James Maritato
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James Maritato (born March 12, 1972 in Queens, New York) better known by his stage names Little Guido or Nunzio, is an Italian American professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Extreme Championship Wrestling brand as Little Guido Maritato.
Career
In high school, Maritato was an outstanding amateur wrestler from the state of New York. He was trained as a professional by the legendary Billy Robinson and debuted in the early 1990s. Maritato then went to Japan to compete in the shoot style promotion UWF International. He stayed there until 1995 where he joined Extreme Championship Wrestling under the name Damian Stone. He was later packaged as Little Guido and put in a comedy stable called the Full Blooded Italians (FBI), alongside a black wrestler (J.T. Smith), an obese wrestler (Val Puccio), and two Southern wrestlers (Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich).In 1999, he became a "serious wrestler", although still accompanied by Val Puccio. He was involved in some intense singles matches until late 2000, when he formed a tag team with Tony Mamaluke.
Maritato and Mamaluke won the ECW World Tag Team Titles that year and stayed as a team until ECW closed in 2001.
Maritato wrestled for several independent promotions, mostly in the New York Tri-State area until he was signed by WWE in 2002. While on the independent circuit, Maritato teamed and feuded with his former partner Tony Mamaluke, most notibly in Ring of Honor.
Maritato was introduced as Nunzio in WWE which was a possible reference to the mob/bodyguard characters Guido and Nunzio in the MythAdventures series of books by Robert Asprin. Nunzio was brought in as the cousin of Jamie Noble on the December 12, 2002 edition SmackDown! attacking Crash Holly after Noble was pinned by Crash. Nunzio would go on to feud with Crash, defeating him on several occasions before going on to defeat the likes of Tajiri, Shannon Moore, and Chuck Palumbo with help from Noble occasionally.
Maritato's partnership with Noble soon faded and Nunzio would go off to reformed the Full Blooded Italians along with Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo but the team found little success. After WrestleMania XX, Palumbo was drafted to RAW, and the F.B.I. was reduced to a tag team. After Stamboli was released, Maritato began competing in the cruiserweight division.
Maritato returned to his Little Guido persona for one night, reuniting with the origional Full Blooded Italians to take on Super Crazy and Tajiri in a Three-Way Dance at ECW One Night Stand 2005.
Maritato, as Nunzio, continued to perform on WWE Velocity as both a face and a heel, he would also form a short-lived tag team with another foreign wrestler, the Japanese Funaki. On the August 6 (taped on August 2) edition of Velocity, Nunzio won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship by defeating Paul London after a new heel wrestler, Vito (making his WWE TV debut at the time) gave Nunzio a Blackjack, which Nunzio used to knock out London. Nunzio joined forces with Vito, thus becoming a full time heel.
The pair began feuding with The Mexicools. At No Mercy 2005, Mexicool member Juventud defeated Nunzio with a Juvi Driver to take the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Nunzio regained the title on November 15 at a house show in Rome, Italy but lost it to Juventud again on the November 25 edition of SmackDown!
Nunzio turned face when he confronted Gregory Helms after Helms had cut a promo insulting the SmackDown! cruiserweight division. Helms defended his title against Nunzio on the February 10, 2006 edition of SmackDown! During the match, Kid Kash came out and stayed there until the match was over, signaling a title match. Later he would turn heel once more by still siding with Vito who turned heel again by betraying the fans.
On March 6, 2006, Maritato was seen supporting his brother on the NBC game show Deal or No Deal in which he won $25,000.
Later Nunzio would be in a triple threat match for the number one contender to the WWE Cruiserweight Championship only to be interupted by The Great Khali. In this match Nunzio was thrown from approximately 10 feet above the ring to the floor with no one, or no extra padding to soften the fall.
In late May/early June 2006, Nunzio's partnership with Vito would begin to crumble after it was revealed that Vito infact goes out in drag. Feeling betrayed and embarrassed, Nunzio would break up his alliance with Vito ending the WWE version of FBI.
During mid-2006, with the redevelopement of the ECW brand, Nunzio would soon leave SmackDown! to join with other fellow members of the original FBI under his old ring name, Little Guido.
Little Guido since then has been performing on the new ECW roster along side Big Guido, Tony Mamaluke and Trinity.
In wrestling
- Managers
- Finishing and signature moves
- Taunts
Championships and accomplishments
- Chaotic Wrestling
- *1-time CW Tag Team Champion (with Luis Ortiz)
- USA Pro Wrestling
Championship succession
| colspan = 3 align = center | WWE Cruiserweight Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Paul London
| width = 40% align = center | First
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Juventud
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Juventud
| width = 40% align = center | Second
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Juventud
|-
| colspan = 3 align = center | ECW Tag Team Championship
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
The Gangstanators
| width = 40% align = center | First, with Tracy Smothers
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon
|-
| width = 30% align = center | Preceded by:
Yoshihiro Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck
| width = 40% align = center | Second, with Tony Mamaluke
| width = 30% align = center | Succeeded by:
Danny Doring and Roadkill
External links
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