“A lot of funny things happened in wrestling.” — Mario “Milano” Bulfone, 2008
Wrestling was once an institution in Australia, the only way to spend a cozy Saturday afternoon.
Getting tickets to the shows was a near-impossible task as the big names from the wrestling world came out to play.
It was during this time that Mario “Milano” Bulfone became an icon in Australia.
Although born in the Italian port city of Trieste, in 1935, it was as a 16-year-old boy living in Caracas, Venezuela, that Mario discovered professional wresting. When Peruvian wrestler Ciccliano opened up a wrestling school, Bulfone decided to attend.
Unfortunately for Bulfone, Venezuelan law at that time prohibited people under the age of 18 being on the street unaccompanied, meaning he was unable to wrestle. Left with no other option but to hide his identity to pursue a career in wrestling, he donned a mask and became “Black Diablo” until after he turned 20.
After leaving the mask behind him, Bulfone wrestled under his real name, becoming an idol to Italian population of Venezuela.
Heading to the United States to further pursue his wrestling career, he chose the wrestling hotbed of Tennessee as his American home.
Speaking absolutely no English at this time, he managed to secure the services of a manager who introduced him to promoters in the area. It was one of these promoters that convinced Bulfone that no one would remember his name.
“He said: ‘From Italy? Big city in Italy—Milano.’ So they called me Mario Milano”
On November 11, 1963, he teamed with Jackie Fargo to win his first notable title—the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship—from the team of Karl and Skull Von Stroheim. He would win the belts again with Fargo and once with Danny Hodge before teaming with Len Rossi to win the belts another five times from June 1964, to November 1966, often using his devastating atomic drop or equally painful abdominal stretch to end a match.
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