DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Bruno Sammartino loses title to Ivan Koloff
We continue to celebrate my birthday all week long at When It Was Cool by looking back at the year 1971.
Today on the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, I look back at a match that is still remembered 49 years later for the reaction it invoked. Bruno Sammartino was the WWWF Champion and had been dominant, dispatching villain after villain. A year earlier he had even defeated the big Russian brute Ivan Koloff.
But in 1971, Koloff got his revenge with a knee drop off the top rope and the referee hit the three count. Madison Square Garden stopped in dead silence as a new WWWF Champion was crowned. Let’s talk about it.
Karl Stern is a pro wrestling historian specializing in the 1980s and pioneer era (pre-1900) of pro wrestling. He is an author who has written several books on wrestling and independently runs the When It Was Cool retro pop culture website.