The Case for Bruno Sammartino

Who is the greatest professional wrestler of all time?

We’ve heard all the accolades about Ric Flair over the past few months. We know the names of legend, like Lou Thesz, like Ed “Strangler” Lewis, and the big names of yesteryear, the ones the old school claim were real wrestlers, and of whom I won’t argue against.

So, how do you measure greatness?

Can it be based on the “it” factor, or the drawing power (compared as apples and oranges, decades apart) or the number of championships won (and lost?)

And, in building the case for greatness, can it be done without tearing down the contenders?

For Bruno Sammartino, the case must be made, and in respect to the man, I must do it with the passion, power and Integrity that is not just the legacy of Bruno, but the essence of his professional career and public face.

For the record, I’m not a nuts and bolts historian. This isn’t about getting into the details, but building a case, logically, emphatically and with the analysis and historical perspective than is necessary.

In ten points I can argue why Bruno Sammartino is the greatest professional wrestler of all. Ten points of establishing why he surpasses others, why he embodies the sport, why he, above all, can challenge for the title of champion of champions.

Arguments are the hallmark of fandom…. Here are mine:

By the way, let me put some perspective on the WWWF territory. It is easy to relegate the “Northeast” as a smaller region than, say, the entire United States of America. But let’s not overlook the vast populations of the Northeast. From Boston to Pittsburgh, and as far south as Washington DC and Baltimore, every major city was of the top 20 in population up until the 1960’s.

To dismiss New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington DC, the various smaller cities of New York, the state of New Jersey, and the New England area, plus Pennsylvania, is to dismiss up to 50% of the population of this country.

It is equally arguable that the NWA, in not promoting heavily in the Northeast, hardly covered the United States, as it would be to say that the Northeast is a minor region.


One:

Bruno Sammartino was the longest reigning Heavyweight Champion in the United States.

Lou Thesz was the NWA Champion for over ten years. Ten years and three months, to nail it to that detail. He held the belt on three occasions.

Bruno surpassed that mark by nearly a year. He had tworeigns, the first being seven years and eight months long. That first, historically dominant reign speaks of a longevity that will likely never be challenged.

We can talk numbers of titles, but the duration of the reign seems far more important to me. And in that regard, Bruno surpasses the measuring stick of the great Lou Thesz himself.

Two:

Bruno Sammartino dominated the professional wrestling industry in the 1960’s, and for much of the 1970’s.
Well, dominated maybe is not a good enough description…
It is a documented fact that Sammartino was all but offered the NWA championship, even while he held the WWWF version of the World Heavyweight Championship.

Sure, the rivalry was nowhere near the level of WCW/WWF in the 1990’s, but the reality was there:
Sammartino was considered such a draw, such a dominant force, that the NWA was willing to take ½ a month of his schedule instead of controlling a full month of their own championship. I’m not so sure how that can be dismissed.

Bruno had the offer, but turned it down, with the obvious reality that he had enough income, work and a tough schedule working for the WWWF alone, and knew he’d be destroyed by a non-stop schedule.

How do you argue the depth of this? This was an era when arena attendance was where the profits were made.
This was an era where the NWA bespoke of its own gallery of truly deserving champions. And yet… the biggest and most prestigious of professional wrestling organizations all but begged to have a part time champion?

How much of a draw was Sammartino? One can get lost in the numbers, but consider the logic: One half of Bruno Sammartino’s presence was worth more than a ompletely controlled NWA Heavyweight Champion.

Three:

Bruno Sammartino’s salary level in the 1960’s compares strongly to the highest paid athletes in major sports.

Whether we look at Major League Baseball – the dominant sport of the culture at the time – or the NFL and AFL, or even Professional Golf (notably Arnold Palmer,) the numbers floated around for Mr. Sammartino, that of $100,000 per year, cannot be duplicated in the modern era.

Steve Austin danced at income ranges approaches that of Baseball and Football stars, but briefly and not quite at the same level. And to raise Bruno’s impact further, keep in mind that merchandising was not even a blip on the radar compared to the T-shirt sales, branded products and other lucrative items (that yellow styrofoam finger comes to mind as well) that propelled wrestlers to high salaries.

Bruno, however, rubbed shoulders with the likes of Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax and other baseball superstars, not because of merchandising, but because of base salary.

The range of salaries for professional football was around $60,000 average in the 1970’s, which is why some football greats like Wahoo McDaniels moonlighted in wrestling. $100,000 was the upper stratosphere of most sports, and even pro golfers like Arnold Palmer were doing $125,000 per year at the peak of income in that era.

It’s hard to comprehend a wrestler today making tens of millions of dollars per year.

I’ll admit that changing entertainment and sports values makes this another apples to oranges comparison. But once again, who today, and who over the past thirty years had consistently pulled in a salary comparable to the superstars of other professional sports?

Four:

Who has the legacy of Bruno Sammartino?

