Corino vs. Corino

Corino vs. Corino

I was going through "On This Day" on Facebook and saw this match. Mandel Cook filmed our PWF (www.PWFLive.com) event on November 5, 2016 in Morehead City, NC and it was always going to be voiced over and used on our Roku channel. It will one day, but watching it brought back a lot of memories, good and bad.

This was a match that I told, anyone that would listen, would never happen. I never wanted to do a feud with Colby, but this was actually not the first time we wrestled each other.

The first time was a tag team match in 2012 in PWX when he was still under the mask as American Tiger and I, allegedly of course, was Mr. Wrestling 3. 

Then we wrestled in a great six-man tag team match in Wilmington, NC in July of 2016 with his Ugly Ducklings vs. me, CW Anderson, and John Skyler. It was then that I thought it would be fun to do something in the PWF together. 

But what? Throughout wrestling history you always read of the Promoter and/or Booker that pushes himself. I've always had the hardest time booking myself when I am in charge. I could write for a Chris Rockwell, Dylan Night, and an interactive tournament that becomes the most fun show of the year all day long, but when it comes to me, thumbs down.

So when I was doing the card for a spot show in Morehead City, I asked Colby who he wanted to work with. He said "You".

We set the stage perfectly, if just for ourselves. November 5 was the 16th anniversary of me winning the ECW World heavyweight championship. If you are a fan of that match, you will notice that I point to my wrist as I celebrated on the second rope. The first side said "Colby" and the other side said "CB4", which meant "Corino Boys Forever".

He was just four years old when I won that title. A year and change before, his mother and I went through a bitter divorce, but we always loved our son. ECW was my first real break to be a full time professional wrestler. Before I signed my ECW contract, I was a full time milkman and would be a "weekend warrior", trying to make a name for myself. 

ECW gave us the chance to be together 24 hours a day when I wasn't on the road. It was just him and I. Girlfriends would come and go, but the bond between Colby and I was unbreakable. 

The other reason we wanted to do the match was because he had just found out that he had been accepted to live at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling dojo. After the stops and starts in ROH, the promises that weren't fulfilled, and a circumstance that pulled him off TV during the BJ Whitmer/Decade angle (we will discuss that in the eventual "Story Of The Feud That Would Never End".) He was thrilled. And for Colby, who was always very laid back, for him to be excited was cool to see.

For me, the match is fun to watch, but then it makes me sad.

As some of you know, or have read on the Internet, Colby has had an awful year. He let his demons take over, let down people that love him, and became a person that everyone knows he is not. Addiction creates so many emotions for the people that love the addict: Fear, anger, frustration, and sadness. You wake up every day hoping that this will be the day that they get it together. You wake up every day hoping that they wake up. You just want them to be healthy and happy. You would do anything to take away whatever demon is inside them that makes them want to use.

Colby lost his New Japan deal. He has bounced around from area to area and is finally settling in with his mother in Pennsylvania. He has been clean for over 50 days now. I am proud of him.

From reading and talking with other addicts and families of addicts, I know that the addiction never ends. It's a never ending battle, but I know that if he sticks with it and believes that he can overcome, he will be on the winning side of this battle.

It breaks my heart when I see the Justin Credible video, or the 30 For 30 with Ric Flair when he talks about Reid. Just breaks my heart. 

I don't care if Colby ever steps into the squared circle again. I believe he could have been one of the best. But, as long as he is clean, healthy, and happy, I don't care what he does for a living. At 21, even with his issues, the world is his for the taking.

Enjoy this match and throw a positive thought or two into the universe for not just Colby, but everyone that is fighting addiction. They need our help.

And to Colby, your old man will always love you.

Extreme Horsemen

This was supposed to be my Throw Back Thursday, but lets call it a Flashback Friday!

The Extreme Horsemen.

Who were/are the Extreme Horsemen is a question I get a lot. And I don’t know if CW Anderson and I have actually told the story of how we came up with the name.

CW and I have known each for almost 22 years now. And besides one night in Detroit when he wanted to fight me (Jack’s fault!), he not only has been my best friend in wrestling, but the best tag team partner. There is NO ONE more under rated, even in 2017, than The General. 

Simon Diamond and I met in 1995 while I was still a rookie. He was the lead heel for Jim Kettner's ECWA and fate (aka Devon Storm got injured....or signed with WCW. It was over 22 years ago.) brought us together as tag team partners. I learned so much from Simon. He was way more seasoned than me and took the time to teach me how to work the microphone and be a heel. 

