Hey Scott--
So I've been catching ROH on Destination America, and loving it. Fast-paced, fun matches; A nice, simple hour of wrestling that is easy to enjoy.
Except...
Maybe I'm late to the party, but I'd like to vote Steve Corino (I'm not going to call him "King" godamnit, until he starts shrieking about puppies and begins praising the wise and benevolent Carey Silken) as an early winner for Worst Announcer of the Year.
Good Doom, he is horrible. From awkward interjections, to badly flowing dialogue with Nigel McGuiness, to having ZERO emotional reactions to the storyline he's involved in where his son get the shit kicked out of him, the man is just a cypher, and ROH should find a different corner for him if he's there to simply collect a paycheck because they like him.
Bag all you want on the RAW monkeys, (and I do!) they at least have the excuse of Vince screaming in their ear. Why is Corino so horrid...?
--J
I've always found him overrated as a wrestler, too, but I don't think he's THAT bad as an announcer.
Has ROH's commentary ever been worth a damn?
ReplyDeleteCorino was an amazing heel commentator whose had a Lawler type regression into being a mediocre face commentator.
ReplyDeleteHe's horrendously bad from what I've seen/heard. Bring back Nigel to the role.
ReplyDeletePrazak and Leonard are/were my pick for worst announcing duo in any non-local promotion.
ReplyDeleteWait..."Good Doom"? WTF?
ReplyDeleteSo people have started the retarded "Free Rick Ross" thing on the net, even though he kidnapped some poor dude for stealing food.
ReplyDeleteWorse than JBL with McMahon in his ear? Do I dare search for examples?
ReplyDeleteI liked the college basketball guy they hired for HDNet but the ROHBots didn't.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock for Bellator and Jon Anik/Kenny Florian for UFC make me yearn for Cole and JBL.
ReplyDeleteCorino turned me off of ROH years ago. I bought one of the 2002 shows on DVD from FYE, and after some mat sequence into a standoff, he screams (more of a hysterical shriek), "HOLY CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON!" Don't think I watched any ROH again for a decade, sans Joe/Punk.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird, I usually hated listening to Dave Prazak but I could tolerate him when he was with Lenny Leonard.
ReplyDeleteIt was worst in the beginning, with Gabe Sapolsky and his ten thousand aliases.
ReplyDeleteThere was a show shortly after I started watching ROH where Corino was doing SCUM and they had guest commentators each week. That week was Prince Nana, who provided nothing but "OOH MON!" and "DATS A BEEG MOOF!" before vanishing halfway through the show. It was awful.
ReplyDeleteI despise Lenny Leonard with everything in my being.
ReplyDeleteAnik stinks. I also hate his post-fight interviews. "How did this play out relative to your expectations?" Boring. And Kenny's not very good either, sadly.
ReplyDeletePrazak and Leonard sounded like high school kids voicing over an old wrestling tape. The audio level was the same quality too.
I don't think he's *as* bad on DGUSA away from Prazak, but he still annoys my ears.
ReplyDeleteI watched Prototype vs. Leviathan from OVW on Cena's Greatest Rivals thing on the Network, and I'll say this: Cornette as a play-by-play man was BRUTAL. Annoying voice, weird analogies, ... just bad.
ReplyDeleteHe was only a commentator for the first few months of the company, before they switched to Doug and Gabe
ReplyDeleteI think it's another one of those urban legends like people who insisted that London & Kendrick were called "The Hooliganz."
ReplyDeleteThey were a pretty good tag team,to be fair.
ReplyDeleteI think they are working towards a Whitmer vs Corino match, so maybe they'll bring some one else in on color once that starts.
ReplyDeleteMike Hogewood was good, ditto for Kevin Kelly. Chris Hero was good when he briefly did commentary for them, wonder why they don't bother to use him now.
ReplyDeleteEric Santamaria was worse than all of them, Gabe at least had the right voice for such a role while Eric sounded like the world's oldest screechy voiced teenager.
ReplyDeleteHe also had no emotion whatsoever, his commentary sounded like that of somebody calling matches from a studio for 12 hours straight, just robotically going from one match to the next.
I really don't get the long, awkward pauses on ROH commentary now. What's the deal with that?
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Hogewood at all.
