Steve Coombs is a former professional wrestler best known for his stint in

Xtreme Pro Wrestling Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion owned by Rob Zicari. Zicari originally ran the promotion out of Los Angeles from 1999 to 2003. He appeared on shows as the on-camera owner under the name Ro ...

. Coombs competed primarily as "The Gigolo" Steve Rizzono. At one time, Rizzono was also a bouncer and a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for apparently healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, p ...

Professional wrestling career

Steve Rizzono trained alongside

Spike Dudley Matthew Jonathan Hyson (born August 13, 1970) is an American retired professional wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Spike Dudley. Prior to WWE, Hyson began performing as Spike Dudley in the 1990s with E ...

All Pro Wrestling All Pro Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion and training school, based in Hayward, California. The company was founded by Roland Alexander and managed by him until his death on November 5, 2013. It is located 45 miles so ...

's school, and made his debut on March 29, 1995, teaming with

Mike Modest Michael K. Cariglio (born July 19, 1971) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his stage name, Michael Modest (sometimes shortened to Mike Modest). Modest ran the promotion Pro Wrestling IRON with tag partner Donovan Morgan and F ...

against Robert Thompson and Mike Diamond. While competing in APW, he captured the APW Tag Team titles with

and Tony Jones. He also won a famous three-way dance that featured

Vic Grimes Victor Grimes (born January 3, 1963) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Grimes began his wre ...

and Erin O' Grady. On January 22, 1996 in

Stockton, CA Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after Ro ...

, Rizzono made his

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

debut in a losing effort to Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw. The following night in Oakland, Rizzono jobbed to Duke "The Dumpster" Droese in a match that was featured on the

WWF Superstars is a List of wrestling video games, wrestling video game manufactured by Technōs Japan and released for arcade game, arcades in 1989. It is the first WWE, WWF arcade game to be released. A series of unrelated games with the WWF Superstars (Game ...

TV program. On the weekend of ECW’s

November to Remember 1997 November to Remember (1997) was the fifth November to Remember professional wrestling event produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the first edition of November to Remember to be broadcast on pay-per-view. The event took place on Nov ...

pay-per-view, Rizzono had a match with Robert Thompson on an APW show.

Wrestling Observer The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four We ...

journalist

Dave Meltzer David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist who reports on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Since 1983, he has been the publisher and editor of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON''). He has als ...

attended both shows. A few weeks later, Meltzer wrote in the observer that Rizzono's match with Thompson was better than almost anything he saw on the ECW event. In between his APW stint and his early 2000 entrance into XPW, Rizzono wrestled in the

United States Wrestling Association The United States Wrestling Association (USWA) was a professional wrestling promotion based in Memphis, Tennessee. The company was founded when the Memphis-based Continental Wrestling Association merged with the Dallas-based World Class Wrestling ...

and for

independent promotions In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor league for pro wres ...

based in the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

area. In

, Rizzono was managed by

Jonny Fairplay Jonny Fairplay (born Jon Dalton, March 11, 1974) is an American former art consultant, professional wrestler, and reality television personality. He has twice competed on the reality competition TV show '' Survivor'', coming in third place on the ...

. Upon joining XPW, Rizzono initially had a partnership with Kid Kaos, but it quickly escalated into a bitter rivalry. At one point, Rizzono was managed by "Playboy" Buddy Rose, in an unsuccessful journey after the

XPW World Heavyweight Championship The XPW World Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the Xtreme Pro Wrestling promotion. Masada is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Brian Cage and Willie Mac ...

. During his early tenure, he had matches against

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe p ...

John Kronus George B. Caiazzo (January 13, 1969 – July 18, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, John Kronus, and later simply Kronus. Caiazzo worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Asso ...

, and

Juventud Guerrera Eduardo Aníbal González Hernández (born November 23, 1974) is a Mexican professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Juventud "Juvi" Guerrera. Guerrera is best known for his appearances with the Mexican professional wrestling promot ...

. He was a member of The Black Army, and (following his banishment from the Army) founded The Enterprise with manager and porn star Veronica Caine, in order to avenge the rejection from his former teammates. Besides feuding with the Black Army, Rizzono feuded heavily with Pogo the Clown, as Rizzono was usually privy to receiving harsh beatings from Pogo. Their feud was featured in two (2001 and 2002) of XPW's annual King of the Deathmatch Tournaments, as both matches began as singles matches, but soon turned into triple threat matches midway through. In both bouts, Rizzono fell victim to brutal and memorable beatings from his nemesis, which resulted in Rizzono savagely losing in both of his appearances. Rizzono departed from XPW in mid-2002 when XPW relocated its operations to the Pennsylvania area on the East Coast. Rizzono returned to APW on November 8, 2002 as a trainer, a commentator, and a manager before leaving the business. He currently resides in California and he has health problems due to the severe injuries he incurred in XPW, including multiple

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration, ...

s and broken noses as a result of death matches in which he participated. On July 18, 2007, Steve received spinal surgery in which two ligaments were removed from his spine.

Championships and accomplishments

:*APW Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with

(1) and Tony Jones (1) * NWA: Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling :* NWA/ECCW Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with Chance Beckett :* NWA/ECCW Vancouver Island Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time)

Media

*Video and DVD appearances :*''XPW: After the Fall''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Big Vision Entertainment, 2006. :*''XPW: Retribution''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2003. :*''XPW: Best of XPW TV, Vol. 1''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2003. :*''XPW: Best of The Enterprise''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW Class-X Presents: XPW Baptized in Blood, Vol. 1 & 2''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Big Vision Entertainment, 2007. :*''XPW Class-X Presents: XPW TV The Complete First Season''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Big Vision Entertainment, 2007. :*''XPW: New Year's Revolution''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Blown To Hell''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. ::*''XPW: Liberty or Death''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Baptized In Blood 2''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Baptized In Blood 3: Night of Champions''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Free Fall''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Genocide''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Best of The Black Army''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2002. :*''XPW: Damage Inc.''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2001. :*''XPW: Redemption''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2001. :*''XPW: Go Funk Yourself''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. DVD. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2001. :*''XPW: We Wrestle''. Perf. Steve Rizzono. VHS. Xtreme Pro Wrestling, 2001. *Film and television appearances :*

Nash Bridges ''Nash Bridges'' is an American police procedural television series created by Carlton Cuse. The show stars Don Johnson and Cheech Marin as two Inspectors with the San Francisco Police Department's Special Investigations Unit (SIU). The seri ...

. CBS. Jan. 2001.
Obscenery
Executive Producer Melissa Wegman

XPW Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion owned by Rob Zicari. Zicari originally ran the promotion out of Los Angeles from 1999 to 2003. He appeared on shows as the on-camera owner under the name R ...

archive footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

appearance. :*" Pornographer runs for

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

mayor." Extra TV. Syndication. July 2000. "

appearance."

References

External links

Steve Rizzono at CageMatch.netSteve Rizzono at Genickbruch.comSteve Rizzono at WrestleZone.ru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rizzono, Steve American male professional wrestlers Living people Sportspeople from Camden, New Jersey Sportspeople from California American exercise instructors Professional wrestling announcers Professional wrestling managers and valets Bodyguards 1970 births

Professional wrestling career

Championships and accomplishments

Media

References

Further reading

External links