Pedro Morales, the fourth WWE champion.
As Ivan Koloff was pinning Bruno Sammartino’s shoulders to the mat, a young Superstar was back in the Madison Square Garden locker room packing his bag after a successful debut. With just one WWE match on his résumé, not many Northeast fans knew much about the newcomer. But in three weeks time, the entire nation would soon be celebrating Pedro Morales.
Originally from the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, Morales moved to Brooklyn to live with his aunt when he was just a boy. Like most young Latinos in his borough, he grew up idolizing Miguel Perez, a mainstay on the MSG wrestling scene. Once he became old enough, Morales decided to follow in his hero’s footsteps and become a professional wrestler.
Still a teenager at the time, Morales bounced around New York’s smaller venues for several years. It wasn’t until January 1963 that he received his big break, teaming with his idol Miguel Perez to battle the Tolos Brothers at Madison Square Garden. His brief time in the spotlight caught the eye of legendary West Coast competitor Fred Blassie, who urged Morales to take his game to Los Angeles.
While wrestling in the City of Angels, Morales really started to hone his technical skills, as well as develop that fiery temper he would later become famous for. He went on to capture the territory’s heavyweight championship on two occasions, defeating The Destroyer and Luke Graham. This valuable time at the top of the card offered Morales his first taste of the main event, an experience he would later draw from to gain WWE success.
With a wealth of wrestling knowledge now under his belt, Morales returned to New York on January 18, 1971—the same night Ivan Koloff ended Bruno Sammartino’s historic reign. The Russian Bear’s shocking victory kicked off the most terrifying title reign WWE fans had ever seen. Luckily for them, though, their fears would soon subside.
A mere three weeks after capturing the WWE Championship, Ivan Koloff put his gold on the line against newcomer Pedro Morales at MSG. A late-match belly-to-back suplex by the champ appeared to give Koloff the win, but he failed to take his own shoulders off the mat while the referee made the three count. Morales, on the other hand, did manage to get a shoulder up at the last second. For a brief moment, a sense of confusion fell over the audience; everyone had not witnessed Morales lift his shoulder late in the count. But when the referee finally walked over to Morales and raised his hand in victory, the crowd erupted. Even Bruno Sammartino joined in the celebration. Unable to contain his emotions, the former champ bolted from the locker room to congratulate the fourth Superstar to ever hold the WWE Championship.
After toppling the hated Russian, Pedro Morales became an instant hero to fans everywhere, especially the large Puerto Rican population in New York. At the time, a good portion of the area’s immigrants were living in poverty. To them, Morales as WWE Champion provided a reason to cheer, a chance to temporarily leave their worries behind.
Pedro Morales vs. Ivan Koloff.
“Ethnicity played a big role in Pedro’s success,” recalls WWE Hall of Famer Howard Finkel. “He was a god. I was a fan back then and I would attend a lot of shows; there were always a large number of Puerto Rican fans there. They believed in him. That is one of those things that is so pertinent.”
Behind the support of his fellow Latinos, Pedro Morales proudly defended the WWE Championship for nearly three years. Only Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Bob Backlund have held the title longer. Over the course of his epic reign, Morales successfully turned back such future Hall of Famers as George “The Animal” Steele, Baron Mikel Scicluna, and Ernie Ladd. He even battled fellow fan favorite Bruno Sammartino to a seventy-five-minute time-limit draw at New York’s Shea Stadium.
Like Sammartino, it appeared Morales would hold the gold forever, which is why the events of December 1, 1973, were so unexpected.
Morales agreed to put the WWE Championship on the line in Philadelphia against Stan “The Man” Stasiak, a Superstar who gained much of his notoriety competing in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. He had already had a few brief runs with WWE but nothing that stood out as exceptional. On this night, though, The Man would forever etch his name in the annals of sports-entertainment history when he pinned Morales to claim the championship. News of Stasiak’s win swept like wildfire across the nation, and fans everywhere began to loathe the man who had knocked off their champion. At home, however, the new champ was a bit of a hero.
“I was only three years old at the time, but I have a vague memory of my father bringing that shiny belt home,” recalls Stasiak’s son and former WWE Superstar, Shawn Stasiak. “As a toddler, I thought it was a toy belt. I remember carrying it around the house, playing with it and pretending I was the king of the house.”
Unfortunately, playtime lasted only nine days. On December 10, 1973, Bruno Sammartino defeated The Man to reclaim the WWE title. For the Italian strongman, the win made him the first-ever two-time WWE Champion. But for Stasiak, it meant the end of one of the shortest reigns in history.
“It doesn’t matter if he held it for nine days, nine seconds, or nine years. He held it and was one of the original WWE Champions. His reign will always be cemented in WWE history,” boasts Shawn, whose father passed away in 1997. “I would imagine that he would have liked to have held it longer, or at least on some other occasion, but I’ll always remember him referring to it as the happiest nine days of his life. He felt blessed and was very grateful for the opportunity and experience.”
By Bruno Sammartino’s second WWE title reign, most of the champ’s adversaries from the 1960s had either retired or moved on to other promotions, making way for a whole host of new challengers. Despite the fresh faces, however, Sammartino was able to mirror the same success he gained during his first run with the gold.
Ken Patera. Bruiser Brody. Nikolai Volkoff. They all tried to knock off the mighty champion, but all fell short. Stan Hansen came closest in April 1976. While competing at MSG, Hansen lifted Sammartino for a bodyslam, a move he had executed successfully thousands of times in the past. This time, however, the champ’s sweaty body caused Hansen to lose his grip, and he dropped Sammartino on his head.
The failed slam broke the champ’s neck.
Miraculously, Sammartino continued with the match, despite the injury making him a prime target for Hansen’s signature Lariat clothesline. In the end, the referee was forced to stop the match, due to excessive blood loss by Sammartino. Had the official not made the controversial decision, there’s a very real chance today’s list of WWE Champions would include the name Stan Hansen.
After only two months of rehabilitation, a courageous Bruno Sammartino returned to the ring seeking vengeance. At the second Showdown at Shea Stadium, he beat Stan Hansen mercilessly. Eventually, the massacre became too much for the challenger to withstand, and he ran toward the safety of the locker room. Hansen’s cowardly act gave Sammartino the count-out win and allowed him to proudly carry the WWE Championship into 1977, his fourteenth calendar year with the gold strapped firmly around his waist.
Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Stasiak.
