Flair Region, Lexington Subregion, Second Round:(8)E. Guerrero vs.(9)Bruno Sammartino

[klunderbunker]

This is a second round match in the Flair Region, Lexington Subregion. It is a standard one on one match. It will be held at the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

#8. Eddie Guerrero


Vs.

#9. Bruno Sammartino


​

Polls will be open for three days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.


Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted

 

[SSJPhenom]

Last time Eddie faced someone as dominate as Bruno, he won because Goldberg speared them. Well Goldberg isn't going to be in the crowd for this one and if he is he's not going to be jumping any guard rails and if he does he's not going to get in the ring because security will take him down, but if they don't and he spears Bruno, Eddie will get disqualified and Bruno would win anyway.

Seriously though, Bruno is probably, kayfabe wise, the greatest ever. He sold out MSG so much that it's ridiculous. Look, I love Eddie and always have, but he's outclassed here. No way Bruno would go down to a former Cruiserweight.

Vote Bruno.

 

[enviousdominous]

I'm voting with my heart, but for the sake of maintaining this forum's status as being far and above better and more reliable than any other on the internet, I'm going to use some logic to justify my vote.

Bruno dominated pro-wrestling, back when fists were thrown so slowly that you may as well have delivered them by telegram. It's good to be aware of how dedicated our heroes of yester-century were and how in a legit fight any one of them could obliterate today's hottest talents. We live in an age where smarks and marks alike have a "what else do you got?" attitude.

Bruno is a monster, who's lost before. In the 1970's you would send your meanest, most sinister bad guy into the ring with Bruno and Bruno will win handily before a raucous crowd. But, sometimes Bruno would lose due to underhanded tactics.

Enter Eddie Guerrero, the guy who so well revised the book on underhanded tactics that he was a modern day Robin Hood in the eyes of the fans. Though he championed the idea of lying, cheating and stealing, there was enough of a shred of nobility in his ethos that fans never stopped loving him. Eddie took an already fun idea called cheating, and he made it exponentially more fun.

Bruno seems to suffer from Superman syndrome, where he follows the book of rules so thoroughly that he won't even permit himself to expect that his opponent might break one of those rules. He CAN'T believe that his dastardly opponent would stoop so low as to... do what he's most famous for doing.

I'm going with my gut on this one; vote Eddie Guerrero.

 

[NSL]

I'd love to make a case for Guerrero here, but the fact is, Sammartino beat bigger and better Latin wrestlers during his days at the top. I'm sure this match would main event some cards, and be decent enough to watch a time or two, but Sammartino has done too much in his career to go out this early, least of all to Eddie.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

This could be a pretty fun match and a great mesh of styles. Eddie definitely has the advantage of overall athletic ability, including stamina, and I think he could give Bruno a strong outing. Bruno Sammartino is arguably the greatest World Champion in professional wrestling history and is still considered a massive powerhouse among powerhouse wrestlers. For eight years, Sammartino held the world record for the bench press with a raw lift of 565 lbs. and this happened in 1959 before all the various supplements and protein shakes came along. Sammartino was also vehemently anti-drug and never did steroids, so for him to be able to lift that much circa 1959 without modern equipment and supplements is downright freakish.

I can see Eddie giving Sammartino a pretty rough going, at least in bursts of offense as I think Sammartino's power would allow him to initially resist Eddie's high flying, lucha libre style assaults. If Eddie could hang in there long enough to tire Sammartino out, I think his offense would become much more effective and Eddie's overall superior conditioning would begin to pay off. If Eddie had him down long enough to deliver the Frog Splash, I think he could pull off the upset. However, I don't think that's too likely under most situations and I'm don't think he could withstand Sammartino's strength long enough, at least most of the time, to wear him down enough to where he can put him away.

In the end, gotta go with Bruno.

 

[Bernkastel]

Yeah, Bruno all the way here. If Flair makes it past Gagne then I'll save the bulk of my Bruno arguments for then, granting the gimmick rounds don't fuck him over. Eddie was basically a career mid carder. He was cut down in his prime, but just measuring his career as is that's what he was. Eddie has admitted that he was not ready to be a world champion when WWE gave him the strap. Would he have gotten the strap again? Most likely. Would he have been better prepared to be a champion? Probably. But arguing his place in history had he lived long enough is beside the point.

Bruno is the longest reigning WWE champion and spent more time holding the belt than anyone ever. He reigned in two separate decades and remained a big star well into the 80's. That's 3 decades of notoriety.

Eddie is seeded well above his pay grade and should be eating the loss here.

Vote Sammartino.

 

[Dmbfantomas]

Bruno is the longest reigning WWE(F, WWWF whatever) champion of all time, with another monster run after it to boot.

Eddie felt the pressure of being champ so much, and was so bad at it, that he tearfully requested the belt be taken off of him.

Bruno is much better in every aspect than Eddie, and should run away with this match in the voting.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Ye Bruno.

One of the most amazing things about Bruno and basically the whole psychology of babyfaces at that time is how much punishment they would take for the bulk of the match. I mean the likes of Graham, Watts, Steele would bash Bruno up and then he would make that thunderous comeback.

No wonder they say Babyfaces NEED to know how to sell.

 

[stingray11214]

When Bruno Sammartino got attacked by Larry Zbyzsko on Championship Wrestling, Zbyszko became a marked man all over the Northeast. He got spat on, cursed out, slapped, received death threats, and even had police protection. Once, his tires got slashed and the car got flipped over!

Tell me, has anyone ever done that to Eddie Guerrero after he attacked someone? Or, was that done to the person who attacked Eddie Guerrero on Raw? Hence, the love and respect for Bruno alone trumps anything that Guerrero did. Going against Bruno was like going against Christ, King David or Muhammad when it came to Northeastern fans. The eternal sellouts in Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Pittsburgh's Igloo is the exclamation point to Bruno's popularity. As much as I love Eddie, his career was no match for Bruno.

In the words of the late John Condon (The voice of Madison Square Garden): "the winner of this match, and still World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion, Bruno Sammartino!"

 

[Tastycles]

Bruno Sammartino was the champion of the WWWF for 10 years in total, whereas Guerrero was champion for much shorter than that at a time when there were two titles and many of the sports' biggest stars had recently retired. Guerrero was a great worker, but he's not in Sammartino's league.

 

[ShinChan]

Bruno here.

Eddie was good but Bruno was great.

Bruno's accolades are enough to go over Eddie Gurrero. The championship runs of Bruno are an icing to the cake. I liked Eddie though but he has a wrong opponent here to even cheat and win here.