Born Adolfo Bresciano, the "Italian Strongman" Dino Bravo name was taken from a wrestler who wrestled in the 1950s, by the name of "The Italian Casanova" Dino Bravo.
Making his wrestling debut in 1970, in a smalltime Montreal promotion called the "Grand Prix", he was billed as the cousin of current Tag Team partner, Gino Brito. With a huge torso, rippled with muscles, which got bigger and bigger, match with agility which gradually depleted and depleted, there was never a bad time physically, in his career.
After spending his first 6-7 years wrestling for the Grand Prix promotion, and working in Los Angeles and the Mid-Atlantic area, he got his break into the big leagues in 1977-78, when he joined the WWWF.
Bravo won the inaugural tournament for the NWA Canadian title, with the belt presented to him by Whipper Watson, all in 1978. He left the WWWF, and became Canadian champion in the AWA in 1979, before becoming a mainstay on the roster and promoter for the Montreal Grand Prix promotion once again.
Bresciano went back to the WWWF, by now known simply as the WWF, in 1985, and was soon recognized as the Canadian champion in the WWF also.
With Bravo's popularity gradually increasing, he was involved in a drastic piece of on the fly booking, where in January of 1986, the WWF canceled a match he was scheduled to be in, against Hulk Hogan.
The reason for doing this in front of a 20,000 strong live audience of screaming fans, was that Hogan was at the top of the company at this time, and to have Dino Bravo come out to face him, would mean that Hogan would be booed, and not be the fan favourite, something the WWF just couldn't afford to do.
Bravo quit the WWF soon after that incident, but after doing a lot of nothing for a year, he returned in 1987 with blond hair, and Frenchy Martin as his new manager. Frenchy was subsequently replaced by Jimmy Hart, and Bravo began to tag with Greg Valentine.
At the first ever Royal Rumble in 1988 (Royal Rumble match itself won by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan), Bravo bench pressed "710 pounds" and began to call himself the World's Strongest Man, the same way that Mark Henry did when he made his WWF debut. The reason the "710 pounds" is in inverted comma's, is because like Shane McMahon's "70ft fall" at SummerSlam 2000, it wasn't really as high up (or in this case, as heavy) as the WWF hyped it to be. Bravo was strong though, and a legitimate bench press of 575 pounds would have been well within his arms' capability.
In the first couple of years in the 90's, Bravo escalated to a main event feud against Hulk Hogan, with this time, Bravo as the dominant heel. Joining the void at Bravo's side, was new tag team partner, Earthquake (John Tenta).
A return to his regular brown hair colour prompted a face turn in July of 1991, and a long running feud with The Mountie. A few selective shows had Dino Bravo as the guest, both in the WWF and in Puerto Rico for the duration of his career in 1992, and the WWF scheduled a retirement show at the Montreal Forum as a way of thanking Bresciano, but the December show was canceled.
Bresciano was shot dead in Montreal in March 1993, aged just 44. Several years prior to his actual death, many rumours linked Bravo with organized crime in the town he was killed, Montreal. His execution was reported to be linked closely to cigarette smuggling.
***end of history***
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