gold star for USAHOF

RIP: Pedro Morales

RIP: Pedro Morales
13 Feb
2019
Not in Hall of Fame

Sad news emerged from the world of Pro Wrestling as former Heavyweight Champion, Pedro Morales passed away today at the age of 76.

From Puerto Rico, Morales began wrestling in 1959 at the age of 17 and went right to work performing on the midcard all across the country.  He would first emerge on the main event scene in Los Angeles for the WWA where he would win the promotion’s Heavyweight Championship by defeating The Destroyer in 1965.  L.A. would be his main base of operations for the next few years where he would be a multi-time tag team champion and would also venture north to San Francisco where he and Pepper Gomez would be the tag team champions there.  After California, Morales ventured further west to Hawaii where he would stay for two years winning their Heavyweight Championship twice while also winning the tag titles on multiple occasions, but it was his next move, which would be where he would become most famous.

Morales joined the WWWF in 1970 and early in 1971 he would defeat Freddie Blassie in a tournament final to win their version of the United States Title.  The reigning World Heavyweight Champion, Bruno Sammartino was getting tired and he needed a break and requested time off and he would lose the championship to Ivan Koloff, who was meant to be an interim champion as McMahon saw money in Morales who drew the fervent Puerto Rican fanbase of New York City and he would defeat Koloff to become the World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion that year.  

While Morales title reign did not eclipse Bruno’s both in popularity and tenure, the 1,027 days at the top of the WWWF cemented him as a huge name not just among the Latino community but the wrestling one at large.  Morales would top the title to Stan Stasiak in 1973 so that Bruno could reclaim it nine days later and the Puerto Rican would stay in the WWWF for a couple more years before departing.

In the next five years Morales would travel across the country starring in San Francisco, the AWA, Championship Wrestling from Florida and in New Japan.  He would win titles everywhere where he was often at the top of the card but in 1980 he would return the WWF where he was positioned as the number two face in the company.  He would team with Bob Backlund at the Shea Stadium Show and defeat the Wild Samoans for the WWF Tag Team Championship, which he would only hold for one day as the WWF had a rule in place that did not allow double champions (Backlund was the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at the time).  Later in 1980, Morales defeated Ken Patera to win the WWF Intercontinental Champion and would become the first recognized Triple Crown winner in the organization.  He would lose the IC Title to Don Muraco in 1981 but would win it back from him a year later only to eventually lose it back to Muraco.

Morales would perform in Puerto Rico the next two years before returning to the WWF for a two year stint in a midcard role.  He would retire in 1987 and would be inducted into the then named WWF Hall of Fame in 1995.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Pedro Morales

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