TAMPA, Fla. — Sabby Piscitelli spent five years in the NFL as a safety, four with the Bucs, but he didn’t realize his second chapter would be more physical than the first.
Now 36 and out of football since 2011, he has spent the past five years in the world of professional wrestling, mostly in WWE’s NXT developmental program. Injuries and surgeries sidelined him much of the last two years, but he was back on TV last week for an event with Jacksonville-based All Elite Wrestling, still hopeful he can make a splash in wrestling.
Advertisem*nt
“The world is at a standstill,” he said by phone Thursday. “A lot of multi-billion dollar businesses and industries obviously are returning, and my situation with WWE is on hold. I’m kind of just dabbling, seeing what my next step is going to be. I’m excited with what the future will bring, but not a lot of things are moving right now, so you hate to sit back and wait and be ready. All the businesses in the sports industry and entertainment industry are all coming back.”
Piscitelli wrestled under the ring name “Tino Sabbatelli,” developing a following in limited TV appearances. He wrestled last week just as “Sabby,” and he said he has learned that it’s a different challenge from playing football at the highest level, but nothing to take lightly.
“Wrestling is extremely difficult, a lot harder than people think it is,” he said. “You’re playing a character, so you always have to stay in character. You’re doing choreographed fights and you have to remember all that. You have to be able to communicate with the fans, to protect yourself and the opponent you’re in the ring with. There’s so many aspects in a 10- to 15-minute match and people don’t even realize how important it is to be mentally sharp when you’re in that ring.”
M3 – @TinoSabbatelli pinned @WWE_Marsism #NXTJacksonville pic.twitter.com/Wk1JDYcpRv
— Florida Wrestling Fan (@FLWrestlingFan) April 21, 2018
Piscitelli suffered a torn pectoral muscle in the ring in Tampa in April 2018, a “freak accident” when another wrestler drop-kicked him in the chest during an event. He had successful surgery to repair the muscle, and knowing that he would be sidelined for six months, he sought to have arthroscopic surgery to correct an elbow injury that had bothered him. The WWE approved and paid for the procedure, but what was supposed to be a half-hour procedure ended up taking five hours.
Advertisem*nt
Piscitelli said that as bone fragments were being removed from his elbow, part of the device snapped off inside his arm and had to be recovered. In doing so, his ulnar nerve was compressed, resulting in numbness in his hand, he said. Another surgery was required to un-compress his ulnar nerve, but the nerve recovery took a year to regain full strength and sensation in his hand.
“It’s not like a typical injury where you can rehab and you’re back within a timeframe,” he said. “Nerves have a mind of their own. I literally had to wait for a year. I worked out, but I had very little strength in my hand. I finally made a full recovery, WWE was very excited, and it was a very hard comeback, mentally and physically.”
Piscitelli returned healthy to the ring in February. He had been especially excited because WWE’s signature WrestleMania event was to be held in Tampa in April, in the same Raymond James Stadium where Piscitelli had played for the Bucs. Piscitelli had already spoken with Paul “Triple H” Levesque, a former wrestler who is now NXT’s senior producer and WWE’s “executive vice president for global talent and strategy.”
“There was going to be a nice little storyline for me there,” said Piscitelli, butthe quick rise of COVID-19 cases forced public events to be canceled, and WrestleMania was scrapped on March 16. The event was moved to a studio in Orlando without a live crowd, and on April 15, WWE announced a wave of layoffs, including Piscitelli.
“Vince McMahon basically said ‘I need to cut a lot of people that haven’t been on TV for a while,’” Piscitelli said. “I got caught in that bubble where I wasn’t on TV for two years. They had to cut back a lot of entertainers, a lot of wrestlers. They told me numerous times they want to bring me back as soon as they can, but I don’t know what’s going on with this world, so it’s a waiting game. It was unfortunate because I was really ready to go.”
Advertisem*nt
Piscitelli said he didn’t realize that wrestling would be as physically demanding, if not more, than football, noting that he played his NFL career without a single surgery but needed three in five years as a professional wrestler.
