David Sammartino

David Sammartino
Birth name David Lugogo Sammartino
Born (1960-09-29) September 29, 1960
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Bruno Sammartino, Jr.[1]
David Lugogo
David Sammartino
Dave Sammartino
David Bruno Sammartino
Billed height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)[1]
Billed weight 252 lb (114 kg)[1]
Trained by Bruno Sammartino
Debut 1980

David Lugogo Sammartino (born September 29, 1960) is an American professional wrestler. He is the son of former World Wide Wrestling Federation (World) Heavyweight Champion, Bruno Sammartino.[1]

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Sammartino was initially not trained by his father, because Bruno did not want his son to go into wrestling and experience all the horrors he did when he started. He wanted him to get a college education and pursue a different career. Not taking his father's advice, David headed south and began training and wrestling with a few smaller independent wrestling companies. He debuted in 1980. Throughout 1981, Sammartino picked up where his father left off the year before, and feuded with Larry Zbyszko, his father's former protege, on the independent circuit.

World Wrestling Federation (1984–1985)

Sammartino joined the World Wrestling Federation in September 1984, with his father as his manager.[2] He received a big push while teaming with his father, he most notably was also pushed in singles matches, competing as a face, before converting to a preliminary wrestler by WWF's owner good graces, Vince McMahon, who was using David in order to get Bruno to wrestle, as he still drew huge crowds. His most notable appearance with the WWF was at the inaugural WrestleMania event in Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on March 31, 1985. Accompanied by Bruno, Sammartino wrestled Brutus Beefcake in the fourth match of the night. The match ended in a double disqualification after Sammartino was thrown out of the ring by Beefcake and slammed by Beefcake's manager Johnny Valiant, prompting Bruno Sammartino to assault Valiant.[2] This led to a series of tag team matches that brought Bruno out of retirement in an effort to get David's career advanced.[2] Bruno said later this was his least favorite time of his career.

When Bruno was involved, David was often in the main event or in a high profile match; when Bruno wasn't involved David would be wrestling preliminary matches.[2] Frustrated, David quit the WWF several times and was only brought back with the assistance of his famous father. In 1986, Sammartino left the WWF and he went to the AWA, a rival promotion of the WWF. There he was also being used for his surname by AWA's promoter Verne Gagne, by putting him in three championship matches against AWA World Champion Stan Hansen, which Sammartino lost. He left the AWA after those matches by going again to the WWF in 1988 where he was used as a preliminary wrestler once again.[2] Sammartino's second run in the WWF was short, as he only wrestled there for a few months before being fired from the WWF after he was arrested for punching a fan, who spat at him in New York.[2] Both Sammartinos (Bruno and David) later speculated that the fan was a plant hired by WWF owner Vince McMahon to provoke Sammartino in order to give the WWF an excuse to terminate his contract, and that McMahon did this in "revenge" against Bruno Sammartino, after he left the WWF a week before (although the elder Sammartino's contract was finishing by this point)

In one of his final WWF appearances, Sammartino was involved in a confusing and controversial finish at the Philadelphia Spectrum on November 22, 1985, quickly submitting to a bear hug by jobber Ron Shaw in a match that Sammartino was believed to have been booked to win.[3] The alleged changing of the finish by Sammartino (Shaw and the referee apparently were caught by surprise) has caused this to be known as the "Phantom Submission Match". Sammartino later said that he did not enjoy his WWF run and that he had no desire to get to know Vince McMahon. He called McMahon "arrogant" and he did not like to see him "abusing" those who worked for him.

Various promotions

In 1986, Sammartino joined the American Wrestling Association.[4] On February 4, 1986 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sammartino unsuccessfully challenged Stan Hansen for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

In 1990, Sammartino began wrestling for Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation in California. In that same year, Sammartino competed for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1988,[5] before Sammartino left the company in 1990. Sammartino, occasionally teamed Joe Malenko In AJPW.

Sammartino returned to wrestling in 1995, Sammartino competed for NWA New Jersey, in where he challenged Tommy Cairo for the NWA North American Championship twice. Both matches in the losing side for Sammartino, and he left the promotion, shortly thereafter.[6]

Sammartino re-emerged in 1996 in World Championship Wrestling, competing in the promotion's cruiserweight division.[7] Sammartino was only used in two matches in WCW.[7] On the December 16, 1996 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Sammartino challenged Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, but was defeated.[7] The other match was a dark match, defeating preliminary wrestler, Rex King.[7]

In 2000, Sammartino defeated Jimmy Cicero to win the New York State Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Championship in New Rochelle, New York.

In 2010, Sammartino appeared at an International Wrestling Cartel event called "IWC Night of legends" defeating former rival Larry Zbyszko.[8]

In June 2010, Sammartino teamed with Zbyzsko, against Frank Stalletto, and Lou Marconi at Deaf Wrestlefest 2010 in a winning effort.[8]

Personal life

He is currently semi-retired and has worked as a personal trainer since 1996. He sometimes appears in "Legends" events, where he wrestles along with other veteran wrestlers. He has a strained relationship with his father, Bruno. Sammartino took steroids during the mid-1980s. Initially, he didn't admit it, but it was revealed when Bruno spoke about the problems his son had. He then said that his son has been drug-free since early-1990s. This was later admitted by David himself.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Shields, Brian; Sullivan, Kevin (2009). WWE Encyclopedia. DK. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-7566-4190-0.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cawthon, Graham (2013). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 1: WWF 1963 - 1989. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1492825972.
  3. ↑ "1985 ring results". The History of WWE. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
  4. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=916&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=1986&promotion=41&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&constellationType=&worker=
  5. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=916&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=1988&promotion=6&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&constellationType=&worker=
  6. ↑ http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=916&view=&page=4&gimmick=&year=1995&promotion=202&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&constellationType=&worker=
  7. 1 2 3 4 Cawthon, Graham (2015). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 5: World Championship Wrestling 1995-2001. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1499656343.
  8. 1 2 http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=916&page=4
  9. 1 2 Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  10. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 of the PWI Years: 480 David Sammartino". Pro Wrestling Illustrated (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States: Sports and Entertainment publications LLC). May 21, 2003. p. 60. June 2003.

Sources

External links

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