It has been a long time since that name, the name of Kevin Steen, has been mentioned on ROHWrestling.com but in light of recent events, make that as a direct result of what has been happening since “Best in the World 2011” back in June, it has been determined by ROH officials that the time has come to address the situation directly. Ignoring the problem has not accomplished anything, removing his championship accolades from the title histories did not help, nor did flat out eradicating his existence from ROH’s past results. If anything it has only exacerbated the situation to the greater stress of ROH officials as well as the members of the locker room, and caused the man that Steve Corino had taken to referring to as “the monster” to grow even more incredulous.
So it is with all of this in mind that ROH officials have made the decision to finally address the situation with you, the ROH faithful, in detail, from its bitter beginnings at “Final Battle 2010” up until the present situation.
This matter, the Kevin Steen situation, enveloped much of Ring of Honor’s attention throughout 2010 but when El Generico finally beat his former championship partner at “Final Battle 2010” in a Mask vs. ROH Career bout, all hoped that it had been put to rest and that we had heard the last of Kevin Steen.
In fact that seemed to be the case for the first-half of 2011 as Steen’s partner-in-crime, Steve Corino, began a journey of recovery that he continues on to this day. Steve, who accepted a large portion of the blame for what Steen did to El Generico, has attempted to prove himself a changed man to ROH officials, the locker room, and as well as the ROH faithful. He has attempted to mentor the younger members of the roster, fought against the more arrogant ones like Mike Bennett, and even re-introduced another self-professed evil man to the Ring of Honor fold in Jimmy Jacobs. It has been a hard year for Corino thus far, even with his sponsor at his side these last few months, but it’s a year in which Steve has done everything to prove himself worthy of the respect and trust of those he wronged in 2010. He took great strides in the first half of the year, suffered definite setbacks but seemed to be gaining traction in his efforts until “Best in the World 2011” when Steve would ultimately end up as the cause of his greatest suffering.
In the weeks leading up to that NYC event in June, Corino began to plead with ROH officials to allow Kevin Steen back for one night. He professed that Kevin too was a changed man, one who had seen the error of his ways, and just like Steve & Jimmy, he wanted to make the process of making amends to the world. Steen even wrote a letter of his own to ROH officials expressing his desire to come to New York that night and make amends.
Anticipation was obviously high in the Hammerstein Ballroom that night as Corino & Jacobs came to the ring for Steve’s scheduled bout with Michael Elgin. Before it could get started though, Steve took it upon himself to bring Kevin Steen to the ring to the raucous cheers of those in attendance. ROH Executive Producer Jim Cornette promptly made his way to ringside, ordered Kevin to leave immediately, and to the shock of all, he acquiesced without so much as an argument. That absence was short-lived though as, after defeating Corino, Elgin continued to assault Steve, as well as Jimmy Jacobs, bringing Kevin back into play to fend off the House of Truth.
Seemingly in the moment, Kevin grabbed the microphone before he could be stopped, expressed his desire to say something to all parties involved, and promptly stated four simple words, “F*** Ring of Honor”, before attacking Corino & Jacobs both. As quick as humanly possible, security and staff alike hit the ring to pull Steen away from the situation but Kevin, laughing all the way with his true goal obviously accomplished, offered little resistance save to spit in the face of Jim Cornette before being carried out. Cornette promptly stated that Steen would never be allowed anywhere near an ROH event again and it was shortly thereafter that the decision was also made to remove his name from the ROH title history, nullifying the accolades he had accomplished during his ROH tenure.
The month of July was relatively quiet on the Steen front but when Ring of Honor came to Chicago Ridge in August for our 1st ever set of SBG TV Tapings, the chaos started to begin. There were flyers scattered around the parking lot advertising a @steenisright Twitter account and fans in the arena began to chant for Kevin Steen. As it turned out, that was just the beginning.
As September’s “Death Before Dishonor IX” neared, ROH’s official twitter began to get hammered by @steenisright, @wewantsteen, and various other accounts supporting Kevin Steen. Our message board was co-opted several times as various members gave Steen access to their accounts and he terrorized the board for several hours before being shut down and those members getting their accounts banned. As for official ROH business, Steve Corino was scheduled to face El Generico at the annual event but a mutual decision was reached between Jacobs & Corino for Jimmy to take that match while Steve traveled to Japan. Both men felt that Corino was not yet ready for that challenge to his program and Jacobs, being farther along & more secure in his sobriety (for a lack of a better word), would take the burden on.