Bruno commands the stage at every even he attends. People in Pittsburgh stop and respond, often in an orderly fashion, to his presence: at baseball games, at boxing events and of course at charity events.
Sure, it’s Pittsburgh and it’s Bruno’s adopted hometown, but Pittsburgh wasn’t the heart of the old WWWF. That was Madison Square Garden. New York. But talk to the old-timers in Philadelphia. In Baltimore, Boston or parts in between. Bruno was the champ in Washington DC and in other Pennsylvania cities, from Allentown to Altoona.

We can talk about how The Sheik burned out Toronto, and how Jack Tunney turned to Ric Flair to re-establish it, but can we overlook how Bruno Sammartino sparked his career in Toronto, after being blackballed in the business by McMahon, by speaking his native Italian and drawing as an ethnic hero?

But Bruno Sammartino being Italian was only a portion of his legacy.

Pittsburgh has its many hues and many places of origin for its strong immigrant history, but Italian neighborhoods aren’t dominant by far, in the 96 odd ethnic magnets that comprise the Steel City.

Bruno wasn’t just the hero of the Italians, but of theworking men of many national origins. Slovaks and Poles are more prominent in the City of Champions, but no one, no matter where they called their ancestral home, hesitated one bit about their champion’s fluency, his accent or his real home town.

Neither, it seems, did the citizens of cities across the Northeast, and across most of the continent as well.
And, by Bruno’s passionate loyalty to Baba, one has to add other lands to that mix.

Five:

Bruno Sammartino wasn’t just the face at the foundation of what is now the WWE, he was the man who came back time and time again to restore the promotion to prominence, to bail it out from potential disaster, and he was a part of the national establishment of the WWF.

Yankee Stadium is the House that Ruth Built. While to argue that Madison Square Garden was made the wrestling capital of the world by Sammartino’s efforts would ignore many years of history, one cannot avoid the fact that Bruno Sammartino headlined MSG for reportedly 200 events.

Furthermore, one can argue that the WWWF was built on the massive shoulders of the Italian Superman. Take away Bruno from the mix, and Vince McMahon Sr isn’t the mover and shaker in the industry in the 1960’s, with no regard to the happenings of the NWA, no interest in booking that champion, and no concerns about raking in the profits.

Bruno’s ability to call his shots is another point, but his endurance built the WWWF. Having the dominant champion meant a revolving door of challengers, who could be made just by standing up to the man. Having that pecking order, that brilliant formula, that awesome combination of promotion and wrestling mind, that all built the organization up.

But was it Vince Senior as promoter, or Bruno Sammartino, as champion, that propelled the success? The period between Bruno’s first loss and second reign cements the argument.

His return after Pedro Morales’ title reign re-established the WWWF as a major player. His return brought the numbers back: his magic, his presence and his wrestling mind and talent. Re-establishing the formula worked its wonders.

So what happened with Morales? What happened with Bob Backlund a few years later? If it was just the draw of an ethnic champion, why didn’t Morales draw? And if it was the sheer talent, why didn’t Backlund, a superior wrestler, with the All-American pedigree, raise the bar of success?

To dig deeper, was it not Bruno Sammartino, coming back way too fast from a serious neck injury, who brought the crowd in to watch the debacle of Antonio Inoki and Muhammed Ali on closed circuit?

The McMahons all but begged Bruno to put in an appearance, and there were apparently promises of a return on the receipts for his efforts.

He did wrestle a match. It was a four minute match which once more highlights Bruno’s awesome understanding of the sport and its fans.

Four minutes seems like nothing. But consider:

A) Bruno wrestled enough to show he could
B) Bruno wrestled enough to protect his health
C) Bruno wrestled so that the fans would want more
D) Bruno wrestled to save his boss from a financial loss

And, history will show, that he succeeded like he always did.

Jump ahead nearly a decade later. Bruno Sammartino is still a name to be reckoned with. His ability and presence was more than just helpful to the expansion of Vince McMahon Jr’s business brilliant business game plan.

Whether it was setup or pure coincidence, Bruno’s talent and aura persisted: to work a tag team match, to take the place of a headliner who missed a show, tostep right in an carry an arm of a three-pronged canvassing of the nation.

Six:

What can be said about Bruno’s schedule? Was it any less than the NWA Champions of the era? Did it pale to the TV face time of the Ric Flair era?

Bruno worked styles like few others. He could do power. He could wrestle with the best of them. And he had the unique presence, charm and credibility to work however he wanted come the mid-seventies.

It’s funny to read complaints about his style.

Sure, he didn’t work the highspots or the crazy acrobatics that are almost expected today, but he worked like few others. But Bruno’s forte was credibility. He simply was the champ. He had the power. He worked at his profession and protected it by his actions, his aura and his attitude.

Far too many people seem to take too much stock in technical presentations and all the flash and glitz and glamour. But professional wrestling isn’t just show, it’s the fashioning of illusion. Maintaining credibility is an awesome undertaking.

