10 Greatest Things About ECW’s Final Year

9. Dusty Rhodes Vs. Steve Corino

ECW Paul E Dangerously Paul Heyman
WWE.com

It's a crying shame that Steve Corino was never afforded the chance to became a significant player on a major stage. Could the King of Old School have been a genuine main event attraction in, say, WWE? That's up for debate. For those who saw Corino's work in the final few years of ECW, though, the Canadian at least deserved an opportunity to showcase his skills to a wider audience.

While his initial role in ECW was as a prick manager and a goon who could bump around for the babyfaces of the promotion, Corino took on a more serious, cut-throat persona as an in-ring talent in 1999. Aligned with Jack Victory, Tajiri and Rhino, this freshened-up Steve Corino was soon on a collision course with the legendary Dusty Rhodes as '99 rolled into 2000.

Not only did this rivalry - which included a bloody, brutal Bullrope bout at Living Dangerously in March 2000 - serve to give the American Dream one more short run, but it also helped to solidify Corino as the real deal and someone who audiences should take seriously.

By November '00, the self-proclaimed God of F**king Professional Wrestling was the ECW World Champion and was a true MVP of the promotion's final days. While this ascension to the top of the mountain wasn't solely down to his rivalry with Dusty Rhodes, that feud played a pivotal part in cementing Steve Corino as someone who could believably carry the company on his back.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.