Legendary wrestler Bruno Sammartino dies

WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Bruno Sammartino died Wednesday with his wife, Carol, and sons, Darryl and Dan by his side, KDKA-TV reports.

He was 82 years old.

ESPN reports that Smmartino, an Italian immigrant, moved to the U.S. in his teens and became a wrestling superstar in the Northeast.

Sammartino beat Buddy Rogers at Madison Square Garden on May 17, 1963, to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now WWE) world champion. He became the longest-reigning world champion, and held the belt for eight years before losing it to Ivan Koloff on Jan. 18, 1971, ESPN says.

KDKA reports Sammartino sold out Madison Square Garden 188 times as a headliner.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto released this statement, according to KDKA:

“Bruno Sammartino was one of the greatest ambassadors the city of Pittsburgh ever had. Like so many of us, his immigrant family moved here to build a new life, and through his uncommon strength and surprising grace he embodied the spirit of Pittsburgh on the world stage.

Some of the fondest memories of my childhood are of sitting in the basement with my grandfather on Saturday mornings and watching Bruno wrestle. They both came from the same part of Italy, and when my grandfather – who was five-foot-eight – would watch Bruno wrestle he became six-feet-ten.

I consider it a great personal honor that Bruno and I later became friends.

I join all other Pittsburgh residents in saying ‘Thank you, Bruno’ and we will miss you.”

The WWE and its entertainers and legends tweeted their thoughts on Sammartino.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/WWE/status/986612203603288064″,”author_name”:”WWE”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/WWE”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;WWE is saddened to learn that WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino has passed away at age 82. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/B8nUabP0oh”&#gt;https://t.co/B8nUabP0oh&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– WWE (@WWE) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/WWE/status/986612203603288064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 18, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/986612017489502208″,”author_name”:”Triple H”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/TripleH”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Devastated to hear the passing of a true icon, legend, great, honest and wonderful man…&#lt;br&#gt;A true friend…and one of the toughest people I’ve ever met.&#lt;br&#gt;My thoughts are with his entire family. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIPBrunoSammartino?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#RIPBrunoSammartino&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericanDream?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#AmericanDream&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Triple H (@TripleH) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/TripleH/status/986612017489502208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 18, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/BretHart/status/986627553107443712″,”author_name”:”Bret Hart”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/BretHart”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Forever a champion. Rest In Peace &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/f3ywW4opje”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/f3ywW4opje&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Bret Hart (@BretHart) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/BretHart/status/986627553107443712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;April 18, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Sammartino was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.