Vito LoGrasso

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Vito LoGrasso
Statistics
Ring name(s) Skull Von Krush
Vito LoGrasso
(Big) Vito
Billed height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Billed weight 250 lb (110 kg/18 st)
Born June 18, 1969 (1969-06-18) (age 38)
Staten Island, New York
Billed from Little Italy, Manhattan, New York
Trained by Johnny Rodz
Debut 1990

Vito LoGrasso (born June 18, 1969), is an American professional wrestler, of Italian origin, best known for his work in World Championship Wrestling as Big Vito and more recently World Wrestling Entertainment and working for their "farm territory" Ohio Valley Wrestling and Deep South Wrestling as Vito.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling (1990-1999)

Vito LoGrasso started wrestling in 1990. He first made his professional debut in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Skull Von Krush (also appearing as a WWF jobber simply named "Von Krus", a generic big wrestler who began with a subtly "evil foreigner" gimmick who never rose above JTTS .

Later he changed his name to Vito "The Skull" LoGrasso and becoming a member of "Da Baldies" stable, who claimed to be an offshoot of a real life New York street gang, and as such took issue with New Jack calling himself a "Gangsta" and began a feud with him. Vito worked a couple of shows with the now defunct LIWF with Billy Alaimo and was on the Junkyard Dog memorial show in a casket match at The Elks Lodge in Queens, New York. Billy Alaimo gave him a run for His money, but Vito moved on to ECW.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling (1999-2001)

In 1999 Vito left ECW for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he teamed with Johnny the Bull as The Mamalukes (also known as "The Paisains" for a short time). Managed by Tony Marinara The Mamalukes captured the WCW Tag Team title (twice), and were (kayfabe) jointly awarded the Hardcore title.

After being awarded the Hardcore title Vito and Johnny were forced to face one and other in a match to crown one champion, which Vito won.

In 2001 when The World Wrestling Federation purchased WCW Vito was one of the wrestlers who was lost in the shuffle, neither becoming a part of The Invasion nor taking one of the large ticket buyouts offered.

[edit] Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2004)

Vito also had a brief run in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in late-2004 with Glenn Gilberti, Trinity and Johnny Swinger as the "New York Connection". His only feud was with "Irish" Pat Kenney, in which they exchanged victories. Vito made a brief return to TNA in 2007 as he was backstage at TNA's PPV Hard Justice. [1]

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment (2005-2007)

[edit] 2005-2007

In early 2005, Vito worked dark matches for the now renamed World Wrestling Entertainment and signed a contract with them in July. He was assigned to their Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory for several months until he was ready to be called up to the main roster.

Vito made his debut on WWE television on the August 6 episode of WWE Velocity, where he helped Nunzio win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship from Paul London. Together Vito and Nunzio reformed the Full Blooded Italians stable, acting mostly as a tag team together on Velocity with scattered appearances on SmackDown!.

Vito and Nunzio turned heel once again (after a short flirtation with being faces with a brief feud against Gregory Helms) in March 2006 under an angle in which Vito announced that he wanted to be recognized as a "Godfather" and he would wear a blazer and glasses.

Beginning in May various wrestlers such as Orlando Jordan and Paul Burchill began approaching Nunzio in backstage situations and spreading rumors that they had (kayfabe) seen Vito in public places in various forms of cross-dress.[2][3] Nunzio originally wouldn't hear of any such thing until the June 2 SmackDown! when Vito came down the ramp, in a dress, to collect Nunzio after losing a match.[4] The next week, after arguing about Vito's clothing choices, the two former friends faced each other in a match which Vito won after hitting Nunzio with The Code of Silence.[5] Not long after, Nunzio joined the ECW brand, leaving Vito on SmackDown! alone.[6]

The idea for the gimmick (which came from Vito himself) seemed to originate on The Sopranos, who also had a character named Vito who had recently been outed as a homosexual (though he was never seen in women's clothing).

Regardless of his passion for cross dressing, Vito continually explained that he was a straight man; including one instance of asking Diva Ashley Massaro out on a date while wearing a dress, to which she agreed.[7] After this he began to "have more fun" during his matches, running around and waving his dresses and otherwise interacting with the fans, turning him once again face.[8] As the gimmick took off various people began (kayfabe) voicing problems with a man wrestling while wearing a dress, including color commentator JBL (who refused to do commentary with him) and wrestlers Montel Vontavious Porter[9] and William Regal[10] (who (kayfabe) threatened SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long with a sexual harassment lawsuit to get out of a match with Vito).[11] At the same time, WWE began to "censor" any incidents of Vito's dress raising and exposing his (bethonged) buttocks. Despite his detractors, once he started wearing a dress Vito began an undefeated streak which didn't end until over four months later when he was defeated by Elijah Burke after interference from his partner Sylvester Terkay.

On November 2 WWE.com announced that Vito would be posing (non-nude) for the April 2007 edition of Playgirl.On May 15, 2007, it was announced that Vito had been released from his WWE contract.

[edit] Deep South Wrestling

Vito defeated champion Bradley Jay and Ryan O'Reilly in a three-way round robin match to win the DSW Heavyweight Championship on January 25, 2007. After winning the title he was removed from the WWE.com SmackDown! roster page. Almost immediately upon winning the title he underwent a gimmick change, losing the dress and instead adopting martial arts-style trunks, a headband, and wrestling without shoes. [12] When asked on DSW TV he announced that he changed his style of dress because his opponents were citing it as a distraction and claiming his clothing was the reason they were losing to him. The look was briefly shown during the Lumberjack tag match on Sunday Night Heat at WrestleMania 23, between Carlito and Ric Flair agaisnt Chavo Guerrero and Gregory Helms, Vito was grouped with the face lumberjacks. He held the title until February 22, when he lost it back to Bradley Jay.

[edit] In wrestling

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Personal life

Every Christmas, Vito provides gifts to underprivileged children in the Staten Island area.

When working under the cross-dressing gimmick, it was not unusual for LoGrasso to be seen in public wearing dresses.

Has designed trademark tattoos on his arms, back and stomach.

He has helped raised money for Autism Speaks in his own time.

He is currently dating actress Marisa Tomei. He was previously married to Kathy, with whom he had four children. The marriage ended in divorce, but they remained friends. Kathy died of cancer on September 1, 2007.[13].

[edit] References

  1. ^ WWE.com release Vito (2007-05-15).
  2. ^ Tragic Homecoming. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  3. ^ Seeing red. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  4. ^ All hail the king. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  5. ^ Hell week continues. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  6. ^ An Extreme Debut. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  7. ^ Louie Dee (June 23, 2006). Family tradition. WWE. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
  8. ^ Lashley reigns supreme. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  9. ^ Friday knightmare. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  10. ^ Signing Bonus. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  11. ^ All the King's men. WWE. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  12. ^ VITO SCREENCAPS IMAGE GALLERY. Retrieved on 2007-02-20.
  13. ^ Press Release: Big Vito speaks about the passing of his ex-wife & more

[edit] External links

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