WWE loses one of its biggest legends Bruno Sammartino

Long before the days of Hulk Hogan took professional wrestling to cable TV and beyond, it was one man who owned New York City and held Vince J. McMahon's company in his hands for years.

He was Bruno Sammartino -- an Italian immigrant who won the World Wide Wrestling Federation championship for nearly eight years and then held it for three more when he got a second run. He was a strongman known worldwide and dubbed "The Living Legend." He died on Wednesday at age 82.

"Devastated to hear the passing of a true icon, legend, great, honest and wonderful man," wrote WWE Executive VP of Talent Paul Levesque, aka Triple H, on Twitter. "A true friend and one of the toughest people I've ever met. My thoughts are with his entire family."

For years after his career, Sammartino was estranged from the WWE, objecting to its family-unfriendly content under Vince K. McMahon, until he made amends and it inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2013. It was at that time when he began appearing on WWE trading cards, despite his dominating place in the company's history and a reign that won't be equaled.

He appears on nearly 250 different wrestling cards but fewer than 90 of those are certified autographs. His earliest signed cards can be found in the 2010 SportKings release, while Leaf Trading Cards landed him for its 2012 Leaf Originals and other 2013 releases. That also was the year when he had his first WWE autos in 2013 Topps Best of WWE. He also appears in 2015 Topps Chrome WWE and the landmark 2015 Topps WWE Undisputed set. His final autographs can be found in boxes of 2017 Topps Heritage WWE and Legends of WWE where he has dual autographs (just 26 copies in all) with former student turned foe Larry Zbyszko. They headlined a steel cage match main event held at Shea Stadium in 1980. On the undercard? A match between Andre The Giant and a young star named Hulk Hogan, who would help change wrestling with a match seven years later at WrestleMania III.

Sammartino suffered plenty of real injuries in his career as part of a sport with a pre-determined outcome.

“My broken neck is for real. When I bleed, it’s my blood and it’s real. Anybody who sees me in person will see the worst cauliflower ears I think you have ever seen," Sammartino once said. "When newspapermen would criticize [wrestling], I’d say get your toughest football player and I’ll show you how quickly I will demolish him."

For more on Sammartino's life and career, click here and check out this piece from the WWE.

Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

>> Click here to order wrestling cards on BlowoutCards.com