411’s Legends with JBL: Bruno Sammartino Report

411’s Legends with JBL: Bruno Sammartino Report

-Welcome to another edition of Legends with JBL, and this should be tremendous as we get a rare WWE appearance from Bruno Sammartino.

-As always JBL does his usual epic introduction of his guest and obviously Bruno deserves every accolade. He mentions Bruno held the WWE Title for 4040 days, and calls him the greatest WWE Champion of all time.

-We discuss Bruno’s early life in Italy where he was told to leave his house at 8 years old because the Nazis were rolling through. His mother took the kids and fled up a mountain where they hid for 14 months. That is insane! Bruno says that 200 people from his town were murdered by the SS Troops. JBL asks if Bruno understood the danger at that age, and while he didn’t understand he was scared. He could hear tanks and vehicles which was new to him as he was used to people traveling with horse and buggy. To him at the time it seemed like the end of the world.

-Bruno’s dad left for America when Bruno was only 3 months old. He made the decision to bring the family over since everything was being destroyed in their town. Back to Bruno’s mother as she had to risk her life to get off the mountain to get food and it was generally a 24 hour trip. She was captured once and was the only one to escape as the rest were murdered. There was one time the Nazis found Bruno on the mountain, and they were shocked they came up there. They made all them lineup and they started setting up a machinegun. Crazy story as Bruno was hiding his head in his mom’s lap and she was telling her kids that everything would be fine and they would feel no pain in heaven. Thankfully, some Allied Forces returned and the Nazis fled.

-Next near death experience for Bruno as he comes down with Rheumatic fever and his mother is told by doctors that Bruno is going to die. She told them that she had already lost 2 children and wasn’t going to lose a third. Bruno was taken to another part of Italy and had leeches put all over his body as the theory was that the leeches would take the poison blood out of his system. He slowly started to get better and the decision was made to head to America.

-In 1947 they tried to leave, but Bruno was still sick and couldn’t pass his physical so they had to wait. Finally, in 1950 they were able to make the trip and Bruno was frail, but soon started to build his body. Once he got into high school (in Pittsburgh) he joined the wrestling team and started weight lifting.

-Talk shifts to Bruno nearly becoming a Pittsburgh Steeler. Art Rooney Sr. would go around to local YMCA’s and he saw Bruno lifting and asked him to come to camp to tryout. Bruno wanted to know what he could make money wise and he was told that a lineman could make $6000-7000 a year. While weighing that option he had an interview with Bob Prince (Pittsburgh radio legend) and they discussed pro-wrestling and weight lifting. He meet another guy off that interview and Bruno went to Washington where he meet Vince McMahon Sr. He agreed to train for a month and that is how he started his career as a pro-wrestler.

-Bruno decided to work in other areas and went to San Francisco. On the way he was booked in Chicago and somehow was also booked at the same time in Baltimore. The Athletic Commission in Baltimore suspended him for not showing up and that ended up following him around so he quit to work construction.

-He was pulled back in when guys told him to work in Canada with Frank Tunney. That is where Bruno got his break and soon he started getting booked all over the country. That led to Vince Sr. wanting him to come back and Toots paid his fine in Maryland. He didn’t want to come back at first, but he said he would come back if he could be booked with WWWF Champion Buddy Rogers.

-They discuss Buddy Rogers and Bruno calls him a territory killer. They didn’t like each other and Bruno decided he wanted the WWF Title. They had the match in 1963 that lasted 48 seconds and JBL mentions that Buddy claims he had a heart attack right before the match. Bruno laughs at that, and says the promoters were worried that Buddy was going to fake an injury to avoid losing. Bruno says it was all secretive and he told Buddy before the match he was taking the title. Vince Sr didn’t want to take the title off him, but it had to be done as the territory was tanking under Buddy. Bruno was worried about a shoot so he never turned his back to Buddy, and the match lasted all of 48 seconds. They both mention that the crowd went crazy and it became a massive story as Sports Illustrated covered the fact that Bruno was one of the 3 highest paid athletes.

