Fifty years ago, on January 18, 1971, Ivan Koloff delivered a Russian Leg Drop to World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) World Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino in Madison Square Garden in New York City to get the 1-2-3, becoming only the third man to hold the WWWF World Championship. But it wasn’t just any new championship victory – Koloff became the first man to pin Bruno Sammartino in a WWF World title match in 2,803 days, ending a reign that lasted nearly eight years. Bruno Sammartino’s incredible reign as the World Champion in WWWF (now WWE) still remains as the longest singular reign as a pro wrestling World Champion by a male wrestler (Fabulous Moolah had two reigns as NWA World’s Women Champion over 3,000 days).
Bruno Sammartino had been wrestling professionally since 1959, and the Italian immigrant – who had left to the US with his family from Italy in 1950 after hiding from the Nazis during World War II – captivated a rising influx of immigrants into the US during and post-war. Sammartino was living proof of the American Dream, an immigrant who left a wartorn time to become an accomplished athlete. He was quickly recruited by Capitol Sports Wrestling (the precursor to WWWF, founded by Jess McMahon and Toots Mondt in 1948, and now under control by Jess’s son, Vince McMahon Sr.), but in 1962 he left the promotion. Still an affiliate under the banner of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Sammartino felt he was stuck in a holding pattern behind NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers, who was Capitol’s biggest star since winning NWA’s top prize in 1961. Bruno headed north to continue working, where he joined Frank Tunney‘s Maple Leaf Wrestling (Toronto’s NWA affiliate) in Canada instead, where he was often the Maple Leaf Wrestling challenger to Buddy Rogers when the NWA World Champion headed to Canada. But then on January 24, 1963, something happened. Lou Thesz, a 2x NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion and one of NWA’s most historic champions, defeated Rogers for the Ten Pounds of Gold – ironically in Maple Leaf Wrestling at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto – ending Rogers’ World title reign at 573-days. While nearly all the NWA territories were in favor of the new Champion in the NWA, one promotion was not – McMahon’s Capitol Wrestling. Per tradition, the NWA World title could only be contested in 2-out-of-3 falls matches, yet Thesz had been crowned champion following a one fall match. Considering the title switch a screwjob, Rogers left the NWA and Capitol Sports seceded from the NWA, rebranding as WWWF and recognizing Rogers as the true World Champion by awarding him the first ever WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in April of 1963. But unfortunately for both WWWF and Buddy Rogers, Rogers’ rising health issues would become an issue sooner than later – following a series of heart issues, it was determined that Rogers could no longer be the face of the company. Fortunately for Bruno Sammartino, his time had now arrived. On May 17, 1963, after only 22 days as WWWF World Champion, Rogers lost his title to 27-year old Bruno Sammartino in Madison Square Garden.
Photo: Pro Wrestling Illustrated
“Even though his popularity is attributed heavily to his Italian roots, I think he was just the hard-working European immigrant that hit a chord with everyone,” Prof. Ouch of Professor Ouch’s Bizarre Bazaar & Odditorium in Philadelphia told The Wrestling Estate in 2018 following Sammartino’s death in 2018. “Any working guy could relate to Bruno the way they related to Steve Austin many years later. While Bruno represented the America of working hard, being honest, and overcoming evil, Austin represented the more modern version of giving it to the man, having a beer and saying the heck with it. They both encapsulated what a hero was for their respective eras.” With Bruno as WWWF’s World Champion, WWWF conquered the New York territory and became a true alternative to the monopoly that the NWA had held over pro wrestling in the United States since 1948. Sammartino would go on to hold the title for 2,803 days, nearly eight years(!), and remains one of the most popular pro wrestlers of all time based on their ability to connect to fans worldwide during their respective eras. During his reign, he defended his World title against all contenders – Buddy Austin, The Crusher, Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Dr. Jerry Graham, Giant Baba, Boris Malenko, Freddie Blassie, Gene Kiniski, George “The Animal” Steele, “Crippler” Ray Stevens, Tiger Jeet Singh, and The Sheik were just some of the names to challenge Sammartino during his reign. But it would be Canadian-born “Russian” wrestler Ivan Koloff who would put an end to Sammartino’s historic reign.
