Nunzio Recalls His Personal Highlight in ECW, What Happened When the Company Went Under

Former WWE Superstar Nunzio, aka Little Guido in ECW, recently sat down with Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his career and more. During the interview, he also spoke about his personal highlight in ECW, along with what it was like when the company went under in early 2001. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Nunzio on Paul Heyman Coming Up With the FBI – The Full Blooded Italians

“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.”

On Who Was the Toughest Wrestler in the ECW Locker Room

“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.”

On New Jack Jumping Through Double Stacked Tables at the ECW Arena

“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, “**** it, and all of a sudden he just came flying. And honest to God, he landed chest to chest. I went right through.”

On His Concerns When ECW Went Under

“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.”

His Personal Highlight 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.”

Nunzio would later join WWE in December 2002. The wrestler also appeared on WWE NXT in the fall of 2024, where he challenged Tony D’Angelo for the NXT North American Title.