Bruno Sammartino: An Autobiography of Wrestling's Living Legend [Paperback]

Bruno Sammartino (Author), Bob Michelucci (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0911137149 | ISBN-13: 978-0911137149 | Publication Date: July 1990

Former wrestling great Bruno Sammartino held the World Wrestling Federation Championship for more than 12 years throughout his two title reigns from 1963 thru 1971 and 1973 thru 1977. Bruno headlined New York's Madison Square Garden 211 times and sold out MSG an astounding 187 times during his career! Through all these years this astounding record has never been broken by any other sports or entertainment figure. Bruno was born on October 6, 1935 in a small Italian town named Pizzoferrato. Bruno and his family survived the horrors of World War II and then immigrated to the United States. Upon arriving in America, Bruno was 14-years-old and weighed a mere 90 pounds. With sheer will and determination Bruno overcame many obstacles throughout his personal and professional life to become one of the most popular and respected wrestlers of all time, earning him the title of wrestling's "Living Legend."

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Imagine (July 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0911137149
• ISBN-13: 978-0911137149
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,132,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kayfabe, Flashbacks and other thoughts, June 11, 2003

By 

James T. Line (Smethport, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bruno Sammartino: An Autobiography of Wrestling's Living Legend (Paperback)

This book was very good but also had some negatives. The positive side was a fine, detailed history of wrestling when it was wrestling. Sammartino takes the reader down the now-familiar stories of every wrestler's rough start in the business. In this book you will see wrestling when it was still viewed as being a legitamate competition, so much that sports sections in newspapers carried the results alongside of the NFL and Boxing match results. This brought back pleasant memories for wrestling fans like myself who detest what wrestling has evolved into. The negative side of the book are conspicuous misspellings, typos and other grammatical errors starting with page one and continuing onward. Also, and this may or may not be a "negative," but Bruno NEVER breaks kayfabe in the book. He actually goes to great lengths to support the legitamacy of wrestling--so much as to even deny that razor blades were ever used to draw blood. His exact quote (regarding the use of "blading" in the ring) is "Again, if such a thing has happened, I don't know about it." He then defends his answer saying there is no way a wrestler could smuggle a blade into the ring and cut himself during a match without anybody seeing it. He makes the point that he never even wore tape on his wrists to hide a razor blade. This, of course, is irrelevant as some men (Bruiser Brody, et. al.) hid them in their inner lips. Others (Hogan, et. al.) hid them in their tights. He also makes painful efforts to deny that matches are ever predetermined. This book was written in the early 90s--when wrestling was still somewhat protected. Also, before people like Superstar Billy Graham (who took the title from Sammartino) as well as Ventura, DiBiase, Hogan, etc. openly admitted that razor blades were always used to draw blood and that the outcomes of matches were always predetermined. I find it hard to believe that everybody was in on the angle except the World Champ at the time! (Can you imagine Graham pulling Bruno aside and saying, "Bruno, I gotta let you in on something--I was just playing the whole time. We all were. We were going to tell you, but it was like spilling the beans about Santa Clause to a 3 year old!") To Sammartino's credit, wreslters were and are wonderful atheletes and no matter how much "kayfabe" Bruce puts into the book, I would still strongly recommend it to any fan. It gives a glimmer of hope into the mind of a genuine old-school wrestler. I just wish wrestling was like it used to be in the early 80s and before. I will always be a fan of Bruno Sammartino!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A legend in and out of the ring., March 13, 2000

By 

Mark Schaukowitsch (Pennsylvania, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruno Sammartino: An Autobiography of Wrestling's Living Legend (Paperback)

Brunos' book is the most realistic autobiography you could ever read. I should know because I'm a close personal friend of the family. The book not only deals with wrestling but it also tells of his personal life. He is a great role model for people of all ages. The book tells of the sacrifices that his family had to make for him to become the Legend that he is. It will inspire both young and old to overcome all obstacles to achieve thier dreams. There are few role models left of his stature, this is a must read for all who wish for genuine people.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bruno Cleans the Mat.., July 10, 2002

By 

pmdjn (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruno Sammartino: An Autobiography of Wrestling's Living Legend (Paperback)

The other reviewers are absolutely correct. This is the best book of its kind; Bruno and his co-authors are to be thanked for putting into print not only a great life-story but perhaps the best overview of 20 or so of wrestling's greatest years. Brono's story contains informative, interesting glimpses at mat legends like Killer Kowalski, Primo Carrera, and Gorilla Monsoon, and thrilling blow-by-blow recaps of some of his legendary matches. Add to that the very enlightening and often touching scenes of life-on-the-road, away from family, and the blood-boiling indictment of today's wrestling and promoters' throat-cutting (guess who?) of their stars, makes this THE book on wrestling.