Cito Conarri

From the eWrestling Encyclopedia.

Cito Conarri
[[Image:{{{image}}}|{{{image_width}}}px|Image of Cito Conarri]]
Statistics
Real name	Cito Conarri
Ring Names	{{{names}}}
Height	5'7"
Weight	184 lbs.
Date of birth	May 3rd, 1968
Place of birth	Tecate, Mexico
Date of death	{{{death_date}}}
Place of death	{{{death_place}}}
Resides	Baltimore, MD
Billed from	Tecate, Mexico
Trainer	Raul Conarri
Current federation(s)	n/a
Previous federation(s)	Mid South Wrestling Alliance Total Impact Wrestling
Handled by	JeffOLW
Win/Loss Record	{{{winloss_record}}}
Debut
Retired	{{{retired}}}

Cito Conarri is a Mexican born wrestler. He gained his prominence as a wrestler, wrestling in the Coalition of Affiliated Leagues territories MSWA and TIW. He is best known, however, as the play by play commentator of OLW, and IWA before it. He also became the CAL's play by play man of choice, calling most every PPV he wasn't participating in as a wrestler. He is also world reknowed as a trainer, having produced such stars as Jeff Andrews, Heidi, Ultra Raptor and Jack Cassidy. He currently runs a wrestling dojo called "The Wrestling Inferno", named after his old wrestling identity "The Inferno Kid". It runs occasional cards.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early Career 1.2 Post Injury 1.3 Return to Wrestling 1.4 Coalition of Affiliated Leagues 1.4.1 Commentator 1.4.2 Wrestler 1.4.3 Tag Team with Quinn Tate 1.4.4 Total Impact Wrestling 1.5 Currently 2 Theme Music 3 Moveset

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Career

Cito was born a third generation wrestler. He began training with his father, Raul Conarri, and grandfather, Miguel, at the age of 9. By the time he was 15 he was working exhibition matches in local feds. He got his first full time job as a wrestler at the age of 17, in 1985, where he began working as "The Inferno Kid". He wrestled in Japan during 1987 and early 1988 as part of the emerging junior heavyweight scene. With a handful of other lightweight wrestlers, he was sent to North America. Inferno Kid's high flying offense captured the spirit of Antonino Rocca, and his popularity began to soar. In 1989, Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine dubbed him the "career of the decade".

But in 1990, Inferno Kid suffered what was nearly a career ending injury. While wrestling against a young English wrestler, a man by the name of Keep It Real Kid, he suffered a severe neck injury. KIRK, while trying to DDT Inferno Kid, slipped sideways, causing Inferno Kid to land on his neck, with KIRK's weight coming down on top of it. He was stretchered out of the ring.

[edit] Post Injury

Very shortly after his neck was injured, Cito's grandfather Miguel Conarri died of lung cancer. Between grief and injury, Cito spent the next two years completely out of the business, recovering.

Two years later, presumably healed, Cito tried to wrestle again, but his body wasn't up to it. Two days after the match, he collapsed, and was diagnosed with whiplash. The doctor told him that he couldn't handle a competitive schedule, and that if he wanted to continue on in the wrestling business, he'd have to find a different part of it to participate in. Because he'd grown up surrounded by the business and had experienced a number of different styles in his career, Cito opted to become a trainer. He listed his availability in the market, and was hired by a federation running out of Florida.

Although most of his FW students were entirely respectful, one wasn't. A heavyset kid weighing in the 280 lb range denegrated Cito on his size (or lack thereof, at under 180 lbs), and finally literally attacked him. Cito promptly wiped the ring with the kid, following it by throwing him into the stands, and following up with a corkscrew plancha that not only took out the kid, but a nearby female fan.

Two things happened here. One, FW, rather than punishing the kid, decided to fire Cito for unprofessional behavior. And second, when Cito sought out the fan to apologize to her in person, he ended up with her phone number. Their relationship quickly turned serious. Cito and his girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, Felicia Vasquez, moved back to Tecate, where Cito opened up a training camp. This all happened in 1996.

Cito's first class in this dojo would turn out to have one of his most famous pupils of all time - the infamous Jeff Andrews.

In 1997, Cito and Felicia had their son, Juarez.

In 1998, Cito trained two more of his most famous students - Heidi and Paco Losantio.

[edit] Return to Wrestling

Cito and Felicia decided to move back to the United States. Felicia wanted Juarez to get a USA education, and Cito's training camp was becoming succesful enough that he could afford to run it in the US. In late 1998, they moved to Miami, Florida. Many of his previous students (including Heidi and Losantio) followed him, and another batch came in, forcing him to hire a backup teacher. After careful consideration, he selected West Virginia native and famous 80s style brawler Charlie Strembatel. He also began rehabilitational therapy on his injured neck. By the year 2000, he was deemed ring-ready by his doctor.