Simon and CW had so much in common. Both were standout baseball players and drafted by Major League teams. They were also both leaders in the ring and let me sponge off them. We always talked about being a group. We just didn't know where. Simon and I were basically NWA-Coraluzzo guys and CW was Southern based. 

By the middle of 1999, we were all in ECW. And although we were in ECW, we were all over the place when it came to our spots on the card. Simon was getting his feet wet, CW was teaming with Bill Wiles, and I was just starting to make a little name for myself with Jack Victory by my side.

A year later and ECW is different. The old guard was gone. The Dudley's and Taz had left ECW for the WWF. Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, and others left for WCW. Paul Heyman did what he did best: Promoted within and exposed strengths that his talent didn't know they had.

In June of 2000, and most people don't know this, Paul had talked to me about putting the three of us together as a group and having Jack Victory as our mentor. I was excited, but in pro-wrestling, plans change and change quickly.

By early August, CW and Simon were together...but with Johnny Swinger. And me, well, Jack and I became babyfaces. The "new Freebirds" would not be for now.

By March of 2001, both ECW and WCW are gone. Dusty Rhodes had started his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and wanted CW Anderson and I to be his lead heels. I was in wrestling heaven. TCW was a throwback to the old school and we were running towns like Carrolton, GA, Dothan, AL, and town in-between. Dream immediately put me in a program with his TCW champion, Barry Windham. The same Barry Windham that was a hero to me growing up. The same Barry Windham that I would be compared to with my look in 1999-2000. 

After our first match together (which is available on RFVideo.com and a match I am very proud of.), Dream tells me that he would love to turn Barry and have him, me, and CW together as a faction. The name he thought of?

The Elite.

Funny.

I didn't like it because it didn't fit what we were. CW and I were fresh off Extreme Championship Wrestling and Barry Windham was one of the Four Horsemen.

Wait. A. Second.

We are from the "Extreme" and Barry is a "Horsemen".

The Extreme Horsemen name is born. Dream hated it at first. 

The next week, he said "Okay, you guys are the Extreme Horsemen. Glad I thought of it." and gave me that wink that only Dream could give you.

Turnbuckle didn't last as long as we all hoped, but man did we have some wars with Dustin Rhodes, Glacier, and Dusty. It was so much fun and so many fond memories.

By 2002, CW and I were regulars for the original Pro-Wrestling ZERO-ONE and used the Extreme Horsemen name regularly. But later that year, during the start of Major League Wrestling, promoter Court Bauer came to me and CW and said he wanted to use us and the Extreme Horsemen name, but he had a suggestion.

He asked if we ever thought of having Simon Diamond join us. He wanted to make CW and Simon a focused tag team and me a singles. We couldn't have been happier. It was all coming together. In late 2002, Simon Diamond becomes the fourth official member of the Extreme Horsemen.

As MLW progresses, we found ourselves in an old school feud with Terry Funk, Dusty Rhodes, Steve Williams, Sabu, Sandman, and others. Court had the idea of doing a War Games style match in Fort Lauderdale. We all knew who we had to call: BARRY WINDHAM.

Now, it is going to sound bad because I always make notes before I write and I feel like I am burying him and I'm not, but the addition of Justin Credible was not CW and mine. It was MLW's. It wasn't that we were so against it, but we wanted Jack Victory to be the fifth member. Court talked us into making "PJ Walker" a member for War Games and it turned out well. PJ was a former ECW World champion and all of us liked him. He was an amazing performer and will never get the respect he should have as a talent. 

After MLW closed its doors, CW and I continued in Japan. Simon became a talent in TNA and eventually a producer for them. Barry went back to the WWE as a producer also. 

In 2005, CW and I decide to make young Ricky Landell a member of the Extreme Horsemen. Ricky was like a younger us and we had a hand in training him. He was like a younger brother to us.

For almost 10 years, we didn't add anyone. In 2015, as I was rehabbing my neck (and eventually leaving for the WWE), CW suggested we think about the next generation of Extreme Horsemen. We added both John Skyler and Preston Quinn as full members.

Then, this year, we introduced Damian Wayne into the fold.

As we approach 2018, the Extreme Horsemen is more an ideology of our love for pro-wrestling, as opposed to a faction that wrestles. Guys that would die for our business and love what we do.

But if you put it that way, all of us could be Extreme Horsemen. That is not a bad thing.