When Bruno Sammartino was injured, the WWWF needed someone to take his place and the first ethnic World Champion was chosen: Pedro Morales. He defeated WWWF Champion Ivan Koloff in 1971 to capture the title and then went on to have classic defenses against the best the WWWF had to offer, including the Sicilians and Baron Mikel Scicluna before losing it to Stan Stasiak two years later. 

    Morales went on to have a 76 minute, time limit draw with Bruno Sammartino, who had defeated Stasiak to regain the World Heavyweight Title. Morales moved on to the tag teams, teaming with Bob Backlund to defeat the Wild Samoans for the WWF World Tag Team Titles in 1980 and kept feuding with the Samoans until December of 1981 when he defeated Ken Patera to win the WWF Intercontinental Title. He lost the belt to Don Muraco but regained it in a Texas Death Match. Morales lost the gold to Muraco for the final time and soon slipped into semi-retirement. Morales made a big return to the WWF in the mid 1980s to take part in the 20 Man Battle Royal as part of Wrestlemania 2 and began teaming with Tito Santana, feuding with the next generation of Samoans, the Islanders under the tutelage of Bobby Heenan. Morales finally left the mat wars for good and became a Spanish Announcer for the WWF before ultimately retiring. 

    Morales was given the WWF's highest honour in 1995 when he was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame. He is best known as the little ethnic wrestler who could whip the crowd into a frenzy. He was such a draw that he took the reigns of the WWWF World Title from Bruno Sammartino and kept the company rocking and kept it rocking until his retirement. There is no doubt this former World Champion belongs here in the UWOW Hall of Fame.