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At 97, Parsippany man who is oldest living member of Wrestling Hall of Fame has fight left in him

Posted: Sep 28th 2011 By: mikeiles

PARSIPPANY ? Angelo Savoldi sat on a stool cutting metal tubes at Cleveland Container. He was lucky to have the job. The country was in the throes of the Great Depression and he had dropped out of high school to help his family.

The work was tedious, Savoldi was restless.

"I thought, 'What the heck am I doing here?'" he recalled more than 70 years later, sitting in the living room of his Lake Parsippany home.

So he quit.

Imagine the conversation: Savoldi tells his struggling parents that he has left his steady job to pursue a career in ? WHAT? ? professional wrestling.

His father is angry, Savoldi is insistent. His mother relents.

"If he wants to do it, then let him do it," she says in Italian.

That was his first victory, his first fan. During a career that would span the next four decades, he would earn tens of thousands more, who watched that same persistence and determination in the ring.

His career began when wrestlers were akin to carnies and ended when they were national stars. He wrestled before there was television and after we landed on the moon. He was champion of the world twice and once stabbed with a knife in the back by an opponent?s father.

"He was one of the pioneers in the wrestling industry," said Davey O?Hannon, who wrestled from 1971 to 1990. "He was a phenomenal athlete."

Savoldi, 97, is the oldest living member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame, where he was inducted in 2004. This Saturday, he will be the guest of honor at a fundraiser for the hall of fame in Carteret.

He is still a square of a man, broad-shouldered with a sturdy handshake and a full head of snow-white hair. His weight has remained steady even as he approaches the century mark. Savoldi?s wife teases that he sometimes forgets her name, but ask him about a match that took place 60 years ago and he leans forward and speaks at a rapid pace.

"That was back when wrestling was more than show business, less acrobatic," O?Hannon said. "The wrestling was the convincing part."

Savoldi was born Mario Fornini in Provincia Caserta, a small town outside Naples, three months before the start of World War I.

His professional career began in 1938 when wrestling was a bit of a carnival act ? a road show that took talent town to town to perform at the stockyard or local arena. Wrestlers worked with promoters who controlled different territories throughout the country. Savoldi started with a promoter named Jack Pfefer who changed the young talent?s name, playing on the popular Notre Dame running back "Jumping" Joe Savoldi.

His first bout was in Newark, and he was soon on a tour of one-night stands throughout New England.

As his reputation grew, he wrestled in small towns and big cities ? in Michigan, Arkansas, Texas, California, Puerto Rico, Australia and Nova Scotia.

"He was a tremendous talent," O?Hannon said. "He really packed the people into the arenas."

Savoldi was a "heel," or a bad guy, earning a reputation as an aggressive, nasty, dirty wrestler ? the one fans loved to hate, but were eager to see. Savoldi sold out shows four or five nights a week during the days when the top bill received a piece of the gate.

"I was not a crowd pleaser," Savoldi said. "But it didn?t bother me. All I wanted was fans to come."

His stock was highest in Oklahoma. A northerner, he was unpopular with the mostly southern crowd.

"Black fans rooted for me," Savoldi said. "They had to sit in a separate section and they?d yell 'Go on, Yankee!'"

Savoldi?s fame peaked in the mid-?50s when he wrestled Mike Clancy for the junior heavyweight championship. He won the match and held the belt for 2? years.

While defending his title, Savoldi ran into an upstart named Danny Hodge, who had won the silver medal in wrestling at the 1956 Olympics. The two wrestled twice to a draw. Hodge then challenged Savoldi to a boxing match.

In May 1960, Savoldi had Hodge pinned against the ropes when Hodge?s father charged into the ring and slashed Savoldi with a knife. But Savoldi and Hodge were back in the ring less than two months later.

This time, Hodge won, claiming the title from Savoldi.

Savoldi continued to wrestle well into his 50s, but as he aged he began working as an agent for Vince McMahon Sr., transitioning from the squared-circle to the corporate office.

His last match was in 1972 ? but his fans ? some of whom are younger than his grandchildren and have only seen him on YouTube, still clamor for his autograph.

"I just got a letter from a kid in Florida asking for a picture," Savoldi said last week. "I have to send one to him."

It is harder now for Savoldi to travel to autograph shows, which is just as well for his peers.

In 2009, he attended a show in New Jersey. The reception room was packed. Stars from different eras sat in metal folding chairs behind long rectangular tables crowded with memorabilia.

Fans paid a small fee for each autograph. They milled about, but only one table had a line.

"Angelo, you got to get out of here," the other retired wrestlers teased. "Nobody is buying our pictures."

A half-century later, Savoldi still outpaces his rivals.