| Kid Romeo | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Samuel Román |
| Born | (1975-01-01)January 1, 1975 (age 50)[1][2] Miami, Florida[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Kid Romeo[1][2] Romeo[1] |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[2] |
| Billed weight | 185 lb (84 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | South Beach, Florida[2] |
| Trained by | Paul Orndorff[1] WCW Power Plant[1][2] |
| Debut | September 3, 1999[3] |
| Retired | November 16, 2008[4] |
Samuel Román[1][2] (born 1975) is aPuerto Rican-American formerprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his stint inWorld Championship Wrestling in 2001 under thering nameKid Romeo, where he was one half of thefirst everCruiserweight Tag Team Champions alongsideElix Skipper.
After briefly working as a malestripper,[1][2] Román started wrestling in 1999 inWorld Championship Wrestling after being trained byPaul Orndorff at theWCW Power Plant. He debuted later that year at ahouse show on September 3 under the ring name Kid Romeo, where he defeatedTriple A.[3] Two days later, Triple A defeated Romeo in a rematch.[5] After Triple A began using his real name (Allan Funk), the two exchanged victories onSaturday Night before Romeo began wrestling against fellow Power Plant graduates in dark matches through the rest of 1999 and into early 2000.[6]
On the January 24, 2000 episode ofNitro, Romeo made his televised debut and waseasily defeated byThe Wall.[7] Two days later onThunder, Romeo lost toPrince Iaukea in aCruiserweight Championship tournament quarterfinal match.[8] After winning a few consecutive dark matches, Roman was sent toJapan to compete inNew Japan Pro-Wrestling in order to further hone his skills.[6]
After losing a match againstEssa Ríos on the February 10, 2001 episode ofJakked, Roman returned to WCW, where he resumed his Kid Romeo name and lost toChris Harris in adark match beforeSuperBrawl Revenge.[9] On the March 5 episode ofNitro, Romeo was introduced asElix Skipper's mystery tag team partner againstA.J. Styles andAir Paris.[10] With Skipper, Romeo won his redebut match and they both advanced to the semi-finals of a tournament to crown the inauguralCruiserweight Tag Team Champions.[10] Upon returning, Romeo adopted aheelgimmick loosely based onRicky Martin, which was further emphasized with his entrance music being a cover of Martin's song "The Cup of Life". The following week onNitro, Skipper and Romeo defeated TheJung Dragons to advance to the finals of the tournament.[11] On March 18 atGreed, WCW's finalpay-per-view, Romeo and Skipper defeated TheFilthy Animals (Rey Mysterio Jr. andKidman) in the tournament finals to become the promotion's first everCruiserweight Tag Team Champions, which also gave Romeo the first championship of his career.[12] Romeo and Skipper beganfeuding with the Animals over the title, and on the final episode ofThunder on March 21, Romeo and Skipper's undefeated streak was broken as they andChavo Guerrero Jr. lost to Mysterio Jr. Kidman andShane Helms.[13] On the final episode ofNitro on March 26, their feud culminated as Romeo and Skipper lost the Cruiserweight Tag Team Title to Mysterio Jr. and Kidman in what turned out to be the second to last match in WCW's history.[14]
Following WCW's closure, Román traveled toPuerto Rico to wrestle for theWorld Wrestling Council.[2] He also made some appearances inTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling, making his debut there on July 10, 2002, in a six-way elimination match that includedTony Mamaluke,Christopher Daniels,Elix Skipper,Jerry Lynn, andLow Ki, although Román was eliminated after Low Ki forced him to submit. He returned to TNA on May 21 as Romeo, competing in a four-way match againstCM Punk,Jason Cross andPaul London, the latter of whom won the match and became the number one contender to theX Division Championship. From 2003 to 2004, Román would continue to be used as ajobber, losing to the likes ofRaven,Jeff Hardy,Kid Kash andChris Sabin.[2] During his time with TNA, Román's only victory was a tag teamdark match where he andSonjay Dutt defeatedThe Naturals.[2] In addition to TNA, Roman also wrestled inChampionship Wrestling from Florida for a short time, where he feuded with Tyree Pride.[2] He returned to TNA for the final time on May 17, 2005, where he lost toZach Gowen.[9] Román then took a hiatus from wrestling and subsequently began working as anexterminator.[1]
In 2008, Román returned to wrestling as Romeo and joinedNWA South Atlantic. On May 10, he teamed with Benny Blanco as the Casanova Cartel to defeat Manson and Black Knight (the latter substituting for Manson's partner Rico Moon) to win the territory's Tag Team Championship.[4][15][16] The Cartel would go on to hold the title for over six months before being defeated by the SWAT Patrol on November 15.[4][17] Following the title loss, Román retired from wrestling.
