James Maritato is a professional wrestler best known for his time in ECW as Little Guido and in WWE as Nunzio. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in New Jersey to discuss which name he is better known as, how he was able to make it in wrestling despite being undersized, slapping Brock Lesnar in a backstage segment, his iconic Last Ride from The Undertaker, winning the Cruiserweight Championship at a house show, still wrestling today, briefly being a WWE referee and more!
Did you have people at that time telling you that this was possible for you? Because if we’re thinking back to 36 years ago, it’s the land of the giants, right? Everybody’s huge.
“Not one positive thing ever. ‘Crazy!’ ‘You’re crazy.’ ‘That’s not going to happen.’ I got that too, but it was just like it’s something I had to try. So yes, and that’s the truth. I did the same thing every other wrestler used to, rip the shirt off and tell my parents I’m going to be a wrestler when I was 10-11 years old. They’re like no, no, no, no, and it is that and the other things. So, I think typically of every parent when their son says, ‘I want to be a pro wrestler.’ They look at you like you were crazy, especially at my size.”
But you must have had something in you that said I can do this. And what do you think that was?
“Just because I was a fan. I think if you’re a wrestling fan, those are the best professional wrestlers. I’m not saying guys that were never wrestling fans like a Kurt Angle; he never cared about wrestling, but he became a great professional wrestler. Sometimes people can’t adapt in that world. I did, and I just always loved it. When the opportunity came, you know what’s funny? Actually, I always wanted to be a wrestler, and when I was in high school, it kind of faded off a little bit, and then when I went to that wrestling camp and met Fazio, now I had a connection. Because it’s not like it is today. Today you hit a button and 82 schools pop up. But 36 years ago, you had to know somebody, and I knew nobody. But because I went to that camp that one year, somebody cued me in, I went talk to Jerry, and that’s how it all came about.”
This character Little Guido was just so perfect for you.
“Paul Heyman gave me the Little Guido character. So I did Damian Stone for a couple of years; actually, Tommy Cairo got me involved with Eastern Championship Wrestling with Todd Gordon back in the day before everybody else was involved. So I was wrestling there for a while, and then I did go to Japan. I left Eastern Championship Wrestling, went to Japan, and when I came back, ECW was just getting going, becoming Extreme Championship Wrestling and stuff. When I came back, I already knew Tommy Dreamer and Taz, who helped me tremendously, all those guys. So I had a connection. So when I came back from Japan, I went to Puerto Rico for Carlos Colon, and that’s where I met Pablo Marquez. I don’t know if you know who that is. He’s the extreme rookie from ECW. So we were wrestling, and he’s like, ‘Oh man, this ECW thing.’ Now I was in Japan, so we didn’t really get the TV, so I didn’t know what ECW was actually doing. I know I was there before. I didn’t realize what was actually happening with it.
So he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, Taz is there, Dreamer.’ I said, ‘Oh man, tell those I said hello. I know them for many years. Blah blah blah.’ So I went home. We went back. I think I saw him in Puerto Rico again. We went back the next month for Carlos, and he’s like, ‘I talked to Tommy Dreamer, give him a call. He wants to talk to you.’ I was like, okay. So come back from Puerto Rico. I gave Tom a call, and he’s like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Nothing. And we just bullsh*tted for a minute, and he’s like, ‘Hey, dude. I want you to meet Paul Heyman. I want you to come down.’ I was like, okay, because I actually met him before, but he didn’t really know even knew who I was. So I went down. I’ll never forget. I go up to Paul, and I introduce myself. I said, ‘Hey, how you doing? I’m Damian Stone.’ He looks at me, goes, ‘I know who you are,’ and he probably did, but he knew everything. So they put me on that night. So I wrestled as Damian Stone for at least three to four months before the little Guido thing. But as those three or four months were developing, Paul E would always like, ‘You remind me of a Joe Pesci. Small, but you could beat everybody up. You can’t take no crap from anybody. You’re high strung.’ He kept bringing this up, this type of character. One day, believe it or not, we were in Lost Battalion Hall and I came there, and he came up to me. He goes, ‘You’re going to be J.T. Smith’s cousin.’ I’m like, what? He goes, ‘yeah, you you you ‘Yeah, you got hit in the head with a frying pan.’ I don’t know. He was rambling this stuff off. I don’t know if you thought about, you know, Paul E was on the fly booker. He’s like, ‘You’re going to be Little Guido, and I’m going to introduce you tonight as J.T. Smith’s cousin.’ Even though obviously we’re not cousins. That’s actually the same night the Dudley boys came together, D-Von Dudley and Bubba. They introduced D-Von. They beat the hell out of me and J.T. Smith that same night. So I went out there, and they introduced me as Damian Stone. Joe Gertner was the ring announcer, and that was before Joe Gertner had his spot with the Dudleys, nobody knew who Joe Gertner was, and that’s how it started. We did that gimmick right there, and they introduced me as J.T. Smith’s cousin, and he got hit with a frying pan, and we became cousins, and then we went on from there with that.”
