It was reported today that Bruno Sammartino passed away today at age 82. While the cause is not yet known it was disclosed that the professional wrestling legend had been battling serious illness over that past few months.

From Abruzzo, Italy, Sammartino’s family hid from Nazi soldiers during the latter part of World War II and the family would move to the United States in 1950. A natural athlete, Sammartino got into bodybuilding and weightlifting and was before long a barrel chested toughman who got into amateur wrestling and was a natural fit for the rank of the pros.

Beginning his career in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh, Sammartino was an instant hit, as not only did he appeal as an ethnic babyface to the Italian-American community he physically looked the part of a wrestling superstar.

Pittsburgh loved Bruno but working for Vince McMahon Sr.’s Capital Sports Promotion in New York City was an even greater fit. With a large Italian community, Sammartino was made for New York City and before long he was a top of the card act there as well as Toronto, where he sold the house in bouts against Lou Thesz. Capital Sports would break away from the National Wrestling Alliance and have “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers as their champion but he was a little long in the tooth and was not the draw that McMahon Sr. needed. Sammartino had previously left McMahon Sr. earlier feeling jilted on previous payoffs but as they say in the WWE (then named the WWWF) “never say never” and he returned to New York.

On May 17, 1963 Sammartino defeated Rogers to win the World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship in less than a minute and Bruno was established as the biggest star in the Northeast. He would hold the championship for what is still a record seven years, eight months and one day and successfully defended his belt and sold out Madison Square Gardens against what seemed to be every major heel in the 60’s.

That list included:

Spiros Arion

Giant Baba

Freddie Blassie

The Crusher

Dr. Jerry Graham

Curtis Iaukea

Gene Kiniski

Killer Kowalski

Ernie “The Big Cat” Ladd

Bill Miller

Gorilla Monsoon

The Sheik

George “The Animal” Steele

Professor Toru Tanaka

Johnny Valentine

Waldo Von Erich

Bill Watts

The title run could have easily reached a decade but Bruno himself decided that he needed a break and he lost the belt in 1971 to Ivan Koloff (who would be beaten shortly after by Pedro Morales). With all due respect to Morales, he wasn’t the draw that Bruno was and McMahon Sr. offered Samamrtino a reduced schedule and higher gate percentage to get him to be the champion again. He would defeat transitional champion Stan “The Man” Stasiak on December 10, 1973 to begin his second reign as WWWF World Heavyweight Champion.

Sammartino would enjoy another long reign (three years, four months, twenty days) and would have notable title defences against many of the previous challengers (Steele, Ladd, Arion, Blassie, Koloff and Von Erich) and new challengers such as Baron Von Raschke, John Tolos, Ken Patera, Don Leo Jonathan and Nikolai Volkoff).   While all of those were big names the highest profile challenger he has was a young Texan named Stan Hansen who in a botched move legitimately fractured Sammartino’s neck but they worked that injury into storyline and Sammartio would defend the belt against Hansen in a high profile match at Shea Stadium. Sammartino would again tire and he would drop the championship to “Superstar” Billy Graham in 1977.

Over the next three years Sammartino had a reduced schedule in the WWWF but would embark on more national and international tours. Still, the WWWF was where he was always going to be best known and in 1980 his protégé, Larry Zbyszko turned on him leading to a major feud, which headlined Shea Stadium resulting in Sammartino defeating Zbyszko in a Steel Cage Match. Bruno would retire from wrestling in 1981 but shortly after the relationship between Sammartino and McMahon would sour again.

Bruno would learn that the deal he made during his second title run did not see him make the percentage of the gates that he was promised. Following the death of Vince McMahon Sr., Vince McMahon Jr. brokered a deal with Sammartino (he had sued the WWWF) that would not only give Bruno back pay but would see him return as an analyst. Part of the arrangement saw Bruno’s son, David compete in the now named in WWF, which segued Bruno into coming back on occasion to team with his son. David Sammartino was pushed but wasn’t ready and his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation was not a good one and the younger Sammartino and younger McMahon were constantly at odds. David would quit out of frustration but Bruno would be used more often in main events in the east competing against the likes of Roddy Piper and Randy Savage. David Sammartino would be brought back in 1988 but would be fired when he struck a fan. Feeling that the fan was a plant by Vince Jr., the elder Sammartino left also (though his contract was expiring anyway).

To call the breakup between Vince McMahon Jr. and Bruno Sammartino acrimonious would be an understatement. If asked in interviews, Sammartino would openly trash Vince McMahon Jr., the WWF product and the rampant drug use of the performers. His criticism received national attention, especially when he appeared on the Phil Donahue show on a panel where Vince Jr. himself was on. In later years when the WWE Hall of Fame was re-established and when asked if he would be open to be inducted his standard answer was always “Give me a break.”

It was largely believed that Sammartino would never set foot in anything WWE related but after years of olive branches by COO Jean Levesque, Sammartino did return to the fold and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. For many, including us at Notinhalloffame.com (we had him ranked #1 until he was inducted) the WWE Hall of Fame lacked a certain credibility without Bruno in it and Triple H deserves every honor possible in mending this fence.

The Hall of Fame would not be a one off appearance as Sammartino would also appear at other WWE events and do interviews for WWE Network events. He would return to the WWE Hall of Fame as an inductor in 2015 for Larry Zbyszko.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Bruno Sammartino. You will always be a legend to us and we know we are not alone in that sentiment.