

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