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From PWInsider:
We've heard from numerous sources that Valentino "Big Val" Puccio, who competed in the original Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1995, passed away today at the age of 45.
We have not heard a cause of death, although Puccio had been battling obesity for many years and was once chronicled on the TLC Network on "Inside the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic", a reality program.
Puccio appeared for several months in ECW playing a large monster heel against the likes of Mikey Whipwreck and Hack Myers, also using the nickname the "Big Valley." He was briefly aligned with JT Smith after Smith began doing his Italian gimmick.
Trained by WWE Hall of Famer Johnny Rodz, Puccio was originally one half of a tag team known as The Undertakers with his brother, Tony Puccio. The pair worked for a number of Northeastern staples at the time, including the Savoldi's ICW.
When WWF created The Undertaker character, The Undertakers team was brought into WWF for a series of house show appearances under the team name Double Trouble. Urban legend at the time was that the team received the bookings as part of an agreement that the brothers would stop using the name, which they had been utilizing prior to the WWF character's debut.
Our deepest condolences to Puccio's friends and family at this time,
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