»Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com

On Thursday, June 2, 2005 at 12:54 PM EST

Brian Kelley of AudioWrestling.com sent in the following recap...

AudioWrestling.com interview recap: Steve Corino on Monday Night Mayhem

The “King of Old School”, Steve Corino was a guest recently on Monday Night Mayhem which can be heard in streaming audio every week, exclusively on the AudioWrestling.com site, the exclusive legal home of the "Spring Break Incident" VOD featuring Stacy Keibler!

The interview with Steve Corino is now available to hear for FREE in Real Audio!

Here are highlights from the interview provided by the show's co-host, Shawn Walters ("The Angry Hero"), of www.MondayNightMayhem.com & www.AudioWrestling.com.

The Big Mosh & The Angry Hero welcome "The King Of Old School” Steve Corino to the show, making his first appearance on Monday Night Mayhem. Mosh introduces him as “a man who survived standing up to Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst.” Steve recalls the experience of getting into Fred’s face at a concert, all a part of an ECW angle that made it to the TV show. He remembers Fred being “shorter than Tazz” and having an even filthier mouth, including an impersonation of Paul Heyman to the whole angle.

Steve gives his thoughts on the recent ECW nostalgia and his take on the promotion overall. Steve credits ECW with making him the wrestling star he is today. It truly was a fun time and is excited at the renewed interested in ECW, including the WWE DVD (of which he gave a burned copy to Masato Tanaka for X-Mas). Steve is not all for the reunion shows, since the workers aren’t in the same condition and would rather see ECW conventions instead.

Steve has no regrets turning down working either of the ECW reunion shows, despite meeting old friends and getting a decent payday. It would be step back for him to compete since he feels he is not the same wrestler he was four years ago and shouldn’t confuse the fans. He does plan on watching the shows and wishes them both the best of luck.

Steve answers the question as to what is more physical: working in ECW or his current Japan schedule with Zero-One. Steve says Japan is much more rigorous, especially due to the travel schedule. In Japan, you have to be emotionally tough to handle the abuse, although the ECW style was definitely demanding (at one point, bleeding on 40 straight shows).

After discussing the loyalty of the Japanese fans to American wrestlers such as himself, the conversation shifts over to Ring of Honor. Mosh remembers the Empire State Showdown w/ Corino versus CM Punk and Steve’s insanely long ring introduction, naming countless wrestlers who had abused drugs or alcohol. Steve describes the process on how he came up with the shtick and admits he went through with it to make the Internet fans and writers hate and criticize him.

Steve addresses the issue of his departure from Ring Of Honor and his differences with head booker Gabe Sapolsky. He respects Gabe a lot but realizes he can’t commit to ROH with his Japan schedule and overall, it stopped being fun for him. Despite all that, Steve doesn’t rule out a return to ROH, since he’s there for Gabe when he needs him and vice versa.

AH brings up former ROH colleague “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson’s recent withdrawal from the industry. This was the first Steve had heard of this, but goes on to put over Danielson huge, saying he’d be perfect for TNA. Steve feels that in all of his years watching wrestling, American Dragon is one of the rare breed of wrestlers who can never have a bad match and hopes he gets back in the business.

Steve reflects on working with the late Chris Candido, of whom he remembers the fire in Chris’s eyes, overcoming the obstacles he faced to get back into the spot he was in recently. Steve recalls how he was in a Finnish internet cafe and heard the news from a fan over Instant Messenger. AH asks if the circumstances of Chris’s death freaked Steve, to which Steve says it was indeed “sobering” and makes you appreciate what you have.

Steve gives his take on Lance Storm, commenting on how poorly he was used in the WWE, in addition to stating how successful Storm’s wrestling school should be, thanks to Storm’s worldly knowledge of the business.

Steve’s discusses his relationship with Dusty Rhodes, who he calls “a second father.” He feels Dusty legitimized his gimmick in ECW in their feud and talks about how generous Dusty has been to him throughout his career.

In reference to his running buddies in ECW, Steve talks about working with Rhyno and Tajiri and how they are (or in Rhyno’s case – were) being used in the WWE. He recalls the moment Paul Heyman realized Rhyno’s potential and wishes his raw talent could have been utilized better in the WWE. As for Tajiri, Steve still talks to the Japanese Buzzsaw and feels he is happy with position in the WWE, although he feels Tajiri would best be suited in a faction with guys like Rhyno and Steven Richards.

After more discussion of the importance of the ECW One Night Stand PPV, Mosh asks what TNA would be like if Paul Heyman had control. Steve feels that if Heyman had someone handling the company’s finances other that himself, TNA would be immensely successful due to Paul’s ability to bring the best out of his wrestlers. Steve says TNA needs a focus on a particular vision, striving to be an “alternative” to the WWE. He eschews the idea of a booking committee, that there needs to be one guy to answer to in regards to angles and storylines (i.e.: Vince McMahon).

Following up in the same vein, Steve thinks it should solely be people with experience in WRESTLING should be writing, not those who scripted Beverly Hills 90210 (although Steve is partial to that program). The wrestlers know what it feels to be in the ring and what it takes to draw money, not some Hollywood writer.

When asked about ECW road stories, Steve remembers traveling with CW Anderson, Lou E, Dangerously, and Jack Victory. He shares a hilarious story about Jack Victory peeing in bed and calling the roster in the room to check it out. Steve also remembers the time CW had to go “number 2’ and almost got kicked out by hotel security in the process.

In response to what he thinks of the whole Matt Hardy/Lita situation, Steve says that type of dilemma is not something he would talk about all over the internet. He feels if Matt kept it personal, he would still have a job with the WWE. Steve says if he were in Matt’s situation, he would of taken “a page out of Jack Tatum’s book” and go to Vince to see how they can make money off of this. He then goes on to say its no surprise Lita ended up doing what she did, especially after reading about her stripper days in her book.

Steve talks about the tryout he got as a WWE announcer, remembering how he opted to stay in Japan, despite making the same amount of money as he normally would but without the physical damage. Regardless, he thinks he would have been fired right away, describing how the WWE is such a “moralistically wrong place” and he would get in trouble for “telling the truth” and calling out the wrestlers on all these faults. Steve says if he was announcing today, Smackdown would be a “five hour show” because would just go off.

Steve reflects on his prior wrestling career as a milkman in Pennsylvania and how enjoyable of a job it was, one day hoping his son Colby will carry on the tradition of milkmen in the Corino family. Mosh asks Steve about his time spent in Finland, where his girlfriend is from. Steve says wrestling is huge in Finland and Ludvig Borga (aka Tony Halme) is indeed a big commodity there and relays a funny story about Shinya Hashimoto calling Ludvig Borga “crazy”, which Steve found to be interesting. In wrapping up, Steve is super-excited about being a part of WrestleReunion at the end of August, planning on meeting the legends as much as the fans are.

You can hear Monday Night Mayhem in its entirety every week only on http://www.AudioWrestling.com.