DeRusha ended up taking a bump and was unable to make the three count when Zenk covered Zbyszko for the pin. In addition, he challenged McMahon to a shoot fight during a 2002 World Wrestling All-Stars pay-per-view.In 2002, Zbyszko had a short feud with Chris Harris in the Nashville, Tennessee-based USA Championship Wrestling promotion. This was Bruno’s final lesson to his student: Put over your opponent whenever you can if it will help the business.“I don’t know if I can go through another three minutes of Bruno crying to his fans over how bitter he is. The two men fought for several minutes.
And thanks to Bruno’s deed, Larry staved off any possible injury at the hands of the fans on his way back to the dressing room, at least for one night.Weeks later, Zbyszko persisted and said that he would not stay in the business if he had to remain a shadow and that if he didn’t have the chance to prove himself then he would stop wrestling altogether.When you tune into Raw, SmackDown or any of the many other pro wrestling shows available today, heel turns (when the good guy becomes a bad guy) are not uncommon, nor are they necessarily a surprise anymore for the viewers who are now mostly smartened to the ways of the business or have beforehand learned the results of said show.When talking about famous heel turns, fans often mention when Paul Orndorff turned his back on Hulk Hogan in a match where they were partners against King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd. Sammartino emphasized that he would not be going in there to hurt Larry but he wouldn’t be giving him anything either.
The student turning on the teacher led to a series of grudge matches and finally to the “Showdown at Shea” in front of more than 36,000 fans who wanted to see Sammartino finally get his revenge against the ungrateful Zbyszko inside of a cage.By not pinning him, Zbyszko would retain his heat with the fans by always being able to claim that he never got pinned. Nowadays, chair shots go on all the time and are pretty tame by today’s standards; almost like a normal prop during matches.The feud spun yarn so compelling to the fans that the next several months saw venues in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York sold out but without a clear-cut winner to the feud; all ending in some form of disqualification.He believed that Sammartino still had another good run in him and knew that Bruno could still be a huge draw. Now Larry Zybyszko is on the front page everywhere and the only thing that I lost was the support of Bruno Sammartino, you fans, maybe you (Vince) and some of the wrestlers. He disappeared several weeks later.Zbyszko feuded with Nick Bockwinkel throughout 1986, losing to him in a Texas death match at Rage in a Cage on April 28, 1986. The opponent turned out to be the entire Diamonds in the Rough stable (Simon Diamond, Elix Skipper, and David Young). In 1974 Pro Wrestling Illustrated named him the Rookie of the Year. When Zenk went for a pin, referee Gary DeRusha inexplicably entered the ring to make the count. He held the title until March 30, 2002 when Harris regained the belt at the Tojo Yamamoto Memorial Show. After several shots to the head with a wooden chair, Zbyszko’s former mentor ended up soaking the ring with his blood and needed to be carried out on a stretcher. It was a wild adventure for a young guy to be caught in the middle of that and pull off the biggest thing wrestling had ever seen before.”Although forgotten or unheard of by many, the young protégé Larry Zbyszko turning on his mentor and friend Bruno Sammartino still serves as the measuring stick for all turns that came afterward. He would face Greg Gagne on June 23, 1989 at War in the Windy City, and David Sammartino, who he defeated at the Tri-State Winter Challenge on January 27, 1990.