Larry Zbyszko was the guest on the most recent Captain’s Corner virtual signing, where he answered a variety of questions from fans.
Zbyszko recalls persuading the late Bruno Sammartino to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Considering that Sammartino had been criticizing Vince McMahon and the WWE for years, Zbyszko acted as the middleman to arrange those conversations.
“To be honest, I was kind of instrumental in talking to Bruno [Sammartino] when the WWE approached me in 2012 because they always wanted Bruno in the Hall of Fame and Bruno said he would never go in the Hall of Fame years before. But then, you know, they came to me and asked me if I could talk to him because they really wanted Bruno in the Hall of Fame and it was gonna be the Madison Square Garden coming up, the next one and I wanted Bruno in the Hall of Fame. The Garden was perfect and then Bruno, I talked to him for some months and then he talked to some other people and he realized the WWE became a great company. They were taking care of their guys. If they got hurt, they still got paid, the charity work they did with Make-A-Wish and other charities and the jobs they supplied for thousands of families. Not just wrestlers, I mean truck drivers and camera people and special effects people and I mean, it was amazing, the crew they had. But Bruno realized it was a great company. His only thing was, ‘I don’t want people to think that I’m a hypocrite.’ I said, ‘A what?’ Because he said some years before that he would never do it and I said, ‘Bruno, no one will think you’re a hypocrite. Everyone wants you in the Hall of Fame!’ So after checking out the company and realizing it was a great company, Bruno said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it’ so, it all worked out great and it’s a happy ending for everybody.”
You can watch “Happy Hour with Larry Zbyszko” below:
(H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription)
