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Nova

Nova

Height: 5 ft 10 in
Weight: 224 lb
Real name: Mike Bucci
Hometown: Brick Township, New Jersey (relocated to Louisville, Kentucky)
Pro debut: 1992
Finishing move: The Simonizer (Modified spinning leghook fireman's carry slam), Novacaine (Reverse STO), Kryptonite Krunch (Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver)
Favorite quote: "I'm Not Just Good, I'm Super!"
Other aliases: Super Nova (ECW), Hollywood Nova (ECW), Simon Dean (WWE)
Career highlights: BCW Tag Team Champion (w/Tommy Dreamer), NWA Northeast Wrestling Light Heavyweight Champion, OVW Heavyweight Champion, OVW Southern Tag Team Champion (w/Aaron Stevens), PCW Tag Team Champion (w/Kazarian), PWF Universal Champion, UPW Tag Team Champion (w/Kazarian), ACW Heavyweight Champion, SCW Tag Team Champion (w/The Blue Meanie)
Trained by: Mike Sharpe

After graduating in 1990 from Toms River High School East in Toms River, New Jersey, he attended nearby Ocean County College for a few semesters. There he met a friend and his friend informed him of a wrestling school in nearby Brick Township, New Jersey, run by "Iron" Mike Sharpe. Bucci trained at the school and officially went pro in 1992.

Bucci's first taste of superstar exposure came between 1992 and 1994, when WWF Chairman Vince McMahon used talent from various promotions as jobbers to various up and coming superstars on WWF programming.

During his time spent in Mike Sharpes wrestling school Bucci was wrestling as a superhero with a mullet, his attire included a star over his right eye and a sparkly blue cape. Bucci sparked the interest of Raven, at the time Raven was looking to put together a new stable known as The Flock in Extreme Championship Wrestling and asked Bucci to appear at the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia.

Upon his arrival in ECW, Bucci was immediately paired with Raven, Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie in the Flock. His first exposure to the crowd was as a member of KISS where they came out to Kiss's hit "Rock and Roll All Night" and did the bump and strut with air guitars. Although it was to be a garner for heat with the crowd, it was an immediate hit. Later a quote was stated to have been said by Buh Buh Ray Dudley in the Rise and Fall of ECW book, "that was great the crowd really loved it, the only thing better than that would be ... a parody of the nWo."

Bucci along with Stevie asked permission from both Raven and Paul Heyman to parody the nWo, it was granted, and Buccia was given credit with the creation of the bWo logo. Bucci would parody Hollywood Hogan, after a dispute between Raven and Richards, where Richards said "if he's Hogan fans 'll think he's the leader of The Flock", Raven than said, "Fuck it ... he's Hogan". While 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, "Da Bad Guy. Between 1996 and 1998 many other members were added and removed before the team broke up in 1998.

Bucci was known for having a unique and creative move set, and was called by Joey Styles "the most imitated man in wrestling" and the "inNOVAtor of Offense" by Jeremy Borash due to the fact that almost all his moves were copied by other wrestlers in the business.

In late 2000 through early 2001 he started a heated rivalry with his former tag partner Chris Chetti, who he won a loser is fired match against, his last televised appearance in ECW was at their last pay-per view as a company at the 2001 ECW Guilty as Charged.

From the purchase of ECW by the WWF in 2001, Bucci wrestled in various promotions until 2003. Bucci wrestled in places such as ECW's rival, Xtreme Pro Wrestling, California's Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and New Jersey's, Phoenix Championship Wrestling. During this time he formed a tag team with Frankie Kazarian known as Evolution. Through most of the promotions they competed for, they were successful in becoming tag team champions. He also briefly wrestled in Australia based World Wrestling Allstars where he feuded with A.J. Styles amongst other "Cruiserweights" for the WWA International Cruiserweight Championship, which he did not win. In April of 2003 Bucci received a phone call by WWE (formerly WWF) to partake in a developmental program at Ohio Valley Wrestling.

In May 2003 Bucci, beat Prototype and became the OVW Heavyweight Champion, as Nova. He held the title for half a year before losing the title to Damaja. It was around this time he was called up to start competing in SmackDown! dark matches and on WWE Velocity. Also he was asked by WWE management, mainly Stephanie McMahon, to cut his hair because he supposedly looked too much like Triple H. He than began to try out a Richard Simmons-like fitness expert type gimmick.

In his debut for World Wrestling Entertainment, he portrayed the gimmick of a physical-fitness guru named Simon Dean in the vein of numerous infomercials. Introductory promos showed him "selling" his "Simon System," a supposed program of diet, exercise, and supplementation. The promos parodied fitness infomercials, as Simon routinely insulted his supposed customers. The promos went so far as to provide an actual telephone number to call and order the Simon System; however, unlike virtually all infomercials, the number was not toll-free. People who called the number wound up hearing a WWE promotional message.

During this gimmick he acted as the sponsor of WWE RAW, occasionally wrestling after first insulting the fitness of the crowd and the area in which they were located. After not making much of an impact on RAW he was teamed up with fellow heel wrestler Maven who supposedly was a user of the "Simon System,". The team again didn't make much of an impact.

During a WWE produced ECW PPV, One Night Stand 2005, Bucci returned as Hollywood Nova with Da Blue Guy and Big Stevie Cool as the bWo.

He was next moved to "SmackDown!" as part of the WWE Draft joining the other members of the bWo, appearing as "Hollywood" Nova for his first appearance on the show. His next appearance for the brand was wrestling on its sister show, WWE Velocity as Simon Dean. The general belief was that the bWo appearance was going to be a one off, meaning Bucci would keep to his "health sponsor" gimmick, but it was next announced that the bWo would participate in a 6-man tag match at the Great American Bash against The Mexicools. The announcement of this match occurred on the same edition of SmackDown! that Bucci's Simon Dean character had a match with Booker T. At the 2005 Great American Bash, the bWo lost to the Mexicools (Juventud, Psicosis and Super Crazy) in the six-man tag team match.

The appearance of the bWo soon faded. With no mention of The Blue Meanie staying with the company and Richards returning to his previous heel gimmick, Bucci continued with the Simon Dean persona.

In late August 2005 the Simon Dean character began coming to the ring on the Dean Machine (a Segway HT type machine) and force feed "Simon System" products to jobbers who wouldn't accept his offer to try them after defeating them in squash matches. The Simon Dean character had his first major WWE pay-per-view appearance at WWE No Mercy, in a loss against Bobby Lashley. After the match Simon ate 20 double cheeseburgers as a part of the deal made before the match and puked all over the place. Dean has been noted on his recent appearances as the "Head of Smackdown's welcoming committee", a position in which he has used as a jobber to debuting wrestlers.

During the January 6 episode of SmackDown!, Dean came to the ring and challenged any tag team. Paul London and Brian Kendrick answered the challenge, only to be brutally attacked by The Gymini (Jake and Jesse), two "users" of The Simon System. Dean began managing the team, but the team soon faded off television, and Dean went back to jobbing to other superstars.