He’s now the scrapper who fought his way to to being NXT champion, but Tony D’Angelo used to play a mafia-like figure on WWE’s top developmental brand. In that gimmick, Tony D was The Don of a Family that had its moments in NXT, but that was messily dissolved last year before his repackaging. That group included Birthright’s Channing “Stacks” Lorezo, but its other two male members are no longer in the company (Troy “Two Dimes” Donovan, who was released early in The Family’s run, and Luca Crusifino,
who was briefly repackaged on WWE’s developmental-for-developmental show Evolve before exiting).
The Family wasn’t all guys. Sticking with the Italian-American theme, the lone female member got a Sopranos and Grease-inspired name: Adriana Rizzo.
She got injured shortly after the group disbanded, tearing her ACL and meniscus last August. But the Minnesota native and track All-American from the University of North Carolina who performs as Rizzo announced late last month that she’d been cleared. And while we’re still waiting to see her do things like this…
… she is honing her other on-screen skills down in Evolve now. Rizzo debuted last night (July 8) as a ringside interviewer, catching up with Harley “Big Rig” Riggins following his win over Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Ulka Sasaki on the pre-taped show for the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
Adriana reposted a version of the above clip, adding, “Rizzo Rantz has arrived on Evolve!”
This was Rizzo’s first appearance on WWE television since she led “the sitdown” that led to “The D’Angelo Family Final Battle” Triple Threat last July. Her last match wasn’t televised, a WrestleMania 41 week loss to Karmen Petrovic that took place at WWE World three months earlier.
Join us in welcoming Adriana Rizzo back to the screen, and let us know if you think this is a good role for her in the comments below.
