Tony Marino

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Tony Silipini
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Tony Marino Devil Blue (Georgia) Dino Lanza (Australia) Battman (Pittsburgh)
Born	1936 Rochester, New York
Resides	Florida
Debut	1964
Retired	1987

Tony Silipini (b. 1945) is a former American born Italian professional wrestler who is best known as Tony Marino.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
- 2.1 Finishing and signature move
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Tony Silipini was born in 1936. He started wrestling in the 1950s near his hometown of Rochester, NY. He wrestled under a number of names over the years in different areas of the country. In Australia he was called Dino Lanza.

[edit] World Wide Wrestling Federation (1966-1972)

With the Battman craze sweeping the country in 1966, Marino created a wrestling version of the superhero. His custom outfits were created by Karl & Hildegarde's of Columbus, Ohio. He debuted the persona in the Buffalo, NY area and had a smaller wrestler dressed as Robin. Bruno Sammartino, who had purchased the promotional office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, brought Marino into Pittsburgh as "Battman" and installed him as a major wrestler in the territory.

[edit] Teaming with Bruno Sammartino

He formed a tag team with WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino. On December 8, 1969, they defeated Rising Suns for the International Tag Team Championship. It was a phantom switch, because the team of Prof. Tanaka and Mitsu Arakawa had actually lost the belts earlier that week in Madison Square Garden.

[edit] Teaming with Victor Rivera

On December 12, Victor Rivera replaced Sammartino as Sammartino was already the WWWF Heavyweight Champion. Marino and Rivera were the tag champions for almost seven months. On June 15, 1970, they lost their titles to The Mongols, the team of Bepo Mongol and Geto Mongol. In 1972, Marino left WWWF.

[edit] National Wrestling Alliance (1972-1987)

In 1972, Marino started traveling in National Wrestling Alliance territories. In December 1972, he defeated Kurt Von Hess and Karl Von Shotz along with Fred Curry to win the Detroit version of NWA World Tag Team Championship. On January 5, 1973, they lost the titles back to Kurt Von Hess and Karl Von Shotz. They received their second Detroit titles on February 2 and lost it back to Kurt Von Hess and Karl Von Shotz on February 18.

Marino had then notable feuds with The Stomper, Ben Justice and Killer Tim Brooks. In 1974, he formed a tag team with Bobo Brazil. They defeated Kurt Von Hess and Karl Von Shotz to win the Detroit titles. Marino got his third Detroit Tag Team Championship. The titles were held up in June 1974 in match against Ben Justice and Killer Tim Brooks. They won rematch on June 15. They lost their titles to Killer Tim Brooks and Abdullah the Butcher. They defeated Killer Tim Brooks and Abdullah the Butcher and received the titles back. They lost the titles to The Mongols and this was Marino's final Detroit Tag Team Championship. He retired from wrestling in 1987.