Ivan Koloff was actually a pro wrestler from Montreal, Quebec in Canada, and after starting out in the Canadian indies in 1961, soon adopted a Russian gimmick, under the name Ivan Zukoff. He began working in the NWA territories, such as Georgia Championship Wrestling, St. Louis Wrestling Club, NWA Mid America, and others. In 1966, he began using another gimmick briefly – as Red McNulty – working Western Canada with NWA Vancouver and Stampede Wrestling (then Wildkat Wrestling), then off to Japan, where he competed for Rikidozan‘s Japan Wrestling Association (JWA) for three months. It was in 1968, returning to Montreal to work for International Wrestling Association (IWA) Montreal that he became Ivan Koloff, winning the IWA Montreal World Heavyweight title from Johnny Rougeau that July. Once again a bruising Russian supervillain during the Cold War hysteria of the 1960s, he became a top heel with Maple Leaf Wrestling in Toronto. He would briefly return to St. Louis Wrestling Club – he challenged Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA World’s Heavyweight title in May of 1969 in Maple Leaf Gardens – by September of that year, he had moved on to New York to begin working with the WWWF. He actually made his WWWF debut on Spectator Sports TV out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, defeating WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino by count-out (the title can’t change hands via count-out). In many ways, it was a full circle. Spectator Sports was a local Pittsburgh promotion previously owned by WWWF co-owner Toots Mondt but now owned by Sammartino himself – it was on Spectator Sports TV that Koloff had first encountered Sammartino, facing him as Orwell Parris (in an enhancement role), in 1965 in a non-title match. Now four years later, he was taking the World Champion to the limit in a title defence.
By 1971, Bruno Sammartino was beaten up. The toll of a near eight year run as the top star in the WWWF – a company that was still very much trying to expand its influence nationally beyond the realm of the NWA – was beginning to grind “The Living Legend” down, both mentally and physically. “It had been eight long years as champion, and my schedule had been so hectic, you just couldn’t believe it,” Sammartino said of his first run (in quotes compiled by ProWrestlingStories.”I traveled overseas a lot to Japan and Australia – you name it, I went everywhere. I was so beat in so many ways; I was never one to even take an aspirin. I worked in pain. I was just so exhausted…” It became clear to Vince McMahon Sr. that his World Champion was gassed. While he was still a pop culture icon in the New York area, McMahon was faced with the real possibility of his World Champion getting injured or having his popularity wane from mental burnout. It was time to make a switch. And with the US-Russia Cold War now in mass effect, it was the company’s resident Russian bad-guy that McMahon turned to.
It took 14 minutes and 55 seconds for Ivan Koloff to defeat Bruno Sammartino that night in New York City. And a packed Madison Square Garden, who had become accustomed to wildly cheering Bruno Sammartino after each title defense, was shocked into complete silence. ” I looked around the arena. You could hear a pin drop,” remembered veteran wrestling journalist Bill Apter in an article for WWE.com recounting his memory at ringside. “It was dead silence as the new champion left the ring with Albano behind him.” Bruno was shattered – but more because his body had finally exhausted all its strength after a rugged past decade from fighting for his spot to defending it around the world than at actually losing the title. But as the quiet began to work back into a rumble, the fear of fan outburst became real. WWWF referee Dick Kroll had to get Koloff out of the ring. “Man, everything went so quiet,” Koloff remembered (again in quotes from Pro Wrestling Stories). “Can you imagine it? A sold-out Garden. They couldn’t believe Bruno got defeated after seven years as champion. Finally, [the referee] raises my hand, but he says, ‘Go back to the dressing room, you’ll get the belt there.’ They were afraid of a riot.”
Ivan Koloff backstage with manager Captain Lou Albano after defeating Bruno Sammartino (Photo: PWI)
Sadly, Koloff’s reign was short-lived. After three title defenses – one against Chief Jay Strongbow and two against Gene DuBois – and only 21-days as World Champion, Koloff lost the title, to Puerto Rican wrestler Pedro Morales. Eager to recapture the support of the immigrant wave that had carried Bruno Sammartino for nearly eight years, McMahon hoped that Morales would appeal to the growing Hispanic audience as Bruno had for Europeans. Morales would hold the title for 1,027 days, but it was clear that Pedro was no Bruno. Morales would lose his World title to Stan “The Man” Stasiak in December of 1973, only to lose it nine days later back to Bruno for another lengthy reign (1,237 days, from 1973 through 1977). While Sammartino remained a popular champion in his second run, before losing to “Superstar” Billy Graham in April of 1977, it failed to capture the magic of the first run. And it was 50-years ago this week that that legendary run came to a shocking end in Madison Square Garden.
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