Steve Corino Talks WWE Light Heavyweight Division, TNN Ruining ECW, More

Shining Wizards Podcast talked to Steve Corino. Some of the highlights are below.

His “elimination” from the WWE's light heavyweight title tournament: I was in the original bracket for like a week, and then I was replaced. Because at the time they were doing the qualifying matches on like Shotgun Saturday Night , and this was like before Scott (Taylor) was Scotty Too Hotty, and Brian Christopher was just Brian Christopher from Memphis, and it was just this big thing to put the title on Taka (Michinoku). So you would win a match on Shotgun or Superstars and "qualify" for the tournament. My chance to qualify was in Atlantic City in 1997 and I was wrestling Jimmy Cicero, and we ended up getting bumped off the show because The Iron Sheik & Tiger Ali Singh went way too long. I was angry for like a year at Tiger Ali Singh, but now he's one of my better friends. So they ended up scrapping my match and in return, they sent me to Memphis to USWA for the last few weeks before the company closed.

Did TNN sabotage ECW? Everybody was so excited about going on TNN, and I remember the first Television taping- I thought it went all wrong. Why were we doing TV in Dayton, Ohio when we were a Philadelphia company or a Queens, NY company? Why aren't we putting our best crowd in there? Not that Dayton was a bad city, but why are we going to a big arena trying to tape TV when we were this alternative blood and guts, smoky arena type of company? I knew right from there that Paul (Heyman) wasn't happy. I think the first taping got scratched and we had to do a second one. And Paul didn't do himself any favors, because instead of being corporate Paul, he was, you know, Paul Heyman. He created "The Network" to crap on the network we were on.

On Daniel Bryan: We over-think sometimes as fans. I watch Raw and Smackdown as a fan. I never try to over-analyze and say they're doing this or that wrong. There is no doubt that Daniel Bryan is so over, right? But, you don't think WWE knows this? You don't think a money making machine like WWE doesn't see what's going on? I think us as wrestling fans want Daniel Bryan to be in that main event spot right now, whereas the WWE says we're making money off this guy right now. Let's string it along and see how far we can go because we're going to need a main event for Wrestlemania 31. Stone Cold Steve Austin was over at King Of The Ring 1996, but go back and see how long it took him, as they strung him along, and people wanted to cheer, and they were cheering him at Survivor Series 1996 with Bret (Hart). They were cheering him in every match, and finally they did the turn and put the rocket up his ass a little bit after WrestleMania 13 and he didn't get the belt until the next WrestleMania, so you have a year and a half where they knew he was over and he was going to make big money for them and they just took their time, and I think that's what they're doing here with Daniel. They know he's over and he's not going anywhere. Think about how genius it was putting him with The Wyatt family for 3 weeks. They literally turn him heel and the crowd said no way. The fans feel like Bryan is one of them and he is doing everything they would do if they were wrestlers. I think it's great. To me, if I'm Vince McMahon or Triple H or Stephanie McMahon, I have it in my mind how Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk is my main event for WrestleMania 31.


You can listen to the entire podcast by clicking here.

Source: PWinsider

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