By Chris Jericho / Westwood One Podcast Network and Westwood One Podcast Network . Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio is streamed directly from their servers. Hit the Subscribe button to track updates in Player FM, or paste the feed URL into other podcast apps.

He's a legend, a pioneer, and held the World Championship for 12 years! Bruno Sammartinos on TIJ! It's an epic interview covering Bruno's childhood in Italy, including how he lived in a cave in the mountains for 2 years to escape the Nazis in WWII before finally emigrating to the United States. He explains how he discovered bodybuilding as a teen, when he first met Arnold Schwarzenegger, why he turned down the NFL & the Pittsburgh Steelers to wrestle for WWF and Vince McMahon, and how he became World Champ. You'll hear why he was blackballed from pro-wrestling, how he found his way back, what he thinks about his own WWE Hall of Fame induction, and how he ended up in a ring wrestling an orangutan! He's also sharing stories about some of his incredible matches with the likes of Ivan Koloff, Killer Kowalski, Bill Watts, and Larry Zbyszko.

706 episodes