Before becoming "Tony D'Angelo," the man behind the gimmick JosephAriola established himself as a collegiate wrestler at the University atBuffalo. By 2019, he transitioned into pro wrestling, competing on the independent circuit before signing with WWE in 2021, debuting under his Italian-American Mafia gimmick, which D'Angelo saw as an easy choice."To me it wasn't that hard because it's a part of who I am," he said, during an interview on "The Rich Eisen Show.""I'mItalian, you know, we have Sunday dinners and you know, that was just my life for a while. Well, forever, really."D'Angelo then commented on people who seem to take offense on his behalf for the gimmick playing to his ethnic roots, clarifying that it was all his idea from the get-go."It was a pretty easy transition. It wasn't out of my realm at all," he chuckled. "You know, whacking people and stuff, you know? I wasn't doing that in real life."D'Angelo then claimed that the original plans for him were to actually be paired with BronBreakker as the second-coming of the Steiner Brothers, singlets and all, but the changing tone of "WWE NXT" nixed the idea."I just remember one day Road Dogg came up and he was like, 'Hey man, we're not doing this,'" D'Angelo remembered. "It was right when [NXT] 2.0 kicked off.""The Don of NXT" explained that he had to quickly figure out what his character was going to be, and simply slipped into the gimmick during an in-house match, which impressed the higher ups at WWE so much that they simply allowed him to run with it.If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The RichEisenShow," and provide a h/t to WrestlingInc. for the transcription.
