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Chuck Palumbo

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Chuck Palumbo United States
Born (1971-06-15) June 15, 1971 (age 53)
West Warwick, Rhode Island Rhode Island
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Chuck Palumbo
The Dude
Jungle Jim
Chuck
Billed height6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
Billed weight285 lb (130 kg)
Billed fromProvidence, Rhode Island
San Diego, California
Trained byPaul Orndorff
WCW Power Plant
Debut1998

Charles Ronald (Chuck) Palumbo (born June 15 1971) is an Italian American professional wrestler, who has previously performed for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its SmackDown! brand.

Wrestling career

World Championship Wrestling

Palumbo sat on his career in 1998 on the independent circuit, using a surfer gimmick and the ring name The Dude. Palumbo made his debut appearance on WCW Monday Nitro on October 19, 1998 as a fan who accepted the challenge of Ernest "The Cat" Miller. Six months later, he was offered a training contract by WCW in April 1999. Just prior to the hiring of Vince Russo & Ed Ferrera as bookers for WCW, many of the Power Plant wrestlers would debut on WCW Saturday Night and WCW WorldWide. Palumbo's initial WCW run was under the name Jungle Jim, his gimmick being a man of the jungle. Palumbo would be undefeated in matches on the lower-tier programs, which were mostly against other Power Plant graduates. In 2000, Palumbo made his debut on WCW Thunder under his real name Chuck Palumbo. Palumbo showed talent and charisma, and was chosen by Eric Bischoff & Vince Russo to be the New Blood's version of Lex Luger in May 2000. He was given the nickname "The Main Event".

The next month Palumbo would form the team The Perfect Event with Shawn Stasiak and the pair would go on to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship together. Their main feud was against KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark). In August, Stasiak and Palumbo helped form the Natural Born Thrillers with Mike Sanders, Sean O'Haire, Mark Jindrak, and Reno. They were briefly "coached" by Kevin Nash. Johnny the Bull, a tag team partner of Palumbo later on in WWE, would also join the group following the formation.

Palumbo and Stasiak won the WCW Tag Team Title two more times before splitting in early January 2001 when he and Stasiak won a tag team battle royal with Sean O'Haire and Mark Jindrak for a future tag team title shot. After the conclusion of the match Mike Sanders declared both teams victorious and that any combination of the four would face The Insiders ("Diamond" Dallas Page and Kevin Nash). Palumbo and Sean O'Haire would be the two members of the Natural Born Thrillers who would face and defeat Page & Nash for the tag titles at WCW Sin on January 14 2001.

Following the title victory, the Natural Born Thrillers broke up when the team of Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak would become jealous of Palumbo and O'Haire. The teams would face each other at WCW SuperBrawl Revenge on February 18, 2001 for the tag team titles. Palumbo and O'Haire retained their titles, inadvertently turning face when the fans began backing the duo. The duo would also retain their titles against Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger) at WCW Greed in March, WCW's last pay-per-view.

On the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Palumbo & O'Haire would defeat Team Canada's Mike Awesome and Lance Storm in the final WCW World Tag Team Championship title defense on the program.

Palumbo and O'Haire came into the WWF on the June 28, 2001 episode of SmackDown! as part of The Alliance. Chuck and Sean dropped the WCW Tag Team Title to The Undertaker and Kane quietly in mid-August.

Sean was sent to developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling in early September 2001, and Chuck was thrown out of The Alliance in late October, so he joined the WWF in November.

World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment

After receiving the boot from The Alliance, Chuck found himself a tag team partner in Billy Gunn. The pair started as a generic babyface tandem working dark matches, but were later given a gimmick that saw the pair grow increasingly affectionate towards each other, showing evidence of a homosexual relationship and Palumbo became known simply as Chuck and eventually cut his long surfer hair off.

On the February 21, 2002 edition of SmackDown!, Billy and Chuck defeated Tazz & Spike Dudley to win the World Tag Team Championship. They later found a "personal stylist" on March 21, 2002 in the ambiguously flamboyant Rico.

Billy and Chuck lost the tag team gold to Rikishi and Rico, who was forced to team with Rikishi on May 19, 2002 at Judgement Day. Less than a month later Rico would help Billy and Chuck recapture their titles, but this reign wouldn't last long when Billy and Chuck lost the titles to Edge and Hulk Hogan.

In the late summer of 2002, Billy and Chuck were the source of controversy when Chuck apparently proposed to Billy on September 5, 2002 edition of SmackDown! asking him to be his "partner for life". Billy and Chuck had a marriage ceremony on the 2002 season premiere of SmackDown!. Just before they tied the knot, however, they revealed that the entire ordeal was a publicity stunt, and both characters disavowed their on-screen homosexuality. When Billy and Chuck decided not to go through with the marriage, Rico turned on them by helping Eric Bischoff and 3-Minute Warning attack the duo. Rico subsequently jumped to RAW as the manager of 3-Minute Warning, who faced Billy and Chuck at Unforgiven 2002 but lost.

