| The Pitbulls | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tag team | |
| Members | Pitbull #1 Pitbull #2 |
| Name(s) | The Pitbulls Wolfe and Durante[1] Mad Bull Busters[1] The American Bulldogs The Pit Bulldogs |
| Billed heights | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) - Wolfe 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) - Durante |
| Combined billed weight | 485 lb (220 kg; 34.6 st) |
| Hometown | Hammonton, New Jersey |
| Debut | 1989 |
| Disbanded | 2002 |
The Pitbulls (sometimes written asThe Pit Bulls) were aprofessional wrestlingtag team who consisted of "Pitbull #1"Gary Wolfe and "Pitbull #2"Anthony Durante. They were best known for their tenure inExtreme Championship Wrestling, where they wereone-timeTag Team Champions. In addition to tag team success, both members were eachone timeTelevision Champions as well.
In 1989, Wolfe and Durante wrestled briefly in theWorld Wrestling Federation, losing toThe Hart Foundation on March 4, 1989. They also lost to TheBrain Busters on June 27, 1989, and the Fabulous Rougeau brothers on Primetime aired on 25 September 1989.
In 1990, Wofle and Durante went to South Atlantic Pro Wrestling as the American Bulldogs and later renaming themselves the Pitbulls. They defeated TheNasty Boys for the tag team titles.
In 1991 they went toNew Japan Pro-Wrestling as the Mad Bull Busters. They stayed there for a year.
The Pitbulls debutedExtreme Championship Wrestling in April 1992 both competing in battle royals to crown the first ECW Heavyweight Champion. Neither were successful.Durante left shortly after,Wolfe, became known as "the Pitbull", won theTelevision Championship on April 16, 1994. Later 1994, Wolfe and Durante, who became "Pitbull #2", reunited The Pitbulls and had notable feuds withPublic Enemy andthe Bad Breed, the feud with the Bad Breed culminated at theNovember to Remember in a match where the Losing team was forced to split up. The Pitbulls were victorious. The Pitbulls won their first and onlyTag Team Championship on September 16, 1995, atGangstas Paradise fromRaven andStevie Richards.[2] They were soon joined byFrancine, who became theirmanager and dubbed herself "The Beastmaster". One month later atSouth Philly Jam, they lost the titles back to Raven and Richards.[2] In 1996, The Pitbulls moved into an intensefeud withThe Eliminators, which saw their manager Francine receive theTotal Elimination on two occasions. The feud culminated at the first-everCyberSlam in a three-on-threedog collar match, which saw Francine team with the Pitbulls againstStevie Richards with The Eliminators. The Pitbulls won the match aftersuperbombing Richards and letting Francine pin Richards. However, The Eliminators hit the Total Elimination on Pitbull #1, Pitbull #2, and Francine after the match. After this, Pitbull #2 went on to win the ECW Television Championship on June 1 at theFight the Power event; he held the belt foronly 21 days before losing it toChris Jericho atHardcore Heaven.
On July 13, 1996, atHeat Wave, Francineturned on The Pitbulls and became the manager ofShane Douglas. The feud between Douglas and The Pitbulls culminated on April 13, 1997, at the first ECWpay-per-viewBarely Legal, where Pitbull #2 faced Douglas for the Television Championship in a losing effort.
After leaving ECW, The Pitbulls began competing on theindependent circuit. Pitbull #2 began a brief singles run, which included one-time reigns as theMEWF Heavyweight Champion and the second-everJAPW Heavyweight Champion, both of which ended via title vacation due to injuries. The team returned to the tag team division as they debuted in theNational Wrestling Alliance's New Jersey territory, where they won theNWA United States Tag Team Championship on two occasions in 1998 and 1999 and remained the title's final champions upon the title's deactivation 2000. They lost to theHeadbangers onWWF Shotgun Saturday Night on August 24, 1998. In 2000, the team went their separate ways as Pitbull #1 began competing under his real name along with the nickname "The Pitbull" forPro-Pain Pro Wrestling, where he was the company's first-ever and only two-timeHeavyweight Champion as well as a one-timeTag Team Champion with. They toured many promotions includingXtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW),Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) andWorld Wrestling Council (WWC). In 2000 they disbanded for brief period of time.
On March 4, 2000, they returned to ECW as they lost toAmish Roadkill andDanny Doring.
They reunited for only one night on May 12, 2002, atInternational Wrestling Association event in Puerto Rico defeating Bryan Madness and Maniac. This would be the last time the Pitbulls would be together. Also it was the last match for Durante.
Durante died on September 25, 2003, along with his girlfriend Dianna Hulsey due todrug overdoses. A substance believed to be the painkilleroxycodone was found in the house but it was officially announced that he overdosed on the painkillerfentanyl. He and his girlfriend were found after lying in their home dead for days, all while their two small children, a 21-month-old boy and an 8-month-old girl, were apparently alone in the house with the bodies. In 2005, Wolfe appeared atWorld Wrestling Entertainment's first-everOne Night Stand event to introduce the "ECW Remembers" video honoring the ECW alumni who had died, including his tag team partner Durante.
After the death of Durante, Wolfe returned to the independent circuit and began competing for Pro Wrestling Unplugged as "The Pitbull" Wolfe, where he reused The Pitbull gimmick in honor of his late friend and tag team partner.