hot headlines Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (born October 6, 1935) is an Italian-American former professional wrestler, best known for being the longest-running champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), holding the title across two reigns for over 11 years in total, as well as the longest single WWE Championship reign in professional wrestling history. Sammartino\'s wrestling style was more mat-oriented which was typical of wrestlers from his era. His brawling, power moves, and personal charisma helped him become the most popular American wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s. During the period when Madison Square Garden was the WWWF\'s primary arena, Sammartino headlined more Garden cards than any other wrestler (211), including 187 sellouts. Born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy on October 6, 1935, Sammartino was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. Four older siblings died during his time in Italy. During his childhood, Sammartino\'s family hid from German soldiers in a mountain called Valla Rocca, during the latter stages of World War II. During this time, Sammartino\'s mother, Emilia, would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies. She once was captured and another time shot in the shoulder during such trips. Eventually, Sammartino caught rheumatic fever but was nursed back to health by his mother with hot blankets and leeches. In 1950, he moved to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his father had already lived for several years. When Sammartino first came to America, he was sickly from his experiences of surviving during the war years. His slight frame, along with his tenuous grasp of English, made him an easy target for bullies in school. Sammartino wanted to build himself up physically and became devoted to weight training. Bruno\'s devotion to weightlifting nearly resulted in a berth on the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. He was edged out by legendary strongman Paul Anderson - who outweighed Sammartino by 70 pounds. Bruno set a world record in the bench press with a lift of 565 pounds in 1960. Sammartino also competed in bodybuilding and won \"Mr. Allegheny\" in the late 50s. His high school didn\'t have a wrestling program, but he worked out with the University of Pittsburgh wrestling team under storied coach Rex Peary. Sammartino became known for performing strongman stunts in the Pittsburgh area, and sportscaster Bob Prince put him on his television show. It was there that he was spotted by local wrestling promoter Rudy Miller, who recruited Sammartino for professional wrestling. Miller knew that Sammartino could easily be marketed as an ethnic strongman, and that he would appeal to Italian immigrants who supported wrestling. While working in construction in 1956, Sammartino wrestled an orangutan at a carnival. After taking much punishment, Sammartino punched the orangutan in the stomach and was disqualified by the animal\'s owner. Sammartino left the cage with swollen eyes and shredded clothes. Because of the disqualification, the owner refused to pay Sammartino the $50 he was promised for the match. Sammartino\'s first match in Madison Square Garden in New York City was January 2, 1960 against Bull Curry (who was substituting for Killer Kowalski). Within six months of his debut in wrestling, Sammartino was headlining at Madison Square Garden (starting in tag matches, teaming with Antonino Rocca). He won the WWWF World Championship title on May 17, 1963, defeating \"Nature Boy\" Buddy Rogers in just 48 seconds. Bruno has said in interviews that Rogers had to be tricked into the MSG main event. Supposedly, Rogers was to win on some sort of disqualification. It was Sammartino himself that broke the news to him in the ring. He simply said, \"We can do this the easy way...or the hard way.\" Rogers could not cope with the power of Sammartino from the very beginning. Whilst the crowd at Madison Square Garden had expected a tough contest they were shocked at the manner in which Sammartino was able to completely dominate the champion. It took just 48 seconds to crown Sammartino the WWWF Champion. Distraught and surprised Rogers quickly left the ring. (From Wikipedia)
