By Mike DeRosenroll, Torch specialist

PWTorch VIP members have first-look access to all of Torch ROH specialist Mike DeRosenroll's latest ROH-related blogs in the VIP Forum. His blogs are posted under the M2_Jay screenname.

ROH recently announced the signing of former WWE wrestler James Maritato for next month's show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Maritato is better known as Nunzio in WWE, or Little Guido in the original ECW. Many people may not know that Maritato had a short run in ROH in 2002, just before signing with WWE.

Maritato was only used as a comedy character in WWE and rarely got mic time, which is too bad because he showed in ROH that he has good promo ability. He also showed that he was capable of being more than a comedy character in his feud with Tony Mamaluke.

Feud Overview

Maritato debuted for ROH in March 2002 at Round Robin Challenge, the second ever ROH show. Before his undercard match with Xavier, Maritato cut a good earnest promo putting over ROH for its hard-hitting serious style. He announced that, in ROH, he would go back to his shoot fighting roots as James Maritato, rather than be Little Guido of ECW.

Mamaluke debuted for ROH the next month at A Night of Appreciation. At Crowning a Champion, in July, Mamaluke and Maritato had a backstage segment where they argued about whether to continue to be the Full Blooded Italians (FBI), as they were known in ECW. Maritato was against it and Mamaluke was for it.

During the argument, The Natural Born Sinners (Boogalou & Homicide), entered the locker room. Maritato acted like a babyface, but Mamaluke acted heelishly toward them, provoking Homicide to challenge Mamaluke and Maritato to a tag match at the next show. Maritato accepted the challenge but clarified that it would not be the Sinners vs. the FBI, it would be the Sinners vs. Tony Mamaluke and James Maritato.

The Sinners won the match at the next show, Honor Invades Boston, ROH's first show outside Philadelphia. It was an excellent tag match. Afterwards, Mamaluke cemented his heel status by refusing to follow the Code of Honor and shake hands with Boogalou and Homicide.

Despite the tension between them, Mamaluke and Maritato entered the ROH Tag Team Title tournament at the next show, Unscripted. In a funny pre-match segment, the two argued over whether to use the old FBI entrance music from ECW. Mamaluke let Maritato think he won the argument, but then surreptitiously slipped the FBI music to the sound guy.

Maritato's surprise at hearing the FBI music on the way to the ring raised the tension in the team even further. This led to them losing their first round tournament match to the Japanese duo of Ikuto Hidaka and Dick Togo.

After the match, Mamaluke and Maritato started arguing in the ring. Mamaluke cut a promo on Maritato claiming that the FBI was nothing in ECW until Mamaluke joined. An impromptu match broke out between them, which Mamaluke won after a low blow behind the referee's back.

This led to a blow off match at Glory By Honor in October. The stipulation was that, if Mamaluke won, he would get to use the FBI gimmick but, if Maritato won, the FBI gimmick would be retired forever. It was a good submission style match with a lot of back-and-forth mat wrestling. Eventually, Mamaluke made Maritato tap out clean.

The real conclusion to the feud came in a post-match segment where Maritato and Mamaluke hashed out their differences and made up. Maritato's performance in this segment was gold. He convinced me that these two guys who had been feuding for months really would put their differences aside and that their longtime friendship would win out in the end. He put over Mamaluke as a great wrestler and convinced Mamaluke that, if he would only drop the comedy style and turn serious, he would rise to the top of ROH. Mamaluke finally listened, turned babyface, and said he would drop the FBI gimmick as Maritato had been suggesting all along.

Not only was this a very satisfying conclusion to their feud in ROH, this segment was a nice way to tie a ribbon around the FBI for old time ECW fans.

Analysis

Maritato's promos made this feud work, especially in the final backstage segment. Mamaluke was not a strong promo guy, but he projected his character well enough through his in-ring work to carry his end.

Glory By Honor was Maritato's last ROH appearance, as he had been signed by WWE and would debut on WWE television two months later as Nunzio.

Although Mamaluke's babyface turn was a satisfying conclusion to the feud with Maritato, it was not the best move for Mamaluke's ROH character. Mamaluke's babyface persona never connected with the ROH fans, and he ended up languishing in the undercard and dropping in and out of ROH over the next three years. He did manage to rise to mid-card status for a while in 2005—2006 and get a short ROH Tag Team Title run with Sal Rinauro, but his push petered out quickly after they dropped the belts.

Hindsight being 20/20, Mamaluke might have fared better in ROH if he had stayed heel. Despite not being good on promos, Mamaluke was very good at projecting a personality in the ring and had excellent work rate. As a cheating heel, he might have been able to use these strengths to get under the fans' skin and rise up the card.

Certainly, Mamaluke's submission-oriented wrestling style would have suited the ROH Pure Title division, created in 2004 to give ROH a mid-card singles title, since the "pure wrestling rules" emphasized submissions and mat wrestling. Mamaluke did get a Pure Title shot against Nigel McGuiness in January 2006, at Hell Freezes Over, but never got a sustained singles push since his babyface character was not over with the fans.

As for Maritato, it will be interesting to see if he can pick up where he left off in ROH six-and-a-half years ago. After being used strictly as a comedy character on WWE television for all that time, it may be a challenge for ROH to get the fans to see him as a serious act again. Maritato showed in 2002 that he has the promo ability to get himself over as a serious act, so the key will be for ROH to give him enough mic time to redefine himself in the fans' eyes. If he can do this, he can be a solid addition to the ROH roster.

To See This Feud

-- Must See Shows: Unscripted, Glory By Honor
-- Optional Shows: Round Robin Challenge, Crowning a Champion, Honor Invades Boston

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