Nunzio Says WWE Asked About Trainer Role Before 2008 Release

Nunzio says WWE asked whether he would consider training developmental wrestlers several months before his 2008 release. He was still under contract and wanted to keep wrestling, while a move from New York to Louisville would have been difficult for his family.

Speaking with Bryan Asbury on Developmentally Speaking, the former Little Guido said he had been spending more time at home toward the end of his WWE run. He did not initially expect a release, but he now sees the inquiry from John Laurinaitis, known as Johnny Ace, differently.

“There was a point I was sitting home a lot getting paid. … That’s always great, sitting home getting paid, but not in the wrestling business. That’s not good. In the real world, you don’t sit home and get paid. In wrestling, you’re doing that, that means they ain’t have nothing for you. You don’t want to sit home and get paid. You want to be working.”

Nunzio said Laurinaitis raised the possibility of a developmental role roughly four or five months before his release. He described his belief that the conversation may have been an attempt to find him another place in WWE as hindsight, rather than something the company told him.

“Four or five months before my release, Johnny actually asked me if I would be interested. … They had Kentucky as their developmental, Louisville. … He came to me and he’s like, ‘Hey, would you ever think about training the guys?’ … My son at that time was only, I don’t know, four. My wife was working, school and stuff like that. We were living in New York. … I still had a job with WWE. But I think that was a feeler to see. … I look at it afterwards where he probably is like, ‘I’m gonna cut this guy, but let me see, maybe he wants to come.’”

He said he would have welcomed a trainer role closer to home, and recalled past talk of a Connecticut school. Louisville would have required a move while his son was young, so he continued wrestling instead.

“If that was in my area, because there was a point there was talk many years ago that they were going to do a school in Connecticut. … The problem is it’s too expensive and they can’t afford to live in Connecticut. … I would have loved to be part of that. I live 20 minutes from their office, right down the street. That would be perfect.”

WrestlingHeadlines’ Developmentally Speaking coverage archive has more interviews from wrestlers who worked through WWE’s earlier developmental systems. Nunzio’s account concerns an informal inquiry; he did not say he received a formal trainer offer.

Source: Nunzio on Developmentally Speaking. Quotations are from the original video’s YouTube auto-generated transcript.