Chuck Palumbo Bio
The majority of wrestling fans aren't aware that Chuck Palumbo has been involved in wrestling for about 10 years now. He's not a new guy by any means. Chuck Palumbo is a veteran of the game.
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World Championship Wrestling
A lot of wrestling fans often criticized WCW for not creating their own stars. They did try to create stars. They just weren't as successful at marketing them as the WWE was.
A group of stars that WCW tried to create was the Natural Born Thrillers. The group consisted of Chuck Palumbo, "Above Average" Mike Sanders, Sean O'Haire, Shawn Stasiak, Reno, Mark Jindrak, and Johnny the Bulls (later known as Johnny Stamboli in the WWE).
The Natural Born Thrillers were off to a good start. They were young, athletic, and had the looks to become future stars. WCW had enough faith in them to give them the spotlight immediately.
Out of the entire group, Chuck Palumbo remains the only one that has consistently stuck on with the WWE after WCW shut down.
Chuck Palumbo wasn't a freak of nature like Sean O'Haire when it came to athleticism. He also didn't have the same gift of gab that Mike Sanders displayed on the mic. However, he was the best overall performer in the entire group. He was good at a lot of things without being great any anything in particular.
During his time in WCW, he engaged in battles with veteran wrestlers like Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Brian Adams, Brian Clarke, and others. |
World Wrestling Entertainment
When WCW shut down, Chuck Palumbo was one of the wrestlers who impressed Vince McMahon enough to have his contract picked up by WWE.
Chuck Palumbo came into the company as WCW World Tag Team Champion along with Sean O'Haire. WWE didn't feel like Sean O'Haire was developed enough, so they had the duo drop the WCW World Tag Team Championship to Kane and the Undertaker. Sean O'Haire was then sent down to OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling) for further development.
That left Chuck Palumbo in WWE without a tag team partner. Since management didn't have enough faith in him as a singles wrestler at the time, they decided to pair him up with veteran Billy Gunn. The two started off as a run of the mill tag team before being given a homosexual gimmick. Things escalated to the point where there was an actual wedding booked between Chuck Palumbo and Billy Gunn, which was later explained as being a publicity stunt.
The duo was pretty successful as they won the World Tag Team Championship twice. However, the problem with playing a character like that is that fans will continue to associate the wrestler with character well after he stops playing that character.
After playing a generic singles heel for a bit, Chuck Palumbo was paired up with former Natural Born Thillers stablemate Johnny Stamboli once again to form the Full Blooded Italians. Nunzio, a member of the Full Blooded Italians stable in ECW, rounded out the stable. The trio started becoming quickly popular with the fans after turning face, but for some reason, the WWE decided to disband them by trading Chuck Palumbo over to Raw.
Over on the Raw brand (he mainly worked on Heat), he was given the gimmick of a mechanic named Custom Chucky P. Despite being given several wins over low level wrestlers, the gimmick was a failure. It led to Chuck Palumbo being released from WWE.
After being released by WWE, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli (who was released afterwards) went over to Japan to work some tag team matches. The duo then headed over to Italy to work for a bit before making their way down to Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, they worked for the WWC (World Wrestling Council), which is owned by Carlito's father.
Rumors of Chuck Palumbo returning to the WWE began circulating after JBL (John Bradshaw Layfield) mentioned his name while WWE was doing a show for the troops. Chuck Palumbo's brother is a highly decorated soldier. A short while after the rumors surfaced, Chuck Palumbo was actually hired back by WWE, working dark matches and house shows for the next few months.
The writers decided to utilize Chuck Palumbo's real life passion for motorcycles and turn it into a gimmick. On Raw house shows and Sunday Night Heat, Chuck Palumbo began using the new biker gimmick. It received a warm reception from the audience, but many people attribute that more to the motorcycle and the sounds of the motorcycle than Chuck Palumbo himself.
Management then decided to debut Chuck Palumbo's new biker gimmick on Smackdown instead. Once again, he received a warm reception from the audience. After going through several random local jobbers, Chuck Palumbo began what appeared to be a feud with Chris Masters. That was ended, and he was moved into yet another heatless feud with Kenny Dykstra. The feud has failed to generate much of a reaction except for the occasional appearances by Victoria and Michelle McCool into the storyline.
The Future
It's difficult to imagine hearing the following phrase on a pay per view, "Winner, and new World Heavyweight Champion, Chuck Palumbo!" However, that doesn't mean that championship gold isn't in the future for Chuck Palumbo. There's still the WWE United States Heavwyeight Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship.
With the Smackdown tag team division at an all time low (Matt Hardy and MVP won't remain a tag team for much longer), Chuck Palumbo can use his years of expertise to help out. Put Chuck Palumbo and Shannon Moore together as a tag team. Since Shannon Moore doesn't have a well defined gimmick right now, he can easily be modified into another biker fanatic as well. Just like that, Smackdown has another tag team. Oddly enough, Shannon Moore and Chuck Palumbo would be the best tag team on Smackdown because they're both solid workers with some experience behind them.
Chuck Palumbo can also be utilized as a WWE United States Heavwyeight Champion. Thanks to a great feud with Matt Hardy, MVP has been elevated into an uppder midcarder who is on the verge of being a main eventer. MVP can now carry opponents in a feud because he has credibility with the fans. He'll need someone to feud with after his feud with Matt Hardy is over. That someone can be Chuck Palumbo.
Closing Thoughts
It doesn't look like Chuck Palumbo is going to make it as a main event wrestler, but it's not from a lack of effort. He's a hard working wrestler who simply has yet to find the right role. |
