Early career (1991–1995) Gilbertti started wrestling in 1991 wrestling his first match on November 20, 1991. He wrestled on the
Georgia independent circuit, where he was best known for his time with Great Championship Wrestling (GCW) where he won several titles. He also had a short stint with the
United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in 1993.
World Championship Wrestling (1995–2001) Mid-card (1995–1996) Gilbertti made his name in
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Disco Inferno, named after
The Trammps'
song and inspired by
John Travolta's character Tony Manero in
Saturday Night Fever. Gilbertti credits
Raven for the birth of the "Disco Inferno" character. He annoyed the audience with his
disco dancer character, which included dancing on the way to the ring and during his matches, the punchline being that fans would chant "
Disco sucks!". He would come out and dance to his entrance music called "Disco Fever", written by
Jimmy Hart. Gilbertti signed a contract with WCW in 1995 and debuted later that same year. He gradually rose to mid-card status as a
tweener, with his
gimmick being that he would forget how to apply his finishing hold, a
standing figure four leglock. Often, he would bring a cheat sheet with a diagram on how to apply the hold to the ring. He mostly competed in the WCW's shows
Saturday Night,
Main Event and
WorldWide that mainly featured mid-card wrestlers . He also competed on January 23, 1996
Clash of the Champions XXXII in a losing effort to
Kevin Sullivan. Inferno made his pay-per-view debut at
Slamboree 1996: Lord of the Ring in a
tag team contest where he teamed up with
Alex Wright against
Dick Slater and
Earl Robert Eaton.
Face push (1996–1997) Although primarily used as a mid-card level talent, Disco started getting over with the fans, some of whom instead of chanting "Disco Sucks", would dance as Disco Inferno made his way to the ring. As such he received a
push in the
cruiserweight division by mid-1996. He began a feud with
Cruiserweight Champion Dean Malenko and unsuccessfully challenged him for the title at
Bash at the Beach. At
World War 3, he participated in the
three ring, 60 man battle royal with the winner receiving a shot at the
World Heavyweight Championship. Inferno was injured in early 1997 and he took some time off before returning in September. His injury was mentioned after Disco refused to
lose to
Jacqueline because she was a woman. Disco then
feuded with Alex Wright, who began dancing before his entrance to mock Disco. Disco was
booked to win the
WCW World Television Championship from Wright on September 22 edition of
Monday Nitro. Disco lost to Jacqueline at
Halloween Havoc. He engaged in a feud with
Perry Saturn after losing the Television title to Saturn on November 3 episode of
Nitro. before regaining the title from Saturn in a rematch on the December 8 episode of
Nitro. He patched up things with former rival
Alex Wright, thus
turning into a
villain in the process and the duo formed a tag team of dancers known as Dancing Fools. The team was used for comedy relief and often danced before their entrance. They were also joined by fellow dancer
Tokyo Magnum. Inferno and Wright feuded with teams such as
The Public Enemy (
Johnny Grunge and
Rocco Rock), and
The British Bulldog and
Jim Neidhart.
nWo Wolfpac After not getting any success, Inferno and Wright split and began focusing on their singles careers again. Inferno started a feud with
Juventud Guerrera and defeated him at
Halloween Havoc to become the number one contender to the Cruiserweight Championship. He earned his title shot later that night against champion
Billy Kidman but lost the match. Later at Starrcade, Disco along with
Bam Bam Bigelow and
Scott Hall assisted Nash in ending
Goldberg's 173 match winning streak in the main event of Starrcade. Inferno became allied with, although he never joined the
nWo Wolfpac until after the reunion. Konnan,
Buff Bagwell and
Ernest Miller. Gilbertti later said that the nWo storyline and working with Hall was the highlight of his career.
