Bruno Sammartino

Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino (6 October 1935 – 18 April 2018) was an Italian-American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now WWE). There, he held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship (now known as the WWE Championship) for more than 11 years (4,040 days) across two reigns, the first of which is the longest single reign in the promotion's history at 2,803 days. He is overall a two-time world champion in professional wrestling. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. Dubbed "The Italian Strongman” and "The Strongest Man in the World" early in his career, Sammartino later earned the title "The Living Legend". Known for his powerful bearhug finishing move, Sammartino became a vocal critic of the drug use and raunchier storylines that became prevalent in the professional wrestling industry after his retirement but he reconciled with WWE in 2013 and headlined their Hall of Fame ceremony that year. Terry Funk commented that Sammartino "was bigger than wrestling itself". Early life Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino was born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy, to Alfonso and Emilia Sammartino on October 6, 1935. He was the youngest of seven children, four of whom died during his early childhood. When he was four, his father emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During World War II, Pizzoferrato was invaded by troops of the Waffen SS, leading Emilia to hide Bruno and his siblings in a remote hideout at the top of a nearby mountain called Valla Rocca. During this time, his mother would sneak into their German-occupied town for food and supplies. In 1950, she and the children joined her husband in Pittsburgh. When the Sammartinos arrived in the U.S., Bruno spoke no English and was sickly from the privations of the war years. This made him an easy target for bullies at Schenley High School. He turned to weightlifting and wrestling to build himself up. His devotion to weightlifting nearly resulted in a berth on the 1956 U.S. Olympic team, which went instead to eventual gold medalist Paul Anderson.