Scott Bowden presents Kentucky Fried Rasslin

Look out for these guys, Four Horsemen: Zbyszko, Sammartino, Bockwinkel and Hansen reunite in Los Angeles.

Greg Oliver’s photos on SLAM! Sports Wrestling from the recent WrestleReunion 4 in Los Angeles brought back memories of great rivalries and angles gone by. While soured relationships between mentors and protégés have long been a staple of the biz, the best heel turn of them all may have been Larry Zbyszko’s unprovoked attack on Bruno Sammartino in Allentown, Pa., shocking the sleepy crowd in attendance for a marathon WWF TV taping on January 22, 1980. (Wow–hard to believe that was 30 years ago.)

At that time, angles were a rarity at the TV tapings in the Former Fed, which added to their effectiveness as the fans rarely saw it coming, leading to impromptu rage or ecstasy, depending on the situation.

Bruno, two-time WWWF champion, was as genuinely loved as any performer the business as ever known. Bruno’s appeal, especially in the Northheast with its heavy Italian population, made him as beloved as any Yankee in NYC. By late 1979, though, Bruno was largely retired, handling broadcast duties along with Vince McMahon Jr. for Vince Sr.’s promotion. Zbyszko’s change-of-heart turn was so effective, in part, because it was the perfect example of art imitating life in the business. Larry really was Bruno’s protégé, and his career was going nowhere as a babyface, especially while the mentor was still a beloved figure on the scene.

In an interview with PEACHSTATE PANDAMONIUM, the now-defunct publication of Rich Tate’s Georgia Wrestling History Web site, Larry explained that he was a huge Bruno fan growing up in Sammartino’s adopted hometown in the Pittsburgh area. When he was about 16, he and a buddy drove to Bruno’s house, which happened to be located near Larry’s childhood home. Says Larry: “We’d drive by his house every now and then to see if we could get a glimpse of him. And one day, there he was, I could see him through the hedges sitting in his backyard. My buddy stopped the car, so I jumped out of the car and busted through his hedges. …He looks at me, and there’s this little kid, you know, coming through the hedges. And he gets up and kind of looks at me like, ‘What the hell?’ And when he got up, my God, he looked like a gorilla. He was a big man. He was not that tall, maybe 5’11″, but he was like 265 pounds. I mean, a gorilla. And I was a nervous wreck. I introduced myself, I was very respectful, you know. I told him that he was my hero, and my favorite wrestler, and blah, blah, blah, and I kind of started like that.”

Brothers in arms: The WWWF champ and his protege.

Eventually, Bruno took the starstruck fan under his wing, offering Larry the opportunity to train in his basement. Larry’s workouts mirrored those of Bruno himself, and before long, Zbyszko had a thick, muscled physique nearly on par with his mentor–he almost could have passed for being Bruno’s son. After finishing school, Zbyszko made his professional debut.

Zbyszko, whom some fans affectionately referred to as “Little Bruno,” found success with partner Tony Garea, winning the WWWF tag titles from the Yukon Lumberjacks in Allentown on Nov. 21, 1978, before dropping them during another Allentown taping to Johnny and Jerry Valiant on March 6, 1979.

By year’s end, Larry approached Bruno about doing an angle in which he would turn on his mentor, resulting in a bitter feud. Bruno, who had reportedly not wanted to return to a fairly regular working schedule unless it was something special, agreed that the proposed scenario had the makings of one last huge money run.

Unlike some turns during that era in WWF, Larry’s switch to the dark side of wrestling didn’t come out of nowhere. They built it over a period of weeks, during which Larry would shrug off Bruno when the teacher attempted to interview him. Finally, when cornered, Larry revealed that he was frustrated that people viewed him only as Bruno’s protégé, especially when Bruno wasn’t even really wrestling anymore. He assured the fans and Bruno that the former two-time World champ would always be his hero and he meant no disrespect, but that he needed to make a good showing against his teacher to be taken seriously as a singles wrestler.

