Login
Login

Angelo Savoldi

{{Short description|Italian/American professional wrestler}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}

{{Infobox professional wrestler

| name = Angelo Savoldi

| image = Angelo Savoldi.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Mario Louis Fornini

| names = Angelo Savoldi

| height = 6 ft 3 in

| weight = {{convert|210|lb|kg|abbr=on}}

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1914|4|21}}

| birth_place = Castrocielo, Italy

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|9|20|1914|4|21}}

| death_place = Parsipanny, New Jersey, U.S.

| billed = Hoboken, New Jersey{{cite book|title=WWE Encyclopedia|last1=Shields|first1=Brian|last2=Sullivan|first2=Kevin|page=[https://archive.org/details/wweencyclopediad0000shie/page/14 14]|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7566-4190-0}}

| trainer =

| debut = 1937

| retired = 1972

}}

Mario Louis Fornini (April 21, 1914 – September 20, 2013) was an Italian/American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, better known professionally as Angelo Savoldi. At the time of his death, he was known as the world's oldest retired wrestler at the age of 99.

Early life

Fornini was born in Castrocielo, Italy in 1914. At the age of five, he and his family moved to the United States, where they lived in Hoboken, New Jersey.{{cite web|url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2013/09/24/21146561.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130927141844/http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2013/09/24/21146561.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=September 27, 2013|title=Angelo Savoldi: Wrestler, promoter, agent, gentleman|date=September 24, 2013|last=Oliver|first=Greg|access-date=September 27, 2013|work=Slam! Sports|publisher=Canadian Online Explorer}} As a child, Fornini was reportedly friends with Frank Sinatra. He first began to wrestle at A. J. Demarest High School (since replaced by Hoboken High School), but left during the Great Depression to get a job cutting metal at the Cleveland Container.

Professional wrestling career

Fornini's brother Lou was a professional wrestler in New York, and so Fornini approached New York promoter Jack Pfefer. Pfefer christened him "Angelo Savoldi", and, billed as the brother of Joe Savoldi, he began wrestling in 1937. By 1938, Savoldi was regularly wrestling throughout the Northeastern United States. During World War II, Fornini joined the United States Navy. He later worked in Puerto Rico, becoming the first American to main event in that region.{{cite web|url=http://parsippanymonthly.com/angelo_savoldi.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927115625/http://parsippanymonthly.com/angelo_savoldi.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-09-27|title=Life in the Ring|work=Parsippany Monthly}}

It was in the 1950s that Savoldi became a star in the Oklahoma region, as a junior heavyweight (a term for lightweight). Wrestling as a heel (villainous character), he held the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship three times between 1958 and 1964. In Oklahoma, Savoldi feuded with Danny Hodge. On May 27, 1960, Savoldi and Hodge were facing off in a match, when Savoldi was stabbed with a pen knife by an angry fan that turned out to be Hodge's father.

Savoldi finished his in-ring career with the World Wide Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) from 1963 to 1972 putting over the promotion's faces. He was also a trainer of younger wrestlers, with Jack Brisco and Hercules Ayala Cortez among them. In the 1970s Savoldi was a minority business partner in the WWWF.

In 1984 Angelo, with his sons Mario, Tom and Joseph Savoldi, established International Championship Wrestling (ICW) in the Northeastern region. Joseph was a featured wrestler for the promotion. Angelo received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cauliflower Alley Club in 2003, and was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004.

Personal life

Fornini and his wife were married for 74 years, and had four sons. They lived in Parsippany, New Jersey, where Fornini owned a record shop with his son Mario.{{cite web|url=http://www.parsippanymonthly.com/2007/year_in_review.html|title=Year in Review|work=Parsippany Monthly|access-date=March 3, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913123907/http://www.parsippanymonthly.com/2007/year_in_review.html|archive-date=September 13, 2007|url-status=dead|quote=Lake Parsippany resident Angelo Savoldi, now 93 years old, has wrestled against some of the greatest men ever to enter the ring, and was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2004.}}

Death

Fornini died at his home on September 20, 2013, at the age of 99.{{cite web|url=http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/Other_News_4/article_73503.shtml|title=News: Savoldi, Oldest Pro Wrestler, reportedly dies at 99|date=September 21, 2013|last=Caldwell|first=James|access-date=September 21, 2013|publisher=Pro Wrestling Torch}}{{cite web|url=http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/starledger/obituary.aspx?n=mario-fornini&pid=167110445&fhid=17129#fbLoggedOut|title=Mario Forini, Sr. Obituary|date=September 22, 2013|access-date=September 27, 2013|work=The Star-Ledger}} On the September 23, 2013, episode of WWE Raw, a short "in memoriam" video narrated by Vince McMahon was aired.{{cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/videos/wwe-remembers-angelo-savoldi-raw-sept-23-2013-26150722 |title=WWE honors the memory of WWE Legend Angelo Savoldi |access-date=September 27, 2013 |publisher=WWE |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927102656/http://www.wwe.com/videos/wwe-remembers-angelo-savoldi-raw-sept-23-2013-26150722 |archive-date=September 27, 2013 }}

Championships and accomplishments

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb name|4595665}}
  • {{professional wrestling profiles}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820061131/http://www.pwhf.org/halloffamers/bios/savoldi.asp Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame profile]

{{NWA Hall of Fame}}

{{NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savoldi, Angelo}}

Category:1914 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:American male professional wrestlers

Category:Hoboken High School alumni

Category:Italian male professional wrestlers

Category:American professional wrestlers of Italian descent

Category:Sportspeople from Hoboken, New Jersey

Category:People associated with physical culture

Category:People from Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey

Category:Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum

Category:Professional wrestling promoters

Category:Stampede Wrestling alumni

Category:Professional wrestlers from New Jersey

Category:Italian emigrants to the United States

Category:20th-century male professional wrestlers

Category:NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champions

Category:20th-century Italian sportsmen