Mario Mancini (born Leonard Inzitari; June 21, 1966) is a retired American professional wrestler who mainly worked in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a babyface jobber from 1984 to 1991.
On July 31, 1984, Mancini and fellow students Dave Barbie, AJ Petrucci, and Robby Parliament accompanied Altomare to a WWF taping in Poughkeepsie.
[6] In his second match he faced "Dr. D.' Dave Schultz at a house show in West Warwick, RI on August 13, 1984; during that encounter, Mario had his nose broken in two places.
Having lost his first five professional matches, the young wrestler gained the first victory of his career when he defeated real-life trainer Tony Altomare by disqualification at a house show in Middletown, CT on September 26, 1984.
On December 5, he gained the second victory of his young career when he teamed with Swede Hanson to defeat Johnny Rodz and AJ Petruzzi at a house show in Bronx, NY.
[9] Following several additional losses to various talents at house shows and on television, he was memorably squashed by King Kong Bundy in a warmup match prior to the latter's main event program at WrestleMania 2.
Mancini rebounded to gain another victory, this time teaming with fellow rookie wrestler Paul Roma to defeat Gino Carabello & Pete Pompeii on March 6, 1985, in Stratford, CT.
Appearing with Paul Roma, Jim Powers, Steve Lombardi, and "The Duke Of Dorchester" Pete Doherty, host Vince McMahon interviewed the undercard wrestlers on their motivations and plans.
In the summer and fall of 1985 he would compete against a host of wrestlers, including Terry Funk, King Kong Bundy, and Randy Savage, as well as teaming semi-regularly with Paul Roma.
Mario rebounded to gain his first pinfall victory of his career, pinning Gino Carabello on November 9, 1985, at a house show in New Haven, CT.[13][14] Mancini entered 1986 now entrenched as one of the WWF's most visible jobbers.
His losing streak continued as he lost a variety of televised and untelevised matches to Harley Race, The Hart Foundation, Hercules, Butch Reed, and Dino Bravo.
On the Feb 14th edition of Superstars, Mancini would team with Sivi Afi to face the updated version of Demolition as Barry Darsow replaced Colley in the role of Smash.
He returned on April 24 to team with Sivi Afi and Lanny Poffo to face The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff, and Butch Reed in an unsuccessful effort.
The losing streak extended as Mancini would fall to The One Man Gang, Outback Jack, The Heenan Family, The Islanders, The Young Stallions and Ron Bass during the remainder of the year.
[17][18] Mancini opened 1989 with a televised defeat at the hands of the newly christened "Brooklyn Brawler" (Steve Lombardi) on the February 15th edition of WWF Superstars.
Much like Steve Lombardi, Mancini participated in the debuts of several individual performers and tag-teams in the past, including Randy Savage, King Kong Bundy, Ted Arcidi, One Man Gang, Hercules Hernandez, the original and final versions of Demolition and The Hart Foundation.
Mario Mancini made his return to competition on September 12, 2015, at the debut event of the PAPW in East Haven, CT, defeating Richard Holliday.