Mario Milano

Professional wrestling career Early career Bulfone, though born in Italy, grew up in Venezuela and began wrestling in Caracas at age 18 in 1953. After he turned 20, he wrestled without the mask under his real name.

Tennessee In 1962, Bulfone moved to the United States to wrestle, originally under the name Mario La Pantera. After holding the title belts for one month, they dropped them to Tojo Yamamoto and Ivan Malenkov but regained them later in December 1963 when Malenkov left the territory and was a no-show at the title defense. He also had two reigns in 1967 as IWA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Killer Kowalski and Ripper Collins.

He used the Atomic Drop as a finisher, and did an angle where he used it on a 400-pound (180 kg) wrestler.

In 2008 Mario appeared on Australian TV for International Wrestling Australia (IWA) on their series Main Event Wrestling on the Aurora Community Channel. He featured in 6 shows in an angle with resident heel champion Mark Mercedes.

Milano also appears in Roy Slaven's South Coast News series, set in the NSW South Coast town of Ulladulla, as the proprietor of the Bluebird Cafe and the captain/coach of the local A-Grade cricket team.

Milano made a live appearance on Saturday 14 May 2011 for Melbourne-based promotion Professional Championship Wrestling.

WWWF In 1970 Milano wrestled for the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the Northeast (New York) territory where he was a babyface. Feuding with Eric the Red and Professor Toru Tanaka. He only stayed with the company for a year.

Japan Bulfone wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling on tours in 1975 to 1985 after World Championship Wrestling shut down.

Death Bulfone died on 13 December 2016 at the age of 81. He lived in Australia at the time of his death. NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America version) (1 time) - with Jackie Fargo World Championship Wrestling (Australia) IWA World Heavyweight Championship (4 times) IWA World Tag Team Championship (10 times) - with Red Bastien (3), Billy White Wolf (1), Antonio Pugliese (1), Dominic DeNucci (1), The Spoiler (1), Waldo Von Erich (1), Spiros Arion (1) and Mark Lewin (1) NWA Austra-Asian Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Bugsy McGraw (1) and Larry O'Dea (1) World Brass Knuckles Championship (4 times) International Wrestling Australia IWA Hall of Fame

In film Mario Milano appeared as the Russian muscleman in Chang Cheh's The Boxer From Shantung in 1972.

The Boxer From Shantung (1972) - Russian Boxer The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974) - Joseph Zebra Force (1976) - Peter High Rolling (1977) - Country Fighter Beyond Evil (1980) - Dr. Frank Albanos