Shortly afterwards, Cito received a phone call from Jeff Andrews. Keep It Real Kid, the man who had injured his neck in the first place, had opened a fed called Lilsboys Wrestling Federation (LBWF) operating out of London, England. Cito revived his old Inferno Kid persona and joined LBWF with high hopes... but it was not to be. KIRK refused to allow Cito any worthwhile opportunities. Additionally, since LBWF only had one undercard division, and it was a hardcore division, Cito ended up forced to compete in it. Although he wowed the fans by combining the hardcore style with his high flying (topes and planchas while holding chairs, for example), it still didn't have much positive effect on his career.

Cito tried turning heel for the first time in his career in LBWF, briefly calling himself "El Latino Inferno" Cito Conarri (the first time he'd used his real name while wrestling). But this backfired horribly - not only did it not improve his record, but he didn't make a particularly good heel. He ended up resigning from the LBWF less than two months after the attempted turn.

Still needing to wrestle, Cito began splitting his time between Japan and his training camp. His schedule began to put his marriage with Felicia under stress.

[edit] Coalition of Affiliated Leagues

[edit] Commentator

Cito's resignation as an active wrestler ended when the Innovative Wrestling Alliance opened. Initially independent, it signed with the CAL, and settled right in Cito's hometown of Miami, Florida. Unfortunately, the IWA's owner at the time, a man named Alexander Zanatos, refused to hire Cito. Cito was on friendly terms with several wrestlers, including Heidi, who were fighting with Zanatos, and Zanatos didn't want another of their friends allowed into the fed.

When IWA's color commentator, Mike LaRocca, somehow won the IWA Hardcore Title and had to leave the booth, he arranged for Cito to replace him as a color commentator. While it wasn't the deal that Cito wanted, he had his foot in the door. Cito became popular as a commentator, both for his knowledge of the sport, and for his ability to insult play by play man Steven Cook and various wrestlers in amusing fashion. When LaRocca returned to the desk, Cito was allowed to stay on, and made into the Technical Commentator.

Later on, when IWA changed ownership, Steven Cook and Mike LaRocca were fired as commentators. Cito would be allowed to stay on as play by play, and be paired with "The Incomparable" Steven Styles. Although the relationship between the two was initially antagonistic as everyone hated Styles, the two quickly developed team chemistry. With Cito playing Abbot to Styles' Costello, he was occasionally overshadowed by some of Styles' flip remarks, but the two eventually developed a friendship.

Cito's first CAL-wide exposure came at the Myths and Legends PPV in 2002, where each CAL territory at the time had a showcase match, called by their own commentators. The fans, again, loved Cito's style. While he'd miss the next couple PPVs on account of his MSWA career, he ended up paired with BWWa's Leslie Stanton, himself on play by play, her on color. The Cito/Leslie duo was popular enough that they ended up calling every CAL PPV after that.

When IWA closed and OLW opened a few months later, Cito was paired with Leslie Stanton AND Steven Styles.

[edit] Wrestler

When CAL territory MSWA decided to hold an open invitational tournmanet for their Gravity Title, Cito was initially not interested. Mike LaRocca, however, convinced Cito to sign up. Cito did not expect to go far - his win/loss record in LBWF had been horrendous (1-11-2), and he was quite resigned to not actually wrestling. But with LaRocca's encouragement, he signed up as "The Inferno Kid" Cito Conarri.

And then he started winning matches. First he beat Mike Mendoza. Then he beat Captain Cool. Then he beat one of the initial favorites, Brian Buchanan, and he was suddenly in the front running for the tournament. The tournament was double elimination, and although he lost to Quinn Tate, he continued to advance in the loser's bracket, making it all the way to the final round. He again faced Tate, and again, lost, but he'd still impressed MSWA enough to be given a full time contract.

Cito and Tate began a friendly rivalry that eventually saw them join the tag ranks and pursue the CAL World Tag Titles. After winning a 4 way tag team dance at CAL PPV "Reindeer Games 2" (to date, the biggest win of Cito's career), he and Tate lost their title shot to the defending champions, Jack Cross and Loki.

[edit] Tag Team with Quinn Tate

It should be mentioned, however, that the Cito Conarri/Quinn Tate team wasn't without its flaws.

Tate had always been a borderline alcoholic and a frequenter of bars. He began taking Cito with him, and Cito began drinking heavily. The rumors began to taint Cito's white hat reputation. One infamous incident saw Cito, Tate, and fellow MSWA wrestlers Cledus T. Yokel IX and Psycho Steve get drunk and cavort around a hotel, disturbing a dining room and generally causing a disturbance.

