9 Wrestlers That Refused To Break Kayfabe
8. Sammartino's Memoirs Are A Work (Of Fiction)
Bruno Sammartino, probably the most decorated and popular wrestler in the history of the business, may be the most old school of old school professional wrestlers. Sammartino constantly supported the legitimacy of the sport throughout his decades-long career, and for long after that career had ended - even going to great lengths to maintain kayfabe in his own ghostwritten autobiography, refusing point blank to admit that blading was a common practice in the bigger matches. Sammartino adamantly denied that it was possible to smuggle a blade into the ring and then use it, without anybody seeing it, citing the fact that hed never worn tape to hide a blade as evidence that hed never used one.
Written in the nineties when, like an aging stripper, pro wrestling had been completely exposed for years, Sammartino's book would also refuse to admit that wrestling matches were or had ever been predetermined, an oddity that marred the story it was trying to tell, everyone reading it knew that pro wrestling was a work by then.
This meant that a first-time memoir of (and allegedly, by) one of the greatest wrestlers of all time just read like a wrestling angle written in the first person.