“It’s definitely a very taxing, grueling sport/entertainment for the body,” he said. “Especially when you’re first starting to learn how to wrestle. You spend the first six months to a year learning how to fall in the ring, learning how to protect yourself, how to roll, how to take bumps. That’s a toll on your body. Wrestling is a constant pounding, a constant wear and tear. There’s not much of an offseason.”
@TinoSabbatelli is poised for greatness. @WWENXT keep booking this guy. #Lightwork #Elite #Athlete #heelpop pic.twitter.com/kU5H5M1f8v
— Pete Carson (@Hooked_On_NXT) April 30, 2018
In his football days, Piscitelli starred at Oregon State and was a second-round pick of the Bucs in 2007, missing most of his rookie year with a broken foot on a Tampa Bay team that enjoyed what is still the franchise’s last playoff appearance. He became a starter his second year in Jon Gruden’s last season, then started 15 of 16 games under new coach Raheem Morris but on a 2009 team that finished 3-13. He had some big plays in Tampa — an 84-yard interception return, a 72-yard fumble recovery — but lost his starting job in 2010 and was cut midway through that season. He landed with the Browns for five games, then played his final season in 2011 with the Chiefs.
Looking back, he said he faced high expectations as a second-round pick, and it took him years after he left the sport to find a peace with his football career, wishing he could have done more to play longer.
“It took me a long time to let the game go,” he said. “I’m a passionate person, and I worked very hard to become the player I became, in college especially. In hindsight, I was a very hard critic of myself. I’m very grateful, but for a lot of years I struggled because I knew I had a lot more potential, a lot more to give to the game.”
The Bucs were 9-7 in each of his first two seasons, just missing the playoffs in 2008, but as they struggled to a 1-12 start in 2009, he said he took more of the criticism than he deserved for his part in the team’s poor record.
“I was at the forefront of a lot of praise but also a lot of blaming,” he said. “They wanted me to be the next guy, but the puzzle pieces weren’t there. The defensive scheme didn’t match up with the personnel we had. Our coaching staff didn’t understand the players they had, and vice versa. I put a lot of blame on my shoulders. I wanted to do better, wanted to be better. … I was the poster child for everything. If I missed one tackle, it was the reason why we lost the game, and it was hard for me. I carried the burden around because I wasn’t happy with my NFL career. But I’ll always be extremely grateful to the Bucs organization for changing my life back in ’07.”
Advertisem*nt
Piscitelli said it took him a few years to be able to enjoy watching NFL games on TV, still seeing players he went up against, “a tough pill to swallow,” wishing he was still on the field. He enjoys the sport as a spectator now, still keeping in touch with former Bucs teammates like running back and returner Clifton Smith and receiver Sammy Stroughter (who he also had as a college teammate). He still trades texts with former Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks, himself a wrestling fan.
Piscitelli is not under contract with All Elite Wrestling, though he said he might do another event in a few weeks. The company is run by Tony Khan, co-owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, a connection between Piscitelli’s future and past.
WELCOME TO @AEWrestling @TinoSabbatelli https://t.co/KzDPqv5rUy
— Alex Lavorico (@alex_lavorico) July 22, 2020
Piscitelli isn’t sure whether he’ll be able to return to WWE, but he knows he has invested five years learning the craft and doesn’t want to see that go to waste. He said he was smart about money during his NFL days and has lived modestly, with businesses on the side in addition to his wrestling work. He and a cousin have worked flipping real estate in Connecticut, and he owns a share of a dog training school called Sit N’ Stay Dog Academy in Tampa.
He splits time between Tampa and Delray Beach, near his hometown of Boca Raton, and last year moved back into the house in Tampa he lived during his Bucs days, after renting it out for nine years.
“I believe my character can be successful. I haven’t walked away from it,” he said. “I’m very grateful. It’s just a little misfortune that I never really got my big shot, due to a couple of injuries and the timing of coronavirus hitting. We’ll see what the future brings. I’m not shutting the door. ”
(Photo courtesy of All Elite Wrestling)
