Mario Galento was an experienced American professional wrestler who competed in the ring throughout the 1950s. During the match, he suffered an injury that caused him to lose his left eye. Find out more about what happened and how the huge wrestler was able to compete when he only had one eye.
Galento was from when the now famous World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) had just been founded, although World Wrestling Entertainment was not well known in American homes at the time. Along the same lines, unlike today, wrestling was reserved exclusively for people of higher social status.
Wrestling was a popular sport that Mario Galento participated in while residing in Tallahassee, Florida during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965, Jesse James surprised everyone by pinning Georgia heavyweight champion Mario Galento. This victory was a major surprise.
The same year, he defeated Jesse James to successfully defend his Georgia Heavyweight Championship title. Galento was the NWA’s most popular wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, and he won every major championship the organization had to offer. He won all five defenses of the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight Championship, in addition to several other tag team championships. At the age of 74, Mario Galento died suddenly on January 6, 1989, from complications related to liver disease.
Mario Galento
Did anyone poke Mario Galento’s eye? How did he lose his left eye?
In the 1970s, Mario Galento, a skilled veteran wrestler from the southern regions, lost his eye while competing in front of a live television audience.
Jerry W. Jarrett, a writer and former wrestler, accidentally knocked Galento out of his left eye by poking him with a baton. This caused Galento to be completely blind in that eye.
As a result of what happened, he was forced to continue his fighting career while wearing a mask over his left eye. The wrestling match between Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett was broadcast live on television. Despite the fact that the entire event was broadcast live on television, there have been many versions of what happened during the incident and how Galento ended up losing his eye.
In a 2021 interview for Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw, Jerry W. Jarrett offered his perspective. It was decided that Lawler and Jarrett would engage in a match that would last thirty minutes and serve as the main wrestling event one night. Roy Welsh, a promoter in Nashville, approached Galento to make threats against Jarrett on his behalf. Welsh feared that Jarrett was moving into Welsh territory.
Galento launched an unexpected assault in the ring, chased Jarrett and hit him from behind. Lawler is seen dragging Mario out of the ring, then later reappearing with a baton. On the other hand, this time Lawler holds his arm and Jarrett uses the baton to punch him in the eye. After that, Jarrett pricked Galento in the eye, causing the latter to suddenly lose one of his eyes. His other eye was also seriously injured in the accident.
Additionally, he had injured his eye attacking with a stick earlier in the fight. On top of that, there were blood splatters all over the area. In the end, Galento demanded that a total of 200 sutures be placed in his skull. Several images of his badly injured face can be found on the internet and can be viewed there.
It looks like it happened not once, but twice, before Galento left the TV studio. On television, Lawler justified his help to Jarrett by saying that Galento was crazy, that Lawler wanted Jarrett for himself, and that he wouldn’t want Galento to hurt Jarrett because Jerry wanted to hurt Jerry Jarrett. himself. Lawler also claimed that Galento wanted to hurt Jerry Jarrett himself.
In fact, Galento ended up spending time in the hospital as a direct result of the incident, and the bruise he caused to his eye stayed there permanently. It was the price he had to pay for a game that had nothing to do with him. He ended up interfering with a live match being played by Lawler and Jarrett, causing him to lose an eye as a result.
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How rich was Mario Galento? Wrestler net worth
The late wrestler Mario Galento is estimated to have a net worth of around $500,000 at the time of his death, as reported by Biography Net Worth.
In the 1950s he was a well-known combat wrestler and he was able to maintain his charismatic presence in the ring well into the 1980s. Wrestlers in this period did not receive compensation to match what they receive today today. Some people would say that is the main reason why his net worth was way below $1 million.
Galento died in 1989, which was long before wrestling and any other sport became much more profitable. At that time, half a million was a significant number. Also, if we compensate for inflation over the years, the same amount of money would equal approximately $1.1 million in 2022. Galento reportedly owned a restaurant in Georgia, as reported by several different sources. It was assumed that the establishment served food with an Italian twist.
