Bruno Sammartino Calls Flair An Idiot, Talks Rejecting WWE HOF Offer

The following are interview highlights with pro wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino:

Sammartino on memories of WrestleMania 1:

"When (Vince) McMahon contacted me after Vince Sr. died, he asked me if I would come
back saying he wanted to carry on his father's tradition and who better
to do that with than me because I’d been there for so many years. I
agreed because he said I’d do broadcasting once every three weeks.
Everything turned out to be not true. He did not keep in his father’s
tradition. He made changes that I personally didn’t care for. I saw the
disgusting steroid and drug use that bother me tremendously so things
started going bad for me in that relationship. As for that WrestleMania,
I had no idea how big it would be. I was there as a second, with my son
on the ring. I was so unhappy at the time. I just wanted to get away
from there."


Sammartino on changes in wrestling that he doesn't like:

"Not that we had girl wrestlers, they brought them in skimpy. The wrestling,
they started getting more vulgar, the profanity, the language.
Everything had changed. Triple H having sex with a corpse in a casket.
You can imagine what that would do to someone like me who had been in
the business 25 years and see this. To see Steve Austin, the champion,
he had a can of beer in his hand and they had to bleep every word, there
were little kids in the audience. It appalled me."


Sammartino on his thoughts of Hulk Hogan:

"People get fooled by publicity. Hogan wasn’t a good champion at all. In 1985, Hogan had
been champion for a year and a half. Vince asked me to put on the tights
because the house was down. He would do a good house the first time,
but if he came back the second, or dare the third time, he couldn’t
draw. He wasn’t a great performer. It did not work. He would use him
more for merchandise and pay per view events. He was not a good for a
champion like previous people."


Sammartino on his thoughts of Ric Flair:

"He’s an idiot. A first class pathetic idiot. He wrote a book and said something that
wasn’t very complimentary about me, I haven’t read it so I don’t know.
So I’m standing in the hallway at the show talking to two, three people
and my back was turned to him. When I turned around and he saw me, I
started walking towards him to say hello and he turned away and ran.
Later, he told one of the Hebner brothers that he wanted to come say
hello to me but I turned my back on him and ignored him. Which is a
complete bold class lie."


Sammartino on his thoughts of the WWE Hall Of Fame:

"I am in the Hall of Fame. The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. Only wrestlers get
inducted there. When you talk about (Vince) McMahon’s Hall of Fame, I
absolutely wouldn’t have any part of it because of my feelings for him
and his company. Secondly, it’s not a legitimate Hall of Fame. When you
have kids and you wanna go see a building, there’s nowhere to go. It’s
just a marketing campaign. Look who’s in it, game show hosts, Drew
Carey. A baseball player, football player. I’d be embarrassed to be in
that Hall of Fame."