ReplyDelete"He also had no emotion whatsoever, his commentary sounded like that of
ReplyDeletesomebody calling matches from a studio for 12 hours straight, just
robotically going from one match to the next."
See also Dave Prazak. "Oh my, fans. What a move."
People can swear off WWE or TNA after one bad show, apparently. I did that with one ROH moment.
ReplyDeleteThe fighters must feel insulted to get interviewed by Anik. He had to fight interrupting Munoz's emotional retirement speech with every fiber of his idiotic being. He sucks.
ReplyDeleteIs that the problem? I haven't watched ROH in about a year and a half, but during the SCUM angle he was the best commentator in wrestling by a mile.
ReplyDeleteNigel is incredible at it.
ReplyDeleteAnd asks exactly the same questions every single time, like a robot.
ReplyDeleteYes!! When he was a heel commentator, he was my absolute favorite. He also had a lot of funny lines on the spot. Face Corino sucks.
ReplyDeleteI wish a major American company would throw all the money at Mauro. He is so much better at wrestling commentary than he ever was at MMA. His work on AXS with New Japan is incredible.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't make it any less stupid
ReplyDeleteInteresting. He did a couple of shows with JR back in the NWA and he was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteDolph is here to show the world for the next few years in WWE.
ReplyDeletehttp://uproxx.com/prowrestling/2015/06/dolph-ziggler-has-reportedly-signed-a-multi-year-deal-to-remain-in-wwes-mid-card/
I'm so glad somebody out there shares that opinion.
ReplyDeleteThere's really a surprising amount of people who seem baffled by Corino's "King" moniker, yet he's been called "The King of Old School" since the late 90s ECW days.
ReplyDeletePet peeve: People who misspell "McGuinness". Incredibly pedantic, but it annoys me as much as "Janetty".
Brett Hart
ReplyDeleteI never really understood it back then either, but I was also not following ECW all that closely during the last 2 years of its existence
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking during the last show I watched about how cool the angle they have with Corino is now. He has a long simmering hatred for BJ Whitmer, and now that man has brought his son into the company as his whipping boy, and Corino has to sit there and do his job while watching his worst enemy abuse his flesh and blood. It's sadistic and it's made Whitmer and Corino both far more compelling character-wise. Honestly, the commentary never bothered me too much, but I'm totally on board for this.
ReplyDeleteI'm not disputing that. My 'lol' was in response to the idea that "Cesaro is passed [sic] his shelf life of being made into a star of some kind. He's in Dolph Ziggler territory now." That's idiotic. First of all, Cesaro is 100x the athlete and performer that Ziggler is. He literally does something new every time he goes out to the ring. He's ALWAYS tells a good story, he is always impressive. They could turn him into a star any time they wish, they just choose not to because WWE is managed and "booked" by complete idiots. Hell they could still do something with Ziggler too if they really wanted. This fatalistic idea of "oh this guy is past his shelf life and never going to be a star because he's jobbed the last two weeks since his partner got hurt even though he's only 34 and a total freak athlete" is typical reactionary IWC horseshit to which I can only say 'lol.'
ReplyDeleteMeh. Also, Special K annoyed me
ReplyDeleteImagining Cesaro doing a Roddy Piper impersonation is really amusing.
ReplyDeleteYea, but they were a midcard act.
ReplyDeleteI think they just need to leave some spots open so they can insert one of those pre-recorded plugs for the "ROH Codeline" or whatever the hell it's called.
ReplyDeleteSimmons and Reed as faces.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize Corino was rated highly as a wrestler.
ReplyDeleteThumbs up for "Good Doom".
ReplyDeleteThis is what I was going to say. He seemed like a decent hand but other than that...
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly the problem.
ReplyDeleteNo longer real edge, just goofy jokes.
Still 10 times better than modern Lawler but it's a similar character arc.
Things about Lenny Leonard I hate: how often he yells "Jesus Christ!" (I'm Jewish so I'm not offended, I just think it's lame), "Plants him," "right on the button," "high-rent district," "mi paso." I'm sure I could think of more.
ReplyDeleteThey were a better team as heels.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Carl Carlson would like to hear you say that. . .
ReplyDeleteHero's fatter than Joe now.
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