Chuck Palumbo recently spoke with WrestleZone about his wrestling career, which including stays in WCW and WWE. After Palumbo’s run as “Billy & Chuck” on SmackDown had ended, he joined Nunzio and Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli in the stable known as “The FBI.” The original rendition of the group was one of ECW’s most popular groups, and WWE decided to revive the group with Nunzio (aka ECW’s Little Guido) as the only member in both variations.
Asked about the transition from Billy & Chuck to The FBI revival, Palumbo said the former was a lot of fun but it had run its course. Noting that the group was already planned for a split, Palumbo says an injury to Billy Gunn opened the door for his next move in the company.
“So, Vince had asked me what I wanted to do next and asked about my background. [He’d] thought about revamping the FBI and I thought it was a great idea. It was easy to do because I grew up in New England, ya know, Providence, the suburbs of Providence, similar to the suburbs of Philadelphia, ya know, Italian Americans and that sort of style of gimmick. So, we did that, we were heels, we got a good crowd response,” he explained. “I thought me as a character and us as a group could’ve gone further but for whatever reason, they didn’t continue to push. We had some great angles with [Brock] Lesnar, Taker, [Eddie] Guerrero, stuff like that.”
Chuck Palumbo‘s run in the FBI saw them running an “illegal betting ring” backstage and working as the hired muscle of Mr. McMahon and others. Palumbo (and Stamboli) were released in November 2004, but Palumbo was brought back a little under two years later. This time, he was working on his greaser gimmick and said he wanted to build that character instead of revisiting his past because he was planning ahead for his future.
“So, that worked and then I left the company and then I went to Japan and Mexico. I had a great time working over there, then I came back [to WWE] in ‘06, I sat for a while and then Vince had asked me what I wanted to do. I showed him this [motorcycle] build that I did in a magazine and he asked why we weren’t doing this, and I said I’m not sure and then we started to develop that,” he said. “The image was basically just an extension of what I did and on the business side of things there was a two-year contract and I knew that was probably my last contract, so I was trying to make the transition too. So, it was like a pitch for a character but also to promote what I was going to be doing once I left the company, so I was fortunate enough to get that opportunity.”
Noting how protective ECW fans were of the promotion’s legacy, Palumbo was asked if he ever got any backlash when they brought the gimmick back to WWE. Palumbo said he had nothing but good experiences with it and praised the dynamic they had together.
“Actually, no, not at all. I knew that I felt fortunate enough to be able to take on that role. They had talented guys in that role in the past, so I just felt fortunate enough to be able to get the opportunity to get that role. It was going to be a different FBI with us, obviously,” he noted, “different characters with a different dynamic with myself, Johnny and Nunz. We did it, as a fan, you could probably have seen the [contrasts of] the different stables of the FBI but, no, we had fun.”
Chuck Palumbo also spoke with WrestleZone about what he’s been up to since retiring from wrestling and what really inspired the second version of his “motorcycle” gimmick. You can check out his full response by clicking the link below:
