Breaking Bruno: The Making of Stan Hansen

Brian Damage

There are often defining moments that help turn a pro wrestler into an overnight superstar. Whether intentionally crafted by a booker or accidentally during a particular match. In the case of Stan Hansen…April 26, 1976 certainly stands out as a defining moment in the trajectory of the young career of one Stan Hansen. His moment, was purely accidental, but it definitely helped in making a bigger name for the big, brawny Texan. This is the story of how Stan Hansen broke the neck of the legendary Bruno Sammartino and how this incident helped his career moving forward.

There is no question that Bruno Sammartino was indeed a living legend of his time. The Italian immigrant was a huge draw in many parts of the northeast. Bruno sat high atop the World Wide Wrestling Federation as its champion for many years. We saw Bruno defend his WWWF world title against some of the all time greats in packed arenas. In particular, Madison Square Garden in New York City. As Sammartino fended off challenger after challenger, there was a young, tough Texan, all but 26 years of age ready to step up and be the next contender to Bruno’s epic title reign.

A wrestler named Mike Paidousis, who was a mutual friend to both Bruno and Hansen recommended Hansen to come up north to the WWWF in 1976. He felt that the young Hansen with his size would make a great opponent for Sammartino down the line. Just two months after joining the WWWF, Hansen was placed in a main event program with Sammartino. Their title match took place at Madison Square Garden on April 26, 1976 in front of 17,493 fans and aired on the upstart cable network HBO which was around for just about 4 years at that point.

During the course of their matchup, Hansen scooped up Bruno to body slam him. The sweat on Sammartino didn’t allow Hansen a good enough grip on Bruno and when he went to slam the champion…Bruno landed on the back of his head. According to Bruno’s long time friend Dominic DeNucci, he was backstage watching the match with Vince McMahon Sr. When the incident occurred, Vince Sr gasped and immediately ran to ringside to check on his star wrestler. The end result of the match was a referee stoppage and the victory awarded to Stan Hansen. The WWWF world title did not change hands however.

Bruno Sammartino ended up fracturing the 6^th vertebra in his neck. Doctors told Bruno that if it wasn’t for possessing such a muscular neck, he could have easily been paralyzed. The news of that frightened Sammartino and made sure that he got himself transferred from the hospital in New York City, to a hospital in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bruno was able to keep the injury a secret long enough for his brother and sister to deliver the news to his elderly parents, who Bruno feared would suffer heart attacks if they found out about his broken neck. His doctor and family recommended that Bruno retire from the ring.

Wrestling journalist Bill Apter would cover the injury by interviewing Sammartino from his hospital bed. Apter kept the injury completely kayfabe by saying he witnessed Stan Hansen “load up” his elbow pad before striking Bruno with a lariat clothesline. This led many fans to believe for years that the lariat was responsible for injuring Bruno’s neck. The incident led many of the heel wrestlers, who had hopes of wrestling Bruno and getting a big payday to have heat with Hansen. Vince McMahon Sr also was extremely upset with Hansen over the accident. Meanwhile, it legitimately took three weeks for Hansen to muster enough courage to visit Bruno in the hospital.

According to Sammartino, Hansen apologized profusely for dropping him on the back of his head and it was Bruno who reassured Hansen that they were professional wrestlers and this was simply an accident and a part of the business they were involved with. Despite Bruno’s encouragement, Hansen said he felt out of place backstage in the WWWF and did not fit in with many of the other talent. While Bruno recuperated, Hansen was booked to return to Madison Square Garden to face ‘Polish Power’ Ivan Putski. Hansen said that MSG received several bomb threats leading up to his match with Putski. After the match, several fans in the front rows were trying to get their hands on Hansen. It took a number of police to lock arm and arm and form a triangle to get Hansen out of the ring and backstage. Hansen was immediately sent to an awaiting taxi and told by police to lay down in the back of the cab to avoid being shot at.

Four months after Bruno’s injury, he returned to the ring to face off against Hansen at Shea Stadium inside of a steel cage. A match that Bruno won in just a little over ten minutes. After the match, Hansen had to sprint into the dugout and slam the door shut to prevent hostile fans from attacking him. Hansen recalled one of the police officers in charge of protecting him look at Hansen and say…“I bet you’re proud of what you did.” (Meaning Hansen breaking Bruno’s neck) Still receiving death threats, Vince Sr and Hansen agreed it was best that he temporarily leave the territory and go on a tour of Japan.

This was Hansen’s second tour in Japan and things were much different this time around. According to Bruno Sammartino, by the time Hansen arrived in the country…all of the Japanese media were well aware and covered the story of Hansen breaking Sammartino’s neck. Bruno was a big star in Japan having worked over 20 tours in the Land of the Rising Sun. With word that Hansen was responsible for crippling Bruno, Hansen became feared and a bigger star in Japan. So much so, that he broke away from Vince Sr, who had booked his Japanese excursion and started booking himself in that country. The accident that caused Bruno to break his neck, helped Stan Hansen reach legendary status among Japanese wrestling fans.