Six years ago today, Pedro Morales died. The wrestling world lost the second great WWE champion and crowd-puller of the early years within a short period of time.
He was the second great crowd favorite to shape an era in WWE in the era before Hulk Hogan.
On February 8, 1971, the then-WWWF crowned Pedro Morales as champion – and he would reign for nearly three years, until the end of 1973.
Morales was very successful in this role, selling out Madison Square Garden in New York 21 times for his 30 title matches there during his 1027-day reign. He was particularly popular in the Latin American community, for whom he was a pioneer in wrestling, but also beyond.
On February 12, 2019 – six years ago today – Morales, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died around ten months after the unrivaled Bruno Sammartino, who was his WWE predecessor and his successor. Morales suffered from Parkinson’s disease in its advanced stages.
Successor to Bruno Sammartino
Puerto Rican-born Morales was active in the ring between 1959 and 1987. He celebrated his breakthrough in the Los Angeles area, was champion of the local WWA league in the 1960s, and in 1970, after a stopover in Hawaii, he moved to the WWWF, which was then still run by Vince McMahon’s father Vince Sr. and was operating regionally in the New England states on the east coast.
The then-leader of the league built Morales up to succeed the eternal Sammartino, who was showing signs of fatigue after almost eight years as champion. Morales defeated the interim champion Ivan Koloff, who was placed between Sammartino and Morales.
In the years that followed, Morales defended his title against legendary villains such as “Classy” Freddie Blassie, Blackjack Mulligan (grandfather of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt), Don Leo Jonathan, George “The Animal” Steele and Larry “The Ax” Hennig (father of “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, grandfather of Curtis Axel) as the celebrated headliner of the big shows.
Pedro Morales was the first Triple Crown winner
After Morales lost the title to Stan Stasiak in 1973 (who in turn formed the transition to another Sammartino reign) and left the league in 1975, he returned in 1980 and celebrated further successes: He also won the Tag Team with Bob Backlund and the Intercontinental Title twice with victories over Ken Patera and Don Muraco. Morales was the first person to win the “Triple Crown” of all WWE titles that were significant at the time.
In the 1980s, he used his still-great popularity to help establish a new generation of stars: Sgt. Slaughter, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka (Jimmy Snuka: WWE legend passes away, leaving behind a murder mystery). He lost his last WWE title match in 1986 to the “Macho Man” Randy Savage, who was then taking off as the Intercontinental Champion.
Morales also helped to boost the career of another Hall of Famer: Tito Santana (“El Matador”) was often seen as Morales’ partner in the end, the two Latin American favorites faced various villainous duos of their time, including the Hart Foundation – the young Bret “The Hitman” Hart with partner Jim Neidhart.
Morales retired from wrestling in 1987 and went on to work behind the scenes at WWE and as a Spanish-language commentator for WWE and its then-rival WCW. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995.
Morales is survived by his wife, Karen, and an adult son.
