Jason DellaGatta (born July 18, 1972) is an American professional wrestler, trainer, and promoter, best known by his ring name Jason Rumble. He also had a successful career in semi-professional football playing in the New England Football League. He played five seasons with the New England Stars becoming a 2-time NEFL All-Pro and named "Special Teams player of the Year" in 2000.
DellaGatta was a longtime star of NWA New England and, following Tony Rumble's death in 1999, adopted the "Boston Bad Boy" gimmick in honor of his mentor. He was promoted as Tony's kayfabe son, at the request of the Magliaro family, and considered the "face" of the company for much of its remaining seven years in operation. DellaGatta also briefly served as the booker for NWA New England, succeeding Jeff Katz and Knuckles Nelson, and headed a second incarnation of Tony Rumble's "heel" stable The Brotherhood consisting of himself, Rick Fuller, and The DarkAngel. He has held the NWA New England Heavyweight Championship (3 times), NWA New England Junior Heavyweight Championship (5 times), NWA New England X Division Championship (1 time), and NWA New England Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Slyck Wagner Brown and Luis Ortiz; at the 2005 Tony Rumble Memorial Show, he won the Heavyweight, Cruiserweight, and Division X titles.
A former 3-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, DellaGatta was considered one of the top light heavyweight wrestlers in the National Wrestling Alliance during the 2000s. He represented NWA New England at the NWA Anniversary Shows from 2000 to 2005, headlining three of his five appearances. In addition, he competed in the 2002 Jersey J-Cup as well as participating in international tours to Canada and the United Kingdom. DellaGatta also had brief stints in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment, participating in the WWE's Master Lock Challenge during 2005.
From 2008 to 2010, DellaGatta teamed with Darling Damon as The Crown Jewels in New England Championship Wrestling and NWA On Fire winning the tag team titles in both promotions; they held the NECW Tag Team Championship for 15 months making them the longest reigning champions in the company's history. They proved to be a controversial duo, especially given the "family friendly" style of the former company, as two "flamboyant" men whose ring style was similar to the Christopher Street Connection or WWE's Billy and Chuck. They were joined by "Mr. Fabulous" Tony Ulysses, who employed a similar persona in Killer Kowalski's All Star Wrestling during the 1980s, as their stylist and lifestyle consultant.
In recent years, DellaGatta has been closely associated with Victory Championship Wrestling, a member of the recently revived Century Wrestling Alliance. In 2010, he and several other wrestlers established the Bell Time Club, a private social club and training facility open to both pro wrestlers and members of the public, which runs wrestling events though VCW.
In 2016, Rumble returned to Independent Wrestling Entertainment in Brewer, Maine, as the new booker and head trainer for the Cruiserweight Division.
Jason Rumble also has been making appearances for Canadian Wrestling Promotions in New Brunswick, Canada, since 2016 for NWE Pro Wrestling and Mainstream Wrestling NB.
Early life A native of Malden, Massachusetts, Jason DellaGatta was born to Joseph R. Dellagatta and Mary Kelliher. He was extensively involved in little league and high school baseball, basketball, and football throughout his childhood. After his graduation from Malden High School in 1992, DellaGatta initially worked for a local moving company while continuing to compete amateur sports. He formed his own team to play in a Boston night league around 1994. Their performance in the league, consisting primarily of college football players, impressed a scout from a semi-professional football organization, the New England Football League. DellaGatta and several of his teammates were eventually recruited with DellaGatta playing for the New England Stars. He would go on to play five seasons with the league becoming a 2-time NEFL All-Pro, the equivalent of an All-Star player, and named "Special teams player of the Year" in his final season. He also developed a close friendship with league owner Joe Monaco.
Professional wrestling career
Early career It was while playing for the NEFL that, at age 25, he began working out at the famed Malden Square training facility run by Water "Killer" Kowalski. DellaGatta later admitted that he had regularly walked past the building while attending Malden High and, despite being a wrestling fan, was unaware that it was a wrestling school. He often attended World Wrestling Federation events at the old Boston Garden during the 1980s and considered "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka a childhood hero. He often watched the Savoldi family's International Championship Wrestling and later became a fan of the Century Wrestling Alliance, the predecessor of NWA New England. He first gave serious thought to becoming a pro wrestler after attending his first-ever CWA live event in Revere, Massachusetts. A gifted student, DellaGatta completed his training under Kowalski within four months and made his pro debut as "Jason Rage" on February 14, 1997. He continued working at Kowalski's "Institute of Professional Wrestling", as did many New England independent wrestlers, for years afterwards.
In the five years he played semi-pro football, DellaGatta was offered tryouts with Canadian Football League, National Football League, and the XFL. A broken collarbone suffered while playing football put a sudden stop to his wrestling career after four months, and kept him out of action for the next six months. Worried that future injuries might hurt his pro wrestling career, he decided to retire from the NEFL to wrestle full-time. A year after his debut Kowalski arranged for DellaGatta to wrestle his first major opponent, "Mr. USA" Tony Atlas. He also started traveling to Maine two to three times a month to wrestle for Eastern Wrestling Alliance and later on appeared in other states such as the Florida-based Future of Wrestling promotion.
