 Bucci in 2015 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Bucci[2] (1972-06-05)June 5, 1972 (age 53)[1] |
| Alma mater | Ocean County College |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Hollywood Nova[1] Nova[1] Super Nova[1] Mike Moraldo[1] Mike Bucci[2] Simon Dean[1] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[3] |
| Billed weight | 210 lb (95 kg)[3] |
| Billed from | Clearwater, Florida (as Simon Dean) Silicon Valley (as Nova) Toms River, New Jersey |
| Trained by | Mike Sharpe[1] |
| Debut | 1992[1] |
| Retired | 2022 |
Michael Bucci (born June 5, 1972) is an American retiredprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his tenures inExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) asNova,Super Nova, and"Hollywood" Nova andWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) asSimon Dean.
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Bucci was trained inprofessional wrestling byMike Sharpe, and debuted in 1992, wrestling on theindependent circuit.[1] In late 1993, Bucci made several appearances in theWorld Wrestling Federation, wrestling intag team matches against theSteiner Brothers andthe Headshrinkers onMonday Night Raw.[1]
In 1996, Bucci debuted inExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Super Nova (later shortened to Nova), utilizing asuperherocharacter.[1] He made his ECW debut atHostile City Showdown againstEl Puerto Riqueño, with the match ending in a no contest due to outside interference byThe Eliminators. He was later paired withRaven,Stevie Richards, andThe Blue Meanie as part of theRaven's Nest faction. Nova would often pair with Richards and Meanie to imitate rock bands such asKISS andThe Jackson 5.
Bucci, along with Richards, asked permission from both Raven andPaul Heyman to parody theNew World Order (nWo); it was granted, and Bucci was given credit with the creation ofThe Blue World Order (bWo) logo. Bucci parodiedHollywood Hogan as Hollywood Nova, Richards became "Big Stevie Cool" (a takeoff onKevin Nash's nickname of "Big Daddy Cool"), and Meanie was "Da Blue Guy", a takeoff onScott Hall, "The Bad Guy".[1] bWo debuted atNovember to Remember where they helped Richards in defeatingDavid Tyler Morton Jericho. Many other members were added and removed between 1996 and 1998 before the team split in the latter. bWo would become popular with the fans turning intofan favorites and leaving Raven's Nest in the process.
Richards left the bWo to return to Raven's Nest, and Nova and Meanie continued to team together as a tag team.[1] On the July 17, 1997, episode ofHardcore TV, Nova unsuccessfully challengedTaz for theWorld Television Championship. bWofeuded with the much larger stableFull Blooded Italians throughout 1998, defeating them atWrestlepalooza.[1] In the fall of the year, bWo entered a rivalry withDanny Doring and Roadkill, defeating them atNovember to Remember.
After Meanie left the company, Bucci changed his gimmick, becoming Super Nova,[1] and adopting a more serious personality. He would start wearing wrestling attires based in the suits of comic book characters likeThe Flash,Green Lantern andVenom. He formed a tag team withChris Chetti as the two challengedDudley Boyz for theWorld Tag Team Championship on numerous occasions but failed to win the titles. AtLiving Dangerously, Nova teamed withSpike Dudley to defeat the Dudley Boyz. Nova defeatedRod Price atCyberslam. Chetti and Nova also simultaneously feuded with Danny Doring and Roadkill, trading wins atHostile City Showdown andHeat Wave. AtAnarchy Rulz, Nova and Chetti foughtSimon Diamond andTony DeVito to a no contest. AtNovember to Remember, Nova lost to Little Guido.
