Bruno Sammartino is one of the greatest World Champions in professional wrestling history. He’s so great that not only has WWE made a statue honoring him, but his home town of Pizzoferrato, Italy made a statue honoring him as well. Bruno, who is still in good shape at 81 years old (he’ll turn 82 in October), was on hand for the ceremony with his family.
Sammartino is a two time WWWF World Heavyweight Champion that had a title reign that lasted nearly eight years from 1963 to 1971 and then another reign that lasted about 3.5 years from late 1973 to mid-1977. Needless to say, that nearly eight year run as WWWF Champion is a record that will last forever. Sammartino was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Sammartino did an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where he credited his mom for believing in him a lot. Thanks to WWE.com for it.
“Everything that I am, everything that I’ve done, everything that I hope to be is because of my mom. How could I say no to this trip? If you have to put me on a stretcher to get me there, I’m going. I’d regret it the rest of my life if I didn’t go.”
They did the statue unveiling this weekend, which you can watch below.
If you know Italian you probably understood what was said. If not, just assume they said congratulations at some point because it’s a huge honor.
Bruno got his WWE statue during WrestleMania 30 weekend in 2014. If you go to WWE WrestleMania Axxess you can see it on display there with the others that have statues like Andre the Giant, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and the Ultimate Warrior.
Congrats to Bruno on the tremendous honor. It must not be easy to travel at his age, but as he said he had to go because if he didn’t he would regret it. After seeing how cool that statue looks, it’s obvious he made the right decision to be there.
