Pedro Morales facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pedro Morales
Morales as the WWWF Heavyweight Champion
Birth name	Pedro Antonio Morales
Born	(1942-10-22)October 22, 1942 Culebra, Puerto Rico
Died	February 12, 2019(2019-02-12) (aged 76) Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States
Spouse(s)	Karen Morales ​ (m. 1972)​
Children	1
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	John Kilonis Johnny Como Johnny Ricco Pedro Morales
Billed height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Billed weight	235 lb (107 kg)
Billed from	Culebra, Puerto Rico
Trained by	Barba Roja
Debut	1959
Retired	1987

Pedro Antonio Morales (October 22, 1942 – February 12, 2019) was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with Worldwide Wrestling Associates (WWA) and the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF).

Debuting in 1959, Morales originally came to prominence with WWA in the 1960s, where he held the World Heavyweight Championship and World Tag Team Championship. In 1970, he joined the WWWF, winning its World Heavyweight Championship and United States Championship. In a second run with the by-then World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the 1980s, he won the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and Tag Team Championship, establishing himself as the promotion's first Triple Crown Champion. He retired from professional wrestling in 1987.

A popular champion, Morales had particular appeal to his native Puerto Ricans and the wider Latino audience. The first Latino to hold a world heavyweight championship, his reign as WWWF Heavyweight Champion remains among the longest in history. He previously also held the record for most cumulative days as Intercontinental Champion at 619 days across two reigns, having been surpassed by Gunther in February 2024. He was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2015 and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2017.

Early life

Morales was born on October 22, 1942, in the municipality of Culebra, an island off the shore of Puerto Rico's main island. He was a member of a large family, with 85 cousins just on his mother's side. Morales once claimed that sixty five percent of Culebra's population had some bloodline connection to him. He was raised in Culebra throughout his childhood and remained there until reaching his adolescence, when his mother sent him to live with an aunt in Brooklyn, New York, to finish his high school education. It was there that one of his sister's friends introduced him to the members of a wrestling club which quickly earned his interest. After practicing in his school and at a local YMCA, Morales debuted as an amateur wrestler at the age of 13, competing in the 160 lb division. In New York, he also became a professional wrestling fan, witnessing the tag team of Miguel Pérez, Sr. and Antonino Rocca. Morales also played baseball. When he was 16 years old, he was selected in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico's (now known as Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente) first year draft by the Leones de Ponce. However, due to living outside of Puerto Rico, he declined the opportunity. Instead, Morales elected to train in order to become a professional wrestler, in the process gaining twenty pounds. A year later, his father signed the documentation required by the New York State Athletic Commission in order to begin his career as an underage performer.

Retirement (1987–2019)

Following his retirement from the squared circle, Morales became a road agent and later a commentator for WWF's Spanish-language programming, the first time that a Puerto Rican performed this duty for an international promotion. He returned to this role working for World Championship Wrestling during the 1990s, narrating Nitro and pay per views alongside Miguel Alonzo. This accomplishment has since been duplicated by Jack Meléndez and Willie Urbina.

Morales made few wrestling related appearances since his WCW days, with his last appearances being at autograph signings in fan conventions. He appeared at Wrestling Reunion III in 2005 and Wrestling Reunion 5 in 2007, reuniting with Sammartino at the latter. Despite living a low profile life following his retirement, he was the inspiration for homages and mentions throughout the decades which followed. A self-proclaimed "old school" wrestler, he was not interested in the overselling of gimmicks and spectacle that is seen in modern professional wrestling, despite admitting the economic success of the "sports entertainment" formula.

Legacy

Morales was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame as part of the class of 1995. Professional wrestling critics and purists have discussed his contributions to the discipline in widespread publications. Tomás Marín Rodríguez "El Martillo", part of a group led by José Antonio Geigel and one of the founding members of the first promotion in Puerto Rico, expressed in an interview that he considers Morales the best Puerto Rican wrestler in history. Marín considered that both his in-ring style and chivalry made him "unique" among performers. Terry Funk, Stan Hansen, Greg Valentine and Magnificent Muraco have expressed having enjoyed working matches with Morales. Fernwood Gold III and Thor Jensen of UGO Networks listed him as the 36th best face wrestler in history, noting how he appealed to the fanbase in New York. His run as the first Latin American Intercontinental Champion is often lauded. Bill Barnwell of IGN Sports also included Morales in the site's list of Top Intercontinental Champions, placing him in the sixth slot. Jeremy Thomas of 411.com ranked him fifth as part of a debate among the website's staff. In a similar discussion held at Slam! Sports, writer Greg Oliver considered him the best wrestler to hold the belt, stating that when "he held the title, there was a sense of honour and pride with it". WWE itself ranked Morales in the ninth spot in the "Intercontinental Champions" entry of their Top 25 series. As merits for this recognition, the promotion mentioned him being the first wrestler to win the title twice and holding it for a combined total of over 600 days. His combined total stood as the record until he was surpassed by Gunther in February 2024. WWE also included him in a compendium titled "Top 50 Good Guys in Wrestling History", which featured wrestlers that performed as fan favorites during their careers. In September 2016, the promotion joined NBC Universo to commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month, creating a series highlighting the career of several wrestlers including Morales.

