RICO!

Randy Orton may have been in the army but he never quite got far... then there’s Bobby Lashley who was a 2-time Army Forces champion… 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 “Batman” and “Conan the Barbarian” in Six Flags California! He even became a small television celebrity, by becoming a contestant of the original (aka ‘pre-Hogan’) “American Gladiators”! He was challenged by the show’s jousting champion “Gemini” 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 “The Power Team”, 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 Hernandez’s 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 WWE’s skits for the 1999 Royal Rumble as the guys who lured Kane out of the ring! Soon enough Amarico’s 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 WWE…

            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 “Rasputin” and on November 10, 1999 he defeated Rob Conway to earn the OVW Heavyweight Title! He even teamed up with “The Prototype” (aka John Cena) in one of 2001’s largest heat generators of OVW history! Even at this stage, Amarico was nominated as “Pro Wrestling Illustrated” rookie of the year for that same year! He was also sent to the “Heartland Wrestling Association” (HWA) for further training where he formed a tag team with the first “Tough Enough” winner Maven who also happened to be there for training purposes.  Amarico’s big time debut happened on the March 21, 2002 (what the HELL? THREE years in developmental territories??! that’s 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!)… things went sort of smoothly until the “Judgment Day” pay-per-view when Rico was “forcefully” paired up with Rikishi to take on his two “clients” Billy and Chuck for the tag title belts… and WON!

OH EM GHEE BILLY! (bleah…)

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 “stylist” until the infamous “Billy and Chuck Commitment Ceremony” as he jumped ship to RAW along with Eric Bischoff and “3-Minute Warning” (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 “3-Minute Warning” May 19, 2003 when he suddenly walked out on them after a loss to the “Dudley Boyz” (Bubba and Devon Dudley)…

            After nearly a month Rico returned to RAW on June 16 with a new “Adrian Street” gimmick.  To those who haven’t 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 opponents… a strange opposition since Amarico has always been such a “dude” 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 don’t remember Heiden… erm, never mind then… 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!

Beauty and the… wait…

            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 “Too Cool” team of Rikishi and Scotty Too Hotty… 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 involved… Haas is in trouble… WAIT! IT’S RIIICOOO!!! He’s 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 “No Mercy” PPV (still 2004).  It seemed Rico was on the verge of another successful run… when suddenly… he was released from his WWE contract on November 4…

Seriously though, I wasn’t that big a fan of Rico but I didn’t want him to leave so soon… Amarico brought fun into the ring and his moves weren’t 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.  He’s not exactly Hall of Fame material but I miss his mix of crazy in-ring shenanigans and super kicks, something that we don’t see anymore these days~ Good luck Amarico!

Careful… he’s not what you thought he was… or is…

This has been a Kagami presentation! I hope to see you all for the next installment, something you can help decide! If you want any FORMER WWE talent you’d like to hear about, do drop a comment! Also send your pro wrestling questions to The Glide to see more “TWG Three Way” discussions! As a final treat, here’s Rico giving Val Venis some sorely needed attention!