| Mamalukes | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | Big Vito[1] Johnny the Bull[1] Tony Marinara[1] |
| Name(s) | The Mamalukes Big Vito and Johnny the Bull |
| Billed heights | Vito: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) Johnny: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Combined billed weight | 495 lb (225 kg) |
| Billed from | Little Italy, Manhattan, New York |
| Former member(s) | Disco Inferno (manager) |
| Debut | 1999[1] |
| Disbanded | 2001 |
TheMamalukes were aprofessional wrestlingtag team inWorld Championship Wrestling.[1]
The Mamalukes were formed in late 1999 whenBig Vito arrived in WCW and established a team withJohnny the Bull. They were managed byTony Marinara.[1] Thegimmick was a takeoff ofItalian Americans in theMafia which they played up heavily.
In late 1999,Disco Inferno began entering the ring with Marinara at his side. AtWCW Mayhem, however, Inferno accidentally knocked his manager unconscious with a chair, causing his own distraction and loss of theWCW Cruiserweight Championship toEvan Karagias.[2] Marinara then left Inferno and joined the newly introduced Mamalukes.[1] A war ensued between them with Inferno surprisingly backed by former adversaryLash LeRoux. The two Cruiserweights frequently pulled pranks on their three enemies such astarring and feathering Marinara.
The rival teams were pitted against one another atStarrcade 1999. During the match, Inferno again attacked his partner accidentally, allowing the Mamalukes to pick up the victory.[3] This led to Inferno becoming the Mamalukes'enforcer as a means of paying off his debt and earn their forgiveness. This forced Inferno toturn on LeRoux. He also became the Mamalukes' manager[1] when Marinara left and set them up with twins,Lolli andPop in a failed attempt to distract them while he escaped. In early 2000, the Mamalukesfeuded withDavid Flair andCrowbar and won theirWCW World Tag Team Championship. They also had a substantial feud with theHarris Brothers who defeated them for the titles on two occasions and lost on one. The Mamalukes' final Tag Team title loss came atUncensored 2000.
In April, the Mamalukes joinedthe New Blood faction with Disco Inferno at their side; however, after continually doing their dirty work, he left forThe Filthy Animals. The Mamalukes benefited from their association with the New Blood whenEric Bischoff won theWCW Hardcore Championship. Bischoff did not want this title and gave it to them jointly on June 7. The Mamalukes were then forced into a match on June 19 to decide a single Hardcore Champion. Vito won, and the two split soon afterwards.
When Johnny the Bull returned from an injury in September, 2000, he betrayed Vito and joined Vito's rival faction,The Natural Born Thrillers. Eventually the Mamalukes reunited in December 2000, They teamed together until March 2001, whenthe World Wrestling Federation bought out WCW.
Although the Mamalukes never got the chance to reunite again in another company, both men would later become part of different incarnations ofThe Full Blooded Italians onWorld Wrestling Entertainment'sSmackDown! brand. They each teamed withNunzio who, in both the original andWWE version ofExtreme Championship Wrestling, teamed as part of the F.B.I. with their former manager Marinara. Marinara later adopted the name Tony Mamaluke as a reference to the WCW tag team.