[puckerman]

I grew up near Pittsburgh, so I stumbled upon this video of WWF legend Bruno Sammartino from earlier this year. I showed this video to a young woman and asked her to guess Bruno's age. She said 55. He is actually 81 years old! I tip my hat to him. He looks at least 20 years younger.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/raw-video-bruno.../255241970

[Space Cowboy]

Had that young woman ever seen a 55 year old in real life before? Bruno looks a solid 75.

[eradicator]

I thought you were saying he was found dead at 81. Good to know Bruno is still alive and kicking. He is very high energy, he doesn't look particularly young, I'd guess 70 to 80.

[MdWanderer]

(07-24-2016 12:42 AM)eradicator Wrote:  

I thought you were saying he was found dead at 81. Good to know Bruno is still alive and kicking. He is very high energy, he doesn't look particularly young, I'd guess 70 to 80.

Wow he's outlived pretty much every Wrestlemania card from the 1980s (save the "Immortal" Hulk Hogan of course) despite wrestling during a much earlier time period.

[eradicator]

(07-24-2016 08:45 AM)MdWanderer Wrote:  

(07-24-2016 12:42 AM)eradicator Wrote:  

I thought you were saying he was found dead at 81. Good to know Bruno is still alive and kicking. He is very high energy, he doesn't look particularly young, I'd guess 70 to 80.

Wow he's outlived pretty much every Wrestlemania card from the 1980s (save the "Immortal" Hulk Hogan of course) despite wrestling during a much earlier time period.

Eh, I don't think that many of them died? Andre= dead, warrior=dead, Piper= dead but other than that?(oh I forgot Eddy and Benoit)

Compare him to champions of his era, Verne Gagne lived to be 89, Stu Hart died at 88. Respectable death ages.

Ric Flair is still alive.

[MdWanderer]

(07-24-2016 08:20 PM)eradicator Wrote:  

Eh, I don't think that many of them died? Andre= dead, warrior=dead, Piper= dead but other than that?(oh I forgot Eddy and Benoit)

Compare him to champions of his era, Verne Gagne lived to be 89, Stu Hart died at 88. Respectable death ages.

Ric Flair is still alive.

Earthquake, Randy Savage, Texas Tornado, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Junkyard Dog, Big Bossman, Miss Elizabeth, Yokozuna, British Bulldog, Road Warrior Hawk, Owen Hart, Dusty Rhodes, Dino Bravo, Hercules, Sapphire, and some others that I am surely missing were mostly 80s-90s era wrestlers that passed before old age. They did a comparison of one of the Wrestlemania cards from the early 1990s to the Superbowl roster that same year (another sport known for its violence and hardship on its players) and found out that only one player out of 110 starters from both the winning and losing teams Superbowl roster had died, while almost half of the Wrestlemania card (probably no more than 40 wrestlers) died.

And its not without reason. Prior to the 1980s, wrestling leagues were regional and a lot of the guys looked like the average Joe off the street. Technique and wrestling ability was stressed over everything. Once Vince McMahon Jr. took over the WWF in the early 1980s from his dad, he wanted to monopolize it into one big, nationwide mega-federation and bought up all of the other regional leagues and their wrestlers. He wanted them to look like superheroes from a comic book and have over the top gimmicks children could relate to. Due to the long schedules and the grueling workout routines to keep up those bodies, wrestlers began to abuse drugs to ward off pain and keep their bodies in shape, which subsequently lead to so many deaths.

I remember a clip of one of the older generation wrestlers describing Hulk Hogan. Said that he was the ultimate showman and could rake in millions but couldn't even perform basic wrestling moves. A lot of the Warriors' matches were pretty bad too. Many of the juiced up ones weren't very good wrestlers but were good for company business.