Bruno Sammartino Talks About John Cena, CM Punk And Superstar Graham's Recent Comments
- In his final interview before going into the WWE Hall of Fame, Bruno Sammartino spoke with Inside The Ropes. Here are highlights:
Thoughts on Billy Graham's recent comments about him: "I think I feel sorry for him. I think he's done so much drugs throughout his career that his brains been burned out because he speaks of things he knows nothing about. For example in my own situation, he knows very well that when I spoke about WWE and was very critical about them, that he had heard me say if they changed everything that I would change my mind. He heard me from years ago saying yes I would. He's been critical of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, New York and he wanted out of that because he got mad at somebody, I don't know who. He recently was appalled at CM Punk because he said something about me wrestling in the Garden once a month. The things that Billy Graham says, I really have no idea why he says them. He talks about things without really knowing all the facts. I just think there's something wrong with the man."
His thoughts on John Cena: "He looks very well, looks like he works out very hard. He moves well in the ring and I have only seen him maybe twice all together. I have not seen enough of him, but from what I've seen you can tell he absolutely is one of the top ones in the organization but sometimes I would like to see these guys wrestle a 30-40 minute match. i can get a better idea of how good they are, when they have to put in that kind of time, tells me wheat kind of condition they have and how their skills would be out there for that amount of time. I haven't seen any long matches like that yet. One of the times I saw him in a cage match and there was a referee and they were doing wrestling holds. In my day, you would have a cage match as maybe the third match with a guy and there would be no referee, and just everything goes and the fans used to find that extremely exciting. Now it's so changed, thes guys are doing regular armlocks and headlocks. It's so different now, I just can't compare it to the era I was involved in."
What he thinks of CM Punk as a performer: "I think his interviews for a villain...I think he's very, very good. That's why it surprised me that Billy Graham would say anything when he used to be a villain who would say things to put down his opponents, even myself. I think he does a very good job when he gets on the microphone, how he talks, how he says it. I took no offence at CM Punk, I know he was doing it to be a villain, that's what he does. But I think he does a very good job when he gets on that microphone as a villain, what he says, how he talks, how he says it. As a villain I think he does a tremendous job and as a wrestler, I've seen him a few times and I think he's pretty darn good. He's not too bad at all. The only thing is I think if he was in my era, he would be a little bit too small, we had bigger built guys back then."