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"For more than forty years, Larry Zbyszko has lived and breathed professional wrestling; from his epic feud with mentor Bruno Sammartino &amp;#x2013; which culminated in a legendary steel cage showdown at Shea Stadium in 1980 &amp;#x2013; to his influential run in WCW, where he helped usher in the era of the New World Order, he&amp;apos;s been everywhere and worked with everyone.\r\n\r\nNow, the man known as &amp;quot;The Living Legend&amp;quot; will join his fellow wrestling icons in the WWE Hall of Fame. And if you ask him, it&amp;apos;s about time.\r\n&amp;quot;My gut feeling over the years was that probably someday, sooner or later, I&amp;apos;d be getting in &amp;#x2013; and not just because of the long career I had,&amp;quot; Zbyszko laughs. &amp;quot;I&amp;apos;m a fan at heart; I love this business, and the Hall of Fame is an awesome part of the business. This has been my life, and if I had to do it again, I&amp;apos;d do it all the same &amp;#x2013; except maybe not get married so many times.&amp;quot;\r\nZbyszko will be inducted into the Hall on March 28 &amp;#x2013; the night before WrestleMania &amp;#x2013; at a ceremony that will air live on the WWE Network at 8 p.m. ET. He&amp;apos;s part of a 2015 class that includes the late &amp;quot;Macho Man&amp;quot; Randy Savage, former Women&amp;apos;s Champion Alundra Blayze, Rikishi, the Bushwhackers and celebrity honoree Arnold Schwarzenegger &amp;#x2013; and while his name might not carry the same cultural cachet as his fellow inductees, true wrestling fans know what he represents: Zbyszko is not just a link to the sport&amp;apos;s past, but, thanks his work with young wrestlers in NXT, a bridge to its future, as well.\r\n&amp;quot;I started at the end of the Old School era; my feud with Bruno kind of marked the end of one era, and the beginning of an era of national TV and pay-per-view,&amp;quot; Zbyszko says. &amp;quot;I grew up in the days of Crusher Lisowski and Killer Kowalski, and then when I was getting in, there was a new era of guys &amp;#x2013; me, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson &amp;#x2013; and it&amp;apos;s just continued to evolve from there.\r\n&amp;quot;I befriended Eric Bischoff, and he winds up being the boss of WCW. And there, I had a big role in the New World Order. I was the guy who kind of put the beginning together,&amp;quot; he continues. &amp;quot;Now, working at the [WWE] Performance Center, I get the chance to pass along everything I know, the psychology, to get them ready for the big time. They know the physical stuff, but anybody can fall down &amp;#x2013; drawing money is a different thing.&amp;quot;\r\nZbyszko began his career in the early &amp;apos;70s, working the independent circuit and wrestling in the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he&amp;apos;d feud with the likes of &amp;quot;Superstar&amp;quot; Billy Graham. But it was when he turned on Bruno Sammartino that his career took off. Zbyszko&amp;apos;s betrayal of his mentor &amp;#x2013; he struck him with a chair, leaving Bruno bloodied &amp;#x2013; so angered fans that they&amp;apos;d attack him on the street; heading into their blowoff match at the Showdown at Shea in August 1980, Zbyszko was the most vilified heel in professional wrestling.\r\n&amp;quot;I was kind of an up-and-coming favorite in the early &amp;apos;70s, and then over night, I became the most hated man alive! Riots every night, I got shot at, my cars were set on fire, it was a different world!&amp;quot; he laughs. &amp;quot;If I walked out in Minneapolis or Charlotte, people wanted to kill me, so I learned how to take advantage of it, because that&amp;apos;s what the promoters would pay for. I was hated for 20 years, but I was working!&amp;quot;\r\nFittingly, it will be Sammartino who inducts Zbyszko into the Hall of Fame later this month &amp;#x2013; and, though he always preferred to let his wrestling do the talking, Zbyszko says he&amp;apos;s already got a speech prepared for the ceremony. Turns out, it was easy; he&amp;apos;ll just be speaking from the heart.\r\n&amp;quot;I already have a speech in my head; it kind of just popped in there, because it&amp;apos;s the story of my dream&amp;#xA0;&amp;#x2013; to become like my hero Bruno Sammartino,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;And I&amp;apos;ll also thank the people who helped me along the way. I&amp;apos;ve always considered myself one of the boys &amp;#x2013; everyone calls me &amp;apos;Sir&amp;apos; these days, but I&amp;apos;m not that old!&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/larry-zbyszko-wrestlings-living-legend-to-enter-wwe-hall-of-fame-20150316>