Family Friend: Story Lines and Months Sammartino

family friend: No other details were provided, but a family friend and former wrestling announcer, Christopher Cruise, told The Associated Press that Sammartino had been hospitalized for two months, according to Toronto Star. Sammartino lived in Pittsburgh. His death was announced on the website of WWE, the organization also known as World Wrestling Entertainment, a successor of the World Wide Wrestling Federation. In an era when the sports world, except for some die-hard wrestling fans, knew that professional matches were staged dramatizations, with heroes and villains, story lines and beefcake actors shamming the violence, Sammartino was one of the most popular performers in the business. And for one who had bench-pressed 565 pounds as an amateur, he was relatively small under six-feet tall and a trim 260 or 270 pounds, with bulging pectorals and biceps and a big head. He wrestled in Australia, Spain, Mexico, Canada and Japan, and often drew gates of 20,000 at Madison Square Garden in New York, where he had more than 200 matches. react-text 135 Family friend and former wrestling announcer Christoper Crusie saids Sammartino died Wednesday morning and had been hospitalized for two months. /react-text GENE J. PUSKAR/The Associated Press Unlike many heavies on the pro wrestling circuits, he was a soft-spoken, gentlemanly connoisseur of grand opera, especially Verdi. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.