[1971-03-15-WWWF-MSG, NY] Pedro Morales vs Blackjack Mulligan

[paul sosnowski]

Pedro Morales makes his first WWWF Title Defense in MSG.    Available on the Network, Vault, Hidden Gems, 1971.  "The Pride of Puerto Rico"

[shoe]

Man the Garden hates the Wizard. Mulligan gets booed out of the building. Morales is over. I'm loving Mulligan's reactions to the jeers. Mulligan teasing loading the glove to tons of heat. Mulligan getting big early. Morales using his speed to avoid Mulligan. Nothing better when both guys are over. Morales with a huge response to his arm drag. Mulligan with a quick loaded glove strike and he hides it from the ref. Mulligan getting heat on Pedro. Crowd is trying to rally Pedro. Big punch by Pedro. He's backing off Muligan. Mulligan constantly teasing loading the glove. Mulligan's size is too much for Pedro. Mulligan gets whacked in the head with something from a fan. Looked like an egg.  Cops are on the job. Big slam by Pedro, which I thought they would and should have milked it for a giant pop. They treated it as just a high spot. Mulligan has been aces teasing loading the glove. Here he loads it and puts Pedro down. Big backdrop Mulligan gives Pedro. Finish came out of no where.

 

This was super heated. Mulligan was tremendous teasing the loaded glove. The work was solid, but could have been better. 2 1/2*

[Ricky Jackson]

Holy crap was there some serious heat during the pre-match introductions. Wizard pelted with garbage. Pedro as beloved as Bruno in MSG. Fun match. Mulligan green but super over as a heel. Great size differential to make Pedro look even more impressive in victory. Worked at a brisk pace for the time. Pedro was a pretty strong babyface at this point, much more impressive than 10 years later as IC champ when he was often phoning it in