10 Things You Didn't Know About Bruno Sammartino

8. Promoters Blackballed Him For Refusing To Lose

It's often been said that "nice guys finish last". Whilst that wasn't necessarily true in the case of Sammartino, he did have to look after his name value and business when dealing with shady wrestling promoters in the 1960s.

Though Bruno later enjoyed a healthy relationship with Vince McMahon Sr, he outright refused to lose when other promoters asked him to. This was controversial at the time, because Sammartino wasn't quite the box office smash he'd soon become. To promoters, he was an arrogant upstart who thought he was the best.

Bruno's logic was simple: if wrestlers could really beat him, they were welcome to try. That attitude led various promoters in the United States to blackball Bruno from events, and he was forced to seek solace north of the border in Canada.

Unwilling to be a "preliminary guy", Sammartino thought jobbing regularly would typecast him as a loser.