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I was surprised to see that Salvatore Bellomo won the NWA Pacific Coast Heavyweight Championship in 1979. What do All-Star Wrestling fans think of his time in the territory? Searching the archives it seems that he was a face named Salvatore Martino and he was especially over with the Italian community in Vancouver (which was another surprise; I didn't think that there were too many Italians in that city).
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I remember Salvatore Martino. Came in here in 1978. Tag Champs with Mike Sharpe and was also Pacific Coast Champ. Yes, was popular with the Italians. Got a good push. He left in 1979, however, returned with the Portland Boys in 1980 and didn't receive a good push the 2nd time as well the Portland Boys were great - let's face it.
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 Rob_E |
July 15th, 2015 18:03 GMT |
 
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Did Salvatore Martino in his second push get called by Bellomo on TV in Vancouver, I thought he was referred to as Bellomo in the 80's?
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Odd to hear that Salvatore was tag team champion with "Iron" Mike Sharpe. I must have seen them wrestle each other 100 times in the WWF in the '80s.
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Hi Rob. Hope all is well. The 2nd time (1980)Salvatore was here he was still Salvatore Martino. Like I said he did not get a real push the 2nd time. Was more of a mid-card - the odd time a semi-event - I think once 6 man tag main event. The Portland Boys were getting the biggest pushes and why not. Piper, Rose, Sheepherders, Martel, Oliver, Savage. Those guys were main event wrestlers.
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Quoted from: Glaurung, June 28th, 2015 21:04 GMTIhe was especially over with the Italian community in Vancouver (which was another surprise; I didn't think that there were too many Italians in that city).
I've lived in the Vancouver area for a couple of decades. I first moved there in 1991, & lived mostly for the next 15 years in a number of neighborhoods in a meta-neighborhood known as East Van. The area bordered by Commercial Drive on the west, Renfrew on the east, 12th on the south, is the area that was generally known as Little Italy. At its height, lots of Italian coffee bars, restaurants & grocers on Commercial, Nanaimo, Renfrew & Hastings streets. A very multicultural neighborhood that includes a lot of Chinese, Portugese, Vietnamese, Filipino, First Nations & Central American peoples, as well as artists, hipsters, blue collar workers, lesbians & underclass gangbangers. In the decade since I left the 'hood, the yuppies have kind of taken over & pushed out a lot of the old Italian culture, which really gave the neighborhood a colourful flavor.
A lot of the East Van Italian population settled there after WWII. Since Little Italy is adjacent the port, a good chunk of the men from the early post-war era became longshoremen, as did their sons, although this is another East Van tradition rapidly dying out. East Van had a heavily blue collar working class Italian community with a minority being prominent small businessmen, generally having restaurants, coffee bars, grocery stores or tailors.
Up until the early 80s, the big matches for All-Star happened at the PNE Gardens on the Pacific National Exhibition grounds, which has a fair on all summer, hosted the Vancouver Canucks in the Pacific Coliseum, & the Hastings Park horse race course. The PNE borders Little Italy. For a while back in the 90s when I was living on Commercial Drive I'd ride the bus out to the track, & a good half the crowd on the bus was old Italian men with their racing forms.
I could imagine the blue collar Italian guys of East Van flocked to see Martino.
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| glaz |
July 24th, 2015 14:44 GMT |
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This message was edited by glaz on July 24th, 2015 14:47 GMT
Quoted from: WrestlingCulture, July 19th, 2015 20:52 GMT
Up until the early 80s, the big matches for All-Star happened at the PNE Gardens on the Pacific National Exhibition grounds, which has a fair on all summer, hosted the Vancouver Canucks in the Pacific Coliseum, & the Hastings Park horse race course. The PNE borders Little Italy. For a while back in the 90s when I was living on Commercial Drive I'd ride the bus out to the track, & a good half the crowd on the bus was old Italian men with their racing forms.
East Van sounds like what East Boston, Mass., used to be back then. The bus to Suffolk Downs, the horse track there, was also full of old Italian (and Irish) men with racing forms. By 2010, most of those old men were dead, and the track started to die as well. The last race was held there last October.
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Butcher Boy
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Commercial Drive which cuts right through East Van is a mob scene when Brazil wins at soccer due to the huge Portuguese population as well. The entire street is full of people. East Van has always been a pretty tough place. In the 60s & 70s they had a gang called Clarke Parkers (odd thing they didn't hang out in Clarke Park) They became such a problem the Vancouver Police formed a special 11 man unit of their biggest cops. It was actually called the Heavy Squad. There were even shoot outs. The gangs grand finally was the famous Rolling Stones concert riot. That was pretty much the end of them. Years later the ex gang members and the former heavy squad members got together to celebrate the good old days. There is an excellent book about them call the last gang in vancouver. Although they actually weren't Vancouver and the Metro area is full of gangs.
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Butcher Boy
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Back to the subject I was at the gardens for Martino's debut. Tons of Italians. He won the match and then spent about 10 minutes greeting the locals that came to see him
East Van, although not what it was, still has some tough neighbourhoods. I was a BCAS paramedic, 15 years downtown/westend and 5 years North Shore. Both areas are close enough to end up doing calls there. You watched your back in some places.
Vancouver Police Heavy Squad
https://montecristomagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/The-VPD-H-Squad-pg-99 .jpg
Typical Vancouver Police lineup
https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/glaciermedia/import/lmp-all/947744-news-last-gang-p age1-gavin-smiles-for-the-camera-pg-119.jpg;w=960;h=640;bgcolor=000000
Infamous Rolling Stones Riot
https://pasttensevancouver.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/stonesriot_grape21_7to13j une1972.jpg
Vancouver Police licking their wounds
https://pasttensevancouver.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/injured-cop_sun-5-june-19 72.jpg
Vancouver Police evening the score
https://www.insidevancouver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Back-to-Renfrew-Street -pg-80.jpg
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Sal Bellomo did wrestle MLG cards in the pre WWF takeover. I remember yelling
Go Martino ( as we knew him from Van TV) Iron Mike was a face who turned on Martino, who said then to the announcer, Why you do this Mike Sharpe.
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There was another thread that talked about iron sheiks matches after he won the title from backlund, because belomo had been his originally scheduled opponent, bellomo actually got three WWF title matches versus sheik 
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In the fall of '78, when Bellomo was in Vancouver as Martino, he and Mike Sharpe won the Canadian Tag Team Titles from The Iron Sheik and The Texas Outlaw (Bobby Joe Bass).
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Butcher Boy
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iirc Sal and Mike were partners after Sharpe made a face turn when the Iron Sheik was here.
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