Top 50 Greatest Wrestling Heels of all time

42. Larry Zbysko

Almost unquestionably the biggest moment of Zbyszko’s career took place in 1980 where Larry turned on his mentor Bruno Sammartino. After being at a disadvantage in a match they had, he would end up bloodying Sammartino with a chair. So hated was Zbyszko for turning on the beloved Italian, he became the most hated man in the country; having his transport destroyed, being hit in the face by a pole by a fan and even getting stabbed in the backside by a fan. To further the audience’s hatred, he robbed Sammartino’s ‘The Living Legend’ nickname for himself.

Zbyszko would soon leave the promotion for the NWA and AWA both as a heel. His run in the AWA saw him pick up the AWA America’s championship and feud with Sgt Slaughter and Nick Bockwinkel. Although he would soon be kayfabe outlawed from the company due to interfering in a world title match. In his return run, he would capture the world title twice and be the last titleholder before the company filed for bankruptcy.

The end of Zbyszko’s full-time in-ring days took place in WCW. Here, he won tag gold with Arn Anderson as The Enforcers. The duo would soon after become a part of Paul E. Dangerously’s Dangerous Alliance. Larry would be kicked out for costing his team in the WarGames match at WrestleWar ‘92 in likely the greatest match of his career.