Mike Bucci

Michael Bucci (born June 5, 1972) is an American retired professional wrestler.

Bucci is best known for his appearances in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Nova, Super Nova, and "Hollywood" Nova and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Simon Dean.

Bucci was trained in professional wrestling by Mike Sharpe, and debuted in 1992, wrestling on the independent circuit.

In late 1993, Bucci made several appearances in the World Wrestling Federation, wrestling in tag team matches against the Steiner Brothers and the Headshrinkers on Monday Night Raw.

In 1996, Bucci debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Super Nova (later shortened to Nova), utilizing a superhero character.

He made his ECW debut at Hostile City Showdown against El Puerto Riqueño, with the match ending in a no contest due to outside interference by The Eliminators.

He was later paired with Raven, Stevie Richards, and The Blue Meanie as part of the Raven's Nest faction.

Nova would often pair with Richards and Meanie to imitate rock bands such as KISS and The Jackson 5.

Bucci, along with Richards, asked permission from both Raven and Paul Heyman to parody the New World Order (nWo); it was granted, and Bucci was given credit with the creation of The Blue World Order (bWo) logo.

Bucci parodied Hollywood Hogan as Hollywood Nova, Richards became "Big Stevie Cool" (a takeoff on Kevin Nash's nickname of "Big Daddy Cool"), and Meanie was "Da Blue Guy", a takeoff on Scott Hall, "The Bad Guy".

bWo debuted at November to Remember where they helped Richards in defeating David Tyler Morton Jericho.

Many other members were added and removed between 1996 and 1998 before the team split in the latter.

bWo would become popular with the fans turning into fan favorites and leaving Raven's Nest in the process.

Richards left the bWo to return to Raven's Nest, and Nova and Meanie continued to team together as a tag team.

On the July 17, 1997, episode of Hardcore TV, Nova unsuccessfully challenged Taz for the World Television Championship.

bWo feuded with the much larger stable Full Blooded Italians throughout 1998, defeating them at Wrestlepalooza.

In the fall of the year, bWo entered a rivalry with Danny Doring and Roadkill, defeating them at November to Remember.

After Meanie left the company, Bucci changed his gimmick, becoming Super Nova, and adopting a more serious personality.

He would start wearing wrestling attires based in the suits of comic book characters like The Flash, Green Lantern and Venom.

He formed a tag team with Chris Chetti as the two challenged Dudley Boyz for the World Tag Team Championship on numerous occasions but failed to win the titles.

At Living Dangerously, Nova teamed with Spike Dudley to defeat the Dudley Boyz.

Nova defeated Rod Price at Cyberslam.

Chetti and Nova also simultaneously feuded with Danny Doring and Roadkill, trading wins at Hostile City Showdown and Heat Wave.

At Anarchy Rulz, Nova and Chetti fought Simon Diamond and Tony DeVito to a no contest.

At November to Remember, Nova lost to Little Guido.

u

The rivalry with Doring and Roadkill continued into 2000 as the team of Nova, Jazz and Kid Kash lost to Doring, Roadkill and Diamond in a six-person tag team match.

At Living Dangerously, Chetti and Nova defeated Jado and Gedo in a tag team match.

At Cyberslam, Nova and Jazz lost to Dawn Marie and Lance Storm at Cyberslam.

At Hardcore Heaven, Chetti and Nova defeated Doring and Roadkill and Da Baldies (Angel and Tony DeVito) in a three-way dance.

At Heat Wave, Chetti and Nova defeated Da Baldies.

At the night one of Midtown Massacre, Chetti and Nova participated in a tournament for the vacant World Tag Team Championship, losing to Tap Out (Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger) in the opening round.

At the night two of the event, Chetti and Nova competed against Danny Doring and Roadkill and Tap Out in a three-way dance, where Chetti turned on Nova by hitting him with a chair causing them to get eliminated and breaking up the team.

It marked the beginning of a heated rivalry between the two men, with Nova beating his former partner in a match where the loser was fired at November to Remember.

After Chetti's departure, Nova feuded with Hot Commodity (Julio Dinero, E. Z. Money and Chris Hamrick), wrestling Hot Commodity members Julio Dinero at Massacre on 34th Street, E. Z. Money at Holiday Hell and Chris Hamrick at ECW's final pay-per-view event Guilty as Charged on January 7, 2001.

At the second to last ECW event in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, he was named as Danny Doring's substitute tag team partner (filling in for Amish Roadkill) to help defend the World Tag Team Championship against Hot Commodity; Doring and Nova successfully defended the titles.

His final match for ECW took place on January 13 where he defeated Tom Marquez.

When ECW went out of business, Bucci, as Nova, became more active on the independent scene until 2003.

Nova wrestled in various promotions such as California's Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and New Jersey's Phoenix Championship Wrestling, the latter of which was founded by his brother Don Bucci.

During this time, he formed a successful tag team with Frankie Kazarian known as Evolution (not to be confused with the World Wrestling Entertainment stable of the same name).