Unsolved Mysteries: Who Killed WWE Superstar Dino Bravo?
By: Michael East
Tags: Canada, True Crime, Culture, Mystery, Wrestling

The world of professional wrestling is one that is tainted by decades of tragedy. From the infamous double-murder and suicide committed by Chris Benoit to the murder of Bruiser Brody, the spectre of death has never been far away from the squared circle. Equally, rumours have always persisted of links between “the business” and the criminal underworld, with the likes of the Cosa Nostra and the Yakuza once having interests in professional wrestling in the United States and Japan respectively. At this intersection of wrestling and organised crime comes Dino Bravo, one of the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF, now WWE) most notable stars of the 1980s. Bravo would be gunned down in his own home in 1993. Many link his still-unsolved murder to the Montreal criminal underworld.

Andre the Giant and Dino Bravo during their WWF days

Adolfo Bresciano was born in Campobasso, Italy, in 1948. Emigrating with his family to Canada, the Brescianos settled in the Centre-Sud district of Montreal. The neighbourhood was poor and working-class, and like many working-class immigrants, he turned to sport, training as an amateur wrestler from the age of 12. By the 1970s, Bravo was studying law at Sir George Williams College, yet his eyes turned instead toward a professional wrestling career, with Montreal having a significant legacy in the business. Taking the name “Dino Bravo” from a previous professional, he trained at Grand Prix Wrestling under Gino Brito, a personal friend and former tag-team champion in the then WWWF (later WWF and now WWE). Brito was well known in Montreal and well connected, undoubtedly opening doors for the young Italian, particularly when the two began to team together in a mentor-student grouping. His star would rise after little more than a year in wrestling, teaming with one of the greatest mat technicians of all-time Édouard Carpentier and the major attraction André the Giant.

The professional wrestling world of the 1970s was very different from the one of today, with none of the glitz and glamour associated with Vince McMahon’s WWE. Instead, the United States was divided into regional territories, mostly under the auspices of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). While each region would retain its own regular stars, they would also regularly rotate talent, meaning that wrestlers would often spend a short stint in one part of the country before moving on as a fresh face in another location. It was during a term at Jim Crockett promotions out of the Mid-Atlantic region that Bravo’s star would rise across the border, winning their version of the Tag Team Championships with “Mr Wrestling” Tim Woods. The team won the titles from the experienced Ole and Gene Anderson and Bravo was also involved in a major feud with the legendary Blackjack Mulligan. It was also during his time in Mid-Atlantic that he received his first shots at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the most prestigious belt in wrestling, fighting losing contests to the great Harley Race. With each six-month stint he spent in the United States, Bravo’s stardom would rise back home in Montreal.

Dominic DeNucci and Dino Bravo | Twitter

Dino’s performances eventually earned him a push to the top of the card in Montreal, and by the end of the 1970s, he had become Canadian Heavyweight Champion. His popularity in the city made him a Canadian household name, with his fame equal to anyone in wrestling at the local level. His rising stardom also caught the eye of WWWF owner Vincent J. McMahon, father of current owner Vincent K. McMahon. Bringing in the young Canadian alongside Dominic DeNucci, the Italian tag team was a hit with New York crowds, the WWF’s home area. The duo would win the WWWF Tag Team Championships in March of 1978. However, this was a time of turmoil for the company, with the ageing McMahon nearing the end of his tenure as owner. In 1979, Vincent J. McMahon and his wife Linda founded their own company, Titan Sports. In 1982, they acquired control of the WWF.

Vince McMahon revolutionised professional wrestling in the 1980s and made a great many enemies doing so. Capturing the 1980s MTV and Cold War zeitgeist, McMahon presented a product taken out of low-quality local halls and into significant arenas. Unashamedly pro-American, the WWF moved away from displays of athleticism and instead offered a product based on over-exaggerated characters, storylines and the charisma of stars such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior. The storylines were simple, often playing into national fears with the likes of the Iranian Iron Sheik and his Soviet partner Nikolai Volkoff. A mass merchandising machine brought in millions of dollars as wrestling eschewed blood and overt violence in favour of a child-friendly product. However, the immense success of the WWF came at a cost for hundreds of workers as McMahon aggressively expanded the former WWWF territory across the country, putting the old regions out of business, many forced to sell to the new game in town. One such territory was International Wrestling, the Montreal promotion that had been formed by Bravo, Gino Brito, Tony Mule and Frank Valois. After McMahon lured away the popular Rougeau Brothers and Rick Martel, the company collapsed, and Bravo ended up back in the WWF in 1985 for a short stint, leaving the next year.

