Rant #2,314: Never Forget

A professional wrestling icon died on late Tuesday evening.

Say what you want about pro wrestling, but this guy, like Bruno Sammartino, was the real deal, an extremely important figure in the history of the sport in America and its popularity with minorities.

Pedro Morales, 76, was a seminal figure in pro wrestling in the late 1960s through the early 1980s, and as one of the great champions of the sport in the days that it was more regional than international, he, like Sammartino, was one of the personalities that set the groundwork for the WWE being what it is today.

Morales became a professional wrestler at age 17, and while there were many ethnics wrestling in the sport around the country, Morales appeared to be something special.

He worked his way up through the ranks, and eventually landed in what was then the WWWF, where Sammartino reigned supreme.

Working at his craft and building a huge audience, Vince McMahon saw the huge ethnic wave that was generated by the presence of Morales, and over a period of years, while Sammartino was still the top dog in the sport, Morales was weened to be the next champion--the first champion to reflect the newest audience that was engaging the sport, Hispanics, and in New York, specifically, Puerto Ricans.

In 1970s, Morales won the WWWF championship from the hated Russian, Ivan Koloff--actually, an Irishman whose character was a Russian bully--and this led to mass popularity in the WWWF for Morales, whose presence painted an almost nationalistic tone with many Hispanics, in particular Puerto Ricans who started to fill up Madison Square Garden and wave Puerto Rican flags when he would enter the ring.

He held the championship belt for over 1,000 days, until losing to Stan Stasiak in December 1973.

Morales later went on to win the World Tag Team title and the Intercontinental champion, making him pro wrestling's first three championship star, something like winning the Triple Crown in baseball.

And through it all, Morales became an outspoken wrestler, an icon to the Hispanic population. After saying "I reddy for any kine of action, Wince," he would often break away from speaking his broken English during his interviews when interviewer McMahon would say to him, "Please say something for our Spanish audience." And he did in Spanish.

He went on to become something of an icon to the non-Hispanic audience too.

He and Sammartino had become personalities that went beyond pro wrestling, so a clash was inevitable. What was now the WWF created friction between the two, and Sammartino and Morales culminated their clash while Morales was still champion during one of the first big stadium events that pro wrestling ever had, the Showdown at Shea Supercard in New York's Shea Stadium in 1972.

The two wrestlers fought to a draw, brought on by New York City's then-11 p.m. curfew that was enforced for this match.

After Morales finally lost his championship right before Christmas in 1973, he continued to wrestle, both for the WWF and other wrestling organizations, into the 1980s, and then abruptly retired without much fanfare at all.

He did some Spanish announcing for the WWF, but otherwise, he lived a quiet life away from the ring.

His name resurfaced in the late 1980s when it was announced that Morales had been picked up in a drug bust, but it wasn't him. Evidently, someone with the same name, and who incredibly looked very much like the former wrestling star, was charged in some type of drug deal, but it was not THE Pedro Morales.

However, his name was soiled forever with this link, and he kept a very low profile over the past 30 years or so, other than being named to the WWE Hall of Fame some years ago.

I was never a big Morales fan, because quite frankly, I liked the villains of wrestling, and Morales more times than not was the good guy, and a very good guy.

He not only represented himself, but Puerto Ricans and Hispanics everywhere.

I remember going to Madison Square Garden with friends to see wrestling, and we used to sit in what was called "The Puerto Rican Section," all the way up top at the Garden, and fans would bring huge flags and show off their own pride in Puerto Rico by waving them when he took the ring.

And you could not say you weren't rooting for Morales when you were sitting in those seats, because you were seemingly taking your life in your hands if you told anyone that you were rooting for his opponent.

Yes, people took Morales, and their Puerto Rican pride, very seriously back then, and you had to know how to act if you sat up in the rafters at the Garden during a wrestling match with "Peeeedro."

Now he joins Sammartino in the great wrestling ring in the sky, certainly as one of the seminal figures in what has become an international phenomenon.

Like with Sammartino, quite frankly, no Morales, no WWE.

Simple as that.

R.I.P.