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The Botch That Broke Bruno

Posted: Apr 29th 2018 By: Pwhs.prowrestlinghistoricalsociety.com

On April 26, 1976 at Madison Square Garden a still-green Stan Hansen accidentally dropped the great champion, Bruno Sammartino on his head and broke his neck. Match promoters and Hansen himself would claim that Bruno's injury was from the lariat (basically the stiffest clothesline imaginable) though in truth it was actually the result of a poorly executed body slam.

Here, the two men describe the near-tragic incident in their own words...

Stan Hansen

"I was really excited the first night I walked into Madison Square Garden. My thoughts immediately went back to the time when my dad and I watched the Friday night boxing matches from the Garden on television. I’ve always had bad vision, and I remember thinking the building was so big that I couldn’t see the fans at the top of the grandstands. The show itself didn’t sell out, but it drew 17,493 fans, which was still a respectable number.
Little did I know that my first match with Bruno would end in disaster..."

Bruno Sammartino

"My worst and most dangerous injury was when I broke my neck in Madison Square Garden. One thing I will tell you is it was not that nonsense they wrote about the lariat. That had nothing to do with anything. What happened was we had been going for 15 minutes, somewhere around there...pretty good action stuff.

The thing that I did that wasn’t smart of me was because I’d wrestled in Madison Square Garden every single month ... not realizing that a lot of guys were intimidated by Madison Square Garden.

I headlined [there] 211 times, and it sold out 187 times.

And this Stan Hansen was a young guy, you know, he was a big guy, 310 pounds and all. We were going at a pretty good pace. I think that the nerves — because Stan became good in the ring — I think nervous and what have you, he tired, I really think, because nerves can do that to you...

Stan Hansen

"Eight minutes into the match, I hit him with my Lariat move and put him on the mat, after which I brought him up into position for a body slam.

When I was in the Dallas territory, I had several matches with 'High Chief' Peter Maivia. I did a move where I caught Peter coming off the ropes and scoop slammed him. In a variation of that move, I would sometimes reach past the middle of his legs to the outside when I picked him up for the slam.

Since my shoulders were stiff and Peter was really stocky, I would do it that way so Peter could slide down my back. He could then avoid being slammed by rolling me up with a pinning move..."

Bruno Sammartino

"I think that when I was coming off the ropes, shooting tackles, he went to try to scoop slam me and he couldn’t quite do it..."

Stan Hansen

"I scooped him, just like I did Peter [Maivia]. However, Bruno wasn't expecting me to do that. Being uncertain of what I was going to do, he stiffened up. His reaction threw me off balance, and when I tried to go through with the slam, I ended up slamming him on the back of his head and the back of his neck, rather than flat on his back..."

Bruno Sammartino

"He dropped me on my neck and broke my neck..."

Stan Hansen

"I went around behind him, pulled him up to a sitting position, and got a head lock on him. Concerned, I held it for a few seconds before whispering, 'Are you all right?'"

Bruno Sammartino

"Everything is a blank after... It’s a good thing there wasn’t too much inside the head! (laughs)"

Stan Hansen

"He didn't say anything right away. He just sat in place. He finally said, 'Give me a few seconds...'"

Bruno Sammartino

"My doctors told me that I came within a millimetre of being paralyzed from the neck down. So that was by far the worst injury I ever had..."

Stan Hansen

"When it happened, I knew I'd hurt him...but we all get hurt and we all continue on lots of times. Bruno was in great shape...very muscular in his neck and shoulders. All those years of weight training probably saved his life. Thank god.

I was ready to up and [quit]. I felt bad because he was the one that gave me the thumbs up to come in. And he was the champion, a legitimate superstar before the media made people...and he gave young guys a chance, you know?

A lot of people accused me of [taking advantage of it after.]

Of course, I got automatic heat with Vince Sr... 'cos I hurt the champion - I mean, REALLY hurt him. I had heat with [Ivan] Koloff and [Billy]Graham and everybody else too because they missed out on opportunities to work matches with him..."

Bruno Sammartino

"When I came back and wrestled Stan Hansen [only two months later] for the return match after the broken neck, the police had to escort him from the dressing room to the ring and wait for him to take him back to the dressing room and then to his car..."

Stan Hansen

"I was a green guy, y'know? {But] it was one of the pivotal moments in my career..."