Vince McMahon, an avid bodybuilder, had his favourite “look” for a superstar, that being the bigger, the better. In the era of Arnold Swartzangger and Slyvester Stallone, it sold. When Bravo returned again in 1987, he ensured that his physique matched McMahon’s vision, bulking up and dying his hair bleach blonde. Bravo would be allied on-screen with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Brutus Beefcake before returning to singles action and taking on a strongman gimmick. The gimmick was, again, more in line with what the WWF was looking for at the time, negating his technical skills in preference of big displays of power and strength. Bravo was said to be able to legitimately press over 500 pounds. Bravo would make appearances at each of the WWF’s major WrestleMania Pay-Per-Views between 1987 and 1991 and be on the card for the Madison Square Garden debut of the company’s second major event, SummerSlam.

Despite becoming a recognisable name in wrestling, Bravo wasn’t given an opportunity with a championship in the WWF besides the token “Canadian Championship” that he defended in the immediate aftermath of the WWF’s acquisition of International Wrestling. Following WrestleMania VII in 1991 he began to fall out of favour as his age caught up with him. Having recently feuded with Hulk Hogan and his partner Tugboat, Bravo was now in low card matches and often not featured at all. Some accounts say that Bravo had been considering jumping to the rival WCW promotion but didn’t want to move out of Canada. Instead, he decided to quietly retire from wrestling in April of 1992 at the age of 43. He planned to return to Montreal to work as a trainer, also becoming involved in the local boxing scene.

“Dino had painted himself in a corner. He tried to stay in the WWF, but he just couldn’t; Vince didn’t want to have him back. I remember I called [producer] Pat Patterson and I suggested that I team up with Dino — because I liked him. I said, ‘I’ll take the bumps and do all the moving around, and he can do the strong stuff… I’m sure we can make it work, you know?’ He said, ‘No, no…we just think that Dino doesn’t fit any more in our plans…” Rick Martel, Friend of Dino Bravo and then WWF Superstar

On March 10, 1993, Dino Bravo saw off his wife Diane and 6-year-old daughter from their $850,000 (now $1,500,000) home in an affluent section of Laval, Quebec. His daughter was attending ballet class, and Dino was left home alone. He last spoke with his wife around 9pm and was settling into watching the Montreal Canadiens vs New York Islanders ice hockey game. Arriving home at 12:20am on March 11, Diane and their daughter found Bravo shot to death in an easy chair, he had been shot seven times, including twice in the head. Thankfully, his daughter was asleep when the two arrived home, with Diane being treated for shock.

“He was so proud of that little girl. She was very close to him. He was over-protective toward her because he got her at such a late age. He used to take her skating and to ballet lessons. He felt bad when he had to leave her behind when he went out of town to wrestle.” Gino Brito, Montreal Gazette

Montreal Police immediately began a significant investigation into the crime, noting that 17 shots had been fired in all from two different weapons, finding shells from semi-automatic .22 and .380 calibre guns in the living room. One of the stray bullets had broken a window, and the lack of anyone in the neighbourhood hearing a disturbance led to immediate speculation that the killers had used silenced weapons. They may have been professionals. One police officer on the scene was quoted in the media as saying: “whoever shot Bravo wanted to make damn sure that he was dead.”

There was no sign of a struggle in the house, no sign of forced entry and no evidence of robbery, with a large sum of cash found in place. It is believed that Bravo knew his killers and had perhaps even watched the hockey match with them. Over the years, details of the killing have become somewhat sensationalised, with the already large number of shots increased and claims made that Bravo was shot ten times in the head. Some contemporary sources suggest it was, in fact, seven shots to the head, perhaps accounting for the confusion.

There had long been rumours in the professional wrestling business that both Bravo and his friend Gino Brito had links to organised crime, with some even speculating the involvement of various Montreal wrestling offices they were involved in. Brito had been arrested for participation in a loan-shark ring just a few months before Bravo’s murder. Bravo himself had links to several people detained the previous week when over 1000 pounds of cocaine was seized by police, the drugs being smuggled in tomato cans. These links extend to the former wrestling star’s family, with Bravo’s own aunt being the wife of Vincenzo “Vic” Cotroni, also known as “The Egg”. Cotroni was the godfather of the Cotroni family who controlled part of the Montreal underworld, being an offshoot of the Bonanno family, one of New York’s “Five Families”. Bravo had even worked as a chauffeur for Paul Cotroni, another member of the family.