World Tag Team Championship against Hot Commodity; Doring and Nova successfully defended the titles. His final match for ECW took place on January 13 where he defeated Tom Marquez. Independent circuit and overseas (2001–2002) When ECW went out of business, Bucci, as Nova, became more active on the independent scene until 2003. Nova wrestled in various promotions such as California's Ultimate Pro Wrestling, and New Jersey's Phoenix Championship Wrestling, the latter of which was founded by his brother Don Bucci. During this time, he formed a successful tag team with Frankie Kazarian known as Evolution (not to be confused with the World Wrestling Entertainment stable of the same name). In most of the promotions they competed for, they were successful in becoming tag team champions. He also briefly wrestled in the short-lived Australia-based World Wrestling All-Stars, where he feuded with A.J. Styles amongst other cruiserweights for the promotion's International Cruiserweight Championship, which he was unable to win before the company folded. In late 2001, he also worked a number of shows in England. World Wrestling Entertainment (2002–2007) In April 2002, Bucci signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). In his OVW debut, he defeated The Prototype for the OVW Heavyweight Championship. He held the title for several months, retaining it in matches against The Prototype, Christian, Lance Cade, and Chris Kanyon, before he lost it to The Damaja in October. The following year, he formed a tag team with Aaron Stevens, and the duo defeated Tank Toland and Chris Cage to win the OVW Tag Team Championship. In June 2004, Bucci was named the assistant booker of OVW. It was around this time that he was called up to start competing in SmackDown! dark matches and on Velocity. He then began to try out a fitness-expert gimmick using the ring name Simon Dean. The name was inspired by Dean Malenko's real name, Dean Simon. In August 2004, a series of introductory promos about the "Simon System" (a program of diet, exercise, and supplements) were aired on WWE television. The promos parodied fitness infomercials, with Dean routinely insulting his supposed customers. During this gimmick, he acted as the sponsor of Raw, occasionally wrestling after first insulting the fitness of the crowd and the area in which they were located. After making only a minor impact on the Raw brand, he formed