10 Wackiest Wrestling Stables Ever

By Douglas Scarpa /

6. Full Blooded Italians

ECW was renowned for its hardcore action and extreme violence, but Paul Heyman€™s wrestling organization was good at other things as well -- including making stars out of sometimes lesser talents. One way in which Paul E. would showcase his mid-card stars was to put them into stables, often with a strange tongue-in-cheek approach. The Full Blooded Italians -- or FBI -- was one of these wacky groups that afforded wrestlers a greater opportunity than they would probably get on their own. The FBI were supposed to be -- as their name stated -- a group of stereotypical Italian-American goombas. There was only one issue -- aside from just a few of the groups members, most of the stable€™s cohorts were obviously not of Italian descent. Little Guido Maritato -- later known as Nunzio in the WWE -- and his €œlittle€ brother Big Guido were legitimate Italian-Americans. However, there were also Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich -- two traditional Southern good ol€™ boys -- as well as J.T. Smith -- an African-American. Despite their lack of Italian ancestry, these members would enact traditional Italian stereotypes like brash hand gestures, references to Mafia ties, and constant praising of Italian-American figures like Frank Sinatra. The group would initially serve as just a comedy act. However, after the departure of most of its members, and with the addition of Tony Mamaluke, the FBI became a more serious threat in ECW€™s tag team division. Little Guido and Mamaluke would feud with the team of Mikey Whipwreck and Yoshihiro Tajiri during ECW€™s final months. The FBI was revived in WWE as a more serious faction, with Chuck Palumbo & Johnny Stamboli as new members and Nunzio as its leader. Nunzio would capture the Cruiserweight Championship on two separate occasions before the group disbanded. The original FBI would again see a resurgence during ECW€™s revived run in 2006 before Nunzio€™s eventual release in 2008.