Mike Bucci
| Mike Bucci | |
|---|---|
Bucci as Simon Dean
|
|
| Birth name | Michael Bucci |
| Born |
June 5, 1972 Toms River, New Jersey |
| Residence | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Alma mater | Ocean County College |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Hollywood Nova Nova Super Nova Mike Bucci Simon Dean Bob Star Nova Frehley |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Billed weight | 214 lb (97 kg) |
| Billed from |
Clearwater, Florida (as Simon Dean) Silicon Valley (as Nova) Toms River, New Jersey |
| Trained by | Mike Sharpe |
| Debut | 1992 |
Michael "Mike" Bucci (born June 5, 1972) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. Bucci is probably best known for his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling as Nova, Super Nova, and "Hollywood" Nova and World Wrestling Entertainment as Simon Dean.
After graduating in 1990 from Toms River High School East in Toms River, New Jersey, he attended nearby Ocean County College for a few semesters. There, he met a friend who informed him of a wrestling school in nearby Brick Township, New Jersey, run by "Iron" Mike Sharpe. Bucci trained at the school and officially went pro in 1992.
Bucci's first taste of superstar exposure came between 1992 and 1994 when WWF Chairman Vince McMahon used talent from various promotions as jobbers to various up and coming superstars on WWF programming.
During his time spent in Mike Sharpe's wrestling school, Bucci wrestled as a superhero with a mullet; his attire included a star over his right eye and a sparkly blue cape. Bucci sparked the interest of Raven as Raven was looking to add to Raven's Nest Extreme Championship Wrestling and asked Bucci to appear at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia.
Upon his arrival in ECW, Bucci was immediately paired with Raven, Stevie Richards, and The Blue Meanie in the Flock. His first exposure to the crowd was as a parody of KISS where the wrestlers came out to KISS's hit "Rock and Roll All Nite" and did the bump and strut with air guitars. Although it was intended to garner heat with the crowd, it was an immediate hit. Later a quote was stated to have been said by Bubba Ray Dudley in the Rise and Fall of ECW book, "that was great; the crowd really loved it. The only thing better than that would be ... a parody of the nWo."
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