[CaptainCrunch]

2) Bruno Sammartino

Its always tough to create a Mount Rushmore. Some people state that old school wrestlers like Sammartino, Buddy Rogers, Larry Zybysko, and Nick Bockwinkle shouldn’t be included. Why? Because the wrestling was different. Kayfabe was a huge thing and Wrestling was portrayed as a legitimate shoot. That the matches were plodding and slow and not as athletic. But without wrestlers like Bruno, the modern era or wrestling doesn’t happen.






Bruno’s in ring career went from 1958 until 1988 with the majority of it being the then WWWF. He had two World Heavyweight title reigns. One from 1963 until 1971, one from 1972 until 1977.



Throughout his career he feuded with a lot of hall of famers and all time greats. He beat Buddy Rogers for his first title reign when Rogers got sick. He feuded with and lost his title to Ivan Koloff. He had his freaking neck broken in a match with Stan Hansen, and returned in 2 months. He took part in one of the best feuds of all time when his student Larry Zbyszko turned on him. The feud commutated in a cage match at Shea stadium in from of 36,000 fans. Bruno semi retired for 3 years, but returned to the WWE for a 4 year run as a commentator. While occasionally feuding with Randy Savage.






He had a real life feud with Vince McMahon Jr, sued Vince McMahon Sr and refused entry into the WWE Hall of Fame for 7 years.


So why is Bruno on my Mount Rushmore? First and foremost if one of the things is marketability, then he nails it. In the old days of WWWF as a regional territory. Wrestlers were judged on selling out Madison Square Garden. Bruno constantly sold out the Gardens. He also again drew 36,000 for a cage match at Shea Stadium. Of course Hulk Hogan tried to take credit for it as he had a match with Andrea. However Bruno and Larry had sold out everywhere during he build up to the feud. Hogan vs Andrea didn’t sell out shows in their leadup as the main event.








In terms of wrestling skills. Bruno would be considered to be a grounded power wrestler. He was immensely strong, and his style was extremely realistic for the time. He was a simple wrestler who preferred arm bars to drop kicks. His gimmick was as the blue collar working class Italian and it worked as WWE gained a lot of popularity in New York under his lengthy title reigns.






Bruno was the ultimate in ring story teller, he understood psychology and most important he like the wrestlers of his time understood protecting the business.






There’s no question that this is the first controversial choice by me, but it won’t be the last.

Next time we’ll look at number 3 on the CaptainCrunch Mount Rushmore of Wrestling.