Do you think people these days know you better as Little Guido or as Nunzio?
“Well, it’s weird because everybody that ever says Nunzio to me knows me as Little Guido. I think Nunzio is on a bigger scale, but the thing is, with the internet, people who only watch me in WWE as Nunzio and hear about Little Guido, obviously, if you Google it, you could see. Everybody’s watching the archives because the WWE Network helped a lot too, they put everything out there. So there’s so many people that when they saw me at 15 in WWE, never realized that I was in ECW because of the internet, so they can go back and see it. WWE fame, I think, was a lot bigger, but because they bought ECW and then everything became one, and I was there before. But I would say ECW was a bigger, bigger name because it’s on a bigger scale.”
Why couldn’t you be Little Guido in WWE?
“Well, when I got there, Paul Heyman got me a job there. So he called me one day. This is when I didn’t have a job because when all the companies closed down within like a month, we all lost our jobs. I was a smaller guy. I wasn’t a top guy. I wasn’t RVD. So now I’m going against WCW closed, you got all the top stars in WCW. You got all the top stars in ECW, the Van Dams, the Dreamers, all the big guys, Ravens. I kind of got pushed to the side. I was trying to keep in contact with Paul and stuff, but he was on the verge of getting his job. He was starting with WWE, so I kind of got put on the side. They were doing this whole thing, the invasion angle, and I was just a smaller guy. So once everything faded out and they pushed people aside, I got a call one day from Paul Heyman. So I was calling him for a while. Let me backtrack. I was calling him for a while, and finally nothing was working. So I just let it go. I didn’t want to bother him anymore, a lot going on. One day, me and my wife were sitting in a restaurant, and my phone rings, and I look at it, and it says Paul E. So I haven’t talked to him in a couple of years. So I answer the phone. He goes, ‘Congratulations!’ I’m like, hey, Paul, what’s up? He goes, ‘Congratulations.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘I told you I’d get you a job.’ Okay? He goes, ‘John Laurinaitis will be calling you in a couple of weeks. Answer your phone.’ Okay, and he hung up. I was working for Snapple at that time. I was in the CVS or wherever I was.”
What were you doing with Snapple?
“I was a salesman for Snapple. This is 2000, and I remember that that came. So I thought I was getting a call, and I remember I was in a CVS or something taking an order, and I go back to my car, and there was a message on my machine from John Laurinaitis. I knew who he was. I didn’t talk to him. ‘Give me a call.’ So right there, I called him back, and he’s like, ‘Hey, we would like to give you a tryout.’ This, that, and the other. He called it a tryout. He didn’t know Paul already called me, so I think I was in already, but I didn’t know. I was happy that he said it. He goes, ‘What are you doing now?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m working. I work for Snapple.’ He goes, ‘Can your schedule open up? We want to bring you out.’ So they cleared up the schedule, flew to Texas for my tryout. I worked with Funaki one night, and as crazy it is, I worked with Stamboli one night. Even though we became partners, I don’t think they had that idea at that time. And after that night, I remember Jim Ross was kind of getting out of talent relations because Johnny was there. So Jim Ross comes up to me and he goes, ‘Johnny wants to talk to you in the office.’ I went in the office and he offered me a deal.”
