Roundtable: Bruno Sammartino

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, the staff pays respect to the greatest WWE Champion of all time, the “Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino.

Troy Taroff: His legacy is undoubtedly belonging on the pro wrestling Mount Rushmore. Holding the most prestigious title in all of WWE for more than 11 YEARS over two separate reigns is nothing short of incredible. It will never be done again. Whether there just wasn’t as much talent back then is for another discussion, but for promoters to have him hold that title for that long shows his prowess in professional wrestling lore.

Jack Goodwillie: It’s something we’re never going to see again. Sure, we’ve had yearlong title reigns out of Brock Lesnar and CM Punk in recent memory, but two reigns spanning 11 years is unheard of and because of that, he’s someone who’s always going to be remembered, if only for that.

Evan Cross: Obviously when Bruno was starring, there weren’t 15 different weekly shows to appear on, but an eight-year title run is still extraordinary. To be the face of the company for that long is no easy task, and he drew money the whole time. He meant a ton to New York given the huge Italian population. Given the territory system at the time, he was a local sports figure – and he hung out with other ones.

Anthony Mahalis: I have been thinking about this and I realized that I hardly know anything about Bruno Sammartino. I obviously know that he was one of the greats and was really important to the industry, but I don’t want to try to expand on that without real knowledge about him. I don’t want to act like I know what I am talking about. Hopefully, I can learn a few things from my colleagues here.

David Gibb: I never met Bruno Sammartino or saw him work live or even existed during a time when he was wrestling actively, but everything about him reminds me about my grandparents. Like them, he came of age too soon during World War II and journeyed to America after the war to find opportunities that traditionally hadn’t been available to regular folks in then-still-more-feudal-than-most-Americans-appreciate Europe. He achieved that prosperity based on effort and determination that freshman English teachers refer to as “The American Dream,” and he became the ultimate symbol of our country: the successful immigrant.

Goodwillie: He was the first of many “ethnic” characters that would fuel the WWF in the 60’s and 70’s, and for the time, he had all the tools to be the top draw in the Northeast territory. Having Bruno as a consistent draw pretty much everywhere he went between the tri-state area and New England meant that Vince McMahon Sr. could loan out Andre the Giant all over the country and make a mint doing so while the entire industry prospered. So to say he was vital to the early financial success of the WWWF that would later set the table for the Vince Jr. takeover would be an understatement.

Taroff: He basically put Northeast wrestling on the map (aside from Vince Sr.). He is, and always will be, the king of Madison Square Garden. After years of declining inductions, Bruno finally accepting his bid into the Hall of Fame in 2013 was much deserved. It shows that one of the greatest wrestlers of all time finally liked he direction the WWE was heading and that had to feel good for all the other wrestlers in the locker room.

Gibb: Like my grandparents, he grew up in a vastly different world than that of here and now, and he could be prescriptivist about the state of society, the superiority of his generation to that of others, and the low quality of the general direction of things. The specifics of the wrestling world that Bruno Sammartino inhabited are largely inscrutable to the majority of us today, but his incredible narrative of survival during World War II and his accomplishments in the WWWF make him one of the great American stories of his time.

Cross: He’s the face of a generation and the biggest pre-Hogan WWF star. I was pleasantly surprised to see multiple people on Twitter, who don’t normally talk about wrestling, reference Bruno’s death and say how much they enjoyed watching him. Much like our generation remembers The Rock and Steve Austin, the generation that grew up in the 60s remembers Bruno.

John Corrigan: Bruno was the childhood hero of my dad, my uncles, my friends’ dads, even my friends’ mom. One of the greatest joys of my life was taking my dad to WrestleMania 29, where he finally got to see the Living Legend in person.

For the better part of 20 years, he was a real-life superhero conquering every villain in his path. Inside the ring, he vanquished evil foreigners, unstoppable monsters and devious managers. Outside the ring, he refused to tow the company line and called Vince McMahon out on all his shit: drug abuse, sex scandals, hoodwinking the public into worshipping these larger-than-life characters with nightmarish backstories. I’m still shocked he finally agreed to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Cross: Everyone who’s been a part of that ceremony has talked about how much the loved and appreciated it. There are so many wrestlers that don’t live to see their Hall of Fame induction, and I’m glad Bruno did.

Goodwillie: It sure was a long time coming, wasn’t it? Between him, Savage and Owen Hart, those names for the longest time were two of the biggest WTF names as to why they hadn’t been inducted. Much has been made of a long-standing beef between Bruno and VKM, but there comes a time where you just have to bury the hatchet and let bygones be bygones. Leave it to Triple H and his golden shovel to be the voice of reason!

Corrigan: Bruno is not only a pillar of WWE, but a role model to the Italian community and the perfect ambassador of the pro wrestling industry. He carried himself with class, humility and dignity, refusing to embrace the shift to sports-entertainment. Bruno was a professional wrestler, emphasis on the latter and embodying the former.

Goodwillie: Sean Oliver waxed poetic on just how much of a gentleman and true man of his word he was outside the ring. I believe he touches on this in our podcast interview from a few months back. Nevertheless, I think “true grace” would be the best way to describe Bruno, even if some stubbornness came along with that.