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February 13th, 2019, 6:11 PM
#1
RIP Pedro Morales
Sad to hear of Pedro Morales passing away.
He was the mainstay of the WWF business when I first became a fan - every week he'd give a great promo inviting all of the beautiful fans of (insert local city) to come out to see him, and together, we're gonna have a big su-prize for (insert heel opponent)...
I worked in the shade tobacco fields in many of those years, as a summer laborer, and there were many many Puerto Rican laborers we worked with. Pedro Morales was THEIR GOD, the InterContinental Champ was featured on TV all the time, while by golly we rarely got to see the champ Bob Backlund on TV.
I recall hearing several years ago that in his retirement years, he was really messed up physically and couldn't do interviews.
He was a true Hall of Famer.
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February 13th, 2019, 6:25 PM
#2
Yeah I actually thought he passed away a few years back. I have really nothing to contribute to this in terms of seeing his matches as I bet I've probably seen maybe 3-5, maybe more if they were on those old "Best of WWF Vol. whatever" tapes I'd rent in the late 80's early 90's. But he was always talked about in high regard whenever the IC championship was the subject.
For me it just always felt like pre-WM 1 there was this totally different WWF. Kind of reminds me of that bit in like 1994-1995 where you no longer had Hogan, Savage, Earthquake, Beefcake, Jake the Snake, HTM, Steamboat, etc. All the guys who were mega over in the 80's were in WCW all the sudden and you had a bunch of young guys and nobodies flooding in and getting pushed.
But Pedro always got his props, mainly due to being the first ever triple crown winner. I remember when Bret Hart became the 2nd it was huge.
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February 13th, 2019, 6:44 PM
#3
Taken too soon. Absolutely fantastic pitcher for the Red Sox and an integral part of ending the curse in '04.
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February 13th, 2019, 9:59 PM
#4
Cornette should have some interesting tales and comments on Pedro on an up coming podcast.
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February 15th, 2019, 10:07 PM
#5
Always feels like he's kind of a forgotten legend. Really the whole pre-Wrestlemania era is not very focused on in the WWE narrative, but it particularly feels like Pedro is underrated. The other long-term champions from that era (Bruno, Billy Graham, Backlund) all get a lot more attention than Pedro does. He was a great champion, a big star. Held the title for two years, headlined at Shea Stadium against Bruno in 1972.
If you want to see Pedro at his peak, here's him winning the WWWF Title from Ivan Koloff:
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February 15th, 2019, 10:11 PM
#6
Definitely an underrated legend. Rest in peace Pedro.
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February 21st, 2019, 11:28 PM
#7
So I wonder if you youngins ever heard the story of why Vince Sr dropped Morales and brought back Bruno as WWWF Champion back in 1973.
Ive heard Cornette allude to it a few times in passing like everybody listening should know about it like it's Wrasslin' 101 or something but it took a little tracking down to get it accurately (Boston Globe)
Two stories go about. The standard story is that Morales drew good in the Garden in New York where many Puetro Ricans lived back then (do now too) but not so well in the other arenas around the Northeast.
Not true. Let me tell you, the whole area was full of Puetro Ricans enough to support a Latino Champion.
True story was the crowds were somewhat more more violent than the average crowd supporting your White Meat babyface Champion to be blunt.
The incident occurred on May 15, 1971 soon after Morales won the belt and Blackjack Mulligan challenged him at Boston Garden.
Crazed fan jumped the guardrail and entered ring upon Mulligan's arrival, stuck a knife in his thigh, 'opening a large gash'. Gorilla Monsoon, a babyface at the time, broke kayfabe and rushed to the ring and attempted to stop the flow of blood with some towels, which quickly turned red as Mulligan was rushed away to a medical facility to receive 100 stitches...
Now here's where the urban legend part continues to takes over: Supposedly, this was the 'final' straw that got Vince Sr to call Bruno and get him back as Champion. Yet, Morales was Champion for 2 1/2 after this occurred.
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