10 Huge Wrestling Moments That Played Out To Silence
2. The Longest Title Reign In WWE History Comes To An End
It would be impossible to compile this list without including a moment so often labelled 'the night the Garden went silent'. That moment would be the shocking end of Bruno Sammartino's first run as the WWWF Champion.
Having defeated 'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers for the title back in 1963, Bruno embarked on a championship reign that lasted for a ludicrous seven years, eight months, and one day. Or another way of breaking it down, is that the Italian Superman held on to the gold for a mammoth 2,803 days before losing it in 1971.
On that 18 January 1971 night, Sammartino's first run as the WWWF Champion was brought to an end by Ivan Koloff. And so unthinkable was it for Bruno to ever lose - let alone lose his title - the watching Madison Square Garden crowd fell completely silent.
As Sammartino himself explained over the subsequent years, the stilled silence of the Garden had Bruno thinking he had actually damaged his ears and gone deaf.
Later that year, Sammartino would win the WWWF International Tag Team Championship with Dominic DeNucci, before he'd eventually reclaim the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship from Stan Stasiak in December 1973 - with that reign clocking it at an impressive three years, fourth months, and 20 days.