Wrestling / Little Guido Maritato

As WWE Cruiserweight Champion

James Maritato (born March 12, 1972) is an Italian-American Professional Wrestler from Howard Beach, Queens, NY best known for his work in the original ECW as Little Guido Maritato and in WWE as Nunzio. He debuted in 1991 and worked in various independent promotions and for the Japanese shoot-style promotion Universal Wrestling Federation, under the name James Stone. He debuted in ECW in 1996 and was given the name Little Guido and teamed with JT Smith as the comedy team the Full-Blooded Italians (FBI), although Smith, who started the gimmick, was African-American. The team expanded to include Southern wrestling veterans Tommy Rich and Tracey Smothers, neither of whom were actually Italian either. Smothers and Guido defeated New Jack and John Kronus for the ECW World Tag Team Championship due to The Dudley Boys interfering, which was the only way the FBI were going to win, since they had been getting slaughtered to that point. Maritato and Tony Mamaluke would defeated Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri for the titles in late 2000 before ultimately losing them to "Dastardly" Danny Doring and "The Angry Amish Warrior" Roadkill as the promotion died out. Maritato debuted in WWE in 2002 as Nunzio, the "cousin" of Jamie Noble. This connection was forgotten about as Nunzio teamed up with Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli in a Mafia-themed version of the FBI, which was not very successful. Nunzio would go on to be a 2x WWE Cruiserweight Champion. He returned to the Maritato name for the International Three-Way-Dance against Tajiri and Super Crazy at ECW One Night Stand 2005. He has since competed for a variety of promotions around the world, including Impact Wrestling's Ring Ka King promotion in India as Tony Broadway.

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"Full-Blooded Tropes":

• Arch-Enemy: Tajiri and Super Crazy in equal proportions in ECW. Gregory Helms in WWF/E.
• Bash Brothers: with Tracy Smothers, Tony Mamaluke, Vito
• Big Guy, Little Guy: with Big Guido and with Big Sal E. Graziano
• Brooklyn Rage: He was perpetually bad-tempered.
• Finishing Move: Arrivederci (Springboard single arm DDT), Tomikaze/Maratano/Kiss of Death (inverted double-underhook facebuster aka Christian's Killswitch), Sicilian Crab, Sicilian Slice (Diving leg drop bulldog).
• I Know Amateur Wrestling: In Nanuet Senior High School, he also trained under Billy Robinson and competed in UWF-I and USWF.
• The Napoleon: Hinted at. In ECW he weighed in at "201 and 1/4 lbs."
• Power Stable: The FBI
  • The ECW version: JT Smith, Maritato, Tommy Rich, Davey Paesano (Kid Kash), Tracey Smothers, Salvatore Bellomo, Big Guido, Ulf Hermann, The One Man Gang, Big Sal E. Graziano, Tony DeVito and Tony Mamaluke.
    • NWA Wildside version: Maritato, Mamaluke, Tony Knightenelli (aka Tony Knight)
    • WWE SmackDown! version: Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli
    • WWECW version: Maritato, Mamaluke, Big Guido (only a couple of appearances) and Trinity
  • (in Impact Wrestling): EV2.0
• Red Baron: "The Extreme Stud," "The Sicilian Shooter"
• Tag Team: The Sicilian Shooters, with Mike Kruel
• Took a Level in Badass: Became a much more serious character after Smothers and Rich left.