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OT: Bruno Sammartino passes on

Dubbed "The Living Legend",[5] Sammartino is widely regarded as having been one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.[6]

How about replacing the statue on the PITT campus that was removed with a Bruno statue including the cigar!!

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
 
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My mothers favorite, she started to learn the English langue when she came to the USA through wrestling {I laugh about it every time I hear the living legends name mentioned}
I vaguely remember when my parents took us to visit our South Philly Italian relatives some of whom spoke good English and others were working on it.

They did the same with the Gillette Friday Night Fights boxing in the 50's & 60's.

They would all end up at the corner tavern in the Italian section of South Philly to eat steamed mussells, drink beer and watch The Friday Night Fights. They'd all yell and scream for their favorite boxer half in English and half in Italian but they learned some English doing this.

After the boxing they'd go home to their double side by sides and sweep the stoop, steps, sidewalk and the road in front of their house.


How things have changed in that neighborhood!

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
 
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Bruno was a true legend. He told the story of growing up in the Abbruzzi region of Italy( where all my grandparents were from) during WWII. He said the Nazis controlled all the villages while his family hid in the mountains. They would send 8 year old Bruno into town at 3am to get food to bring back to the family. RIP paizano. My all time wrestling hero.
 
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I'm of the age (40-something) where my memory of Bruno was as the third mic on the weekly Wrestling Superstars program with Vince McMahon and Jesse the Body Ventura.
 
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He was also one of the last wrestlers that was just himself, like a regular person, as he was going out, that was the start of the era when everyone had to have a gimmick, before the 1980s, some wrestlers where just themselves and did no kind of act, after that, you had to have some kind of story line.
 
I vaguely remember when my parents took us to visit our South Philly Italian relatives some of whom spoke good English and others were working on it.

They did the same with the Gillette Friday Night Fights boxing in the 50's & 60's.

They would all end up at the corner tavern in the Italian section of South Philly and eat steamed mussells, drink beer. They'd all yell and scream for their favorite boxer half in English and half in Italian but they learned some English doing this.

After the boxing they'd go home to their double side by sides and sweep the stoop, steps, sidewalk and the road in front of their house.

How things have changed in that neighborhood!

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
Two things the grandpaps back in the day were on that tube for....
Friday night boxing and Studio Wrestling

Don’t even bother them.
 
Two things the grandpaps back in the day were on that tube for....
Friday night boxing and Studio Wrestling

Don’t even bother them.
My Dad loved Studio Wrestling! He was born in 1920. He quit on wrestling in the '80s, when the WrestleMania Era started and it became too obviously fake. I think he liked it when it seemed real, or at least when they presented it as real and the characters weren't stupidly over the top. He liked the ones that seemed like real people, like Bruno or DiNucci.
 
I'm of the age (40-something) where my memory of Bruno was as the third mic on the weekly Wrestling Superstars program with Vince McMahon and Jesse the Body Ventura.
to properly use a term used to sickening ways by our friends in the central part of the state and apply it to McMahon's WWE and Bruno... "We are, because he was"....


Marino and Bruno....
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/03/sign-dedication-held-to-honor-3-legends-of-south-oakland/

Bruno Sammartino, Dan Marino and Andy Warhol...Easiest freaking "which one of these things is not like the other" in the history of Sesame Street.
 
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No longer the living legend, but still a legend. My first memories of "studio" wrestling were as a 5 or 6 year old watching with my uncles. Bruno near the end of his career, Ivan Putski, DeNucci and Dino Bravo, Superstar Billy Graham, Larry Zbysko, George the animal, Gorilla Monsoon...

RIP paisano
 
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My Dad loved Studio Wrestling! He was born in 1920. He quit on wrestling in the '80s, when the WrestleMania Era started and it became too obviously fake. I think he liked it when it seemed real, or at least when they presented it as real and the characters weren't stupidly over the top. He liked the ones that seemed like real people, like Bruno or DiNucci.

The pro wrestling in Bruno's day was more real. Of course the outcomes were predetermined, but the great majority of the moves were real wrestling moves. IMO I bet back then 70% of the moves were real actual wrestling moves/holds and 30% was true stage moves/holds that a person could never do in real life. Compared to today where 90% of the moves are staged and 10% is a real move or hold.
 