After the loss in the CAL World Tag Title match and a repeated inability to beat his tag partner, Cito began contemplating retirement. Tate's buisness manager, Rayne Lange, didn't like the thought, and so she set out to keep Cito in wrestling by any means necessary. She attempted to seduce him - an act which was caught on camera, aired on the show, and seen by Cito's wife Felicia. The marriage almost disintegrated, with Cito briefly being kicked out of his house. The friendship between Tate and Cito was destroyed utterly, with Cito blaming Rayne's actions on Tate, and Tate feeling betrayed.

The Tate/Cito saga ended with a grudge match at the MSWA supercard "Slam Jam". In it, the two fought in a falls count anywhere grudge match that ended, once again, with Tate getting the win, after throwing Cito through a glass display case.

Afterwards, Felicia handed Cito an ultimatum - "quit wrestling or I'm leaving". Cito picked Felicia, and retired from active competition.

[edit] Total Impact Wrestling

After quitting MSWA, Cito continued to run his training camp and do commentary for IWA.

MSWA closed and the roster rolled over into CSWA. CSWA also closed, and while most of the roster quit, some of them joined Total Impact Wrestling. TIW was a territory struggling for identity - rapid ownership changes and a roster without any established names was causing it trouble. When Quinn Tate signed with TIW, TIW management decided they wanted a tag team, and began to actively recruit Cito. Cito, however, still hated Tate and wasn't interested. It took Rayne Lange travelling to Cito's house and apologizing to Felicia personally for her prior actions to get Cito to agree to sign.

Cito and Tate worked through their differences. Their main source of irritation wasn't each other, but TIW managment's insistance on billing them as "Cito n' Tate", a name neither of them liked. Cito also entirely dropped his Inferno Kid moniker at this point, reasoning that he was too old, at the age of 35, to call himself "kid" anything.

The two began to feud with Ripper Longshanks and Adam X. Ripper was a long time foe of Tate's, Adam-X a former top level face who for mostly unknown reasons had allied himself with Ripper. Although the feud seemed like it would be lopsided, Tate and Cito held their own. After a controversial loss to Ripper in a first blood match (Cito cut Ripper, but the ref deemed it not worthy of stopping the match over), Cito and Tate beat Ripper and Adam-X in a tag match when Cito hit Ripper with his Burn Baby Burn finisher.

TIW would close. MSWA reopened, but only lasted for one card before it reclosed. Cito, seeing the writing on the wall, once again called his wrestling career quits.

[edit] Currently

Cito Conarri is commentating in Old Line Wrestling as the play by play commentator, alongside Leslie Stanton (on technical) and Steven Styles (on color).

When OLW opened, he moved both his family and his training camp to Maryland. The camp now operates out of a warehouse in Fells Point, Baltimore, Maryland. The training camp is so popular that he has to turn away nearly 80% of the people who apply.

Cito's son Juarez is 10. He is following in his dad's footsteps and learning to wrestle.

Cito is under pressure from Tate to unretire. Tate has an alliance with fellow OLW wrestler Python, and wants Cito to unretire so the three of them can go after the OLW Trios Tag Titles. So far, Cito has flat out refused. Tate hurt his own cause badly when he referred to Felicia as a "battle axe".

Cito's feud with Ripper Longshanks in TIW had taken an unusual turn, where Cito refused to hate Dylan DuBois (the person who portrayed Ripper). DuBois in return partially credited Cito and his words with enabling him to escape the Ripper persona. When Jeff Andrews was causing chaos in OLW, Ripper implored Cito to start wrestling again, referring to Andrews as "partly his responsibility".

Tate would leave OLW after being unable to beat any of the main eventers, taking part of the pressure of a wrestling return off Cito.

In his extensive career, Cito has never won a title. He does want to win one before he retires.

[edit] Theme Music

"Generic Mexican Music"

Pre-injury, also LBWF face run

"Blue Snow" - Orange Goblin

LBWF, heel run

"Hand of Death (Burn Baby Burn)" - Alice Cooper & Rob Zombie

MSWA 1st

"Fire on the Mountain (Heavy Metal Remix)" - 10th Day Hero (Grateful Dead cover)

MSWA 2nd

"Slow Chemical" - Finger Eleven

Only used once, in the MSWA grudge match against Quinn Tate

"My Wings" - Lacuna Coil

TIW run

Cito and Tate didn't have a tag team entrance, they came out seperately to their individual theme songs. Occasionally they entered together and used Cito's singles theme.

[edit] Moveset

• Trademark
  • Sheer drop brainbuster
  • Running palm strike
  • Frankensteiner
  • Romero Special

• Finisher
  • Afterburner (Michinoku Driver II)
  • Burn Baby Burn (triangle jump 450 Splash)
    • Cito would use other moves from the triangle jump on occasion