Bruno Sammartino Quotes

Many people don't realize just how dangerous professional wrestling actually is. People can get seriously injured and even paralyzed.

I broke my neck, it's a classic neck break from chin to chest. If I had been alone, I would probably be dead.

I got pile drived in '96 or '97 and was a quadriplegic for about a minute and a half. I couldn't move anything. It was in the Meadowlands at a pay per view with a million or two people watching, and I couldn't move. That cost me a surgery, but I healed pretty quickly, so that was probably my worst day at the office.

I broke my sixth vertebrae.

My No. 1 dream match is Brock Lesnar. And I want that to be a WrestleMania match. I don't know if the WWE will ever let that happen, because they might be afraid he might legitimately hurt me pretty bad.

Obviously, it's unheard of for anybody to come back from this type of injury that Edge had.

I injured my neck in training, but did physical therapy and thought everything was fine, but when I fell against the cage everything went numb, I couldn't feel my body.

I had actually hurt my neck, and because I went a while without getting it taken care of - it was pushing up against the back of my heart - and because I have heart issues, they thought it was this whole big deal. So I spent a good three days in the hospital, two nights in the ICU.

It is funny how it is almost more painful to fall over and scrape your knee than to be blown up. Your body goes into incredible protection mode.

With the help of a friend I got father into a wagon, when the crowd had gone. I held his head in my lap during the ride home. I believed he was mortally wounded. He had been stabbed down through the kidneys, leaving an ugly wound.

Then I got a bad back injury, and they thought I wasn't going to have any feeling in my legs.

If you talk to anyone who's done a stair fall, there's not one stair fall, no matter how many pads you have on or how protected you are, where you don't hurt something really bad.

The downside isn't really injury, fear of injury or the process of fighting back from injury. The downside, the very worst thing in the world, is surgery.

The muscles in my lower abdomen had torn off my pelvis.

I was stabbed when I was 17. It was touch and go, and my lung collapsed, and I was in hospital for five days. It is part of my back story.

Bill Goldberg kicked me in the head and ended my career because he didn't know what he was doing.

One thing you gotta take into consideration is that it's professional wrestling, and you know it going in. There's dangers to every profession, and our particular profession, concussions is one thing.

I broke my jaw jumping, and I broke my back and my neck in the downhill. This is normal for me.

It is very easy to get hurt in a match like the Royal Rumble. It seems very run of the mill, but it's always the stupid stuff where you get hurt.

I got hurt when I was 19. They thought I broke my neck. I couldn't move my hands or feet, and I had a very bad experience.

I shattered the heel in my good leg, and it was an extremely bad injury. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to snowboard again.

Every night you go out there, you get hurt. It's really the easiest way to say it. People can describe wrestling however they want to, but your body is flesh and bone, and it's not meant to be slammed on wood and steel.

I like to get the blood flowing and get as loose as I can possibly get. It's not very difficult to hurt yourself out there if you aren't prepared, especially in a Fatal Four Way.

I broke my right ankle. Four ribs. One rib went into my liver. My spleen. My back in two places.

The worst was practicing a stunt for John Wayne in 'McQ.' I lost two teeth, broke six ribs, cracked a vertebra and punctured a lung. I spent 12 days in the hospital.