The Mamalukes enforcer Inferno won the
Cruiserweight Championship from
Psychosis on October 4, 1999, edition of
Nitro. He entered a
program with
Lash LeRoux and had a successful title defense against LeRoux at
Halloween Havoc. He was joined by a new ally
Tony Marinara. Inferno dropped the Cruiserweight title to
Evan Karagias at
Mayhem after Inferno accidentally attacked Marinara. Marinara joined
The Mamalukes, while Disco was joined by LeRoux. At
Starrcade, Disco and LeRoux lost to Mamalukes after Disco accidentally attacked LeRoux. Disco aligned with Mamalukes and became an
enforcer for the duo. In June 2000, Gilbertti assisted in the booking of the WCW shows. During that time, the booking committee consisted of Gilbertti,
Vince Russo, Bill Banks,
Ed Ferrara, and
Terry Taylor. At
New Blood Rising, Disqo refereed a
fatal four-way match for the World Tag Team Championship, which
KroniK won. At
Fall Brawl 2000, Filthy Animals fought
Natural Born Thrillers to a no contest in an
elimination match. During the match, Disco turned on Konnan by hitting him with a
Chart Buster and began feuding with both the Animals and the Thrillers. They were scheduled to win the World Tag Team Championship at
Millennium Final on November 16, but Disco was legitimately injured.
General Rection substituted for Disqo and then won the tag titles for Disqo and Wright. They dropped the title afterward. He ended up splitting from Wright and forming a brief partnership with Mike Sanders. Disco's last appearance with WCW came on the March 19, 2001 (second to last) edition of Nitro where he spoke about his new partnership with Sanders and lost a match to
Jason Jett. WCW was purchased by World Wrestling Federation (WWF) later that week.
World Wrestling All-Stars (2001–2003) After WCW's folding, he worked for
World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA) as a commentator and wrestler (still using the Disco Inferno name). He was eliminated by the 'Fruits in Suits', Australian children's TV performers, in a WCW style joke story line. He later threw one of the Fruits off the top of a steel cage before the main event. Following the Inception pay-per-view he toured the UK with WWA, squaring off with
Brian Christopher most nights on the tour, mostly ending in defeat. During these shows he introduced a new finishing move, the ''Village People's Elbow''. A mockery of The Rock's ''People's Elbow'' the move saw Disco wear a hardhat while performing the
YMCA dance before dropping the elbow. As well as wrestle, he would also join
Jeremy Borash on commentary for the second half of these shows, and would claim to be there as the crowd had not shown him proper respect earlier in the evening. In 2002 Disco continued with WWA, appearing at the
Revolution pay-per-view in February. During this show he issued an open challenge for anyone to face him, as he had no opponent to face. He sat at ringside commentating in his usual style until he was beaten down by the returning
Scott Steiner. The next PPV,
Eruption, saw Disco commentating on the full event and not competing. He tried to intervene on a celebration dance off by Brian Christopher and
Ernest Miller. Later in the year he toured further with WWA in the UK in December. During this tour, which included the
Retribution PPV, he mostly worked on commentary and ring announcing duties. He also credited as being the script writer/creative consultant for this tour. In 2003, he returned to WWA under his "Disco Inferno" gimmick. On May 23 in a house show in Australia, Disco faced
WWA World Heavyweight Champion Sting for the title but lost the match. He returned to commentary duties for WWA final PPV, the Reckoning, broadcast from Auckland, New Zealand.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/Impact Wrestling (2002–2004, 2007–present) Early years (2002–2004) Gilbertti then went on to join
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), changing his alias to his real name. after announcing that he would be hosting a talk show the previous week. The talk segment lasted three weeks ending on August 14, 2002, with the weekly guests being
Goldy Locks,
The Dupps, and
"Dean Baldwin". Gilbertti became a member of Sports Entertainment Xtreme (SEX) and even became their leader near the end of that angle. On May 7, 2003, pay-per-view, he won an
Anarchy Battle Royal to become the number one contender to the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The next month, he earned his title shot against the champion
Jeff Jarrett but lost the match after
Vince Russo hit him with a baseball bat. After SEX disbanded, Gilbertti managed the
tag team Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger prior to forming the New York Connection (NYC) which consisted of
Vito,
Simon Diamond,
David Young,
Johnny Swinger and
Trinity. When their stable fell apart, Gilbertti began teaming with Young while Simon and Swinger formed a separate team. In late 2004, Gilbertti reunited with Swinger and the duo teamed up together at
Turning Point in a losing effort to Pat Kenney (formerly Simon Diamond) and
Johnny B. Badd. Gilbertti left TNA and returned to independent circuit.
