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Pedro Morales
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pedro Morales | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Pedro Morales |
| Billed height | 5'10" |
| Billed weight | 235 lbs |
| Born | October 22, 1942 Culebra, Puerto Rico |
| Resides | Central New Jersey |
| Trained by | Barba Rojo |
| Debut | 1959 |
| Retired | 1987 |
Pedro Morales (born October 22, 1942) is a retired, Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He began his wrestling career as a teenager in 1959 and continued through the late 1980s. Notably, Morales was the first man in wrestling history to win all three major men's titles in the World Wrestling Federation: the WWWF Heavyweight Championship, the Intercontinental Championship and the WWF World Tag Team Championship.
Pedro debuted in 1959 at the Sunnyside Gardens, beating Buddy Gilbert. Morales wrestled on the West Coast during the 1960s, taking on regional stars of the day such as Fred Blassie and the The Destroyer, the latter from whom he took the World Wrestling Association Championship on March 12, 1965. Morales lost the title on July 23 to "Crazy" Luke Graham, but took it back from him on October 17, holding it for nine months before being defeated by Buddy Austin on August 5, 1966. Morales then concentrated on tag team wrestling, co-holding the WWA tag belts four times during 1966-68, with four different partners. During a stint in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Morales held the Hawaiian U.S. title for two months in 1969.
In 1970, Morales joined the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, now known as World Wrestling Entertainment) on the East Coast, and soon became a fan favourite. But as a babyface, he could not be expected to feud with fellow face Bruno Sammartino for his WWWF World Heavyweight Championship belt. Opportunity knocked on January 18, 1971 when Ivan Koloff ended Sammartino's seven-year reign in a shocking upset. Three weeks later, on February 8, Morales wrestled Koloff for the belt at Madison Square Garden and won the match to become the fourth Heavyweight Champion in WWWF history.
Morales proved to be a popular champion, especially among New York's Puerto Rican ethnic community. Pedro became known for his scientific wrestling ability and tremendous endurance, as well as a "fiery Latin temper" that would emerge during matches. In likely the greatest match of his career, on September 1, 1972 he wrestled Bruno Sammartino to a 76-minute draw in the main event of Showdown at Shea - it was the first WWWF title match to ever pit two fan favourites against each other.
After a title reign of almost three years, Morales dropped the title to Stan Stasiak on December 1, 1973. Morales soon faded from the WWWF and wrestled for other promotions around the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including returns to NWA regions where he won more tag team gold with Pat Patterson and then Rocky Johnson.
In May 1980 Pedro staged a WWF comeback, and added yet another title to his career on August 9 when he teamed with reigning Heavyweight champ Bob Backlund to defeat the tag team titleholders, the Wild Samoans, at the historic "Showdown At Shea 1980" card. However, Backlund and Morales quickly had to forfeit the belts due to a rule that no Heavyweight champion could hold a second title at the same time.
The Intercontinental Championship was now the only major men's WWF title that Morales had never won. But on December 8, 1980, he became the first man to complete the federation's "triple crown" with a victory over Ken Patera at the site of many of Pedro's great past triumphs, Madison Square Garden. Morales memorably feuded with "Magnificent" Don Muraco during 1981, losing the belt to him on June 20 but reclaiming it on November 20. But it was Muraco who ultimately ended Morales' second I-C title reign, on January 22, 1983.
Morales never won another title, and had reached an advanced stage in his career by the time of Vince McMahon Jr.'s national expansion of the WWF in the mid-1980s. Morales made his only WrestleMania appearance in 1986 when he was a part of a 20-man invitational battle royal at WrestleMania 2, and wrestled in a WWF ring for the final time in late 1987. After retirement from the squared circle, Morales became a commentator for WWF's Spanish-language TV programming.
Pedro Morales was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995.
Contents |
- Morales Lock (Boston crab)
- Caribbean Cannonball Splash (Senton splash)
- Backbreaker
- National
- Regional
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- NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Rocky Johnson
- NWA Florida Television Championship (1 time)
- NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bing Ki Lee (1) and Ed Francis (2)
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time) - with Pat Patterson
- PWI ranked him #111 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003.
- PWI Wrestler of the Year (1972)
World Wrestling Association (Los Angeles)
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- WWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
- WWA Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Luis Hernandez (1), Mark Lewin (1), Ricky Romero (1), and Victor Rivera (1)
-
- WWC Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Carlitos Colon
- WWC North American Championship (2 times)
World Wide Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Federation
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- 1981 Most Overrated Wrestler
- 1982 Most Overrated Wrestler
Pedro Morales was the reigning WWWF United States Champion when he won the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship from Ivan Koloff, making him the first wrestler in WWE history to hold two championships simultaneously.