The rivalry with Doring and Roadkill continued into 2000 as the team of Nova,Jazz andKid Kash lost to Doring, Roadkill and Diamond in a six-person tag team match. AtLiving Dangerously, Chetti and Nova defeatedJado and Gedo in a tag team match. AtCyberslam, Nova and Jazz lost toDawn Marie andLance Storm atCyberslam. AtHardcore Heaven, Chetti and Nova defeated Doring and Roadkill and Da Baldies (Angel and Tony DeVito) in a three-way dance. AtHeat Wave, Chetti and Nova defeated Da Baldies. At the night one ofMidtown Massacre, Chetti and Nova participated in a tournament for the vacant World Tag Team Championship, losing to Tap Out (Simon Diamond andJohnny Swinger) in the opening round. At the night two of the event, Chetti and Nova competed against Danny Doring and Roadkill and Tap Out in a three-way dance, where Chetti turned on Nova by hitting him with a chair causing them to get eliminated and breaking up the team. It marked the beginning of a heated rivalry between the two men, with Nova beating his former partner in amatch where the loser was fired atNovember to Remember.[1]
After Chetti's departure, Nova feuded with Hot Commodity (Julio Dinero,E. Z. Money andChris Hamrick), wrestling Hot Commodity members Julio Dinero atMassacre on 34th Street, E. Z. Money atHoliday Hell and Chris Hamrick at ECW's final pay-per-view eventGuilty as Charged on January 7, 2001. At the second to last ECW event inPoplar Bluff, Missouri, he was named asDanny Doring's substitute tag team partner (filling in forAmish Roadkill) to help defend theWorld Tag Team Championship againstHot Commodity; Doring and Nova successfully defended the titles. His final match for ECW took place on January 13 where he defeated Tom Marquez.
When ECW went out of business, Bucci, as Nova, became more active on the independent scene until 2003. Nova wrestled in various promotions such asCalifornia'sUltimate Pro Wrestling, andNew Jersey'sPhoenix Championship Wrestling, the latter of which was founded by his brother Don Bucci. During this time, he formed a successful tag team withFrankie Kazarian known as Evolution (not to be confused with theWorld Wrestling Entertainment stable of the same name).[4] In most of the promotions they competed for, they were successful in becoming tag team champions. He also briefly wrestled in the short-livedAustralia-basedWorld Wrestling All-Stars, where he feuded withA.J. Styles amongst othercruiserweights for the promotion'sInternational Cruiserweight Championship, which he was unable to win before the company folded. In late 2001, he also worked a number of shows in England.
In April 2002, Bucci signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was assigned toOhio Valley Wrestling (OVW). In his OVW debut, he defeatedThe Prototype for theOVW Heavyweight Championship. He held the title for several months, retaining it in matches against The Prototype,Christian,Lance Cade, andChris Kanyon, before he lost it toThe Damaja in October. The following year, he formed a tag team withAaron Stevens, and the duo defeatedTank Toland andChris Cage to win theOVW Tag Team Championship. In June 2004, Bucci was named the assistant booker of OVW.[1] It was around this time that he was called up to start competing inSmackDown!dark matches and onVelocity.[4]
He then began to try out a fitness-expertgimmick using the ring name Simon Dean.[4] The name was inspired byDean Malenko's real name,Dean Simon.[5] In August 2004, a series of introductorypromos about the "Simon System" (a program of diet, exercise, and supplements) were aired on WWE television. The promos parodied fitness infomercials, with Dean routinely insulting his supposed customers.[1] During this gimmick, he acted as the sponsor ofRaw,[1] occasionally wrestling after first insulting the fitness of the crowd and the area in which they were located. After making only a minor impact on theRaw brand, he formed a tag team withMaven who supposedly was a user of the "Simon System".[1] With still only a minor impact made, Bucci was traded to theSmackDown! brand on June 30, 2005.[4]
During a WWE produced ECW pay-per-view,ECW One Night Stand, Bucci returned as Hollywood Nova withDa Blue Guy andBig Stevie Cool as the bWo.[1] During the event,Joey Styles made a reference to his "Simon Dean" character. After Bucci was hit with two chairs, Styles said, "That's more painful than having to be Simon Dean on national TV".[4]
When Bucci moved toSmackDown! as part of thedraft lottery, he joined the other members of the bWo and appeared as "Hollywood" Nova for his first appearance on the show.[4] His next appearance for the brand was wrestling on its sister show,Velocity, as Simon Dean. The general belief was that the bWo appearance was going to be a one off, meaning Bucci would keep to his "health sponsor" gimmick. It was announced, however, that the bWo would participate in a 6-man tag match atThe Great American Bash against TheMexicools (Juventud,Psicosis, andSuper Crazy). The announcement of this match occurred on the same edition ofSmackDown! that Bucci's Simon Dean character had a match withBooker T.[4] At the Great American Bash, the bWo lost to the Mexicools in the six-man tag team match.[4] The appearance of the bWo soon faded as The Blue Meanie wasn't staying with the company and Richards began returning to his previous heel gimmick while Bucci continued with the Simon Dean persona.
