Bruno Sammartino Interview

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On December 10th, 1973 you won the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship one more time with a victory over Stan Stasiak in Madison Square Garden. What are your thoughts on that night?

"I didn't want any part of it. This had been going on for quite a while. After losing the belt to Ivan Koloff, I really started to love the business again because Sam Muchnick would call me to come to St. Louis, and I wouldn't accept any other matches for that week. I teamed up Dick The Bruiser in the Midwest, and we would go to Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, and I would take those two days with him, and nothing else. I would go to Japan for ten days, and then I wouldn't take any bookings for ten days after I got back. At times my body felt good and I loved the business, but when Vince McMahon, Sr. approached me about taking that position again that I wanted no part of, and Vince McMahon, Sr. said, 'All I am asking for is one year so we can get someone really ready to take over that position.' I told Vince McMahon, Sr. one year, but one year went to two, and they were still searching, and two went to three, and then I broke my neck in a match with Stan Hansen. I then told Vince McMahon, Sr. that if he didn't get someone real quick that I was retiring. In 1977 Superstar Billy Graham came into the picture."

On April 26th, 1976 you lost to Stan Hansen in a match where he ended up breaking your neck in Madison Square Garden. What are your thoughts on that?

"It was kinda frightening. If I remember right then sixth and seventh cervical vertebras were damaged, and I came within a millimeter of being paralyzed from the neck down. That was a very frightening situation, and to make things worse while I am in the hospital, Vince McMahon, Sr. got involved in the match between Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali. I was supposed to be in that match with Muhammad Ali, but Vince McMahon, Sr. couldn't raise the six million dollars, and the Japanese sure did so that's how it ended being Antonio Inoki. That match was a box office disaster. Vince McMahon, Sr. at this time had committed so much to the Northeast as well. Vince McMahon, Sr. contacted me in the hospital and said, 'If I don't make the match between you and Stan Hansen, we will be going into bankruptcy.' I said, 'How can I do that when I have this gadget on my head?' He said, 'The match is three months away, and by that time you will be a lot better.' After I left the hospital and went home he called me and said, 'You don't have to do anything. We will make the match real short, and it will save the company. Without this match the company is going to go under.' The closed circuits made great business on the match, but everywhere else worldwide they died with that match."

On April 30th, 1977 in Baltimore, Maryland you lost the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship to Superstar Billy Graham. What were your thoughts on that match as it ended your last run as the world champion?

"I was glad because I didn't want part of one year much less four years. Some people thought I retired, but I never retired like people thought the first time. I just wanted to go at my pace, and I wanted to choose where I wanted to go in the territories. I went where I wanted to go at my own pace, and now I was going to the same thing here. But then came 1980 when my neck went was bothering me, and I was having some back problems for quite some time. I stayed around long enough in 1981 to wrestle in Meadowlands against George Steele on October 4th, and October 5th I boarded a plane, and for the next ten days I did a tour of Japan, and I was done and retired."

What are your thoughts on the cage match at Showdown at Shea Stadium on August 9th, 1980 when you defeated one of your former protégés, Larry Zbyszko?

"It was a good match, but it wasn't as good as the matches I had with Ivan Koloff. I had my first cage match with Ivan Koloff in Madison Square Garden, and I thought that was the best cage match I was ever in, but the one in Shea Stadium was great because we had over 44,000 to 45,000 people there. The reaction from the people was awesome. I have to say it was a great cage match, but it was at the end of my career. I hope it was as good as I thought it was, but I never thought it was good as the Ivan Koloff match."

What are your thoughts on your son David Sammartino as a wrestler?

"Well, as a wrestler I thought his mechanics in the ring were very good. For one thing I think it is fair to say that I don't think he was given the full opportunity to see how far he could go. Would he have gone far? I really don't know. David was good in the ring as far as his mechanics, but as far as his interviews, which are very important, he wasn't the best at, and wrestling was changing drastically. It became more important than just to be a wrestler. You have to be more of a gimmick, and I don't know if he could have played in that part. I don't think he would have done well as a character playing something than he already had been. I think he would have had a better chance to make it my days than in the new era day."

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You currently have three original movies under your belt. Tell me about all of these including Legends Never Die, which features Roddy Piper.

"Roddy Piper as you know went back to WWE, and you listen to him in this particular tape you would have never thought that he would go back to the WWE because he was very open about his feelings. Mick Foley was pretty out spoken, and Ivan Koloff, and some others. I like the other one which is called The Boys are Back, because it’s a lot of wrestlers talking about their experiences, but you see some of the on goings with the promoters, talent, bitterness, feuds, suspensions, black balling, and things like that. It is different guys talking about their experiences including myself because back in 1961 I was black balled."

What are your thoughts on Hulk Hogan?

"I don't care to say much about him because you’re getting into the chemical age, and I am not a big fan of Hulk Hogan."

What can you tell us about your experiences working out at Mid City Gym in New York City?

