Antonio Pugliese (January 22, 1941 – August 19, 2000), better known by his ring name, Tony Parisi, was a Canadian professional wrestler.

[3] Throughout his career, Pugliese formed many tag teams in various promotions with other wrestlers of Italian descent, including Dominic DeNucci, Tony Marino, and Bruno Sammartino.

He competed as "Tenor" Parisi; in this gimmick, he wore a white tuxedo and sang opera to anger the crowd.

[7] They held the title belts for seven months before dropping them to the team of Baron Mikel Scicluna and Smasher Sloan on September 22.

[7] The team split up when Pugliese left the country briefly and Arnold Skaaland was named as co-holder of the championship in his place.

In 1969 scored victories over heels Toru Tanaka, Luke Graham, George Steele and Baron Mikel Scicluna.

They won the WWA World Tag Team Championship by defeating Buddy Austin and Freddie Blassie.

[10] While defending the title, Pugliese also returned to the WWWF and began competing for the World Championship Wrestling in Australia.

The team lost the belts to Skull Murphy and Killer Karl Kox in May, but Pugliese joined up with Dominic DeNucci to regain the title later that month.

Pugliese and DeNucci continued to challenge for the title, and they defeated Arakawa and Sato in March to win the belts.

They defeated Toru Tanaka and Dick Slater to win the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship in December 1974.

[17] Slater teamed with Johnny Weaver to win the belts back from Pugliese and DeNucci, however in February 1975.

They eventually dropped the titles in a match against The Executioners (a team composed of Killer Kowalski and Big John Studd, who wore masks to hide their identities) on May 11, 1976.

When the promotion (which had since been renamed the World Wrestling Federation) decided to reactivate the WWF International Heavyweight Championship in 1982, Parisi became the new champion.

He defeated Rene Goulet on television for WWF Prime Time Wrestling on October 13, 1985 taped in Toronto.

Parisi's final reign with the title began on February 20, 1984, when he joined up with Dino Bravo to regain the belts.

Their title reign lasted for several months before Lefebvre and Martin defeated Parisi and Bravo to win back the championship.

He reunited with Brito in a tag team match, and they defeated Greg Valentine and Terry Funk by disqualification.

[23] Pugliese is credited as the inspiration behind George "The Animal" Steele's gimmick of eating turnbuckle padding in the ring.