In establishing credibility; working at psychological, booking and emotional levels; and simply by presenting himself as a true champion, Bruno Sammartino proved his greatness.
But even so, his schedule as champion was not one to overlook. He ran his own promotion, worked dates as
WWWF champion, and still found time to do spots and tours across the nation, in Canada, in Japan, and still the NWA wanted him on board.

And still, he worked long and hard, and with a completely physical style.

Seven:

Bruno was able to call his spots like no other.

Who turns down the NWA? Who leaves a title reign, twice, not because of being pushed out the door, but because of his own volition?

Consider this: Bruno Sammartino had title reigns lasting over eleven years. He likely could have had reigns over fifteen, if not twenty years.  He was just that good, he was just that loved.

Bruno built up a reputation that he was in demand across the world, and he could simply lose the WWWF belt, and tour sporadically, and not lose income or drawing power or any sense of loss. And when he wanted to come back, there was no hesitation.  And no diminishment of his connection with the fans.

Eight:

Moments

A) Lifting Haystacks Calhoun
B) Defeating Buddy Rogers in less than a moment
C) The Face versus Face battle against Pedro Morales
D) Ivan Koloff (more below)
E) Winning back the belt from Stan Stasiak
F) Breaking his neck with Stan Hansen
G) Rematch with Hansen
H) Losing to Superstar Billy Graham
I) The Larry Zbyszko angle
J) Cage match with Zbyszko at Shea Stadium

And the list goes on. Every formulaic but well crafted title challenger from the 1960’s through the 1970’s was a compilation of moments, angles and building perfect challenges.

Bruno had a way with the sport like few others. There are some who could completely out-wrestle him, but very few who could out-think him. And one of the vastly important aspects of Bruno’s career was his ability to be a professional wrestler in terms of talent and presentation, in terms of crafting the illusions and maintaining his reigns.

The very fact that so many of Bruno’s challengers could come back to make more money with him bespeaks a depth of knowledge and appreciation and understanding of the workings of professional wrestling that very,
very few have ever displayed.

Nine:

I keep coming back to the moment where Ivan Koloff beats Bruno for the belt.
The numbers are unimportant for the argument, but should not be overlooked.

But consider these points:

A) After some eight years of a title reign, there is no “We’ve seen history” pop. Imagine that today, or over the past twenty years. Even the biggest stars got a “Thanks, goodbye” ovation and reaction. Even the most minor changes have gotten pops for a title change. Not here.

B) There is no violent reaction, either. Bruno had too much respect from the fans for that.

C) The depth of the emotion was simply awesome. Better wrestling minds than mind have commented upon the connection Bruno had with the fans. This was it, on display, and without any sense of restraint.

D) Just try to wrap your brain around this: more than ten thousand people, and no heckling, no heel fans, no boos and no cheers. That’s a display of greatness that cannot ever be reproduced. Ever.

E) That moment was the end result of crafting of nearly eight years of interactions with the crowd, the establishment of credibility and the sheer emotional investment of the fans.

Ten:

Integrity is the essence of Bruno Sammartino.

From his championship aura and his unparalleled passion for the sport, in all its forms, to the very core of being called a professional, Bruno is simply the greatest.

Can you question Bruno’s motivations? His reputation? His earnestness?

Bruno Sammartino went through a period after his last stint with the WWF where he seemed utterly bitter and had an axe to grind with the industry. And yet, what did he do? How did he take his anger out on the profession that he loved?

At the time, he crusaded.

He spoke of the ills of the drug use he saw backstage. He screamed concerns of the use of steroids and enhancements that were creeping into the industry. He took his campaign to the media, and spoke with passion
and veracity and from his heart.

And now, fifteen and more years later, how prophetic have his words been?

Furthermore, his testament to his own integrity is his turning his back on a profession he no longer saw as upholding the legacy he built. For years, he could have simply answered an affirmative to the requests of the most powerful man in the industry. He could have profited by his image, in merchandising, videos and DVDs sold to new generations.

Any other man would crumble at the temptation.

Not Bruno Sammartino.

His greatness needs no statistics, it needs no petty arguments nor foolish tear-downs of competitors, nor a trashing of the industry or a bemoaning of why he has been so forgotten and overlooked, so underappreciated and often blatantly ignored.

All I truly know about Mr. Sammartino, and his legacy, is that I am a third generation professional wrestlingfan, and watched him as a young boy, and knew him by the words of my father and grandfather, both now longgone.

That, my friends, is more than good enough for me.

But the further studying, the reading, the listening to my betters and to the voice of Bruno himself, all prove it to an exponential degree. My arguments are my testament to his greatness, and I hope to honor him with my proofs.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at [email protected].

Question: is there any other professional wrestler who lasted their career as a face, with not even a whiff of heelish behavior, or being turned upon by the fans?