So why weren’t you Little Guido in WWE?
“Right. Well, when from when I talked to Paul, he was talking to how I got it. Something like he was talking to Vince. He’s like, ‘Oh, I got this guy Nunzio, small guy. He’s gonna be a limousine driver.’ He was saying something, but he came up with the Nunzio thing. So I never questioned it. I was just happy I was getting a phone call. So where Paul got the Nunzio thing, I don’t want to sit here and say it. I really don’t know. I don’t know why he didn’t keep it, Little Guido, because I think Paul owned ECW, so it wasn’t like a trademark thing.”
The double meaning of FBI, I think, is so smart. FBI, full-blooded Italians. Who came up with that?
“Well, that was Paul E, and I’ll tell you something quick, since we’re on that. Everybody always thinks I’m the founding member of the FBI. That’s not true. I’m not the founding member. JT Smith was the first member.”
There were a lot of tough guys in that ECW locker room. Who do you think was the toughest?
“I would say Spike Dudley. Spike Dudley would go out there and get his ass kicked and thrown in the stands and brutal matches, fire matches with Balls Mahoney and all these guys, and he never complained. Spike is a small guy, he’s probably my size, but I would say Spike Dudley.”
There’s a spot at the ECW Arena where New Jack jumps off something so high onto you, double stacked on tables. It’s a crazy spot to watch.
“I’ll tell you a story about that one. So if you watch that back, which you can, we were doing whatever we were doing in the ring, and then we had a fight into the aisleway. And D-Von was getting the tables and with a couple other people, and they were setting the tables up. When they set the tables up, and New Jack was already on there because if you remember, Bubba Ray Dudley was taking an escalator up. Of course we put the powder in the guitar. That’s what made the whole explosion. And I remember laying there, and I’m looking. I’m like, holy sh*t, he’s f*cking far. If you watch it back, after he hit Bubba, you see him take that guitar and he’s slamming on the ground. He’s going, come in, bring him in, because he didn’t think he could reach me, so he was freaking out. If you watch it back, and then all of a sudden, I think they tried scooting in a little bit and they couldn’t do it because I was already on the tables, and New Jack just said “fuck it, and all of a sudden he just came flying. And honest to God, he landed chest to chest. I went right through.”
Were you concerned when ECW went under? Were you like, what am I going to do now?
“Sure, I was concerned because I knew I was in trouble with a job. I mean, ECW from ’96 to 2000 was my only job because in ECW also, I think some people know about this. I used to work in the merchandise office, so we were running like three shows a week. When we would come home during the week, me, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von, Bella, and a couple other people used to work in White Plains, and we used to sell the merchandise. So we used to get phone calls, and fans never knew they were talking to Little Guido. We all had fake names, and we were taking the orders, and we were mailing the sh*t out. Me, D-Von and Dreamer were going with loads of tapes and shirts to the post office, and we would have our own line because it would take like an hour because they would have to scan all the packages, and we mailed out all the merchandise. So I had a full-time job there. So I got paid during the week, and then I got paid for wrestling too. At that time, yeah, it was us. And then in the wrestling school, it was Bubba Ray, Mikey Whipwreck, Taz, Perry Saturn. They ran the school. It was in Long Island.”
What’s your own personal highlight of your time in ECW?
“I have so many good times. But I’m going to say the same thing with WWE. It would be winning the ECW Tag Team Championships, of course. We won them twice. One time was at the ECW Arena, and one time I think was in Minneapolis, to Tajiri and Mikey. But that ECW was special for me because that’s where it all started for me. Well, this is where it all started. But as far as actually ECW taught me how to learn how to the cameras and work on TV and be on TV, it’s the first time. Once I started with them and being on TV, it was so weird. I would walk outside and people would know who you are, or your music hits in the locker room and people start to know who you are before you come out. I was never used to that, so it was a lot of good learning experience. It made you feel good. Your music hits, boom, people are popping for you because they know you compared to your music hits, and everybody’s just waiting to see who comes out. So it was a great learning experience for me.”
