Many wrestlers declare to hail from unique and even fictitious places, however Scicluna (pronounced sikh-cloo-nah) really was from Malta. He was happy of his homeland and returned to Malta every year with his household.
Baron (a title offered to Maltese noblemen) Mikel Scicluna is described as a velvet-caped expert wrestling bad man who enraged fans with his use of foreign items and other tricky methods. He would play a sort of shell video game with the referee, concealing the things (probably a roll of quarters) in his trunks, boot, mouth, under his arm, etc. Just rarely did referees ever catch on to Scicluna’s deceptiveness, and he utilized them to his advantage and as his signature relocation. Another special feature of Scicluna was that he would always offer his ear no matter what relocation he was on the receiving end of.
WWE explains him as “the most famous male in sports-entertainment to be billed from the small island country in the Mediterranean Sea. Scicluna would get in the ring with a blue cape slung over his shoulder, indicating that somewhere in the distant past there was a tip of royal blood. However when the bell rang, there was nothing suave about the Baron, who frequently took advantage of challengers with a roll of coins.”
Starting the Profession
His profession began when he went to Toronto and battled expertly as Mike Valentino in the 1950s. In 1965, he went south of the border to join the World Wide Fumbling Federation managed by Vince McMahon Sr. in 1965. Scicluna thus ended up being to initially and just Maltese wrestler to ever join a significant fumbling promo such as WWWF up until today.
Scicluna was seen commonly in televised matches and a staple on the local Pittsburgh telecast ‘Studio Fumbling’.
He wrestled, two times, Bruno Sammartino for the world champion at Madison Square Garden, losing both times.
Sammartino was a friend of Scicluna. “I had a few of my greatest matches in the ’60s against Mike,” Mr. Sammartino said. “I enjoyed people who were dedicated to what they did. He strove to remain in excellent shape, and he always offered it everything he had. He might actually move. I had actually heard Mike wasn’t feeling well. I was surprised when I got the news.”
In his wrestling career, Scicluna was always a bad guy. “He enjoyed it when they booed him; to him that was applause,” stated Costs Cardille, the host of ‘Studio Wrestling’. However according to his kid, Michael, “He was nothing like his battling character. He played the function well. Those who didn’t understand him thought that’s who he was. However he could not have actually been more different in reality than he remained in the ring.”
Rise to Fame
Throughout his profession, Scicluna’s greatest successes came as a tag team wrestler. Quickly after going into WWWF, Scicluna won the United States Tag Group Championship with Smasher Sloan in 1966. Six years later on, he and King Curtis Iaukea captured the World Tag Group Champion.
He also partnered with fellow Hall of Famer George “The Animal” Steele (mainly in the Pittsburgh location) throughout his profession, and the 2 were a notable thorn in the side of Steel City native Bruno Sammartino.
In between, Scicluna developed himself as a frequent risk to Sammartino and Pedro Morales throughout their reigns as WWE Champions, coming close however never winning the gold.
Scicluna’s matches were never ever high up on the card (as he invested the bulk of his profession as a jobber) but he always got a heated response from the crowd particularly as he would often engage in amusing spoken exchanges with the regulars at ringside. He was a distinct heel character and, regardless of his less-than-impressive win-loss record, is considered as one of the most “glorified jobbers” in the WWWF. He constantly put over the stars on tv, however at the arena reveals it was not uncommon for Scicluna to defeat other initial.
His most well-known moment, however, came when he associated with a popular angle in 1976 whilst battling Gorilla Monsoon at a WWWF TV taping. Throughout that match, boxing fantastic Muhammad Ali, who was seated at ringside, began screaming at Monsoon. Scicluna, who had been tossed from the ring by Monsoon, threw up his arms in disgust and walked back to the dressing room as Ali proceeded to get into the ring and blend it up with Monsoon. The confrontation ended with Monsoon giving Ali a plane spin and disposing him to the mat.
Scicluna retired in 1983 after 30 years in the ring and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996 by Monsoon. He died at the age of 80 after a fight with liver cancer.
Baron Mikel Scicluna’s Championships and Accomplishments:
NWA San Francisco
NWA World Tag Team Champion (San Francisco version) (1 time) fumbling as Mike Valentino with Gene Dubuque
World Champion Fumbling (Australia)
IWA World Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Ciclón Negro
World Wide Wrestling Federation
WWF Hall of Popularity (Class of 1996)
WWWF United States Tag Group Championship (1 time) with Smasher Sloan
WWWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) with King Curtis Iaukea
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