Quotes from Bruno Sammartino

Ivan Koloff was great. I had a lot of great matches with him.

I think people saw me as someone who was real, and not somebody subject to the criticism and ridicule given to my profession.

Professional wrestling, when you're talking money, like they say, it's the root of all evil.

She was absolutely my hero. She would do without if she could help somebody else. My mom showed the courage of the lion to keep her kids alive, and the sacrifices she made were incredible. I don't know if I would have been man enough to do what she did.

I am humbled that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be inducting me into the WWE Hall of Fame. The kindness and support that Arnold has shown me over the years is truly overwhelming.

My father bought a house in Panther Hollow. We were the first Italians in the neighborhood.

The greatest gift a man can have is to have an operatic voice.

I very seldom look at wrestling magazines. Whenever I do, I get angry.

In every city, I had my favorite place. In Baltimore, it was Sabatino's.

With Paul Levesque and the conversations we have had I've found him to be a straight shooter and everything he said with me he kept his word 100%.

In talking to Paul Levesque, I made it clear, I've had issues with WWE and wrestling in general, because there were other organizations. I didn't like the direction they had taken. It was bothersome to me.

I didn't care for Steve Austin because of his mouth. He was a very, very vulgar individual and anybody who is like that I can never be a fan of. So, any of his positives were overshadowed by the negatives.

Buddy Rogers and I never liked each other to be honest, however I take nothing away from him.

If I were to tell you that my day was all pure wrestling, I wouldn't be honest with you. Because there were crooked promoters. There were a lot of guys that knew that they couldn't even compete with other guys. But to suggest that every match was like that wouldn't be true.

Anybody who sees me in person will see the worst cauliflower ears I think you have ever seen.

Wrestling is how I made my living and supported my family, but it's over. I don't want anything to do with it anymore.

Kurt Angle, I knew he was from Pittsburgh and I knew his background very well and his amateur days and, of course, going to the Olympics and all that. When he went into professional wrestling, he was very good at adjusting and displaying a lot of great moves. It was something that the fans could look at a say, hey, that's wrestling.

I'm so grateful to America and my hometown of Pittsburgh. I love my city. I'm proud of being from here.

I could never imagine myself living anywhere but Pittsburgh.

I watched other boys play baseball and other games, but I was too sickly to join in the fun.

The only thing I like about doing autograph shows is that the people who used to be fans are so wonderful. They'll come over and give such wonderful compliments.

I only survived because of my mother's love and care.

I had a lot of my success due to appearing at the Garden. I wrestled there over 200 times, it's where I won the title, and it's where I picked up 630-plus pounds of Haystacks Calhoun.

When it came to the Hall of Fame, I've been very critical of the direction they've taken and I'd feel like a hypocrite if I just accepted this Hall of Fame while I'm so against what they're doing.