Sporadic appearances (2007–present) On October 18, 2007, edition of
Impact!, Gilbertti appeared in a taped interview segment with
Mike Tenay as Disco Inferno. He returned later in the show, losing in a
squash match to
Abyss. In late 2007, Gilbertti worked for TNA as a road agent and also contributed to the creative team with Vince Russo. He also attended TNA's Lockdown fan interaction in
Lowell, Massachusetts on April 12, 2008, and later appeared as a guest on the October 8, 2008 edition of
Spin Cycle, TNA's online-exclusive show. On November 2, 2008, Gilbertti was released from his contract with TNA, with them citing budgetary cuts as the reason. On the May 26, 2011 edition of
Impact Wrestling, Disco Inferno made an appearance on
Mr. Anderson's Scorpion Sitdown interview segment, where he was asked by Anderson to bury Sting. He refused and got beat down by Anderson until Sting came to his aid. Disco Inferno made a brief appearance on the December 15 edition of
Impact Wrestling titled "
Total Nonstop Deletion." Appearing "backstage," Inferno commented on his relief in not having to face
Matt Hardy's son King Maxel in his debut match after being pinned by him on another occasion. Gilbertti appeared on the Thanksgiving 2018 episode of Impact Wrestling. Gilbertti had a plan to impress
Scarlett Bordeaux. He participated in
Eli Drake's 2nd annual "Gravy Train Turkey Trot", a 5-on-5 mixed tag team match where he teamed with
Ohio Versus Everything member Jake Crist,
Katarina,
Desi Hit Squad member Rohit Raju, and their captain Eli Drake. They faced the team of
Alisha Edwards,
Dezmond Xavier, Kikutaro, KM (
Kevin Matthews) and team captain
Fallah Bahh. Gilbertti was pinned by Fallah Bahh after a Bonzai Drop. Since Gilbertti was pinned in the match, he was forced to wear the Turkey suit. Gilbertti made his return on February 22, 2019, where he was shown backstage trying to find the management office. On the March 1 episode, Gilbertti showed up to start his new job with management role with Impact, while Tommy Dreamer told him to find the Anthem owl. On the March 8 episode, while searching for Don Callis ringside to discuss his Impact management role, Gilbertti had a confrontation with Scarlett Bordeaux. A match is booked between the two. On March 15, Gilbertti beat Kikutaro as he prepared for Bordeaux. On the March 22 episode, Gilbertti was shown at a bar "preparing" for his match with Bordeaux. On March 29, Scarlett Bordeaux beat Gilbertti in an intergender match. Later in the night, he was shown backstage being made fun of by Alisha Edwards and Kiera Hogan for losing to Bordeaux. Gilbertti returned on the May 17 episode and spoke negatively about women's wrestling. While serving as a guest commentator for a women's battle royal, Gilbertti entered the match and won by eliminating Tessa Blanchard. On the May 24 episode, Gilbertti held an "exhibition" with Ashley Vox. He was confronted by Blanchard after badmouthing women's wrestling. On May 31, Blanchard beat Gilbertti in an inter-gender match. Gilbertti returned on February 25, 2020, and formed a partnership with Johnny Swinger after Willie Mack said he would no longer be a tag team with Swinger. The following week, Gilbertti and Swinger lost to the Deaners. On the March 10 episode, Gilbertti and Swinger lost to Mack and Ace Austin. Gilbertti quit the team with Swinger after the match.
Independent appearances (2005–present) In 2005, Gilbertti went back to working the independent circuit in Georgia and Minnesota. He also wrestled for the Southern Wrestling Alliance and
Vince Russo's Ring of Glory. He appeared at the
WrestleCon Supershow during
Wrestlemania 31 weekend in San Jose, California. He defeated Mr. T.A. Disco teamed with
Eli Drake on March 11, 2018, at Future Stars of Wrestling in Las Vegas. The two lost to
Raven and
Tommy Dreamer. ==Podcasting career==