Early career (1961–1966) Pugliese made his professional wrestling debut in
Detroit, Michigan in 1961. He soon began competing in Canada, where he was a popular
babyface (fan favorite) wrestler. Throughout his career, Pugliese formed many tag teams in various promotions with other wrestlers of Italian descent, including
Dominic DeNucci,
Tony Marino, and
Bruno Sammartino. he also competed as far away as
Australia and
Japan. Pugliese also wrestled as a
heel (villain) at times. He competed as "Tenor" Parisi; in this gimmick, he wore a white tuxedo and sang opera to anger the crowd. where he was billed as the cousin of
Bruno Sammartino. In this role, he was targeted by several heel wrestlers, who wanted to start feuds with the Sammartino family. On February 21, 1966, Pugliese teamed with
Johnny Valentine to win the
WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from Dan Miller and
Dr. Bill Miller. Pugliese and Arion won the match and the title; they held the belts for six months until June 1967. He returned to WWWF in 1968 where he teamed with fellow Italian
Dominic DeNucci. Also he worked in Pittsburgh for
Studio Wrestling. In 1969 scored victories over heels
Toru Tanaka,
Luke Graham,
George Steele and
Baron Mikel Scicluna. During that year he teamed with
Victor Riviera and
Haystacks Calhoun. By the end of 1969 Pugliese left WWWF.
Traveling wrestler (1967–1975) In December 1967, Pugliese teamed with
Pedro Morales in the California-based
Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA). They won the WWA World Tag Team Championship by defeating
Buddy Austin and
Freddie Blassie. He teamed with
Mario Milano to win the
IWA World Tag Team Championship in April 1968. The team lost the belts to Skull Murphy and
Killer Karl Kox in May, but Pugliese joined up with
Dominic DeNucci to regain the title later that month.) won the belts, but Pugliese and Jonathan regained them in a rematch later that month. Pugliese and DeNucci next traveled to Florida, where they competed for
Championship Wrestling from Florida, an NWA territory. They defeated
Toru Tanaka and
Dick Slater to win the
NWA Florida Tag Team Championship in December 1974. Slater teamed with
Johnny Weaver to win the belts back from Pugliese and DeNucci, however in February 1975. He teamed with
Gino Brito, who was wrestling as Louis Cerdan, to win the
WWWF World Tag Team Championship on November 18, 1975.
Legacy Pugliese promoted wrestling shows in Niagara Falls after retiring from the sport. He also ran an annual wrestling show at the
CHIN Picnic in Toronto. ==Personal life==