Athletes - James Maritato

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	Athletes - James Maritato

James Maritato, better known as Little Guido or Nunzio (born March 12, 1972 in Queens, New York) is an Italian-American professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the SmackDown! brand, in its cruiserweight division.

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.

as a member of the FBI with Chuck Palumbo (far right) and Johnny Stamboli (far left) Maritato wrestled for several independent promotions, mostly in the New York Tri-State area until he was signed by WWE in 2002, where he was introduced as Nunzio, the cousin of Jamie Noble on SmackDown! (it is possible that the name change is a reference to the mob/bodyguard characters Guido and Nunzio in the MythAdventures series of books by Robert Asprin). He later reformed the Full Blooded Italians along with Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli and Chuck Palumbo. 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.

He returned to his Little Guido persona for one night, reuniting with the Full Blooded Italians to take on Super Crazy and Tajiri in a Three-Way Dance at ECW One Night Stand.

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 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.

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.

He is also said to be the greatest grappler in WWE today.

In wrestling

Previous Managers

Tommy Rich
Big Vito

Finishing and signature moves

Arrivederci (Springboard-Armbar Takedown)
Sicilian Slice (Flying Legdrop Bulldog)
Kiss Of Death (Inverted Double Underhook Facebuster)
Sicilian Crab (Boston Crab)
Side Italian Legsweep (Russian Leg Sweep)
Middle-Rope Front Missile Dropkick
Jujigatame
Fujiwara Armbar
Wakigatame

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for James Maritato ]

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