Outside of the WWE, he has received recognition as a Latin American and Hispanic pioneer in other promotions. In mid-1996, Morales appeared at an event of the short lived American Wrestling Federation, in the championship match between Bob Orton, Jr. and Tito Santana, along with other superstars and legends like Sgt. Slaughter, Chris Adams, and special guest referee Jim Brunzell. On August 31, 2006, as part of a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling taping, Morales was mentioned by Konnan along fellow Hall of Famers Carlos Colón, Santana, Mil Máscaras and the Guerrero family, being acknowledged as Latinos that paved the way within the wrestling industry. This was part of an in-character celebratory speech following The Latin American Xchange's coronation as NWA World Tag Team Champions. In reality, Konnan credits him with "[teaching] a lot" about the politics of wrestling and "the things you need to do in the ring to be a success in this business" during his time in WCW. From 2003 onwards, the World Wrestling Council approached Morales and offered holding an Aniversario event in his honor, but he declined the invitations for ten years. In 2013, Morales accepted being the honoree of Aniversario 40. He was the centerpiece of the International Pedro Morales Fan Club, an independent organization that ran during the 1970s and that recruited members through wrestling magazines. In 2000, The Ring Chronicle inducted Morales into its own version of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Modern fan reaction has also been positive in regards to the historical significance of his accomplishments. Nate Scaccia, a contributor to the website Bleacher Report, considers Morales the best Intercontinental champion of all time, ranking first in the title's entry at the website's WWE Champion Series. Michael Robinson and Will Baker, amateur writers for the same site, also consider him the 31st best WWE wrestler in history and 11th greatest WWE Champion respectively. He repeated at the ninth place in a subsequent interpretation. Besides the wrestling and sports media, the mun2 network also featured Morales in an article that listed their selection for the "20 of the most memorable Latino wrestlers in WWE history" which was published in 2012. When compiling a list based on the "[wrestler's] impact on the [Puerto Rican] fanbase", Raúl Álzaga of Primera Hora listed him third overall.

As a trainer, Morales was involved in the instruction of Dory Funk Jr., a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion who in 2009 was inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of The Funks. In 2022, his estate signed a deal to appear in Greg Gagne’s AWA-inspired PowerTown action figure line.

Personal life and death

His mother Teodora was a businesswoman, who continued to advise him on economic decisions throughout his life. Morales met Karen Johnson in 1965, when she attended an event at Long Beach where he was performing. They dated for five years, with her working as a teacher while his career often took him abroad to other states and countries. The couple married in 1972, in a small ceremony held at Puerto Rico which was only attended by family and the judge, continuing this relationship throughout his wrestling career and afterwards. The couple had a son, Pedro Morales Jr. born in 1974. Due to the nature of his work, Morales had lived in over a dozen cities throughout his career, including some time in Japan. However, when his son was about to start kindergarten, the family bought a house in central New Jersey. His wife began working at Avenel Street Elementary School. The resources gathered in the industry were reinvested in "stocks, bonds and properties" which allowed them to capitalize in the long term.

After his last job in pro wrestling as a Spanish-language commentator in WCW, Morales retired from the sport and permanently settled in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey where he adopted gardening as a hobby, cultivating tomatoes in his personal garden. Due to working during a time where the ring featured no methods of protection, Morales suffered several injuries that continued to linger after his career was over, limiting the amount of physical exercise that he was capable of doing. However, he remained a frequent visitor to The Club, a gym located in Woodbridge. Despite being a resident of this area, he continued to travel frequently to Puerto Rico, visiting the archipelago multiple times per year. In 2003, he expressed interest in returning to live permanently in a coastal town near the Caribbean Sea once his wife retired. However, this did not materialize. An advanced case of Parkinson's disease prevented him from traveling to Puerto Rico during his final years. By this point his health had deteriorated, with the emergence of cardiac afflictions and cancer as well. Morales died on February 12, 2019, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey at the age of 76. He was survived by his wife, with their son predeceasing them in 2014.

Championships and accomplishments

Morales as WWWF Heavyweight Champion in 1973

• 50th State Big Time Wrestling
  • NWA Hawaii Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • NWA Hawaii Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Bing Ki Lee (1) and Ed Francis (2)
• American Wrestling Alliance / Big Time Wrestling (San Francisco)
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (3 times) – with Pepper Gomez (2 times) and Pat Patterson (1 time)
• Cauliflower Alley Club
  • Other honoree (1994)
• Championship Wrestling from Florida
  • NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Rocky Johnson
  • NWA Florida Television Championship (1 time)
  • NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time)
  • NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (3 times)
• Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
  • Class of 2015
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Wrestler of the Year (1972)
  • PWI ranked him No. 111 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
• Worldwide Wrestling Associates
  • WWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • WWA World Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Luis Hernandez (1), Mark Lewin (1), Ricky Romero (1), and Victor Rivera (1)
• World Wrestling Council
  • WWC North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Carlos Colón, Sr.
• World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation
  • WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bob Backlund
  • WWWF United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • WWWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • First WWF Triple Crown Champion
  • WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Most Overrated (1981,1982)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2017)