August 2nd 2002
Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE
ZERO-ONE Fire Festival 2002 Night 4
Oita Prefectural Gymnasium Oita, Japan
The first incarnation of ZERO-ONE is an era marked by turbulence. It can be traced back to their first show where all three main guys from the promotion's inception—Shinya Hashimoto, Shinjiro Otani, and Tatsuhito Takaiwa—were all on the losing side of their matches. Antonio Inoki, NOAH, All Japan, and others were cooperative to support the new promotion but more so on their terms. The first few years were also met with overpriced foreign talent, political disputes between the owners of ZERO-ONE and Shingeki, the company who ran the PPV events, disappointing attendance figures, and a scramble to create new stars as the promotion began to fizzle out.
If you're not familiar with ZERO-ONE (Zero1 way later on), it's really not as grim as I'm making it sound. Over the years, they've produced a lot of great matches and memorable moments due to their dynamic booking early on. I know I'm among the many who look forward to their New Year shows, which more often than not can produce the year's first 4-star or above match for a lot of fans. And then, of course, is the Fire Festival, which is the promotion's annual round-robin tournament, much like All Japan's Champion Carnival or New Japan's G1 Climax. The winner gets a sword!
Kohei Sato is a guy who started his pro wrestling career in ZERO-1 after a few years making a name for himself as a mixed martial artist. Sato reached the finals of the first Fire Festival by securing a tiebreaker win over Samoa Joe but ultimately lost to Shinjiro Otani. Although in 2001 there was an attempt to establish him, Sato didn't have much to do until he formed a tag team with Hirotaka Yokoi and mixed it up in the All Asia tag scene in 2003. Eventually, he was relied upon to be a draw for the promotion, putting him on the path to win the 2004 Fire Festival. He also had a brief run with the ZERO-ONE United States Heavyweight Championship later in 2004.
Bringing our focus back to 2002, he entered this match against Steve Corino with only 2 points. He needed to beat Corino and Tetsuhiro Kuroda and for Hirotaka Yokoi to lose to Yuji Ishikawa (as Sato would have the tiebreaker win over Ishikawa) to make it to the finals. Well... that didn't happen.
Steve Corino lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman in a Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes Three-Way match with Justin Credible involved at ECW's Guilty as Charged 2001. He finished up with the promotion the same day and received a contract with WCW shortly after. However, this was in 2001, a year when ECW closed in April and WCW was purchased by WWF in March. Corino was released from his contract and began bouncing around the independents.
In 2001, Corino finally surfaced in ZERO-ONE and remained essentially full-time until 2007. They had Mr. Wrestling 3 to cover his spot when needed. Returning to the 2002 Fire Festival, Corino entered the match against Sato with 4 points. He would need both Kuroda and Ishiwaka to lose their next matches to squeeze into the finals, but that also did not happen.
Evidently, this was a hot August day in Oita. A majority of the crowd waved their fans or whatever they had on hand throughout the evening, creating an interesting visual effect in the background. I've only heard about how hot it can get in these older buildings in Japan, and I imagine I'd look just as sweaty and miserable as Kohei Sato did as he made his way to the ring. Steve and a small Colby Corino were already in there ready to pose with their kendo sticks. Corino had been heavy-handed with the comedy in his previous tournament matches but keeps it brief here with a small bit with the young boy at ringside who couldn't properly hold his shirt or kendo stick.
What can I really say at this point? It was the third match on an eight-match show, and they got 10 minutes. Sato looked completely drained, possibly due to the heat, and anything he attempted to do looked like it required more effort than usual. The awful finish comes when the referee looks away for a split second, and Corino hits a low blow and then a running cutter for the pin. Before the low blow, the referee has his eyes on the guys, and the low blow comes right when he steps out of frame. I guess he pulls his eye contact away and has to have a young boy point and remind him there's a match going on. Just one of those things in pro wrestling you have to look past because it's pro wrestling if that makes sense. Think Irish Whips or something like that.
Both guys would still have slim chances to enter the final, but both would ultimately be eliminated on the 4th during the last night of block action. To be honest, I'm a little lost on how to wrap this one up, as I'm sure we'll see more from these guys in this project. So, I'm just going to link to some Steven Corino Zero-One related stories.
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