Bruno reluctantly agreed to a scientific exhibition, but only under one condition: Sammartino was so worried about injuring his protégé, he vowed to only wrestle defensively against Larry and not use any offense that could hurt him. Most today would be able to sniff out that an angle was coming–back then, though, a lot of the audience didn’t assume the worst. And those who did sense an angle never imagined the carnage to follow.

During the TV bout, Bruno outmaneuvered his student in a few spots, leading to a frustrated Zbyszko attacking his teacher with a wooden chair. Bruno sold the chair shot like the Kennedy assassination, as the blood literally gushed out of his forehead as he’s being helped to his feet. George, a young fan at the time, tells me via the WRESTLING CLASSICS message board that Bruno’s blade job was so convincing that it made him think at least some of pro wrestling was legit: “That was one of the times I actually questioned how fake it was –all due to one thing. After Larry hit Bruno with the chair, you could literally see the blood pulsing down his face. But there was no faking that blood. That was the best Bruno beat-down ever.”

Brandy Buck, a fan who was in attendance in Allentown that fateful night, can attest to the bloody scene: “The amount of Sammartino’s blood on the canvas was impressive — someone actually came out with a towel and mopped it up, which was not common in those days in Allentown at all. Reaction in the crowd was a mix of horror, shock, and outrage. I remember being fascinated by the bloodstain for the rest of the evening — just kept staring at it, not sure what to think.” (Brandy, you really sound like my kinda woman.)

Another fan at the time, ‘ZillaJoe, says, “You really felt the betrayal. I’ll tell ya, I can watch that whole thing unfold even today and get caught up in it. It played out very realistically. I was only 9 at the time and didn’t really have any idea to think it wasn’t gonna be a “scientific” match. As it progressed though and Larry became more and more frustrated, there was this little part of me that went ‘Uh-oh, this is gonna end badly.’” Joe cites a Zbyszko promo that sums up the emotion of the feud: “Bruno, you call me Judas? Well, we all know who you think YOU are now.”

Zbyszko tells PEACH STATE PANDEMONIUM: “When I clobbered him with the chair, and he drowned in a pool of blood, my God, people hated me. Talk about wanting to kill me, I was stabbed in the ass in Albany, New York. God, I had cars smashed. I had cabs overturned. I had threats from Little Italy. Those were the days when people believed, and the hate was real–and the love was real, too. The people loved Bruno so much in those days that when we were in the middle of a show where Bruno would get bloody and fall down, people had heart attacks.”

Bloody good cover: I recall the horrified reaction of the disgusted cashier who rang this up for me.

OK, so perhaps Larry is exaggerating–but not by much. The red-hot feud was a big-money draw, culminating in a star-studded card dubbed the Showdown at Shea (Stadium, in Flushing, N.Y.). While Hulk Hogan shamelessly (and incorrectly) claimed in his bio that he and Andre drew the house, it was the main event of Bruno vs. Zbyszko that drew the majority of the 22,000 fans in attendance. (Bruno to this day claims the bout drew over 45,000, which was also the company’s line for a while.)

Lenny from the WRESTLING CLASSICS board recalls the contract signing for the cage-match blow-off at Shea Stadium: “Bruno sat and signed, and then just kept looking at Larry with the look of anger on his face telling Zbyszko, ‘Sign it! Sign it!’ Larry kept hesitating, he wouldn’t do it, and then he finally sign and uttered the famous line, ‘You just signed your death certificate, Sammartino!’”

Although I hadn’t seen WWF TV at this point, at 9 years old I was stunned at the news, which was featured on the cover of the May 1980 issue of INSIDE WRESTLING, along with the dramatic headline: “Larry Zbyszko leaves Bruno … drowning in a pool of blood!” Bruno vs. Zbyszko was one of those feuds I could only follow through the Apter mags and other rasslin’ publications, making their battles larger than life to me.