Antonino Rocca was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 1995 and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996.
12 Facts About Antonino Rocca
2.
Antonino Rocca began his American professional wrestling career in the late 1940s in Texas.
3.
Antonino Rocca had been trained by former World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion Stanislaus Zbyszko in Argentina.
4.
In 1949, Antonino Rocca started wrestling in the New York City-area territory for Joseph Raymond "Toots" Mondt, and the Johnston family of promoters, which controlled wrestling at Madison Square Garden, and Mondt owned Antonino Rocca's exclusive contract.
5.
Antonino Rocca later formed a tag team with Jose Miguel Perez in 1957.
6.
Antonino Rocca had been provided with new wrestler Bruno Sammartino as a tag team partner.
7.
Antonino Rocca was involved as a professional wrestler, but as a referee in Japan during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
8.
Antonino Rocca refereed a number of matches for the Japan Pro Wrestling Association, and later followed Antonio Inoki to New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972.
9.
Antonino Rocca was depicted wrestling Superman on the cover of the Superman No 155 comic book.
10.
Antonino Rocca's fame extended into various media outlets, from numerous interviews for national newspapers and magazines to meeting President Richard M Nixon to a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
11.
Antonino Rocca died on 15 March 1977 at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City after complications following a urinary infection.
12.
Antonino Rocca's funeral was attended by thousands and made the front page of New York newspapers.