Indeed, Sammartino – who, by the time of his death in 2018, had spent more than 20 years as the last surviving key figure involved in that match (and was in good health until his last months) – often said the latter explanation is the one, and with few to no surviving accurate records (no taped footage of the match itself, no existing paper records and strict maintenance of Kayfabe abounding in that era) there's little evidence to dispute him. Depending on who one finds most believable, the heart attack was either legit (and he agreed to drop the title so he could recover), he was indeed sick but – insisting that he be allowed to hold onto the title until he recovered to go on tour as "champion" – was made by bookers to wrestle and drop the title as planned, or he was healthy all along and simply refused to cooperate with (the elder) Vince McMahon in dropping the title to a wrestler they found more charismatic and had more drawing power. According to most accounts, Rogers – just 42 years old – had suffered a heart attack not long before his scheduled match against Sammartino, and was booked to lose the title.
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