Bruno Sammartino

Bruno Sammartino
Bruno Sammartino at the induction into the Hall of Fame in 2013.
Data
Ring name	Bruno Sammartino
Additions to names	The Living Legend The Italian Superman
height	1.78 m
Fighting weight	120 kg
birth	October 6, 1935 Pizzoferrato , Italy
death	April 18, 2018 Pittsburgh , USA
Announced from	Abruzzo , Italy Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania
Trained by	Ace Freeman Rex Peery
debut	1959
retirement	1987

Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (born October 6, 1935 in Pizzoferrato , Italy , † April 18, 2018 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) was an Italian wrestler . Sammartino was in the wrestling organization World Wide Wrestling Federation with a duration of almost eight years the longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion , as well as the longest reigning Heavyweight Champion in wrestling at all. During his active career, Sammartino's appearances always resulted in sold-out events and record audience numbers. Later he was opposed to the modern orientation of wrestling. He is the father of David Sammartino, who was also an active wrestler.

Life

The Sammartino family had to hide from German soldiers in the mountains during World War II . In February 1950 he emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , where his father had lived for several years. Slender, war-torn Sammartino was exposed to attacks from his classmates. Because of this, he started lifting weights.

In 1956 he almost made it into the US Olympic team, but was outpaced by Paul Anderson , who was over 30 kg . There were no wrestlers at Schenley High School, which he attended, but he trained with the University of Pittsburgh wrestling team under Rex Peary. Sammartino became known for performing shows of strength and was therefore televised by Bob Prince. The local wrestling promoter Rudy Miller saw him. Miller brought Sammartino into professional wrestling in order to build him up as a hero for the Italian-American audience.

Sammartino underwent heart surgery in 2011. He died on April 18, 2018, at the age of 82, of multiple organ failure due to heart problems after a two-month hospital stay.

Wrestling career

Beginnings

In 1959, Sammartino began performing for the local Pittsburgh promotion and was an absolute darling of the public. National greats such as Gorilla Monsoon , Crusher Lisowski , Bobo Brazil and the young George Steele also performed there. Bruno bought himself into the doctorate and became a co-owner before finally selling it to the WWWF in 1974.

World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation / WWE (1959–1987, 2013)

First appearances and first WWWF World Heavyweight Championship reign (1959–1971)

Sammartino also appeared for the Worldwide Wrestling Federation. He made headlines because he was the first and only wrestler who could lift the over 270 kg wrestler Haystacks Calhoun. On August 2, 1962, he was allowed to defeat reigning NWA Champion Buddy Rogers for the first time. Officially, however, Sammartino refused the title because Rogers was injured according to the show script. On May 17, 1963, however, he defeated that same Rogers in just 48 seconds again for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship . The background to this short fight was that Rogers actually had a heart condition and was therefore no longer an option as a champion in the future. Bruno was allowed to hold this title for 7 years, 8 months and one day, longer than anyone before or after him.

Bruno Sammartino was considered the most popular wrestler in the United States, so he was scheduled to take Lou Thesz 's NWA Champion title in 1965 . He would have been the first wrestler to hold the two most prestigious wrestling titles in America at the same time. Due to the high number of appearances, which he would then have had to cope with, Sammartino rejected this match. Instead, Gene defeated Kiniski Thesz.

By then, Sammartino had already become a living legend: in his career, he played 211 main events (the climax of an event) at Madison Square Garden , more than anyone else. He had feud programs with the top wrestling guys at the time, like Killer Kowalski , Giant Baba , Ernie Ladd and many others.

On January 18, 1971, Sammartino finally gave up his title after he had asked Vince Mc Mahon Sr. for a long time because he was physically unable to last longer due to the long title reign and the associated frequent wrestling To stay champion. They left him at Madison Square Garden against the Russians occurring as Ivan Koloff by pinfall lose . The audience reacted in shock and made no sound, as a “ Soviet ” had defeated the local champion during the Cold War . As a special angle , the title change was not announced that evening.

