It was reported today that Bruno Sammartino passed away today at age 82. While the cause is not yet known it was disclosed that the professional wrestling legend had been battling serious illness over that past few months. From Abruzzo, Italy, Sammartino’s family hid from Nazi soldiers during the latter part of World War II and the family would move to the United States in 1950. A natural athlete, Sammartino got into bodybuilding and weightlifting and was before long a barrel chested toughman who got into amateur wrestling and was a natural fit for the rank of the pros. Beginning his career in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh, Sammartino was an instant hit, as not only did he appeal as an ethnic babyface to the Italian-American community he physically looked the part of a wrestling superstar. Pittsburgh loved Bruno but working for Vince McMahon Sr.’s Capital Sports Promotion in New York City was an even greater fit. With a large Italian community, Sammartino was made for New York City and before long he was a top of the card act there as well as Toronto, where he sold the house in bouts against Lou Thesz. Capital Sports would break away from the National Wrestling Alliance and have “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers as their champion but he was a little long in the tooth and was not the draw that McMahon Sr. needed. Sammartino had previously left McMahon Sr. earlier feeling jilted on previous payoffs but as they say in the WWE (then named the WWWF) “never say never” and he returned to New York. On May 17, 1963 Sammartino defeated Rogers to win the World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship in less than a minute and Bruno was established as the biggest star in the Northeast. He would hold the championship for what is still a record seven years, eight months and one day and successfully defended his belt and sold out Madison Square Gardens against what seemed to be every major heel in the 60’s. That list included: Spiros Arion Giant Baba Freddie Blassie The Crusher Dr. Jerry Graham Curtis Iaukea Gene Kiniski Killer Kowalski Ernie “The Big Cat” Ladd Bill Miller Gorilla Monsoon The Sheik George “The Animal” Steele Professor Toru Tanaka Johnny Valentine Waldo Von Erich Bill Watts The title run could have easily reached a decade but Bruno himself decided that he needed a break and…