![]() It was during his stewardship of the Valiant Brothers that Albano picked up his "Captain" nickname, as the act was promoted as "Captain Lou and the Valiants too." By the end of his career, Albano had managed over 50 different wrestlers who won two dozen championships.Īlbano could also help elevate wrestlers by splitting from them. Furthermore, Albano guided fifteen teams to the WWF World Tag Team Championships, including The Valiant Brothers, The Wild Samoans, the Yukon Lumberjacks, The Blackjacks, The Moondogs, The Masked Executioners, and after becoming a face, the British Bulldogs. However, Albano guided singles wrestlers Don Muraco and Greg Valentine to the Intercontinental Championship. For the remainder of the 1970s, Albano's cadre of loyal henchmen were unable to re-secure the heavyweight championship, held by either Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund or Hulk Hogan. ![]() The shock of Koloff's victory was such that the crowd fell totally silent, and Sammartino momentarily feared that he'd lost his hearing.Īlbano then resumed his role as the mastermind trying to lead his latest bad guy protege to the gold. Koloff had had a typical heel run against Sammartino in 1969, but Albano spent months claiming that his previous manager had trained him incorrectly, and that Koloff would beat Sammartino under Albano's expert tutelage. Koloff's title reign was a transitional one, lasting just three weeks. In January 1971, Albano was the manager when Ivan Koloff ended Sammartino's seven-year reign as champion. He also often wore a rubber band hanging from a safety pin pushed through his cheek. He developed a later trademark, applying rubber bands to his beard. Growing out his hair and beard, and packing on extra pounds, Albano gave the image of a wild man. With a quick wit and a grating personality, Albano delivered memorable promos and earned the scorn of the wrestling audience as he attempted to dethrone World Wide Wrestling Federation superstar and WWF champion Bruno Sammartino. Thus began his transition into the brash, bombastic manager "Captain" Lou Albano. To rile up audiences, he also engaged in ethnic slurs, which were then a more common part of After losing that match, Verdu cycled out of the WWWF rotation, but Albano remained as the top heel manager for the next 15 years. Albano emphasized Verdu's physique and insisted that he had never been taken off his feet during a match. His in-ring capabilities were hampered by a limited command of English, and Albano was assigned to be his mouthpiece. In 1970, fellow wrestler Bruno Sammartino, mentioned to However, a promising new wrestler, Oscar "Crusher" Verdu, had just recently emigrated from Spain. Albano came to the Albano and Altomare only held the championship for two weeks before losing them.
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