On the other hand, compared to the earnings of other workers, wrestlers received a significantly lower amount. Unlike today, when an average wrestler in WWE earned at least $500,000 a year, which is the overall net worth of Galento, the average salary of a wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s ranged from $50 to $100 per week. Brock Lesner is now the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) athlete with the highest annual salary, which exceeds more than $12 million.
Mario Galento Wikipedia & Bio Facts
A professional wrestler from the United States named Mario Galento was born on June 17, 1915. He was known by his birth name, Bonnie Lee Boyette.
There is no mention of the caption on the Wikipedia entry, which is unfortunate. As a direct consequence of this, much of his private information is still kept secret and shrouded in mystery. The man who was born and raised in Alamo, Tennessee made his in-ring debut at a young age. When Galento was a teenager, he made the decision to run away from home and travel across the United States.
Galento began wrestling in the late 1940s when he was around 30 years old. It was 1953 when he first appeared on the Gulf Coast, and at that time he was known as Butch Boyette. In 1954, he returned to the crime scene as The Masked Flash. After it was established that he was Mario Galento, he conducted all of his professional dealings in that guise until the end of his career.
Also, it was Al Galento who gave him the nickname, and although they worked together on occasion, their bond wasn’t particularly strong. In addition to the Gulf Coast, he was a well-known figure in the states of Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia. In Florida and the Northeast, he made only occasional appearances. He was a Southern champion in the singles and tag team divisions.
Despite the fact that he was not a shooter, the fighting style that best reflects his approach is that of a brawler, and he had a reputation for being quite brutal. He stood out from other men of his day with his long hair and elaborate jewelry. According to his mic technique, he was a braggart who delivered his lines in brutal fashion as babyface and heel.
The element of him that posed the greatest threat was Smokey, who was both his second wife and servant. She wasn’t very smart in business, but it was common knowledge that she would shoot Mario’s rivals if they outsmarted him for a long time. Besides that, Galento tried his hand at acting and made guest appearances in a few films including Natchez Trace and The Daughters of Davey Crocket.
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Mario Galento Family Life, Wife and Child Support
Mario Galento was raised in Tennessee, USA by his mother Emma and father Cecil Galento, both his parents. Mario was born in 1915.
He was the middle child in a family of six. His parents, Emma and Cecil, raised him alongside their three other children. Jewel Galento was one of Galento’s three siblings, along with her brothers Billy and Wayne, and she also had a brother named Billy. They call him Mario Big Bud due to the fact that he is so big.
Mario Galento, who won the NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight title five times, was married twice in his lifetime. In 1936 he married the woman he loved, Marie, and the following year she gave birth to a son named Robert. Robert was her first child. But calamity befell Galento’s family when the son he had just given birth to perished. Later that year, in 1940, the couple gave birth to their second child, a daughter they named Barbara. In 1958 they received their third child, a son they named Terry.
On May 2, 1994, some four and a half years after Galento’s untimely death, his eldest daughter Barbara Galento Reeves also tragically lost to pancreatic cancer. Meanwhile, her eldest daughter Barbara has died, but her younger daughter Terry is still alive and she remembers her father.
“Every time he went to the ring, he would bring a towel with him and tie it in his corner. When it looked like he was about to lose the match, he would grab that towel, wrap it around his fist and started pounding his opponent Terry thinks back to a trick his father played on them.
Mario Galento had a net worth of $500,000 at the time of his death.
Some FAQs
What happened to Mario Galento’s eye?
During a live televised match, Mario Galento could not find his wye. Jerry W. Jarrett embarrassed himself by poking himself in the eye with his fingers.
What is Mario Galento net worth?
Mario Galento is believed to currently have a net worth of $500,000. During his productive years, he was successful in his endeavors.
What is Mario Galento net worth?
In 1936, Mario Galento married his wife Marie and became a married man. They have a daughter named Barbara and another named Terry.
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