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James Maritato, better known as Little Guido or Nunzio (born 1972) is an American professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Smackdown! brand, in its cruiserweight division. He recently won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
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. He was packaged as Little Guido and put in a comedy stable called the Full Blooded Italians, alongside a black wrestler (J.T. Smith), an obese wrestler (Val Puccio), and two wrestlers from the southern United States (Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich).
In 1999, he became a "serious wrestler," although still accompanied by an obese wrestler (Sal E. Graziano). 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, where he reformed the Full Blooded Italians on SmackDown! 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 became Little Guido 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 edition of Velocity Nunzio won the WWE Cruiserweight Championship (though the match was taped on August 2) by defeating Paul London after Vito (making his WWE TV debut at the time) gave Nunzio a Blackjack, which Nunzio used to knock out London with.
Profile
- Height: 5'6" (167.6 cm)
- Weight: 175lbs (79.4 kg)
- Birthday: March 12, 1972
- Hometown: Queens, New York City, New York
- Trained By: Billy Robinson
- Professional Debut: September 1991
- Previous Identities: Damien Stone, James Stone, Little Guido, Little Guido Maritato
- Previous Manager(s): Tommy Rich, Big Vito
Finishing and signature moves
- Arrivederci (Springboard-Armbar Takedown)
- Kiss Of Death (Inverted Double Underhook Facebuster)
- ''Sicilian Crab'' (Boston Crab)
- ''Sicilian Slice'' (Flying Legdrop Bulldog)
- ''Side Italian Legsweep'' (Russian Leg Sweep)
- Middle-Rope Front Missile Dropkick
- Jujigatame
- Fujiwara Armbar
- Wakigatame
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