Rico

[6.0] "Super athlete that routinely turned dogshit into gold, hampered by starting his wrestling career in his mid thirties and only getting on television when he was nearly forty. His WWE gimmick was technically quite tasteless but he gave it absolute commitment and it honestly somehow worked. As a queer AMAB enby I actually find the Billy and Chuck storyline fun in a really trashy way even if it was always going to be an edgy, mean-spirited joke at the expense of gay men and I think much of why it sort of worked is Rico giving his role socks and being extremely entertaining like all the classic exoticos. He never really had any actual standout matches that I saw but he was also never outright bad. I do want to go higher out of personal enjoyment of the gimmick but Rico himself really didn't do much of note otherwise in wrestling before retiring beyond one surprise appearance in AEW that was a brief bit of fun. A six is roughly what I feel as far as arbitrary numbers go at the present."

[7.0] "His life story is far more interesting than just his wrestling career. As a youth I witnessed him totally ace/nail The American Gladiators. I need you to understand he was one of the ONLY challengers in the history of the game to look THAT good against The Gladiators. A natural athlete. His bell to bell material is hampered by WWE time constraints and woeful gimmicks but he was certainly outside of the box in a pleasing way. His kicks were works of art, not like Steve Blackman "trying not to kill you" kicks but graceful as if he was doing motion capture for a video game. Had a prime dropkick, we love dropkicks. Their attempt to make him the next Adrian Street put additional handcuffs on his material but he found ways to make it work anyway. The team with Charlie Haas should *not* have worked but somehow did. One of life's over achievers and i appreciate that."

[6.0] "He was very entertaining throughout his WWE career. I loved his gimmick with Billy and Chuck and even when he split and went solo when he was still on raw. Wasn't really a fan of his on SmackDown when he was drafted and teaming with Charlie Haas. He had even more character work, but SmackDown in general during that time was just so boring and I didn't really care to watch much. He had all types of charisma and in his earlier days was very athletic, and was able to show off his martial arts ability. During his peak gimmick with Billy & Chuck on SmackDown, you can tell his athletic ability declined, but he was still fairly solid in the ring like for his age. I feel like a six is a solid rating because his WWE career was pretty short and still pretty notable given the storylines he had."

[7.0] "Fans saw the presentation and wondered if he was or if he wasn't. Then when he started kicking the crap out of the wrestlers, it didn't matter!"

[9.0] "Rico was great on his day and has a lot more banger matches than people give him the credit for - good dude"

[7.0] "In terms of in-ring ability, Rico was competent and could deliver some decent matches, though he never quite reached the heights of the most elite talents of his time. His technical skills were solid, but his matches sometimes lacked the intensity or flair that fans expect from the top stars. However, Rico's strength was undoubtedly his character work. His unique mix of humor, flamboyance, and toughness made him an interesting character to watch, and his tag-team work with partners like Miss Jackie and later the 3-minute warning faction showcased his ability to play off others well. On the downside, Rico was somewhat overshadowed by other prominent wrestlers during the same period, which limited his push into the main event scene. While he had some memorable moments (including his memorable run as the manager of the tag team champions), he never quite hit the stratosphere of main eventers like The Rock or Steve Austin."

[6.0] "Rico was a bit of a late starter, making his wrestling debut at 38 and making his official WWE main roster debut in his early 40s, but considering that he took to wrestling pretty quickly and developed into a respectable in-ring performer (it certainly helped that he had a notable athletic background prior to wrestling as a martial artist and had even appeared on "American Gladiators" a decade earlier). He also had a good amount of charisma and, while his gimmick might not exactly fly today (at least as a heel), he made it work as both an in-ring competitor and as a manager/mastermind for Three Minute Warning. Ultimately he didn't stick around quite as long as, say, Diamond Dallas Page, who began his in-ring career at a similar age, but Rico still turned in a respectable career in the time he had."

[6.0] "His gimmick was far from anything worth focusing on, but he made it work as best as he could. Was actually not half bad in a wrestling role and could work, but he wasn't anything really special: most of his (few) career highlights were either bad angles or tag wins, the only division where he seemed to work in. Was perfectly fine as a manager and did have charisma in spite of the gimmick. I do think people MASSIVELY underestimate him because for a guy who was essentially working main roster matches in his 40's with limited experience, he was quite good and his OVW stints had him do top rope moonsaults, dropkicks, etc. Guy was pretty damn athletic, he just had too much wear and tear (mostly knee problems) combined with a not ideal age which drastically shortened how long he could go in the ring. I did like his AJPW stuff, for what it's worth."

[8.0] "I seen one of his dark matches and let me tell you he had potential his selling is good his skills and how he performed in the ring. Shame that he never reached his full potential in WWE cause of his gimmick overshadowing him but I'm not going to judge on the gimmick cause that's on WWE not Rico"

[5.0] "Could have fun matches and was capable in the ring. Unfortunately his gimmick portrayed homosexuality as strange, odd, and most of the time a joke. It worked with Goldust in the 90? s, but it didn? t really work for Rico in the aughts."

[3.0] "Just not much to say when it comes to someone who has such an eye rolling gimmick. Never did anything of note in the ring & had a gimmick that was not what people could get behind for the time. Most people didn't care one way or the other that he was gay. But the biggest problem is that he was just very lame."

[6.0] "Rico is a talented retired pro wrestler, saddled with a terrible gimmick. Rico's character as a gay hairstylist is absolutely tasteless. That being said, he has the charisma to make his character work oh so well. There's no denying the charisma, and mic abilities Rico had, and in the ring he could back it up with a solid technical skill, great agility and awesome striking skill too. With a better gimmick, Rico may have mad a great mid-card champion"

[8.0] "I really liked Rico. An openly gay former police officer. A bit of an outrageous character but, Rico made it work and his tag team matches with Charlie Haas were also pretty good. Rico fell out of the business in late 2004 and hasn't been seen since but, I do miss the guy. LMAO at Santina Marella using Rico's entrance music."