When ECW closed Maritato wrestled for several
independent promotions, mostly in the New York Tri-State area, often teaming with former partner Tony Mamaluke. They had a notable run in
Ring of Honor before Maritato was signed by
World Wrestling Entertainment in
2002.
Maritato was introduced on WWE TV as
Nunzio, a possible reference to the
mob/bodyguard characters Guido and Nunzio in the
MythAdventures series of books by
Robert Asprin, the (
kayfabe) heel cousin of
Jamie Noble on the December 12, 2002 edition of
SmackDown! attacking then babyface,
Crash Holly after he defeated Noble in a match. Nunzio began a
feud with Crash after this, defeating him on several occasions before going on to face the likes of
Tajiri, Shannon Moore, and
Chuck Palumbo.
The team and cousin storyline of Nunzio and Noble soon faded and Nunzio reformed the Full Blooded Italians, this time with
Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli and
Chuck Palumbo but the team found little success. After
WrestleMania XX, Palumbo was
drafted to
RAW, and the F.B.I. was reduced to a tag team. After Stamboli was released, Nunzio began competing in the
cruiserweight division.
In 2005 Maritato returned to his Little Guido persona for one night, reuniting with the original Full Blooded Italians to take on
Super Crazy and
Tajiri in a Three-Way Dance at ECW reunion show
One Night Stand.
As Nunzio he continued to perform on SmackDown!
B-show Velocity as both a
face and a
heel, forming a short-lived tag team with
Funaki. On the
August 6 (taped on
August 2) edition of
Velocity, Nunzio won the
WWE Cruiserweight Championship by defeating
Paul London after a new heel wrestler,
Vito made his debut by giving Nunzio a
blackjack, which he used to knock London out. Nunzio joined forces with Vito, thus becoming a full time heel.
The pair began feuding with
The Mexicools and at
No Mercy 2005, Mexicool member
Juventud defeated Nunzio with a
Juvi Driver to take the Cruiserweight Championship. Nunzio regained the title on
November 15 at a
house show in
Rome, Italy but lost it right back to Juventud on the
November 25 SmackDown!
Nunzio and Vito would both briefly make a face turn by briefly engaging in a feud against Gregory Helms. Later on however, Vito and Nunzio would quickly go back to being heels due to Vito's new god father gimmick.
A significant event occurred for Nunzio during a
Triple Threat match when
The Great Khali interrupted the match and
threw him approximately 10 feet to the floor with no extra padding to soften the fall.
In late May 2006, Nunzio's partnership with Vito began to crumble after it was revealed that Vito (
kayfabe) enjoyed
cross-dressing, which made Nunzio feel betrayed and embarrassed. Nunzio ended his alliance with Vito.