"When I started working out there the owner was a good friend by the name of Tom Minichello who would come in and work out with me. You could run into anyone in his gym like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sergio Oliva. It was a great gym that was so well equipped that it wasn't one of these beautiful places where you have all these machines. This was a place where you trained. It had the Olympic bars and dumb bells. This was a gym for people who were real serious about their training."

Is it true that you had one of the best bench presses of your time, and in that gym it was not uncommon for you to bench in excess of 315 pounds for 40 repetitions?

"I did 330 pounds for 38 repetitions non stop. I did 565 as my best with a two second pause on the chest."

What can you tell us about Mark Tendler and Lou Sedan ? Were they your training partners?

"No. Mark Tendler worked out, but he wasn't a guy who handled those kinda weights. I would bump into him once in a while, and he had a lot of jobs, and he would come in for a short workout and do some curls or whatever. Lou Sedan took it seriously and was a good wrestler. He was very respectable in the weights that he handled, and he trained regularly."

What are your memories of Tony Cosenza, Rocky Johnson, and Tom Minichello who owned Mid-City gym, which was a hot bed for wrestlers to train in New York City?

"Tony Cosenza I didn't know in his prime because he was a little bit older then me. I knew him well, and was as nice as a guy I have ever met, and I always heard he was a pretty strong guy and a good wrestler, but I never saw him live or worked out with him. I know he was a very strong guy. Rocky Johnson was more of a body builder to make his body look good. I used to compete in Olympic style lifting and power lifting, so if you’re competing you’re doing heavy training, and if you’re a body builder then you’re training to perfect the body, and its a whole different training altogether. Some of them had great physiques, but they were not great listeners as they were just body builders. I thought that Tommy was a real classy guy, and ran a great gym, and for a little guy of 160 pounds he was strong, and I saw him push 300 pounds over the bench, but he was as a guy, and fair as a guy you would ever want to meet. I was a judge in many of the contests he had when Arnold Schwarzenegger won the Mr. Olympia. I got a kick out of seeing all these great body builders and was one of the judges."

Did you know strength game legend and historian Vic Boff who recently passed away?

"I met him a few times. He was quite a guy. He was 87 years old when I met him. He was such a heck of a guy who had a sharp mind talking about old timers. He was just a library of knowledge of the whole weight lifting game and a nice guy."

What role did strength training play in your wrestling career?

"When I first came from Europe I was an 80 pound weakling and 14 years old, and me and my brother were always being picked on, and there was this Jewish kid by the name of Maurice Sime who felt bad for us said if we came to the YMHA, that he would show us how to work out with weights. The first time I went there, and I touched the weights I thought this was for me. It was almost an instant addiction, and I started really training, and then they had a wrestling program so that's how I got interested in that. I would go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and work on the mat. I became in love with Olympic lifting, Olympic wrestling, and power lifting."

What message do you have for aspiring athletes that will keep them away from bad influences such as steroids?

"I have done so much of that as far as trying to talk to kids in schools, and the young minds have such a young hurry to get there, and become the best they can be, and sometimes you can talk and talk to them. I would say two things, number one when you build your body by using these chemicals you are not a building a legitimate body, and for example if these guys have to get off the chemicals, then their body deteriorates like they haven't worked out in two years. I remember when I was in California I went to the Gold’s Gym, and I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how deflated he was that he hadn't touched a weight for about a year. The other thing is supposed to be healthy, stronger, and better. I imagine you have heard about Superstar Billy Graham, and there have been so many young deaths due to these chemicals. I guess they always think it will happen to the other guy and not me. I was very open about my thoughts on steroids when I did announcing with Vince McMahon, Jr. in the WWE, and they didn't like that. They’re going to do it any way they can and not listen."

Do you currently workout?

"I naturally do work out. Right now I do six days a week, and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a gym here, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I hit the road. After I broke my neck I went down from 275 down to 248. I got into running a whole lot after retirement. I can still do the 100 pound dumb bells for bench pressing, and 50 pound dumb bells for curling. I don't train like the old days."

What do you think of today's crop of wrestlers? Are they all show and no go?

"If you mentioned some of these wrestlers today I wouldn't know who you were talking about. I just don't watch it because I love this business, and I am very bothered by it. One of my kids once told me to turn on the TV and Steve Austin is the world champion, and he is chugging beer and every other word is getting bleeped out, they had someone crucified once or buried alive, and Vince McMahon once has his pants down, and he wants this little guy to kiss his ass. I am an old timer, what is there to understand? Do you consider this stuff appropriate stuff?"

What advice would you give to aspiring wrestlers and what they need to do to succeed?

"Well, I think it’s very hard because in my day we had about 20 to 30 different territories, and right now it’s only the WWE. I see it as a very bleak time for someone new to become a professional wrestler."


CREDIT: http://www.1wrestling.com

[Nefercheperur]

Wiedermal ein sehr schoenes Interview von Bruno.Vorrallem der Teil ueber die WWE ist doch sehr schoen wiedermal ;) .Er wird mir immer symphatischer wenn das ueberhaupt nóch geht :rolli: