Getting a grip: Remembering Bruno Sammartino; Superstar Shakeup fallout; MLW TV debut

Brian Fritz

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Getting a grip: Remembering Bruno Sammartino; Superstar Shakeup fallout; MLW TV debut image

Each week, Sporting News runs down the biggest stories in the world of professional wrestling.

Remembering Bruno Sammartino

The wrestling world is in mourning following the death of Bruno Sammartino who passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 82.

Even now, decades past his glory years in the squared circle, Sammartino remains one of the most popular stars of all time and an icon for generations to come.

Sammartino was the cornerstone that Vince McMahon Sr. built the World Wide Wrestling Federation on during the 1960s and 1970s as it grew to prominence. That was for good reason as he had built a legion of adoring fans, selling out shows week after week to see him battle his evil enemies.

MORE: Young Bucks on the future of 'Being the Elite'

When Sammartino defeated “Nature Boy” Buddy Rodgers for the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship in 1963, it began a record-setting title reign that lasted nearly eight years.

Think about that — he was the world champion for almost eight consecutive years.

That seems unfathomable considering how often titles change hands these days. Even his second world championship run lasted more than three years, an impressive feat of its own that will never come close to being matched.

The “Italian Superman” sold out Madison Square Garden a record 187 times, packing the famous building with fans who wanted to see him battle the likes of Killer Kowalski, George “The Animal” Steele, Superstar Billy Graham and Ivan Koloff.

One of his most memorable feuds took place shortly before the end of his career when his former protégé Larry Zybysko turned on him. It ended when Sammartino defeated Zybysko in a Steel Cage match at Shea Stadium in front of more than 35,000 people in what is now one of the most famous matches in wrestling history.

The Italian-born Pittsburgh native lived an extraordinary life. He spent part of his youth hiding from Nazi led soldiers in the mountains of Italy along with his family. That led to them fleeing the country for the hope and opportunity of the United States. He had yet to learn English.

None of that stopped him as he became a symbol of the American dream, playing out life on the biggest stages his profession provided and reaching heights that he could have only dreamed of.

He did it with class and honesty, traits that define who he truly was beyond the records and accolades.

With his passing, wrestling didn’t just lose one of its all-time legends; they lost a true gentleman and a good man.

Superstar Shakeup fallout

Score one for the blue brand.

The two nights of the Superstar Shakeup saw nearly 40 talents switch between "RAW" and "SmackDown" to go along with NXT call-ups over the past few weeks. The result saw both brands look vastly different with "SmackDown" looking stronger that it has in a long time.

The blue brand scored additions big additions with The Miz and newly crowned United States Champion Jeff Hardy. The women’s division got stronger with the addition of Asuka and the tag team division looks better in adding Cesaro and Sheamus along with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.

Arguably the biggest get for "SmackDown" was Samoa Joe who has been unleashing scathing promos following his recent return from injury. Joe has long looked like a major player and is now in a prime position in potential feuds with Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy and eventually Shinsuke Nakamura.

The brand also added former NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas and his  manager Zelina Vega along with SAnitY, which includes Eric Young, Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe. The only negative is that Nikki Cross — who has been a dynamic element to the faction — is apparently not coming with them.

It was a great haul for "SmackDown" with the brand now stocked with fresh talent and tons of potential for exciting matches and feuds moving forward.

The flagship show did add some big-time talent in Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Bobby Roode. Still, it feels like the main event picture will remain in the hands of bigger guys such as Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and newcomer Baron Corbin, who will benefit from the change of scenery.

Former NXT star Drew McIntyre should also get an opportunity to be a major singles star on "RAW" following his impactful debut. The question is whether or not that will happen immediately or if he’ll be teaming with Dolph Ziggler for some time.

MLW set for television premiere

More wrestling is coming to TV with the debut of the weekly series Major League Wrestling: FUSION this Friday night on the national network beIN Sports. The show will air at 8 p.m. ET with a replay following at 11 p.m. ET.

MLW CEO Court Bauer began running monthly MLW events in late 2017 at the GILT Nightclub in Orlando. His plan was to take a slow and steady approach but the shows were an instant hit with the promotion growing quickly to the point of inking the deal with beIN Sports.

The weekly TV show will be taped in advance during monthly events with Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini calling the action. Last week, the group concluded an eight-man tournament with Shane Strickland winning to become the MLW World Champion. Just this week, MLW announced that it has signed Jack Hager — formerly known as Jack Swagger in the WWE — to a “multi-fight deal” with his first appearance coming at the MLW: Intimidation Games event on May 3 in Orlando.

Sporting News recently caught up with Bauer for a quick Q&A in advance of MLW’s upcoming debut on beIN Sports.

What was it about the deal with beIN Sports where you felt it was the right fit for MLW?

Major League Wrestling is positioned as a sport.  You have excellent athletes. Guys who have been or still are in the UFC or Bellator.  You also have an Olympian like Jeff Cobb.  We showcase talent from around the word, and given beIN SPORTS is global in appeal and focused on combat sports, this was a perfect fit both for MLW and beIN.  We’ll be part of the “Friday Night Fury” block of combat sports, which also includes MMA and boxing.  This compliments our presentation of MLW as a combat sport and everyone watching can expect a fun evening of fighting each and every week.

There is a lot of wrestling programming these days. How can MLW stand out in the crowded landscape to attract an audience?

Like everything we do, be it WaleMania or the podcast network, we need to always be riding the edge of the new wave of sports, culture and TV.  Our theme is something special Wale did for us.  Hands down the best wrestling show TV theme in the game.  Trust me.  But we also present and celebrate pro wrestling’s various styles, hence the name Major League Wrestling: FUSION.  We don’t have any desire to make a luchador wrestle traditional American style.  We want the twisted genius that is Pentagon Jr.’s brand of lucha libre to be 100% authentic. Same goes for the chaos that “King of the Death Match” Jimmy Havoc brings to his matches.  Authenticity is essential as well.  We position the promotion as a sport, which it is.  Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini call the action in a distinctly different way than you typically experience today.  It’s also the way the show flows. By episode 5 or 6 you will get a feel that this is not formulaic. It is spontaneous and aggressive in the pacing. It’s the little things that are big things in how we differentiate the product.  

Having budding relationships with AAA Lucha Libre and … well, I can’t say quite yet but other promotions around the world helps distinguish our brand of wrestling from the competitors. 

Are there plans to run more events this year than originally planned and, if so, could those be outside of Gilt Nightclub in Orlando?

Yes, our schedule will expand. Orlando will be our home base. Gilt is the perfect host for us — that’s not changing.  As a blossoming national company, we do want to explore promoting events in markets where our FUSION does well. 

New podcast explores unique premise

Former Impact Wrestling star Robbie E recently launched the weekly “Why It Ended” podcast along with co-host Matt Coon on the MLW Radio Network.

While there are plenty of wrestling podcasts on the market, Robbie swears his is different.

“My favorite kind of wrestling was the later 90s, the early 2000s and there's so many guys from that era that have disappeared,” Robbie recently told Sporting News. “I thought it would be really cool to find a lot of those guys and then I figured any era could work. Just find guys that have kind of vanished or have been forgotten about and find out what happened to them. The factor that I want is when people hear the guest each week, they go what ever happened to that guy? I gotta hear this story.”

Robbie was approached to do the podcast last September after he parted ways with Impact. He was initially against the idea unless it was going to be something different. Plus, he didn’t want to just entertain fans but needed to entertain himself as well if he was going to jump into the podcast world.

“Every week I'm learning stuff” said Robbie. “Everyone we've had on, I know bits and pieces about them and their careers but they're going deep into their story.”

The first six episodes have included conversations with Muhammed Hassan, Buff Bagwell and “Wildcat” Chris Harris. Robbie already has ideas for upcoming shows.

“We have some people we want,” said Robbie. “We have some guys who reached out to us that want to be on. We're taking it week to week deciding who we're going to have on. There's some guys out there who I know are hard to get. I'll tell you who we really want to get — we haven't reached out yet but we'd love to get David Flair.”

Robbie believes he is far from done when it comes to his wrestling career. But he continues to lead a very busy life in and out of the ring that includes the new podcast along with being the dad to twin baby girls.

“I’m just as busy as I've ever been, wrestling three to four days a week on the road,” said Robbie. “I'm in the best shape of my life. I'd still love to wrestle full-time for a major organization and I think I will in 2018. I'm in a good place between podcasting, wrestling, my kids, Muscle and Fitness with my weekly 'Dad Bod Destroyer' video doing fitness videos with my baby twins which are super fun.”

Greatest Royal Rumble … now with more great

The upcoming April 27 event in Saudi Arabia is already loaded with every men’s championship up for grabs along with a gigantic 50-man Royal Rumble match.

Also announced is a WrestleMania rematch between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship, further making this one of the biggest WWE events of the year.

One of the weirder developments in recent history involves the show. A week ago, WWE announced a casket match between Rusev and The Undertaker. Days later, the company made a switch, taking the “Bulgarian Brute” out of the match and putting Chris Jericho in his place. That didn’t last long and WWE changed it back to Rusev versus ‘Taker on Monday.

News and notes

— If you’re looking forward to seeing Daniel Bryan and The Miz square off now that they’re both on "SmackDown," you won’t have to wait long. WWE announced matches between the two in Liverpool, Newcastle, and Sheffield during the UK Tour in May.

— Goldust caused some confusion earlier this week with a tweet where he thanked fans for this 30-year career and how he wants to pass on his knowledge. Of course, most thought he was retiring but he quickly cleared up that speculation.

— UFC light heavyweight champion and uber wrestling fan Daniel Cormier recently said that he’s interested in becoming a WWE broadcaster. Cormier has already stated that he will retire next March so he’ll have some free time although he just signed on as a high school wrestling coach in Northern California. 

— Get ready: Netflix is releasing Season 2 of "GLOW" on June 29.

— Congrats to Nigel McGuinness on the birth of his baby girl. That explains why he recently missed "205 Live" and the NXT TV tapings.

— He’s not just gorgeous, he’s smart too.

— What’s up indeed.

Brian Fritz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrianFritz and listen to his Between The Ropes podcast on Blog Talk Radio.

Brian Fritz

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Brian Fritz is a contributor with The Sporting News covering the NBA and NFL who previously worked at BasketballNews. He is a 20-year veteran of sports talk radio in Orlando, Florida, after graduating from the University of Central Florida. He now resides in Durham, North Carolina.