-Bruno bought a Rolls in 1969 (6 years into his reign) to shove it into the media’s face as they had a negative view of pro-wrestlers.

-Next they talk about Haystacks Calhoun and how Bruno slammed him in MSG. Bruno says he really didn’t slam him, but he knew he had to pick him up. He had no clue how he was going to do it, so he bear hugged his leg and went up with him. The reaction was crazy as Bruno thought the roof was going to come off The Garden.

-JBL brings up how Bruno apparently wrestler an orangutan and Bruno says this was before he became a pro. It was at a carnival and if someone could go 5 minutes with the ape they would get $50. The rules were that you couldn’t punch and only could wrestle. He had to get inside the cage with the poor thing and it started to kick him in the head and body. Bruno admits he was getting the crap beat out of him and he had to get behind him. It started swinging around the cage and slammed him against the bars. To save face he threw a punch to the gut and he was disqualified after a 15 minute battle which meant they didn’t pay him.

-Being champion so long started to take a toll and Bruno says he gave the title up both times to give himself a break. He talks about dropping the title to Koloff and MSG went dead quiet in shock. Bruno felt horrible when he saw the disappointment from the fans as he expected to boo, not be heart broken. Bruno took 2-3 months off and he started working in St Louis, Texas, and Japan. He started taking more time off for himself and he could set his own schedule working for anyone who needed him, but Vince Sr. and Jr started calling him to come back. They wanted him back to work only the major clubs and that was their agreement. It was only supposed to be a year and ended up 4 years until Hansen broke his neck.

-Bruno says Hansen called him in the hospital to apologize and Bruno told him they were big boys and knew what they were getting into.

-We are told that it was to be Ali vs Bruno before it ended up being Inoki. Ali wanted $6 million and Vince Sr couldn’t come up with that money while a TV Station in Japan was able to put up the money. They put Bruno vs. Stan on the undercard to help tickets sales as the US fans weren’t into Inoki.

-We jump ahead to the end of his next reign as Bruno told Vince Sr that he wanted out due to their previous agreement and now his bad neck. He told Vince to find someone new and it ended up being Billy Graham who then dropped it to Bob Backlund.

-There was an brief period where Bruno wasn’t around and Vince Sr called him to come back to do color commentary work. Vince then pressured him to work a few matches and Bruno knew he couldn’t do justice to what people remembered, but his feud with Savage was quite awesome. JBL brings up how Piper and Honky Tonk Man loved working with him.

-JBL brings up Bruno faded away again as the business started to change, and Bruno says he knew it would change, but he was desperate for wrestling to have credibility. He felt the new direction wasn’t going that way and JBL mentions that all sports were heading in that direction. He wanted to see wrestling get away from steroids and drugs. He can tell the difference between a steroid user and non user and that is part of the reason he is ok with watching the sport now. They hired a doctor that Bruno respected for the drug testing and that also helped heal the bridge to bring him back. They show hi-lights from Bruno’s Hall of Fame speech.

-JBL asks Bruno his thoughts on the champions that followed him like Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Bruno says that Flair wasn’t in the WWE during his time. He admits he was never a fan of Hogan because he wasn’t impressed with his in ring ability. He doesn’t think Hogan could make it in his era and he takes shots at Hogan’s drawing ability. WOW! He thinks Hogan was ok for a shot here and there, but he couldn’t do the same place over and over again.

-Bruno says that only in America can you seek your dreams and they can come true. He gave his best for his fans, and he thanks them for earning him a living.

-No Bull time: Greatest Wrestling Champion of All Time: Frank Gotch; Favorite Match: Koloff (not when he lost the title); Greatest Manager: Albano; Favorite Steeler: Franco Harris (his good friend); Greatest Accomplishment: That his mom could see him become what he did and that he could take care of her after all she did for him.

-And with that JBL wraps things up for this episode. This was a fascinating interview as Bruno’s early life is incredible. He and his family are to be commended for all they did to survive (especially all that his mother did for the family). Now Bruno taking shots at Hogan’s drawing ability seems off, but that’s his call. Even with that this was the usual great interview with JBL and I look forward to the next installment.

-Thanks for reading.