Professional wrestling great Bruno Sammartino dies at 82

WWE’s ‘Living Legend’ dead

NEW YORK, April 19, (AP): He was professional wrestling’s ultimate good guy. The son of Italian immigrants, Bruno Sammartino fled the Nazis as a child and built a career beating a string of bad guys that thrilled fans and made him reign as the conscientious champ for more than a decade.

Before the flash of The Hulkster, the electricity of The Rock and the foulmouth of Stone Cold, all Sammartino required to become wrestling’s biggest box office draw was a pair of tights, boots and an honest promo that made fans believe in the most illegitimate of sports.

Sammartino, professional wrestling’s “Living Legend” and one of its longest-reigning champions, has died. He was 82.

“One of the finest men I knew, in life and in business,” WWE chairman Vince McMahon said. “Bruno Sammartino proved that hard work can overcome even the most difficult of circumstances. He will be missed.”

Family friend and former wrestling announcer Christopher Cruise said Sammartino died Wednesday morning and had been hospitalized for two months.

The WWE opened a live event Wednesday night with a 10-bell salute for Sammartino.

Sammartino’s name on the marquee about guaranteed a squared circle sellout in the 1960s and 1970s and he held the World Wide Wrestling Federation championship for more than 11 years (4,040 days) over two title runs.

Sammartino’s Italian heritage, brute strength and good-guy charisma helped make him an instant star in the northeast. He had rivalries with Killer Kowalski, Gorilla Monsoon and George “The Animal” Steele during his title runs and later wrestled famous grudge matches at Shea Stadium against Pedro Morales, Stan Hansen and Larry Zbyszko.

“Bruno came along in the ‘60s and he reflected what was going on in terms of the American Dream story,” Zbyszko told The Associated Press. “Poor, starving immigrant kid who escaped Nazis. His mother was shot over the mountains and he came to this country starving and achieved the American Dream. He became the beloved heavyweight champion of the world. People saw that, they felt that. He was a real guy. Everybody believed in him.”

He was born in Italy and was a child when his family immigrated to Pittsburgh, where he became a champion power lifter and workout fanatic before learning the ropes of pro wrestling.

Sammartino defeated Buddy Rogers in just 48 seconds to become the second-ever WWE champion in front of nearly 20,000 fans on May 17, 1963, at the old Madison Square Garden. He held the title until 1971 and his second reign began in 1973 with a win over Stan Stasiak. That one lasted until he was pinned by “Superstar” Billy Graham in 1977.

Zbyszko, a WWE Hall of Famer, was billed as Sammartino’s protege until he turned on him during a famous televised match. Zbyszko got a quick lesson on how much fans loved their Legend when he bloodied Sammartino with a series of chair shots to the head.

“I was getting my car smashed, I had to hide in trunks,” Zbyszko said. “I was going down the highway in a new Cadillac with the windows smashed, the mirrors hanging, the lights are out. It was a different time, a different day. My god, the riots.”

In this Nov 30, 2000 file photo, former pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino, 65, poses with a painting of him in his pro wrestling prime weighing 275 pounds

in 1965 at age 35, in his Pittsburgh home. (AP)