It appears that Bruno Sammartino has actually agreed to join the WWE Hall of Fame. Possible follow ups to this story include pigs flying, and bacon no longer being delicious.<\/p>\n
Via: ESPN<\/p>\n
“Bruno Sammartino is to professional wrestling what Babe Ruth is to baseball. <\/p>\n
The legendary grappler is the longest reigning WWE (then-WWF) champion of all time, with two title reigns spanning an eye-popping 11-plus years. And his legacy of headlining Madison Square Garden more than 200 times is what turned the Italian-born brawler into a worldwide sensation. <\/p>\n
So it\u2019s only fitting that Sammartino will be the main attraction at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on April 6 at MSG. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing inducted into the Hall of Fame at Madison Square Gardens is the biggest thing in my life,\u201d Sammartino said in an exclusive interview for ESPN Playbook. \u201cAnytime that people feel that you accomplished enough to enter into a Hall of Fame, of course this is a tremendous, tremendous thrill for me. I had a lot of my success due to appearing at the Garden. I wrestled there over 200 times, it\u2019s where I won the title, and it\u2019s where I picked up 630-plus pounds of Haystacks Calhoun.\u201d <\/p>\n
And while Sammartino had turned down the WWE\u2019s previous offers of inducting him into its Hall of Fame due to a well-documented feud with the wrestling organization\u2019s CEO and chairman Vince McMahon over a wide range of issues — from Sammartino not liking the vulgar direction the product took during the Attitude Era to Sammartino\u2019s criticism of drug abuse by members of the roster back in the ’80s — it was WWE executive Paul Levesque (aka Triple H) who stepped in and finally changed the legend\u2019s mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn talking to Paul Levesque, I made it clear, I\u2019ve had issues with WWE and wrestling in general, because there were other organizations,\u201d Sammartino said. \u201cI didn\u2019t like the direction they had taken. It was bothersome to me. I\u2019m an old-school guy. I spent 25 years in this business. But after talking to Paul, and him explaining to me the changes they\u2019ve made in their program, and how they\u2019ve hired a doctor like Dr. Maroon, who is a world-renowned neurosurgeon, who also operated on me, and now that he has been put in charge of the company\u2019s wellness program and their drug testing, that impressed me. I know what kind of a man he is, and he is a giant in that field, so I take my hat off to WWE because they took such huge steps to make things better for the wrestlers themselves and making sure they are healthy to perform. That was very, very important. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut as Paul explained to me, WWE made a lot of other changes. There\u2019s no more profanity, there\u2019s no vulgarity in the current product, and that stuff had bothered me as well. When Paul first spoke to me and told me all the changes, I started watching it again, and I was very convinced that they are doing amazing things. I see the wrestlers and all the changes they made. There\u2019s no profanity, there\u2019s no vulgarity, and it\u2019s a family-friendly program. That\u2019s what it used to be, and that\u2019s a huge role in the whole factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
With this, Sammartino joins Mick Foley, Bob Backlund and Trish Stratus as entrants this year, and breaks a nearly 3 decade long feud with WWE and Vince McMahon specifically.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It appears that Bruno Sammartino has actually agreed to join the WWE Hall of Fame. Possible follow ups to this story include pigs flying, and bacon no longer being delicious. Via: ESPN “Bruno Sammartino is to professional wrestling what Babe Ruth is to baseball. The legendary grappler is the longest reigning WWE (then-WWF) champion of … <\/p>\n