It's not about whether you've seen a match. Bruno carried WWWF for 7 years and became the most established name in sports.
It kinda is. I'm glad WWE could rely so much on him in the territory days, but if it wasn't for Hulk Hogan making the company national in the 80s, I wouldn't be watching today.
Neither would anyone else watching Raw tonight. Warrior was a man who helped build a national WWF with Hulk Hogan.
Jake "the Snake" helped redefine what a heel was during that time as well.
Then in the 90s Razor Ramon took what Jake did and made it cool to cheer for the "bad guy." Let's not forget what Paul Bearer did for the icon, the Undertaker.