You Don't Know Bruno

... was out visiting a project site for the "real job" a few weeks back - was accompanied by one of our younger guys (not long out of engineering school)... along with a few others we were meeting with a local rep from one of the city public utility providers, who in the course of discussion mentioned that the professional wrestling great, Bruno Sammartino, once lived in the area, which was now part of an expanded city park...

... "Who's 'Bruno Sammartino'?" asks our young hand... well, everyone just stared at him in disbelief and it was crickets...

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... this be the man, 'Bruno'...

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... speaking of which, we learned that another wrestling great, 'George "the Animal" Steele' passed away last week - here's a highly entertaining clip and some great "theater" of the 'Animal' in action (along with 'Randy "Macho Man" Savage, 'Miss Elizabeth', 'Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat and "Mean Gene" Okerlund; with 'Vince McMahon' and 'Jesse "the Body" Ventura providing color commentary):

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... Randy Savage vs the Animal Steele, 1987...

... Rest In Peace George, "Macho Man" and Elizabeth...

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... "Studio Wrestling", as it was known at the time, used to exhibition at the local civic centers, armories and high schools and such back in the day before expanding into the much larger and successful 'World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) of today... we caught a stellar lineup at the local Junior High School back in the late 70's, which included 'Bruno Sammartino', 'The Batman', 'George "the Animal" Steele', 'Domenic Denucci' and "Jumpin" Johnny DeFazio among others... had great seats, and about halfway through the line-up, and between matches, took a quick trip to the men's room... the place was jammed, so was a bit late on the way back to ringside... on the return we noticed 'Domenic Denucci' standing just outside the locker room door and between the bleachers, dressed in street clothes (running shirt and slacks) and observing the action...

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... Domenic Denucci...

... his bout had been first on the card and he was through for the evening - no one was noticing him as he was back of the crowd, whose attention was transfixed on the ring action - so, took the opportunity to go over and strike up a short conversation... he supposedly went around 245lbs, but looked a lot slimmer and in great condition - we were both around the same size (heavy lifting days on my part - actually think that I may have had some size on him)... so we're standin' there talkin' (heck of a nice guy) when this older lady comes up and asks him to autograph her program for her kid (still got mine) - "Dom" scribbles his signature and she then turns and hands the program to me - OK! - I signed it as well (hey, she asked) - made sure that I inked it very clearly and legible as well... so, probably to this very day there is still an old wrestling program out there with my one and only ever autograph - probably worth a few bucks by now ($1?)... wonder how many times someone has viewed it and commented "Who the f*k is this guy!??"...