One of the most legendary figures in the world of professional wrestling is no longer with us with the news that Bruno Sammartino has died.
There is no term short of “legend” that can accurately describe Sammartino, who took his drawing power throughout the United States and across the world as the main figure of the Northeast wrestling scene throughout the 60’s and 70’s under Vince McMahon, Sr.
His two reigns as WWWF champion are unlikely to ever be touched. Sammartino first became champion on May 17th, 1963, defeating legitimate rival Buddy Rogers and holding the title for close to eight-years. His title loss to Ivan Koloff on January 18th, 1971 is still one of the most legendary matches in history due to the shock displayed by the audience when Koloff pinned the unbeatable champion. Sammartino described the scene within the arena as one that was so loud that he feared he had gone deaf because he could not hear anything.
The WWWF used Koloff as a transitional champion and later put the title onto Pedro Morales, who the promotion ran with until the end of 1973. A deal was made by Vince McMahon, Sr. to entice Sammartino to take on another reign as champion. Sammartino reluctantly agreed and won the title for a second time, defeating Stan Stasiak on December 10th, 1973.
Sammartino was not expecting to hold the title for the length he did the second time, eventually dropping it to “Superstar” Billy Graham on April 30th, 1977 in Baltimore. The decision was made to drop the title outside of New York as a precaution for the audience’s reaction to Graham cheating his way to the championship and dethroning Sammartino.
Sammartino was beaten down by the schedule of being a champion and traveling constantly.
Throughout his career, he continued his relationship with Toronto promoter Frank Tunney, where he would return and work on Sundays every two-weeks, despite his incredibly busy schedule during this era. Sammartino was always loyal to Tunney, owing to the promoter for utilizing him at a time when Sammartino believed he had been blackballed in the United States:
Before becoming WWWF champion, Sammartino decided to leave the New York territory to work for Roy Shire in California. Despite giving notice, the WWWF continued to book Sammartino on dates and when he couldn’t make them, he was suspended by several commissions, including California’s. Sammartino was ready to work in the construction business when Tunney offered him a life raft to continue wrestling with regular bookings.
It was this same loyalty that Sammartino held for Shohei “Giant” Baba, choosing to wrestle dates for All Japan Pro Wrestling as then-WWWF champion, even while the WWWF held a working relationship with Antonio Inoki’s New Japan.
Sammartino had estimated that at his peak he was making $100,000-125,000 per year, which was tremendous money at that time.
His life before the discovery of professional wrestling was literally a Hollywood script.
After his father came to the United States from Italy in 1936, it wasn’t until 1950 that the rest of his family, including Bruno, could join them due to Bruno’s illness with rheumatic fever. It was so severe that Bruno was given days to live as a child before making a miraculous recovery after battling the disease for 3 ½ years.
While living in Italy during the war, Sammartino and his siblings fled the Nazis with their mother, who would often leave her children for up to 24 hours in order to secure food.
When Sammartino arrived in the U.S. in 1950, he always credited weightlifting for saving his life and growing from 84 pounds at the age of 14 up to 220 pounds by the time he graduated high school.
We will have much more on the life and career of Bruno Sammartino throughout the week.
Sammartino was 82 years old.
