Meet The Maltese Professional Wrestler From Balzan Who Made It All The Way To The WWE Hall Of Fame

Millions of people have religiously followed the WWE over the last decades, thanks to the frequent entertaining fights and the larger-than-life personas. And while you’d expect most of these big stars to be American or British, there was actually one Maltese wrestler who made it all the way to the Hall of Fame.

This guy here primarily wrestled in Canada back in the 50s but eventually found his way into the WWE. Back then, he was still known by his first stage name, Mike Valentino.

But then, he developed his royal Maltese persona; Baron Mikiel Scicluna.

After he made his way to the WWWF (WWE today), Baron the meatbeast won the United States Tag Team Championship with fellow wrestler Smasher Sloan in 1966. Some years later, he even won the World Tag Team Championship with King Curtis Iaukea.

This 6”3 man-giant was a beast in the ring and used whatever he got his hands on to fight dirty and win, from rolls of coins to other wrestlers’ bodies.

One of his greater successes was pinning down famed Waldo Von Erich in six minutes during a match. Sans roll of coins.

As wrestling goes, Mikel had his fair share of feuds.

One particular one was with Bruno Sammartino which started out in 1966 and went on for over a decade. We have no idea why this feud ended or why it began in the first place, but it was hot and heavy for a very long time.

Scicluna even had a brush with Muhammed Ali.

In 1976, Mikel and another wrestler, Gorilla Monsoon were mid-match, when Scicluna was sent flying out of the ring by Gorilla. Muhammed Ali, who was totally just chilling in the audience, got on stage and tried to fight Gorilla Monsoon. Ali got destroyed.

Scicluna had the honour to fight Andre the Giant twice, and there’s even a YouTube video of the scary match between these two colossi.

Scicluna continued making WWE appearances in the 80s, until he eventually retired in 1984. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame after his retirement, but sadly succumbed to cancer soon after.

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