NWA New England (1998–2000) It was during this period that many of Kowalski's students were now competing in the local independent circuit and DellaGatta found it difficult to get booked after returning from his collarbone injury. A Malden basketball coach, who also trained at Kowalski's school as Tre the Smooth Operating Gangsta, recommended DellaGatta when Tony Rumble was looking for talent for the newly established NWA New England; DellaGatta has since credited his old coach whose introduction led to the close relationship he later enjoyed with Rumble and his family.
DellaGatta began wrestling for the promotion in early 1998. He first teamed with Slyk Wagner Brown and received several title shots against then NWA New England Tag Team Champions The Ark Angels (Phoenix King and Damon D'Archangelo). He also worked to establish himself as singles competitor and, on August 22, he defeated Jeff Mangles for the NWA New England Junior Heavyweight Championship in Somerville, Massachusetts. He followed this up with a successful title defense against Jay Jaillet and Luis Ortiz at a house show in Thomaston, Connecticut, on October 2, 1999. He held on to the title for five months before dropping the belt back to Jeff Mangles in a Triple Threat match also involving Slyk Wagner Brown early the next year; the title was declared vacant soon afterwards and he and Luis Ortiz wrestled in Southbridge, Massachusetts, to decide a new champion, a match which DellaGatta lost.
DellaGatta returned to the tag team division in mid-2000 and teamed with Slyk Wagner Brown and Luis Ortiz to win the vacant NWA New England Tag Team Championship in a Triangle match against Nemesis & Scarecrow and the Millennium Killaz (Muhammad the Butcher & Gino Martino) on June 22, 2000. Though beaten for the titles a month later by the Millennium Killaz, DellaGatta and Ortiz regained the belts on August 24 and remained champions until the tag titles were vacated at the end of the year. He frequently appeared on its weekly television show, "Mass Madness", with one of his later matches being a tag team match with Dukes Dalton against The Bushwhackers (Butch and Luke).
Birth of the "Boston Bad Boy" (2000) On November 13, 1999, Tony Rumble died of a massive heart attack near his Malden home. DellaGatta has claimed the day of Rumble's death was one of the saddest in his life and later had Rumble's name and the date of his passing tattooed on his left arm.
The promotion was run by Jeff Katz and Knuckles Nelson for the first six months after Rumble's death. Due to steadily declining attendance Rumble's widow Ellen Magliaro turned control of the promotion over to DellaGatta. He had recently held a successful fundraiser for a friend and fellow pro wrestler, Jeff Mangles, who had broken both of his legs in a recent accident. In spite of having little prior experience as a promoter, his efforts to arrange the show was the deciding factor in Magliaro deciding on DellaGatta to run the day-to-day operations. She and the Rumble family also requested that DellaGatta continue the "Boston Bad Boy" in-ring persona by competing as "Boston Bad Boy" Jason Rumble, the kayfabe son of Tony.
The decision to make DellaGatta the "face" of the company so early in his career was a controversial one and created animosity in the already divided Boston independent scene. Many wrestlers, some of whom saw this as blatant opportunism on the part of DellaGatta, were unaware that he had taken on the Rumble name at the request the Ellen Magliaro and his two step-daughters to keep Tony Rumble's memory alive. Sheldon Goldberg, unhappy with the situation, resigned his position with the company to start his own promotion, New England Championship Wrestling; Goldberg later commented that, while crediting him as "a good athlete and a good talent", DellaGatta's long-term career as a performer was hurt because of it.
DellaGatta was able to stabilize the promotion but struggled to keep the promotion during his tenure as booker. A number of factors, including the mismanagement of Katz and Nelson, DellaGatta's inexperience, and increasing competition from Chaotic Wrestling, the Millennium Wrestling Federation, New England Championship Wrestling and other rival groups, prevented the promotion from reclaiming its former position as New England's top promotion. NWA New England began experiencing trouble booking events in 2002 and finally went on year-long hiatus following a fundraiser in Riverside, Rhode Island, for victims of the Station nightclub fire in April 2003.
NWA New England (2000–2001) DellaGatta was introduced as Jason Rumble at the Jeff Mangles Tribute Show held in the summer of 2000. He won a Ladder match in the main event in which the wrestler who could successfully retrieve Tony Rumble's batting helmet would become the new "Boston Bad Boy". Representing his home promotion at the NWA 52nd Anniversary Show in Nashville, Tennessee, DellaGatta wrestled "Backhome" Beau Douglas in the main event and won the then vacant NWA New England Heavyweight Championship after forcing Douglas to submit to a Boston crab; their match was dedicated to the memory of Tony Rumble. He also formed a "second generation" of Tony Rumble's heel stable The Brotherhood consisting of himself, Rick Fuller, and The DarkAngel.