Bruno Sammartino from WWE, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from Cricket: Athletes from different sports who retired as world champions at their prime

Bruno Sammartino from WWE and the duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from Cricket have a similarity. Both of them belong to different sports but have a similar end to their careers. The duo of Virat and Rohit recently announced their retirement from T20Is which has hurt the fans. Not many liked their decision to retire from the shorter format.

Likewise, Bruno retired from WWE in 1977 after carrying the company for more than a decade. The Italian still holds the record for the longest reign as a world champion. He held the world title in two instances but for a record time. His world title reign of 4040 days is the most for a wrestler. It lasted in two different periods.

For the first time in 1963, the Italian became the world champion. He became the WWF Champion by beating Rogers in just 48 seconds. He went on to be the champion for a record 2803 days, the most for a wrestler of all time. His second title reign was from 1972 to 1977. After being the champion for 1237 days, Bruno retired as a wrestler.

Retirement at prime as world champions

It is worth noting that Bruno was the first and rarest wrestler to have retired as a world champion. Only Ric Flair had retired after winning the title in 1992. But he returned to action a few months later. Similarly, Rohit and Virat Kohli have retired from T20Is as the world champions. Not many in cricket have retired soon after becoming the world champions.

After winning the T20 World Cup 2024, Kohli said that he had already planned to retire from the format irrespective of the result. Rohit joined his long-time teammate and retired from the format to pave the path for the new generation of talents. It is worth noting that both Virat and Rohit are in the prime of their career like Bruno was.