Bruno Sammartino's Wrestling Legend Began 60 Years Ago

By Thomas Leturgey

By 1959, Bruno Sammartino had already been an up-and-coming athlete. At 24, the Oakland resident had been in the United States a dozen years removed from Nazi-occupied Italy and was working as a carpenter’s apprentice.

A Pittsburgh Press feature on the “Pittsburgh Hercules” a year earlier showcased Sammartino’s future as a weightlifting star, and future husband to his fiancé’ Carol. One picture accompanying the piece showed Bruno wrestling with a gaggle of neighborhood kids, another depicted him doing push ups with four young girls on his back. One detail of the story reported that he turned down a five-year, $15,000 annual professional wrestling contract.

In December, 1958 Sammartino was advertised for an East Liberty YMCA event where he was going to try and bench press 500 pounds, some 25 more than his previous best. Within a year, he would secure a spot in the record books by bench pressing 565 pounds, an unthinkable amount for the time.

In 1959, Bruno married Carol on September 12, and a month later began a remarkable career in professional wrestling. Sammartino signed on with Capital Wrestling Corporation, a Northeast-based wrestling promotion founded by former wrestler-turned promoter Toots Mondt and Jess McMahon, patriarch of the family dynasty of the same name. Under Mondt and McMahon’s son, Vincent James McMahon, the group would partner with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and later break off to form the World Wide Wrestling Federation (then World Wrestling Federation and the current World Wrestling Entertainment, aka WWE).

Sammartino himself would routinely say that his first match as a professional was a 19-second victory against Dmitri Grabowski on December 17, 1959; however, the Italian Strongman had several (maybe as many as two dozen) recorded (according to wrestlingdata.com and newspaper archives) matches before then.

The earliest “recognized” match 24-year-old Sammartino had was with 42-year-old Jack Vansky on October 20, 1959 at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, PA. While results have not yet unearthed, the Jersey City, New Jersey native Vansky’s career win-loss record over a workman-like 19-year-career might indicate that Bruno, who was already been promoted as the “World’s Strongest Man,” almost assuredly scored the victory.

[Also making headlines: President Eisenhower was dealing with striking steel workers, and it was newsman Edward R. Murrow’s opinion that neither Thomas Jefferson nor Abraham Lincoln would be elected President if television news had been around to cover their campaigns. The year 1959 was also unique because Pittsburgh was lead by its 52^nd Mayor, Thomas Gallagher. A “Transitional” leader, Gallagher took over for David L. Lawrence, who was elected Governor of the Commonwealth, and served only until new boss Joe Barr took over.]

Three days after the Vansky debut, Sammartino was traveling to White Plains, New York, where he defeated 38-year-old journeyman Miguel Torres. Over the next few weeks and months Sammartino would wrestle Vansky and the Monterrey, Nuevo León native Torres in different towns throughout the Northeast, which was and is commonplace in professional wrestling.

Immediately, Sammartino was on the road to his record-breaking career as a World Heavyweight wrestling champion and icon to untold numbers of fans. In just a few years, the World Wide Wrestling Federation launches with the flamboyant “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers as its initial champion. Sammartino butted heads with McMahon, and even left wrestling for a short while.

On May 17, 1963, Sammartino defeated Rogers in 48 seconds to become the WWWF champion, a title he would hold for 2,803 days (seven years, eight months and one day) when he lost to Ivan Koloff. It’s a record that will never be broken.

Sammartino returned to the top of the card on December 10, 1973 when he reclaimed the title over Stan Stasiak. The second reign, at 1,237 days (three years, four months, and twenty days) ended when Sammartino lost to Superstar Billy Graham.

Bruno would continue on a widely successful career that would see him idolized by millions. He would be inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2002, Pittsburgh’s Keystone State Wrestling Alliance (KSWA) Hall of Fame in 2012 and into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.

Bruno Sammartino died on April 18, 2018 at age 82 due to multiple organ failure caused by heart problems. [Editor's note: Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer noted that the source of Sammartino's heart problems most likely came from the Rheumatic Fever he suffered as a child, and that the Champion had only learned about the damage not long before his death.] Sammartino remained married to Carol until the end.