Samartinomania

Hi Scott,

Was in an argument a while back and was wondering; all things equal, do you think Bruno could taken WWWF national in the ’60s or ’70s?

This hypo assumes Vince Sr. had the intent and was as good a promoter as Vince Jr. (If he wasn’t) and all the technology was in place (IE Assume it was the 60s but we had global TV and PPV).

I know Bruno was popular he always seemed to be an Ethnic champion that just happened to be champ in the largest market. He didn’t really have charisma and wasn’t going to talk people into the building. That said, maybe the ’60s culture was such that a guy like that could’ve played in the same towns Hulk expanded into.

Thoughts?

​Bruno was a flop whenever he left the Northeast. They did some limited dates with him outside of the usual WWF strongholds and basically he meant nothing. By the 80s, when he was doing comeback bit and drawing crowds again in New York and Boston against Savage, his matches on shows in other areas of the country again failed to draw anything. Pedro Morales ran into the exact same problem when he left the promotion, too. ​The characters were apparently very specific to that area, and as noted, Bruno didn’t have the kind of charisma that would have sold tickets anywhere like Hulk did.