Wrestler Bruno Sammartino dies
Fan favourite in 1960s and ’70s, held pro-wrestling title for a total of 13 years
Bruno Sammartino, an Italian immigrant who was heavyweight champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation for a record 11 years in the 1960s and ’70s, long before the federation admitted that its matches were scripted and largely choreographed entertainment shows, has died at
82.
His death was announced on the website of WWE, the organization also known as World Wrestling Entertainment, a successor of the World Wide Wrestling Federation.
No other details were immediately provided.
In an era when the sports world, except for some diehard wrestling fans, knew that professional matches were staged dramatizations, with heroes and villains, story lines and beefcake actors shamming the violence, Sammartino was one of the most popular performers in the business. He wrestled in Australia, Spain, Mexico, Canada and Japan, and often drew gates of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden in New York, where he had more than 200 matches.
Unlike many heavies on the pro wrestling circuits, he was a soft-spoken, gentlemanly connoisseur of grand opera, especially Verdi. And for one who had bench-pressed 565 pounds as an amateur, he was relatively small: under 6 feet tall and a trim 260 or 270 pounds, with bulging pectorals and biceps and a big head. He looked tiny beside giant rivals like Haystacks Calhoun, who topped 600 pounds.
Sammartino often feuded with promoters who arranged his matches. But he insisted that he never took a dive and held his titles legitimately in two reigns, from May 17, 1963, to Jan. 17, 1971, and from Dec. 10, 1973, to April 30, 1977. He lost a few matches: One foe threw salt in his eyes and pinned him while he groped about blindly; another leapt from the ring and ran off with his “diamond studded” championship belt.
He sometimes made $150,000 a year, headlining cards featuring the “bad guys” — Killer Kowalski, Hans Mortier, Waldo von Erich, Ivan Koloff, Gorilla Monsoon, Professor Toro Tanaka and George (the Animal) Steele. Feuds and insults fuelled the publicity hype, and outrages in the ring sent crowds wild. Every wrestler had a gimmick, ethnicity or nationality, the personas of cowboys, lumberjacks or farmers, and sports reporters went along with the fun.
Sammartino and many of his opponents were under contract to the wrestling federation, which arranged matches, orchestrated publicity and made millions from ticket sales and television broadcasts. The money was good, but Sammartino said he was motivated by pride, not howling fans who admired his headlock on the Sheik of Arab .
Sammartino was a “good guy,” but like all the others, he pounced, grimaced, grunted and rolled with the blows — a heroic Italian vs. a villainous Manchurian or a giant from Berlin: a different scenario for every match. In February 1961, Sammartino body-slammed Chick Garibaldi to the canvas at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. Garibaldi did not get up. The referee stopped the match and determined that Garibaldi was dead. A medical examiner later said he had suffered a heart attack. Sammartino was stricken with remorse for months. Sammartino himself almost died, of a broken neck, when Stan Hansen, in a match in New York in 1976, dropped him on his head. Sammartino spent weeks in a hospital.
Sammartino did not dispute that professional wrestling matches were fixed. But he bristled at suggestions that he had ever taken a fall and said his injuries were proofs of his honesty. “I would be a fool to tell you that there was no fixing,” he told The Washington Post in 1980 as his career wound down. “You ask if wrestling is for real? Well, I think my own body answers that question. I have broken more bones than any of the others.”