What’s your favorite moment from your time in WWE?
“I would say WrestleMania 20. I mean, I was able to perform in WrestleMania 20. My father used to so going back a little bit when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, my dad, at the time, they used to do the Garden every month. It used to be televised every other month, so it was a house show, a televised house show. In the beginning, my dad used to take me to all the non-televised ones because we used to have MSG channels, so I could watch those from home. So my father was taking me to Madison Square Garden all time, and he brought me to the first WrestleMania, which I know Tommy Dreamer was there. So my father brought me to WrestleMania One, and then who ever knew I would perform 20 years later. Now I wrestled in the Garden a bunch of times before WrestleMania 20 because I was with WWE already and we did shows there, TVs and stuff. But just because it’s WrestleMania, so I would say that was like the biggest highlight. And then my mother and father came, of course, my mother never used to come when my father used to bring me when I was a kid. But that was a big thing.”
You were kind of in a you’re kind of in a Spike Dudley position, where like, hey, I’m a small guy, do what you want with me.
“Well I never complained. I worked with Chris Benoit many times. I worked with Eddie Guerrero. I worked with all those guys that were actually going for titles, but in tag matches too, because it was Eddie and Chavo versus me and Johnny, or me and Chuck, or Chuck and Johnny. So it was all like there were so many different combinations they could have used with us.”
Kurt Angle said that you were one of the toughest SOBs he’s ever worked with.
“Well, that’s an honor coming from him. But Kurt Angle kicked my butt at any given moment. But I got a chance to work with Kurt a lot, and you know what’s actually funny, Kurt, that thing in ECW with the crucifixion and everything-that’s the first time I ever met him because I wrestled Taz on that show.”
So what makes Kurt say this about you?
“I don’t know. I did hear him say that. I never really talked to him, so I don’t want to make up something right now. But I did hear that. But we never went at it, but I never said no to him. But also when we did our matches too, we did amateur style because we did a lot of house shows too. I did the TV match in Albany, I think it was, because it was like I was the hometown boy. That’s when I did the TV match. But in our matches, we would wrestle amateur style in the beginning, but it’s give and take.”
Did you know how long Taker was going to have you up that last ride?
“No, no, no. I didn’t know how long, but I did take the last ride from him a couple times already on house shows and stuff like that. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I never did that on a house show. I just did it. It just happened. I mean, things that just happen end up being great. When you try to push it on the people and make it happen, sometimes it doesn’t work.”
Goldberg spears you in half at the Royal Rumble! It might be one of Goldberg’s best spears ever.
“He did mention that in an interview he was doing. Somebody asked him about some of the best spears, he mentioned me in it. I knew it was coming, I didn’t know how he was going to hit me because I never took it before, so one thing I knew I didn’t want to keep my feet planted. As he’s coming, I wanted to kind of jump a little bit to get off my feet so he could take me into the air compared to me having my feet planted and just going back, so I didn’t know how to take it; I just took it. That was it.”
You slapped Brock Lesnar too! How did that all come together?
“We were doing something with The Big Show and stuff, and at that time, I think they had the FBI going after everybody because we were a little group. Coming back to what I’m saying. Good thing I was in that group because it made me do all these different scenarios that if I was in the cruiserweight division, I would never have been able to do. We were doing some shows with him, I forgot exactly how it came about, but that promo came up, and I don’t know what it really led to. I was poking him, and they said, ‘Slap him in the back of the head.’ I’m not slapping the back of the head. I slapped him in his back. That’s what made the loud noise. I didn’t slap him in the head, and I knew Brock, he was very good to me. But because the writer was telling me to do it. I said, no, I’m not slapping him in the back of the head. So I went for the back and I hit him hard, and it made a huge noise, and he was okay with it. That’s when we locked him in. Another story, if you watch it, when Chuck drove the high-low, he f*cking broke the wall. Vince had to pay for that because Chuck don’t know how to drive a high-low. So we were trying to lock him in, and he drove through the wall. He broke that wall, which Vince McMahon unfortunately had to pay for.”
