The Life and Times of Little Guido

Born on March 12, 1972 James Maritato is known to most wrestling fans under the ring names Little Guido and Nunzio. Maritato first became interested in wrestling as a childhood fan and soon decided that it was a career he wanted to pursue.

Despite traveling to countries and continents all over the world, Maritato credits Japan as being one of his favorite places to wrestle. In addition to loving Japan because of the positive reactions he has received from the audience throughout his career, the country is also special to Maritato because it is where he got his start and gained a lot of experience and knowledge about the business.

“Before I wrestled for ECW and WWE, I wrestled for UWFI (Union of Wrestling Forces International), under the name James Stone,” he said. “I lived there for three years and I really got my feet wet over there and it helped me out throughout my life.”

As many wrestling fans are aware, the life of a wrestler is not an easy one. Wrestlers have to cope with the many physical consequences of their job and endure injuries ranging from career threatening broken bones to bumps and bruises. Some walk into the ring in hopes of putting on a memorable show, but come out bruised, broken, and battered. Just getting out of bed on the following day is often accompanied with physical pain that serves as a reminder of the conflict that ensued the night before.

While the notion of having to constantly risk injuries and put your body on the line might not appeal to most people, to Maritato, it comes with the territory. Maritato was not deterred from pursuing the career despite the almost certain potential of bodily harm.

“Well I broke my jaw probably 12 or 13 years ago, but it’s part of the game if that’s what you want to do. I grew up loving professional wrestling. I was a wrestling fan all my life; I’ve been watching since I was 11 years old and I always wanted to do it. You know with football and hockey, you’re always taking a risk; that’s why you make good money and do what you love,” said Maritato.

Maritato has committed many years of blood, sweat, and tears to the business in career that has spanned about two decades. Throughout his work as a professional wrestler he has competed for several promotions including ECW, WWE and several other independent promotions including East Coast Pro Wrestling.

Maritato began working for ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) in 1995, shortly after returning to the states after competing in Japan. ECW, which was established in 1992 by Todd Gordon and later taken over by Paul Heyman in 1996, was known to most wrestling fans as being a promotion that featured matches that were quite far from typical. ECW was famous for its hardcore matches that often involved wrestlers crashing through wooden tables, being hit with objects such as baseball bats wrapped in barbed-wire and being hit with everyday items like ladders and garbage cans.

While working at ECW, Maritato initially worked under the name Damien Stone, but later wrestled under the name Little Guido, one of his most notable personas. As Little Guido, Maritato worked with fellow wrestlers Tracy Smothers, J.T. Smith, and Tommy Rich in a group called the FBI, an acronym for full-blooded Italians. He later competed less frequently with the members of FBI and became more involved in singles competition. Maritato later won the World Tag Team Championship with wrestler Tony Mamaluke in August of 2000. Maritato stayed with the company until its demise in 2001.

After his time with ECW came to an end, he returned to working for independent promotions until signing with the WWE in 2002, where he wrestled under the ring name Nunzio. Maritato competed mostly on the WWE’s Smackdown brand against other cruiserweights. He won the Cruiserweight Championship after defeating Paul London in August of 2005. In June 2006, Nunzio moved to the WWE’s ECW brand and soon adopted his former ring name Little Guido and also reconnected with his former alliance FBI. After a brief stint as Little Guido, he once again assumed the name Nunzio and competed on ECW for about two years until being released from the WWE in 2008.

While being released from a company as big as the WWE might seem like the end of the road to some, Maritato has continued doing what he loves by working hard in various independent promotions. When recently interviewed in April at an East Coast Pro Wrestling show in Brooklyn, New York, Maritato expressed nostalgia about being back at the show’s location. Maritato had previously wrestled at Our Lady of Guadalupe School in Brooklyn several years ago under the persona Damien Stone.

“I wrestled in this building we’re in right now 15 years ago under Damien Stone,” he said. “It feels good you know this is where you start and you progress; you do the right thing make the right connections and make it all the way to the WWE and Madison Square Garden. When you’re done, this is where it all goes back down to. Then as you’re figuring out what the next stage of your life is you still have wrestling on the weekends.”

Though often busy traveling and working for the independent circuits, Maritato has more time to look back at and acknowledge the work done previously throughout his career.

“I have that WWE 24/7 channel and I’ve been watching all of my Little Guido stuff from when I started when they started it in ’94. I get a chance to sit back and watch everything I’ve done in the past and catch all of my WWE stuff. I like to program it to my stuff and it’s always great to have,” he said.

Maritato added, “It makes me proud, I worked for a company and at the time I didn’t know it was going to be legendary. I never knew how things were going to go; it was great to be a part of that.”

Maritato’s veteran status also gives him the opportunity to give advice to other young wrestlers trying to break into the business.

“You have to stick it out; you have to want it,” he said. “If you don’t want it, it’s not going to come to you. You have to get to all the independent shows, meet the promoters and you have to push yourself. You have to sell yourself; if you’re waiting for someone to do it for you, it’s certainly not going to happen.”

A great part of making it in wrestling involves being there and making connections. “You have to catch breaks and the way you catch breaks is not sitting in your living room, it’s being at shows,” he said. “My advice to them is to keep working hard.”

After spending years in the ring, Maritato still dreams of sharing the squared circle with legends he watched growing up including Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. Though recently becoming involved in a security company, Maritato still hopes to wrestle in the future.

“I still do the wrestling on the independents; little by little, we’ll see what happens,” he said. “I might be back around again if I stay in good shape I’ll keep going. I’ll travel a little overseas, do some work over there and see what my next step is.”

Patrick Hickey Jr. contributed to this article.