Who Is NXT's Tony D'Angelo

NXT heralded the impending arrival of a former NCAA wrestler.

by Andrew Pollard
Joe Ariola
WWE.com

With last night's NXT serving up the debuts of several new talents, audiences also got a vignette promoting the 'coming soon' arrival of Tony D'Angelo.

Portrayed as a Chicago mobster of sorts, whose family are in "waste management", D'Angelo talked up his amateur wrestling background and said he's heading to NXT as that's where the "real money" is.

For those wondering about the background of this new character, Tony D'Angelo is Joe Ariola, a former NCAA wrestler. So, when D'Angelo mentioned his amateur background, that's very much legit.

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An undefeated state and national champion during high school, Ariola - as D'Angelo told us - then wrestled for the University of Buffalo, where he qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2016.

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Joe Ariola was one of several prospects signed by WWE in February and sent to the Performance Center, and it looks like he'll soon be seen in-ring on NXT television. As and when his in-ring debut takes place, that's yet to be announced, but one would imagine Tony D'Angelo will show up at some point in next week or two.

Elsewhere, this NXT offering also featured the debuts of Bron Beakker (Bronson Rechsteiner), Von Wagner (Cal Bloom), Brooks Jensen (Ben Buchanan), Trick Williams (Matrick Belton) and Ivy Nile (Emily Andzulis). While Beakker, Wagner and Jensen wrestled on this inaugural NXT 2.0 show, Williams was introduced as the new partner of Carmelo Hayes, whilst Vile is the latest addition to Diamond Mine.

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Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.