Second WWWF World Heavyweight Championship reign (1973–1977)

Bruno Sammartino as WWWF World Heavyweight Champion .

On December 10, 1973, however, Sammartino was allowed to regain the title by defeating Stan "The Man" Stasiak , who acted as a transition champion after Pedro Morales, because one did not want to let two audience favorites compete against each other. This time he was allowed to hold the title for 3 years, 4 months and 20 days.

On April 26, 1976, Sammartino suffered the worst injury of his career. In a match against Stan Hansen , Hansen carried out a wrestling action improperly and Sammartino suffered a fracture in the neck area. After two months he returned and competed against Hansen again in a rematch, which took place in the framework of the show fight between Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali .

Bruno's second title reign ended on April 30, 1977, when superstar Billy Graham was victorious against him. Then Sammartino toured through various leagues, including joining Dick the Bruiser as a tag team and both of them won the WWA tag team titles from the Valiant Brothers.

Last matches and resignation (1978–1981)

On January 22, 1980, when he returned to the WWF, Sammartino began a new feud program against his former wrestling student Larry Zbyszko , which he was supposed to finish as the winner.

After resigning in 1981, he came back to WWF again to guide his son David's career on the right track. Sammartino appeared on the tag team with his son . But David saw himself only as a means to an end that his father continued to appear for the WWF, and left the organization several times. Bruno Sammartino, however, carried on to appease McMahon and bring his son back.

Return to the ring and end of the in-ring career (1984–1988)

Sammartino took part in the Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 2 and then began a feud program with Randy Savage . He was often allowed to compete with Tito Santana and his old rival George "The Animal" Steele against Savage and Adrian Adonis . Sammartino also won a lumberjack match for the Intercontinental Title against Savage. However, since the victory came through disqualification, Savage retained the title. He also worked with Sgt.Slaughter , Nikolai Volkoff and Rowdy Roddy Piper, among others . In his last WWF match he worked with Hulk Hogan and competed with him against King Kong Bundy and One Man Gang . On October 28, 1989, he was the guest referee at the NWA Halloween Havoc event .

Induction into the Hall of Fame (2013)

Bruno Sammartino worked as a television commentator for the Universal Wrestling Federation in the 1990s, especially since his son David was active as a wrestler there. Since his retirement, Sammartino has publicly criticized the current direction of wrestling. He also strongly condemned the use of anabolic steroids . The latter is also the reason that he broke off contact with his son David. Sammartino was particularly dismissive of the WWE, turned down offers for retrospectives of his career and did not want to be inducted into their Hall of Fame. Independent career reviews have been produced, however, including: Bruno Sammartino's Legends Never Die , La Roccia , The Passing of the Belt , and The Boys are Back .

After long discussions with Paul Levesque , Sammartino finally agreed and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 6, 2013 . His long-time friend Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the laudation .

useful information

Sammartino has never lost a steel cage match in his career . He has a star on the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame. Bruno is the one who was first named The Living Legend , Larry Zbyszko took this name in the wake of the feud program of the two and kept it as an addition. Sammartino's reign from May 17, 1963 to January 18, 1971 is the longest reign of the WWE Championship at 2,803 days .

Wrestling successes

Bruno Sammartino received a bronze statue from the WWE in 2014 .

World Wide Wrestling Federation

• Hall of Fame (Class of 2013)
• WWE Championship (2 ×)
• WWWF International Tag Team Championship (1 × with Dominic DeNucci )
• WWWF United States Tag Team Championship (1 × with Spiros Arion)
• Bronze statue (2014)

Grand Prix Wrestling

• GPW Tag Team Championship (1 × with Edouard Carpentier)

Maple Leaf Wrestling

• NWA Toronto United States Heavyweight Championship (1 ×)
• NWA International Tag Team Championship (1 × with Billy Watson)

World Wrestling Association

• WWA World Tag Team Championship (1 × with Dick the Bruiser)

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum

• Class of 2002

Web links

Commons : Bruno Sammartino  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Bruno Sammartino in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Bruno Sammartino profile on wwe.com