Since we had a mutual acquaintance, I was able to have him come and speak to a group of boys some friends and I were mentoring. One of the most powerful experiences of my life. He was unreal. None of us even knew who he was. Within an hour, every dude of every age, class, race and nationality in that room agreed that he was the greatest man that any of us would ever meet.
 
to properly use a term used to sickening ways by our friends in the central part of the state and apply it to McMahon's WWE and Bruno... "We are, because he was"....


/

not many people realize this but when "Hulkamania was running wild" the WWF had a tough time selling seats, as at that time the main source of income still as Cable TV, PPV, networks were still in its infancy. Vince had to beg Bruno to come back and do spots at the Garden (Both Boston and NYC) Philly, Pittsburgh, etc. Vince promised to push Bruno's son David to get him to these shows. Next thing you know WWF is coming close to sell out crowds again. It wasn't until well into "Hulkamania" that Hogan was able to actually put people in the seat. Then PPV, Cable, etc became money streams.
 
No longer the living legend, but still a legend. My first memories of "studio" wrestling were as a 5 or 6 year old watching with my uncles. Bruno near the end of his career, Ivan Putski, DeNucci and Dino Bravo, Superstar Billy Graham, Larry Zbysko, George the animal, Gorilla Monsoon...

RIP paisano

ringside Rosie shakin the chicken...
 
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Loved the studio wrestling interviews with the villains....

"When I'm done with you your own mother won't recognize you, Sammartino! I'm going to hit you with the lariat, not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR!!!" - Stan Hansen


"Call off this match Sammartino! Think of your family! Do you want little Bruno to empty your drool buckets the rest of your pathetic life!" - Killer Kowalski

RIP Bruno!
 
Dubbed "The Living Legend",[5] Sammartino is widely regarded as having been one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.[6]

How about replacing the statue on the PITT campus that was removed with a Bruno statue including the cigar!!

"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
Sexist. ;)
 
dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls
 
World renowned , honest , respected , a champion in his craft .
Would make one hell of a statue .
 
Since we had a mutual acquaintance, I was able to have him come and speak to a group of boys some friends and I were mentoring. One of the most powerful experiences of my life. He was unreal. None of us even knew who he was. Within an hour, every dude of every age, class, race and nationality in that room agreed that he was the greatest man that any of us would ever meet.
You must be young! I watched Bruno live in Pittsburgh in the 60's. Bruno could not have beaten an average college Hwt wrestler. He knew NO wrestling moves whatsoever. There were no real wrestling at all during Bruno's time. Vern Ganye(sp?) was the last pro wrestler who actually did some real wrestling moves as well as being one of the all time great real wrestlers.
I have spent time in the wrestling hall of fame in Waterloo IA. Back in the day, pre 1950's, the pro wrestlers could actually wrestle. Dan Hodge won the Word Championship in Yankee stadium with 70,000 fans and that was the front page headline of the NY Times.
the front page headline of the NY Times.
 
Used to watch studio wrestling every week unfortunately Bruno wasn't always on so the villains would say when I get my hands on Bruno I'm going to rip him apart and I would be screaming at the TV no you won't

Years later I learned they used to be friends and travel together
 
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No longer the living legend, but still a legend. My first memories of "studio" wrestling were as a 5 or 6 year old watching with my uncles. Bruno near the end of his career, Ivan Putski, DeNucci and Dino Bravo, Superstar Billy Graham, Larry Zbysko, George the animal, Gorilla Monsoon...

RIP paisano
Professor Tanaka.
 
My Dad loved Studio Wrestling! He was born in 1920. He quit on wrestling in the '80s, when the WrestleMania Era started and it became too obviously fake. I think he liked it when it seemed real, or at least when they presented it as real and the characters weren't stupidly over the top. He liked the ones that seemed like real people, like Bruno or DiNucci.

Exactly the same with my dad, and he was also born in 1920.
 
No longer the living legend, but still a legend. My first memories of "studio" wrestling were as a 5 or 6 year old watching with my uncles. Bruno near the end of his career, Ivan Putski, DeNucci and Dino Bravo, Superstar Billy Graham, Larry Zbysko, George the animal, Gorilla Monsoon...

RIP paisano

Haystacks Calhoun, Skandar Akbar, BoBo Brazile, Tor Tanaka, Freddy Blassie, Baron Mikel Scicluna, Louis Cerdan, Tony Parisi, Ivan Koloff, The Executioners , ahh the glory days of my youth.

Thank you Bruno for making it all possible. RIP.
 
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