Rico Constantino

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Rico Constantino

Rico Constantino on RAW March 31, 2003 at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington.
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Rico Rico Constantino
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)^[1]
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Billed weight	230 lb (100 kg/16 st)
Born	October 1, 1961 (1961-10-01) (age 46)^[1] Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.^[1]
Resides	Las Vegas, Nevada
Billed from	Las Vegas, Nevada
Trained by	Jesse Hernandez OVW
Debut	1998
Retired	July 2005

Amarico Sebastiano Constantino ^[1] (born October 1, 1961), better known as Rico Constantino or Rico, is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling manager of Italian origin. He worked for World Wrestling Entertainment from 2002 - 2004.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

Prior to embarking on his wrestling career, Rico entered Northwestern Military & Naval Academy. He graduated near the top of his class and at one point considered enrollment at West Point. Instead, Rico returned to Las Vegas and settled into a career as a paramedic. This led to enrollment in the police academy, from which he graduated first in the entire state of Nevada. Rico was also on the SWAT team at one point, paving the way for his next career as a bodyguard.^[2]

[edit] Television career

Rico was a contestant on American Gladiators.^[3] He was challenged by Gemini (Michael Horton) to find out if "he had what it took" to be a contestant for the show. He would end up defeating Gemini in his best event, the Joust, one of the few contenders to do so (Horton lost only 8 of his Jousts on his three seasons of AG).

Rico went on to defeat all the other contestants and Gladiators to become the champion for the first half of the 1990-1991 season.^[3] In the Grand Championship, Rico came up just short, losing to Craig Branham by two seconds in the Eliminator.

Rico next appeared on the European game show Capture Ft. Boyard, with a win over his former Gladiator nemesis Craig Branham. On the show, he was the first and only competitor to capture the needed key in the bungee jump challenge on an upswing.^[3]

[edit] Power Team

A chance encounter led Rico to being recruited by The Power Team.^[3] A two week tryout lasted almost two years as Rico traveled the world impressing young people with feats of strength. At one point while with the Power Team, he was ordained as a minister to allow him to counsel kids. His work with children includes the Special Olympics and other children's charities.

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment

Rico began to train with the Empire Wrestling Federation for a career in the wrestling business. Rico was discovered by WWF officials Terry Taylor and Dr. Tom Prichard. After only 12 matches, Rico signed a developmental deal with the WWF.^[2]

Rico was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling for further training, before being sent up to work for WWE. He debuted in WWE on the March 21, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as a heel.^[4] He was best known as a manager of teams like Billy and Chuck (Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo)^[5] and Three Minute Warning,^[6] portraying a homosexual stylist as his gimmick. Later in his WWE stint, Rico turned face due to fan reaction to his over-the-top gimmick, teaming up with initially-reluctant partner then baby face, Charlie Haas (with whom he held the WWE Tag Team Championship)^[7] and had a valet, Miss Jackie.^[8] He retained the homosexual gimmick he shared with Gunn and Palumbo, taking it to new levels, much in the vein of Adrian Street.^[9] He was unexpectedly released by WWE on November 7, 2004. After that, he went to All-Japan Pro Wrestling, where he held the All-Asian Tag Team titles with fellow former WWE superstar Bull Buchanan.

Constantino officially retired from professional wrestling in July of 2005, causing him and Buchanan to vacate the All-Asian Tag Team titles, and is once again working as a law enforcement officer.^[3]