Balistik Blabber - Superstar Rico

A happy, upcoming, and very early Chinese New Year to you all! Today marks the first Balistik Blabber for 2009! Iým your host, bringing you back to the days of Wrestling Past in this article series dubbed: ýEx-World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Talentý and to begin letýs feature a guy who very well may be the closest thing we can get to ýHaido Geyý (misspelled intentionally)ý the ýKING OF SIDEBURNSýý

RICO!

Randy Orton may have been in the army but he never quite got far... then thereýs Bobby Lashley who was a 2-time Army Forces championý now let me introduce Amarico Sebastiano Constantino!

Amarico, an American-Italian, led a pretty normal life until he signed up for the Northwestern Military and Naval academy. Gifted with an athletic streak in him and at 6 feet and around 230 pounds, he graduated with flying colors and even considered going to WestPoint aka THE United States Military Academy! Ultimately the Las Vegas Nevada native decided to return home to pursue a career as a paramedic but his nature refused to let him just be that. Amarico went on to sign up for the local police academy and graduated as the top cop in the whole Nevada State! Somehow he was always a part of something exciting such as a member of the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team, a bodyguard and even a stuntman portraying ýBatmaný and ýConan the Barbarianý in Six Flags California! He even became a small television celebrity, by becoming a contestant of the original (aka ýpre-Hoganý) ýAmerican Gladiatorsý! He was challenged by the showýs jousting champion ýGeminiý whom Amarico beat, becoming one of only eight people to do so! He went on to beat the other gladiators and became the champion from 1991 to 1992! He was also recruited by ýThe Power Teamý, a Christian group that added various martial arts exhibitions in their preaching lectures. They even ordained Amarico a minister to allow him to counsel kids, including children who join the Special Olympics awww~ Then out of nowhere, Amarico decided to start a career in professional wrestling!

He started training in Bill Anderson and Jesse Hernandezýs Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF) based in Southern California, and an affiliate of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). This federation had the likes of Peter Maiavia, The Honky Tonk Man and even Tony Atlas amongst their rosters. Another notable item is that the entire roster of this fed (including the founders) participated in one of WWEýs skits for the 1999 Royal Rumble as the guys who lured Kane out of the ring! Soon enough Amaricoýs talent caught the eyes of WWE talent scouts and was recruited for a developmental contract after ONLY TWELVE (12) professional matches... to put an emphasis on this, it takes other guys over 40 matches or even MORE to even garner the interest of the WWEý

Of course prior to the big-time, he was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) to learn a few more tricks. He completely DOMINATED his first opponent ýRasputiný and on November 10, 1999 he defeated Rob Conway to earn the OVW Heavyweight Title! He even teamed up with ýThe Prototypeý (aka John Cena) in one of 2001ýs largest heat generators of OVW history! Even at this stage, Amarico was nominated as ýPro Wrestling Illustratedý rookie of the year for that same year! He was also sent to the ýHeartland Wrestling Associationý (HWA) for further training where he formed a tag team with the first ýTough Enoughý winner Maven who also happened to be there for training purposes. Amaricoýs big time debut happened on the March 21, 2002 (what the HELL? THREE years in developmental territories??! thatýs PATIENCE right there if I ever saw it!) episode of Smackdown! as the heel RICO, a stylist for the tag team champions Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo (eeew~ NASTY times!)ý things went sort of smoothly until the ýJudgment Dayý pay-per-view when Rico was ýforcefullyý paired up with Rikishi to take on his two ýclientsý Billy and Chuck for the tag title beltsý and WON!

Of course he promised Billy and Chuck that he would pay them back and it happened the very next week by helping them regain the belt. He would go on to be their ýstylistý until the infamous ýBilly and Chuck Commitment Ceremonyý as he jumped ship to RAW along with Eric Bischoff and ý3-Minute Warningý (Rosey and Jamaal aka Ro-Z and Umaga). Amarico would defeat the legendary Ric Flair in his first RAW match on September 16 (still 2002 folks)! He mostly played as the manager to ý3-Minute Warningý May 19, 2003 when he suddenly walked out on them after a loss to the ýDudley Boyzý (Bubba and Devon Dudley)ý

After nearly a month Rico returned to RAW on June 16 with a new ýAdrian Streetý gimmick. To those who havenýt heard of Adrian Street, he was a professional wrestling known for his flamboyant in-ring personality including distracting opponents with varying acts of affection on his very male opponentsý a strange opposition since Amarico has always been such a ýdudeý before his wrestling career~ Rico would distract his opponents in the same fashion, smooching pinned opponents or slapping their butts if given the chance which infuriated them! In this manner, Rico was able to beat the likes of Maven, Scott Steiner, Rene Dupre and even the crazy poet Heidenreich! What? You donýt remember Heidený erm, never mind thený At the same time he started this new gimmick he also got himself a valet, the lovely Miss Jackie! On the 2004 WWE Draft Lottery, they BOTH get picked to switch back to Smackdown!

Back in Smackdown! Rico would continue the Adrian Street gimmick and beat Charlie Haas via count out after kissing him and Haas refused to go back in the ring! In a surprising twist yet again, Rico and Haas team up to take on, and defeat the ýToo Coolý team of Rikishi and Scotty Too Hottyý and win the WWE Tag Team belts! The odd ball team would defend their titles repeatedly against the likes of Paul London, Billy Kidman, the Basham Brothers, The Full Blooded Italians (FBI) Nunzio and Johnny Stamboli and more! It was only after a few days short of a 2-month reign that they lost the titles to the Dudley Boyz on June 17. It was later found out that Amarico had injured his hamstring and would be out of action for at least 2 months which of course, we can conveniently skip~

On September 16, Charlie Haas was fighting Spike Dudley when Bubba and Devon decided to get themselves involvedý Haas is in troubleý WAIT! ITýS RIIICOOO!!! Heýs back and makes the save!! They team up again with Miss Jackie of course and were able to beat the Dudleyz and their own valet Dawn Marie in a sort of grudge match on the ýNo Mercyý PPV (still 2004). It seemed Rico was on the verge of another successful runý when suddenlyý he was released from his WWE contract on November 4ý

Seriously though, I wasnýt that big a fan of Rico but I didnýt want him to leave so sooný Amarico brought fun into the ring and his moves werenýt that bad either. He has some of the most impressive kicks next to Tajiri and those sideburns were just plain HARDCORE! He did continue wrestling after WWE over at All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) where he once again earned tag team gold! On February 2, 2005 he beat the team of Mitsuya Nagai and Masayuki Naruse with fellow WWE alumni Bull Buchanan to become the All-Asian Tag Champions! They held onto the titles for over FOUR months until Amarico announced his retirement from professional wrestling on July that same year, forcing them to drop the title and allowing him to retire as a champion. Today, Amarico is once again an officer of the law in his home state of Nevada. Heýs not exactly Hall of Fame material but I miss his mix of crazy in-ring shenanigans and super kicks, something that we donýt see anymore these days~ Good luck Amarico!

http://www.thewrestlinggame.com/wrestling/articles/balistik_blabber_rico.asp