Back at that stage, you had a tryout with WWE. There were conflicting rumours that it was either as a wrestler or as an agent. Which was it?
It was actually to be a writer! It was one of those things were it sucked. Diamond Dallas Page had got me the tryout there as a writer. He was like “Bro, I think you’d be great! Let me call Johnny Ace.” They said to send them some stuff, so I wrote four weeks of ECW. They liked it and were like “Why don’t you come up.” A couple of days before, Johnny Ace said (imitating Johnny Ace) “Let’s bring your wrestling gear! I’ve a couple of kids I’d like you to get in the ring with.” Johnny Ace is one of those guys that……I don’t get it. I’d done a photo shoot in Japan with him. He was the gaijan agent for All Japan for several years, and when I was the gaijan agent for Zero One they were like “Steve Corino might be able to go.”
The Japanese press made it cool and they could work for WWE and we had a talk and a beer with the magazine writers, but when I got there (WWE) he pretended that he had no idea who I was! It’s such a turn off. But he says on the phone “There’s this kid, Harry Smith. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Davey Boy?” And I’m on the other end of the phone thinking “No. no I’ve never heard of him.” Of course I knew who it was! I’m thinking “Is this guy screwing with me?” The he goes “I’ve got this guy, Coffee Kingston.” (laughs) Coffee Kingston! To this day – and Kofi is a good kid – but to this day he’s always Coffee Kingston to me! So I’m like “OK, I’ll get a couple of paydays before Christmas.” I’m all excited, and it was the coolest thing. I’m up there, I’m happy, I’m in my suit, I’m shaking hands, the writers are coming up to me going “Steve Corino, oh my god! I can’t believe you’re finally here!” I’m like “What????”
It seemed like it was going to be a lot of fun. They were like “Oh, I see you’re wrestling Harry Smith tonight. We’ve got some plans on our heads for you.” I’m thinking “I’ve got a deal! I’m going to make it. Finally, after all these years of them not acknowledging my existence, I’m in!” (laughs) Before the show starts, they have a writers meeting. They brought me in, and I got my writing stuff, and all of a sudden I walk in and it’s like the music just skipped. John Laurinaitis goes “This is Steve, eh, Co…Co…Corino.” He’s pretending he didn’t even know my name! (laughs) He goes “He’s got a tryout for the writing thing; I thought it would be cool to see him and stuff.” That quick, everybody’s face changed.
Now all of a sudden I wasn’t a wrestler to them, I was their competition. They crapped on everything! I went out and had an ok match with Harry Smith and came back and they said “No, no, it’s too old school.” I said “What?” They told me before I went out “Be you.” They said “How would you get Steve Corino over?” I was like “Eh……” so I went out and it was great, because we were in Boston and Connecticut, and Boston was a pretty big ECW town. I got music and a little bit of a TitanTron thing – it said “Corino” – and people knew me. When I started to heel on them they chanted “You sold out!” I’m like “ Yes I did, I’m going to sell out!” I went backstage and they were like “Eh, I don’t know. You weren’t aggressive enough.” Fit Finlay off all people said “A little too old school.” I went “What?” (laughs) They said “Well, you played the people too much.” I said “It was a dark match!” They said “Oh, no, no. no! it’s an opening contest!” I threw my hands in the air and said “Ah, shit! I’m done!” (laughs) I went back to the hotel that night and went “You know what? I can almost guarantee I have no chance of a job!”
Next day, I wrestled Kofi Kingston and Barry Windham is my agent. I’m close to Barry and he said “You have no chance of a job! I don’t know who you pissed off. You could go out there and be Shawn Michaels and they will not hire you! Just go out there and have fun.” I said “Thank you for being honest.” Dusty goes (in his best Dusty impersonation) “Kid, you’re in there with that new kid. He’s got a job. So you’re going to go out and you’re going to rape him. And if you don’t think that you raped him enough, you’re going to rape him some more!” I’m like “That’s right Dream!” and I’m thinking “Please get me out of here!” Kofi Kingston is such a nice kid. He said “I’ve got a job, let me go out there and help you.” His vignettes were just starting to appear, but he was willing to help me out, which I thought was super cool. We go out there and it was good! We go back and Fit Finlay goes “Too old school.”
So I filled my Tupperware containers full of catering and left! (laughs) No job for Steve Corino! And now they don’t even acknowledge me! Do you ever see that I’m never in the encyclopedias?
