Source: The Flagship
The flagship recently posted an article promoting Larry Zbyszko’s appearance tonight for Vanguard Championship Wrestling tonight in Norfolk, VA. Larry commented on several wrestling questions you can check out highlights below and the rest at the link:
Relationship with his trainer and mentor WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino and how it has evolved over the years:
“It’s a good relationship. It had its ups and downs. He was such a big star. At the beginning of my career as he retired, I was getting lost in the shuffle of being his protégé. I would drive Vince McMahon Sr. crazy back then when I was looking for a break (in the World Wide Wrestling Federation). I knew the only way I could get it was by wrestling my mentor. He didn’t want to do it, but it ended up being the biggest thing that the old-school generation pulled off. It was the launching pad for what wrestling would eventually become.”
On being the last individual to hold the World Heavyweight Championship in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and then signing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Were there any ideas to promote himself as the AWA champion when starting his run in WCW?
“When (pro-wrestling) was getting to the point where the “mom and pop” stores (territories) were closing up, the AWA had the idea to keep itself in business by invading WCW. They wanted me to wrestle their new world champion Sting. It never happened. The interesting side to that coin is around 1996 and 1997. WCW had the chance to expand with Monday Nitro in competition with Monday Night Raw. The same idea that the AWA was going to use, since I was involved in the office with Greg Gagne and Eric Bischoff, was (now) called the New World Order (N.W.O.). That whole idea came from the crumbling of the AWA.”
On being cheered during his WCW run after garnering such hatred during his earlier career:
“In the good old days, it was exciting to be the most hated man alive. It was also a responsibility because that is what created the interest. I got shot at, stabbed, turned over in a cab. The people really hated me. After years of that, it was nice to mellow out. At the end of my career, I became the good guy that saved Nitro from the N.W.O. I kind of became like my hero Bruno (Sammartino). It was my dream to be like Bruno. It was two of the biggest pay-per-view buyrates that WCW had ever done – my wrestling Bischoff on one and Scott Hall on the other.”
On his stalling techniques that would anger his opponents and fans:
“It was my idea of playing with their heads. Most wrestlers were not that swift. We wrestled everyday, so a lot of the guys would get used to one kind of style. It would also mean that the crowd saw a lot of the same stuff in every match. I developed something different to outsmart them. There were a lot of bodybuilders that weren’t good wrestlers, but they were big guys and would start clotheslining everybody. That became redundant. I just had a different style because I could.”
On what keeps him busy these days and his son Tim being a professional wrestler:
“He’s been wrestling and has a natural ability. It’s a very competitive business. Unfortunately, for the new wrestlers, there’s only one place to go to make money and that’s WWE. You’ve got a million guys that would kill you just to make it on WWE TV. I want to make sure he is ready because they have big tough guys down the road here at the WWE Performance Center. We’ll see what happens. Otherwise, I just play golf here and there and I occasionally work with WWE on projects and DVDs. Every so often I’ll fly out and get to meet the fans. I’m chilling out in my legendary status.”