In late August, Dean began coming to the ring on the Dean Machine (aSegway PT type machine). He would alsoforce feed "Simon System" products to jobbers who wouldn't accept his offer to try them after defeating them in squash matches. On the September 1 episode ofSmackDown!, he faced Batista whom he claimed to be a user of his products. Dean had his first major WWE pay-per-view appearance atNo Mercy, in a loss againstBobby Lashley.[4] After the match, Lashley forced Dean to eat 20 double cheeseburgers, causing him to vomit backstage.[4] Dean had been noted on his later appearances as the "Head ofSmackDown!'s welcoming committee", a position in which he was used as a jobber to debuting wrestlers.
During the January 6, 2006, episode ofSmackDown!, Dean came to the ring and challenged anytag team.Paul London and Brian Kendrick answered the challenge, only to be brutally attacked byGymini (Jake and Jesse), two alleged users of The Simon System.[4] Dean was the third entrant in the2006 Royal Rumble but was eliminated quickly by match-startersTriple H andRey Mysterio. Dean began managing Gymini, but the team soon faded off television after Jesse suffered an injury in May 2006 and Dean went back to jobbing to other superstars.[4]
In August 2006, Bucci took over fromTommy Dreamer as a talent development manager in OVW.[6] On August 31, 2007, Bucci parted ways with WWE.[7]
On April 18, 2009, Bucci, as Hollywood Nova, along with many other ECW alumni appeared atOne Pro Wrestling's "To The Extreme" weekend event, where he teamed with the Blue Meanie for his first in-ring performances in nearly 3 years. They unsuccessfully challenged Project Ego (Kris Travis and Martin Kirby) for the1PW Tag Team Championship.[4][8][9] Bucci has since wrestled for both 1PW and International Wrestling Cartel.[10]
On June 27, 2009, Bucci, again as Hollywood Nova appeared with many other former ECW talent at theFrancine Fournier-run benefit show entitledLegends of The Arena at the originalECW Arena inSouth Philadelphia. He accompanied the Blue Meanie to the ring where they as the Blue World Order defeated the team ofLittle Guido and Big Sal the Full Blooded Italians.[11][12] On August 8, 2010, Bucci took part inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling's ECW reunion show,Hardcore Justice, where he, as Hollywood Nova, accompanied Stevie Richards to the ring and later attackedTommy Dreamer during his match with Raven.[13]
Bucci appeared in the "On the Spot Title Shot" Battle Royal for Pro Wrestling Syndicate in March 2015 where he reunited with BWO stablemates Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie. The three also appeared at Pro Wrestling Syndicate's Supercard show on June 6, 2015, as part of Mick Foley's 50th Birthday Celebration. On September 4, 2015, Hollywood Nova, Big Stevie Cool, and Da Blue Guy reunited as the Blue World Order forChikara's2015 King of Trios tournament. They were eliminated from the tournament in their first round match by the Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Max Smashmaster).[14] During the third night of the tournament, Bucci worked a tag team match under his Simon Dean gimmick.[15]
He is the twin brother of Phoenix Championship Wrestling promoter and founder Don "Donnie B." Bucci.[4] After retiring in 2007, Bucci began working as a licensedMortgage broker throughout the United States.[4]
,Internet Wrestling Database
Media related toMike Bucci at Wikimedia Commons