So on September 17th Ring of Honor returned to New York for “DBD IX”, this time upstairs in the Grand Ballroom which should have been harder to access, with increased levels of security in play. In the weeks leading up to this Steen, via his Twitter account, stated that he would be in NYC and would pay any price to buy a ticket. And as if those veiled threats were not enough, roughly 24 hours prior to the event, Steen actually pandered for the services of a hacker and decimated the ROH message board, leaving behind only this message in his wake:
The night of “Death Before Dishonor IX” Kevin did in fact show up in NYC, wait in line with the rest of the fans, and the video of what transpired that night can seen below. As with the above video, this is also a video we have avoided acknowledging to this point, but in light of full disclosure, we feel it is important for everyone to see how out of control Kevin Steen has become.
Just a few short weeks later, during the course of a TV Taping in Louisville, KY, a rather obnoxious group of fans wearing @steenisright t-shirts chose a moment in which an injured security was being attended to loudly chant “We Want Steen” at Jim Cornette. ROH’s Executive Producer informed those fans that he would actually do business with Steen if he wasn’t insane and impossible to work with. He actually told Steen to sue him if he didn’t like it.
So, on November 1st, and as seen on the 11/5 episode of “Ring of Honor Wrestling”, Steen met with Louisville-based attorneys and filed suit against Jim Cornette and Ring of Honor for a myriad of reasons including defamation of character, fraud, and collusion, in an effort to get himself reinstated in Ring of Honor.
As for Steve Corino, Jimmy Jacobs, and El Generico and their involvement in this situation, last weekend in Dayton at “Survival of the Fittest 2011”, Corino and Generico finally had their one-on-one meeting in the ring. It culminated in a draw, but more importantly for Corino, it ended with a handshake from the man whose life he had made hell throughout last year.
The following night at “Glory by Honor X” Kevin Steen again made his presence known, after again using Twitter to tell the world he was coming to Chicago Ridge, but this time he was indeed a ticket-carrying member of the audience. Making a spectacle of him self, Steen was confronted by Jim Cornette, Cary Silkin, and various other ROH officials but after a heated conversation, they found themselves powerless to remove Steen from his seat. Throughout the dark match between Andy Ridge & Mike Sydal, Kevin was obnoxious and following the match Cornette returned to inform Kevin that he may be allowed to stay due to his lawyer’s machinations, but that was null & void if crossed the guardrails, and the agreement that he could fight at “Final Battle 2011” would also be thrown out the window.
It didn’t take long for Kevin to blow it as Jimmy Jacobs vs. Tommaso Ciampa was scheduled for the second match of the evening. Early in the bout, Steen threw water on Jacobs, leading to a huge brawl that ended when security removed Kevin from the building despite Jimmy & Steve’s desire to fight him.
That wouldn’t be the end of it though as Steen would make his presence felt once more at the close of the ROH World Title match between Davey Richards & El Generico. This time Steen attacked Richards, bringing out Jacobs & Corino once more to fend off Kevin, as well as Generico joining in on the fight. With Steen removed from the building again, Richards took the time to acknowledge the changes the last year had made in Steve Corino and shook his hand. As for Kevin, here is another piece of video evidence that we feel the ROH faithful must be made aware of:
So where has this road of chaos brought us as of today? Well after everything that happened with Steen at “GBH X”, Jim Cornette has been in the process of counter-suing Kevin based on the fact that Steen broke the agreement in paperwork he brought to the event stating that he could attend the ROH show as long as he stayed on one side of the guardrail and didn't physically provoke anyone. Between his involvement in Jacobs’ bout, and his blatant violation of that agreement following the main event, Cornette certainly had grounds to push forward with.
However, following a phone call to Jim today to see where things stood, the Executive Producer informed ROHWrestling.com that Steve Corino had been in contact with him since Saturday. Essentially, Steve had begged and pleaded with Cornette to let him handle the situation because it is a situation he feels ultimately responsible for after pushing so hard for Kevin to be allowed at “Best in the World 2011” back in June, not to mention all of what happened in 2010. After much consternation and arguing, Cornette & Corino reached an agreement, and not only did Steve talk Jim out of proceeding with his counter claim against Steen, but has been left in charge of coming up with a proper solution.
What form will this solution take? How will Steve Corino proceed from here? Only time and patience will provide us with the answer to that question. One certainty we can tell you right now is that Kevin Steen’s name will NOT be returning into the official record books in the near future…