listings by John McAdam

THE BEST OF BRUNO SAMMARTINO, Volume One: 
BRUNO SAMMARTINO is featured on evening magazine from 1979. Good feature for it's time.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v MAGNIFICENT MAURICE, clips from the 1960's.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v HANS SCHMIDT, clips from the 1960's.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v GIANT BABA from Japan, 1967.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BULLDOG BROWER, brief clips from New York, 1971. Brower is rendered a bloody mess.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF, from MSG, January 18, 1971. About eight minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Bruno's eight year reign as world champ comes to an end as Koloff gets a clean pin.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v MR. FUJI from 1973. Pretty good TV match.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v GEORGE STEELE jip from Philadelphia, 1973.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v STAN STASIAK from MSG, Dec 1, 1971. About seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Stasiak holds the world title for eight days, losing it in this match. They miss the pin, but catch the celebration of Bruno regaining the title.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v KILLER KOWALSKI from New York, 1974. Kowalski uses the dirtiest tactics imaginable (art imitates life), then Bruno "goes berzerk", and it turns into a wild, pull apart brawl.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SPIROS ARION from Philadelphia, 1975. This is about five minutes of highlights of rare footage from 8mm. This was filmed at ringside, but there's no sound.

THE BEST OF BRUNO SAMMARTINO, Volume Two: 
BRUNO SAMMARTINO is featured on "Greatest Sports Legends", hosted by Tom Seaver. Another good feature. Shows highlights vs Stan Hansen, Gorilla Monsoon, Ernie Ladd, and more.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BOBBY DUNCUM, brief clips from New York, 1975.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BOBBY DUNCUM- about seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, February 1, 1975. Good brawl.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BOBBY DUNCUM- about seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from March 1, 1975. A wild, pull apart brawl.
TEXAS DEATH MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BOBBY DUNCUM -about four minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, April 12, 1975, with Gorilla Monsoon special referee.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v NIKOLAI VOLKOFF from Allentown, PA, 1975.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO & DICK THE BRUISER v THE VALIANT BROTHERS from Chicago, 1975. About five minutes of wild brawling!
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SPIROS ARION about five minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, May 31, 1975. Arion had just turned on Bruno and Strongbow on TV, so there's plenty of heat for this one.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SPIROS ARION -about seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, June 21,1975. Bruno wants revenge, but Arion keeps running away.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SPIROS ARION -about seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, July 19, 1975. Good finish- Bruno beats the daylights out of Arion, and calmly walks out of the cage.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v WALDO VON ERICH from New York, June 16, 1975. Excellent but short brawl.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v GEORGE STEELE from Boston, October 4, 1975. Hard to picture Steele managed by the Grand Wizard, but here it is. Pretty good- they pound each other with a huge table outside the ring.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF from New York, 10/13/75- a good match that ends in a pull-apart brawl.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF with Gorilla Monsoon referee from New York, November 17, 1975.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF jip from New York, December 15, 1975.

THE BEST OF BRUNO SAMMARTINO, Volume Three: 
BRUNO SAMMARTINO & DOM DeNUCCI v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM & SPIROS ARION, 2 out of 3 falls from Boston, Oct 25, 1975. About eight minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Geez, I remember reading about this match when I was in grade school. Controversial finish as Bruno has Arion pinned, but Graham jumps from the top rope onto Bruno's back, then pins him.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR GRAHAM from Boston, Nov 29, 1975. About seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Good match, Bruno wins on a COR, then gets jumped by Graham afterward.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO & GORILLA MONSOON v SUPERSTAR GRAHAM & IVAN KOLOFF, from Boston, January 17, 1976. About seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. After a ref bump (something you never used to see), Bruno gets pinned AGAIN, this time by Koloff.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM from New York, January 12, 1976.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF from Boston, February 7, 1976. About seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Good brawl, goes to a DDQ.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF from Boston, Mar 6, 1976. About seven minutes of footage transferred from 8mm. Bruno gets counted out.
CHAIN MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF- About six minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, April 10, 1976. Good, bloody brawl.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v STAN HANSEN, jip from New York, April 26, 1976- This is the match where Hansen legit broke Bruno's neck by screwing up a spot, which is not shown. What is shown is about ten minutes of the match, Hansen "loading up" his elbowpad, and hitting Bruno with the lariat, which was the storyline reason for Bruno's injury.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v STAN HANSEN- About six minutes of footage transferred from 8mm from Boston, Nov 6, 1976. Bruno steals Hansen's loaded lariat and pounds Stan into submission- very bloody match.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BRUISER BRODY from New York, October 4, 1976. Clips from 8mm film.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v NIKOLAI VOLKOFF from New York, October 24, 1976.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v KEN PATERA from New York, March 7, 1977. Patera really came into his own in this feud.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v BARON VON RASHKE from New York, March 28, 1977. Bruno's foot gets caught in the ropes, so Von Rashke clobbers him with a chair! Von Rashke then applies the claw, and a DQ is called. Pretty good match.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM from Baltimore, April 30, 1977. Superstar wins the title!