So you’re still wrestling to this day?
“I am. I do some independent shows and stuff like that. It’s a lot harder. I mean, I’m not old at all. I’m 54, I don’t act like I’m old because anybody in their 50s, it’s not old anymore. But for wrestling, you got to be careful. It’s not my full-time gig, so I do some part-time stuff. I have other stuff going on, so that’s what I’m doing.”
What have you been doing since leaving WWE?
“A few different things, which led into right now I’m running a security company. I’m in charge of a security company. I’ve been doing that for 14 years now. That was because after wrestling ended, I wasn’t afraid to go out and use my wrestling. Certain people I met were fans in a good position and were able wanted to help me, and gave me a couple of opportunities that let me meet some other people that ended up giving me another career. I’ve been here 14 years now, running a security company, and I still do the wrestling on the weekends.”
There’s a great story in 2010 where there’s a snowstorm, and you get called to be a referee for a WWE show. How does this all come together?
“So there was a blizzard and I live in Rockland County, which is literally 30 miles from Madison Square Garden. But on paper, it’s going to take you an hour and 10 minutes because of the traffic into Manhattan. So there was a blizzard, and Tommy Dreamer called me at like two, three in the afternoon, he’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, nothing, you know, Blizzard. He called me out of the blue, but I was friends with him anyway.”
And isn’t this Christmas time too?
“December 26. He goes, ‘You think you can get to the Garden?’ At this time, there was maybe like three, four inches, not that bad yet. I think I was out actually in the city earlier before it started snowing and came home because I think I was doing security or something. I forget exactly what it was. He ended up calling me, and he’s like, ‘Can you get to the Garden? They need a referee.’ I’m like, all right, I’ll try. So I end up driving there, and I got there. I parked in the garage, and I went in there, and I was the only guy that showed up. Now I haven’t been in WWE in a couple of years, so I haven’t seen anybody. Dean Malenko was one of the agents. John Laurinatis was there, and Vince McMahon was also there. He was there, and he never really comes to house shows. Even old times, when I was in MSG as a wrestler, he very rarely came to any house shows. I remember doing it that night. I think I was the only referee.
You did all the matches?
“I’m pretty sure I did, unless there was one other referee. I remember coming back to the curtain, and Vince McMahon thanked me for everything. He’s like, ‘What are you doing now?’ I think I was maybe doing security. My dad may have kind of been with Snapple. I’m like, ‘I’m just working, you know, doing things.’ You know, thank you very much. Blah blah blah. I was looking for Johnny and everybody, and everybody left. So I’m like, I guess I don’t get paid for this, it was fun. I had a good time. Sure enough, I go home like four days later. Johnny Ace calls me up. He’s like, ‘Hey, thank you very much. How was it?’ I said, Yeah, it was fine, I guess. He’s like, ‘How were the fans? Were they heckling you?’ I said. ‘Well, they were. I heard them saying, “Is that Guido? Was that Guido?” You could hear it.’ Not that the place was chanting my name, and then they started yelling my name a little bit. But nothing terrible. Anybody that called me, I didn’t look at them. He was like, ‘Would you think you’ll be interested in refereeing? We’ll put you on the road for three weeks, see how you like it, see if we like it, and if you’re interested.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ So they put me on the road for three weeks. I went home. John called me up, and he’s like, ‘How’d you like it? We’ll sign you for a year, see how it goes.’ That’s what we did.”
So you were a referee for a year?
“For a year, and then it didn’t work out for both parts; it just wasn’t my thing. I didn’t feel comfortable at times. Referees are very important. They’re the third man in the ring. You don’t realize their duties.”
What is Nunzio grateful for?
My wife, my son and my parents.”
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