King Me: Steve Corino Shines as Ring of Honor’s Color Commentator

I’m a bit behind in my Ring of Honor watching. I have about 3 episodes sitting in my DVR, wondering when I’m ever going to get around to watching them. And it’s not that I’ve grown bored with Ring of Honor- in fact, the more I get into it and learn who everyone is, the more I’ve enjoyed it. I like Moose, I like Adam Cole, I freaking LOVE Dalton Castle. It’s cool seeing guys that I watched in TNA (and yes, cool kids, I know they wrestled in ROH before) like Daniels, Kazarian, Sabin, and Jay Lethal.

I like the simple production of wrestlers wrestling each other in wrestling matches in order to earn shots at wrestling championships. It’s really, really refreshing.

However, what I’ve come to like the most about Ring of Honor is, surprisingly, the announce booth. It’s rare that I actually like the commentary for any given group. I usually have to tolerate it, or at least appreciate that I don’t full on hate the guys calling the action. Hell, it wasn’t too long ago that I wrote the 17 Years of Suck column about Michael Cole. I can be pretty unforgiving when it comes to my commentators, but what do you expect? These are the people I have talking to me for anywhere from 1-3 hours straight on any given night. I absolutely demand that the commentator be good at commentating. I don’t care if he or she “does what the company wants.” I really don’t. I mean, congrats to Cole for being able to balance having Vince screaming in his ear while having to plug 15 different things and trying to push stories along, but that doesn’t mean he’s a good wrestling commentator, nor does it mean that I have to stop disliking how he calls wrestling matches.

But I don’t even hate Cole the most, if you can believe that. In fact, the commentator that I absolutely cannot stand right now is someone that, over a decade ago, I absolutely loved: Josh Matthews. When he was on Tough Enough, he was my pick to win it. When he was brought onto the roster, I thought they may try to push him as some sort of cruiserweight savant. He never got far as a wrestler for WWE, before going to the booth where he would rise to B-Squad commentator before splitting for TNA.

And it’s in TNA that his commentary has gotten unbearable. It’s clear he was taught by Michael Cole, as he has the same whiny tendencies as Cole, along with the same nonsensical heel/face alignments depending on the match. Yeah, sure, shades of gray and all that jazz, but hearing Matthews back every single face on the roster until it’s time for a match with MY BOY EC3 in it can be very confusing, especially since The Pope tries to play the opposite role depending on Matthews, which means Pope will be the heel almost all night, and then have to veer into being a face.

I hate saying it, but I hate listening to TNA commentary. Matthews can’t let one second pass without speaking, and the TNA editing department makes it worse in video recaps by literally filling every single second with soundbytes, unable to let the moment just sit and register with the viewer.

And it even took me a while to get with Lucha Underground’s commentary team of Matt Striker and Vampiro. Striker still bugs me with his completely incorrect historical tidbits and inability to pronounce any name on the roster correctly, but he and Vampiro found a groove at some point in season one, and most of that was worked out.

And so, when it comes to Ring of Honor, I’m actually surprised that I love the booth so much. Kevin Kelly never impressed me much in WWE (he was perfectly acceptable, but nothing special), so seeing him as the lead commentator in the wrestling heavy promotion threw me off a bit at first, but he absolutely owns that role. Really, though, the winner at the booth is his partner, “King” Corino (Steve to his friends).

Corino can somehow play this perfectly undecided heel or face on commentary, and it never seems jarring. He’ll talk loads of trash one minute, and then the next he’s standing up to BJ Whitmer for the way he treats Corino’s son, Colby.

And at no point does any of it feel contrived, like when Matthews does it.

On top of that, Corino brings an air of legitimacy due to his own wrestling career. We’ve seen him as the King of Old School, we’ve seen him go extreme, and we’ve seen him everywhere in between. He’s earned the right to air his thoughts on wrestling, instead of being another pretty face that Kevin Dunn likes.

For me personally, the biggest thing I love about Corino is his miracle ability to make me look forward to a Young Bucks match. Yes, I mark out for SUPERKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!. Every. Single. Time. It never stops being funny to me, and I can’t think of anyone else that could work this unbelievable feat of impeccable commentary.

And no, before anyone goes jumping to conclusions (would hate to have that happen), I don’t think the Young Bucks suck. I don’t even think they’re bad. I just don’t dig their style, and it’s really that simple. Sure, I could go on and list all the things I don’t like, but what’s the point? It’s an opinion, and there are plenty out there who would disagree wholeheartedly. Besides, this isn’t about the Bucks- it’s about Corino. And like I said, Corino makes me look forward to a Young Bucks match, because I know that he’s going to be geeking out to all 15,329 superkicks that the master technicians throw out in their matches.

To make things better, Kevin Kelly never comes off like an ineffective dolt, the way so many neutral/babyface play by play commentators do nowadays. He doesn’t get whiny if Corino says something he disagrees with. He doesn’t go off on how everything is unfair, or rely on catch phrases like “numbers game” or nicknames for superstars that he repeats over and over again, like some sort of ultimate underdog.

Kelly and Corino treat the audience like they’re capable of seeing something, and being able to form their own opinions and conclusions about what they saw, without holding our simple, feeble hands to the place they want us to be. They speak intelligently, without unnecessary overreactions in a vain attempt to make us think something is important.

Some of the best stuff I’ve seen from Corino thus far (and remember, I’ve only watched Ring of Honor since it came to Destination America, so I’m a total rook on this stuff), has been the aforementioned stuff with BJ Whitmer, his faction The Decade, and the way Corino’s son Colby is treated. Corino will watch his son being bullied, or forced into matches against giants that are going to smash him, and you can hear in his voice that he’s not happy, but you can also tell there’s a machismo element to it all, one where he doesn’t want to just go run in and help his son, because his son should be his own man, and should be able to take care of himself.

Once things go a little too far, and Colby’s taking a beating far past anything necessary, that’s when he’ll get in the ring. That’s when he’ll get into Whitmer’s face. And that’s my favorite part of Corino as a commentator: he’s not a chump. He doesn’t get immediately taken out by The Decade. He doesn’t cower back a step when they take one toward him. He’s still a man, and he’s not going to stop standing up for himself (or his family) just because he’s in a suit now.

Of course, at that point, Nigel McGuinness will hop in and break things up, because (as I’ve put together), it’s apparently a big deal if a commentator fights a wrestler. I actually dig that little wrinkle, even if I’m not quite sure why the impetus is on Corino to not touch a wrestler, and not the other way around. But that’s also irrelevant to this discussion.

The point is, there is good commentary out there. It may not be on Raw, Smackdown, or Impact, but it’s out there. I should probably throw quick props to the Josh Barnett / Mauro Ranallo combo that handles New Japan, but that’s such a slam dunk of a team that I almost think it’s unfair.

I never thought “King” Corino would be so great at the booth. But by simply calling matches, making things realistic, making me look forward to Young Bucks matches, and playing off his partner perfectly, Ring of Honor has made him my favorite color commentator going today.

As someone who’s dug Corino since he first saw him in ECW all those years ago, it’s nice to still be entertained by the man. Thanks, “King.”

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