THE BEST OF BRUNO SAMMARTINO, Volume Four: 
UP CLOSE WITH BRUNO SAMMARTINO, from 1992. Bruno talks about the state of wrestling, his background.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM from Philadelphia, 1977. Graham defends the title in an excellent match that's interesting because referee Dick Wohrle has a working mic, and you can hear him passing the spots between the wrestlers.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR GRAHAM from New York, August 1, 1977. Gorilla Monsoon is the ref as Bruno tries to regain the title from Graham.Excellent, classic match despite Monsoon's attempts to put himself in the spotlight ahead of Bruno and Superstar.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM, from Philadelphia, February 18, 1978. Excellent match, with what may be the king of all screw-job finishes. Bruno is dominating Graham, and is about to regain the title, but actually kicks Graham so hard he goes through the cage door- and wins the match.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM from New York, October 23, 1978. Bruno returns to MSG after a year-long absence. Graham juices big, and the match has to be stopped.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v IVAN KOLOFF from New York, March 26, 1979. Good match.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v NIKOLAI VOLKOFF from Philadelphia, 1979. Bruno basically destroys Volkoff, KOing him with the ring bell.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v KEN PATERA from Philadelphia, 1980. The match turns into a brawl- Patera grabs a chair, decks Bruno, and applies the full-nelson. The dressing room empties to save Bruno- good stuff!

THE BEST OF BRUNO SAMMARTINO, Volume Five: 
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZYBYSKO from February 1980. This is the match where Zybysko turns on Bruno, and breaks a chair over his head. Bruno blades for all to see. This match and angle set the stage for a very successful run of the Bruno v Zybysko feud.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZYBYSKO from Philadelphia, March 1980. Good match with excellent pshychology.
TEXAS DEATH MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZYBYSKO from Philadelphia, April 1980.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZYBYSKO, from Shea Stadium, New York, 8/9/80. Forgotten history- after Bruno wipes Larry out, Zybysko chases him out of the cage and raises his hand. This was supposed to be the beginning of a babyface turn that would catapult Zybysko all the way to the WWF Championship. Never happened, as Zybysko had a falling out with the McMahons. So Zybysko shoots one of the biggest angle is WWF history- and leaves a year later, never to return. Zybysko could have still drawn in 1982 or 1983, and I always wondered why he never came back.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO & GIANT BABA v TIGER JEET SINGH & UMANOSUKE UEDA- this was Bruno's original retirement match.
BRUNO & DAVID SAMMARTINO v BRUTUS BEEFCAKE & JOHNNY VALIANT from New York, May 20, 1985.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO appears on a live Piper's Pit at Madison Square Garden, 1985. Of course, it ends in a brawl.
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v RODDY PIPER from Boston, December 7, 1985. I attended this match live, and there was enough heat to melt a candle. Good match, Bob Orton runs in for the DQ.
CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v RODDY PIPER from Boston, February 8, 1986. Piper taunts the New England faithful by hanging posters of the Chicago Bears (who just crushed the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl a few weeks earlier) on the cage. Bruno shoves them down his throat. Good times!
BRUNO SAMMARTINO v NIKOLAI VOLKOFF from 1987. Bruno's final TV match, broadcast with zero fanfare, designed to push the Volfoff / Iron Shiek v Killer Bees feud. Bruno would soon leave the wrestling business for good.

THE BRUNO SAMMARTINO v. LARRY ZBYSZKO FEUD (VERY GOOD – FAIR QUALITY) 2HRS

Match listings from www.johnmcadam.com

NOTE:  Only the first 2 segments are in fair quality.  The rest is very good.

1.        LARRY ZBYSZKO does an interview, expressing his frustration over being looked at as nothing more than Bruno's protege. ZBYSZKO says
he's tired of being seen as Bruno's protege, and challenges Bruno Sammartino to a match on TV. The picture for this segment is below par, but
everything else is fine. 

2.        LARRY ZBYSZKO announces his retirement after Bruno turns down his challenge. Sammartino comes out and agrees to wrestle ZBYSZKO on
TV with one stipulation- that he will wrestle ZBYSZKO defensively, and will not try to hurt his protege.

3.        BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZBYSZKO from Allentown, PA, 1/22/80- ZBYSZKO fares well, but it's obvious that Bruno is just a little
bit better. When Bruno lets ZBYSZKO out of the bearhug, ZBYSZKO is visibly angry and frustrated. ZBYSZKO gets outmanuvered and finds
himself on his rear outside the ring, and Bruno opens the ropes to help Larry back in. ZBYSZKO cheap-shots Sammartino and pounds him,
eventually grabbing a chair and using it to crack Bruno in the head three times. Bruno is reduced to a bloody pulp, and is taken out on a stretcher.

4.        BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZBYSZKO from Philadelphia, 3/1/80- excellent match where Bruno gets DQed for shoving the referee.

5.        BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZBYSZKO from Philadelphia, 4/12/80- another terrific match with great ring psychology. 

6.        BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZBYSZKO from New York, 4/21/80- good match that's different from either of the Philadelphia bouts. 

7.        CAGE MATCH: BRUNO SAMMARTINO v LARRY ZBYSZKO, from Shea Stadium, New York, 8/9/80. Forgotten history- after Bruno wipes Larry out, ZBYSZKO chases him out of the cage and raises his hand. Allegedly, this was supposed to be the beginning of a babyface turn that would catapult ZBYSZKO all the way to the world title. It never happened, as ZBYSZKO had a falling out with the promotion. So ZBYSZKO shoots one of the biggest angle in history- and leaves a year later, never to return. ZBYSZKO could have still drawn in 1982 or 1983.

8.        BONUS MATCH: LARRY ZBYSZKO v TONY GAREA in a Texas Death Match from New York, 10/20/80.