Billy Gunn was injured in early October 2002, and Chuck became a generic heel, working SmackDown!'s B-show WWE Velocity for a few months using his original ring name Chuck Palumbo once again.

In February 2003, Palumbo formed the Full Blooded Italians (F.B.I.) in WWE, a faction which had previously been seen in Extreme Championship Wrestling. After a beating at the hands of Rikishi, Nunzio threatened to bring in his "family" in order to gain revenge. The next week, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli joined Nunzio to form the F.B.I. and attacked Rikishi.

File:FBI WWE.jpg
Chuck Palumbo (far right) as a member of the FBI with Stamboli (far left) and Nunzio (middle)

This version initially gained little success, but would go on to have brief feuds with Los Guerreros, Chris Benoit, Rhyno, Brian Kendrick, Nathan Jones, the APA, and The Undertaker. When the group turned face it grew in popularity and just when the group was starting to get over with the fans it was disbanded, as Chuck was traded to the RAW brand on March 22, 2004 along with A-Train in exchange for Rico and Jackie Gayda.

After Palumbo was traded to the RAW brand, he was kept off television until July 2004, when he debuted a new look and entrance music. His new image resembled a cross between an auto mechanic and a greaser. It was not long before Palumbo was a regular on RAW's B-show WWE Heat. Towards the end of his tenure there, he started using the nickname "Custom Chucky P" to go with a car mechanic/enthusiast gimmick. The gimmick became short-lived, and as of November 3 2004, Palumbo (along with Gail Kim and Nidia) was released by WWE. After his release, Palumbo went on to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling.

After WWE

Chuck Palumbo, along with the later released Johnny Stamboli, went on to become a member of Voodoo Murders, AJPW's main heel group, and took part a heated feud against RO&D. Palumbo teamed with former FBI partner Johnny Stamboli to challenge for the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship on March 20, 2005, but were defeated by Jamal and Taiyo Kea of RO&D.

Stamboli and Palumbo's next stop would be with the Nu-Wrestling Evolution promotion in Italy, where the pair reformed the FBI, using the gimmick to make themselves the top babyfaces in the promotion.

Both he and Stamboli, would also make appearances in a World Wrestling Council show where they challenged Ultimo Dragon, Mistical, and Negro Guerrero, in a tag match which they would win; securing both the first and third falls.

Return to WWE

After the Tribute to the Troops RAW special on December 19, 2005 in Afghanistan rumors of Chuck Palumbo returning to WWE came up. It was announced by Dave Meltzer that WWE had an interest in bringing back Chuck Palumbo due to the fact his brother is something of a war hero in Afghanistan. John "Bradshaw" Layfield mentioned on television that war hero Chris Palumbo is "the brother of one of our wrestlers."

During March 2006, Chuck Palumbo began working dark matches for both brands. On March 12, 2006, it was announced on WWE.com that Chuck Palumbo would make his return to WWE. In an exclusive interview, he claimed that he was happy to be returning and that he looks forward to a singles competition with a goal of winning the WWE Championship. Palumbo continued to wrestle very sporadically at house shows and in dark matches over the next year.

On April 30, 2007, Palumbo worked a dark match against Kenny Dykstra on RAW and debuted a new biker gimmick.

Palumbo officially returned on the May 25, 2007 edition of Heat as a face (retaining the biker gimmick, as well as growing his hair out), defeating Charlie Haas in singles competition. He has since then made reoccuring appearances on Heat, defeating jobbers. On June 3,2007 at the Smackdown and ECW house show Chuck Palumbo defeated Finlay via roll-up, after Finlay was distracted by Hornswoggle.

On July 6, 2007, Palumbo made his debut on SmackDown! defeating Kenny Dykstra using his new finisher (Full Throttle).

In wrestling

  • Nicknames
    • "The Main Event"
    • Custom Chucky P
    • Chucky
  • Entrance music
  • "Freestyle Hombre" (Palumbo And O'Haire Theme) from the Extreme Music production library July 2001 - November 2001
  • "Sirens" (Billy And Chuck Theme) November 2001 - December 2001
  • "I've Got It All" (Billy And Chuck Theme) (WWE Anthology) January 2002 - February 2002
  • "You Look So Good To Me" (Billy And Chuck Theme) (WWE Anthology) February 2002 - September 2002
  • "Tear It Down" (Billy And Chuck Theme) September 2002 - November 2002
  • "Diggin' With A Spoon" November 2002 - March 2003
  • "Bada Bing" (FBI Theme) March 2003 - June 2003
  • "Bada Boom" (FBI Theme) June 2003 - July 2004
  • "Depth Charge" July 2004 - April 2007
  • "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" (Independent Wrestling) 2005 - 2006
  • "Avant Hard" April 2007 - June 2007
  • "You Will Remember Me" June 2007 - Present

Championships and accomplishments

Personal life

Chuck Palumbo at IMDb

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