In 1935, in the shadow of a cliff that looms over Pizzoferrato in Italy, a boy is born who will grow up to become an industry defining superstar.
It wasn't until 1950 that Bruno Sammartino and his family moved to the United States, and he subsequently went from malnourished child to powerlifting strongman.
He was spotted by local wrestling promoter Rudy Miller and within one month of making his professional wrestling debut in his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh in December 1959, the man dubbed "The Italian Strongman" was performing in the US's most iconic arena, Madison Square Garden.
The early years of his career were spent travelling the country, performing for many companies including the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and he even twice challenged for the NWA Championship against wrestling legend Lou Thesz.
The WWE (then known as the WWWF) subsequently made the decision to hire Sammartino and award him their main championship belt due to an injury for current champion, Buddy Rogers.
Sammartino won the belt in a match that lasted less than a minute, a title change designed to make the then-27-year-old Sammartino look as dominant as possible.
From there, Sammartino went on to hold the WWWF World Championship for a record-breaking 2,803 days.
To this day, it is still the longest WWE Championship reign.
During this historic title reign, Sammartino faced and defeated greats of that era including Gorilla Monsoon, Ivan Koloff and Waldo Von Erich.
One thing that was key to the WWWF and the reason Sammartino held the title for so long was that people were willing to part with their money to see him perform.
According to reports, Sammartino sold out Madison Square Garden over 188 times across the eight years he was champion.
Nowadays, getting good TV ratings and high merchandise sales are key metrics for telling a man or woman's star power. Back in the 60s and 70s, it was selling tickets.
It's telling that nobody has even come close to Sammartino's reign that begun on 17 May 1963 and ended on 18 January 1971, when he was eventually beaten by the aforementioned Koloff.
Hulk Hogan, the sport's biggest star during the 80s and 90s, had a title reign of 1,474 days - only just over half of Sammartino's run as champion.
Current WWE Champion, Roman Reigns, whose cousin Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is also a former WWE Champion, has the longest reign of anyone in the 21st century at 1,226 days.
Sammartino did have a second reign as WWWF Champion that lasted just over three years, from late 1973 to April 1977.
He retired for the first time in 1977 but briefly came out of retirement in the 1980s. He was entered into the WWE's Hall of Fame in 2013 and has a memorial on Madison Square Garden's Walk of Fame.
He sadly died in April 2018 at the age of 82, but his legacy in professional wrestling will live on forever.
Want more? Follow us on Google News and across our social media channels to stay up-to-date with all things Guinness World Records! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Snapchat Discover.
Don't forget to check out our videos on YouTube and become part of our group chat by following the Guinness World Records WhatsApp channel.
Still not had enough? Click here to buy our latest book, filled to the brim with stories about our amazing record breakers.
Related Articles
