Austin Region, Omaha Subregion, First Round: (2) Kurt Angle vs. (31) Pedro Morales

[klunderbunker]

This is a first round match in the Austin Region, Omaha Subregion. It is a standard one on one match. It will be held at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

#2. Kurt Angle

Vs.

#31. Pedro Morales

​

Polls will be open for three days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Morales is low seeded. He was one of, if not the first Latino to gain widespread appeal, being the first Latino to win a world title. He had a long run as WWWF champ, just over a thousand days. He was also the first Triple crowd winner in WWE history.

Angle should and will go over though. He could be serious, he could do comedy, he was a wrestling machine who carried both WWE and TNA at times. He put on classic matches with men big and small, and remains one of my favorites of all time.

 

[NSL]

I'm with Yaz here. I appreciate Morales's importance to the history of the sport, and the impact he's had on Latin American wrestlers, but Kurt Angle wins this one with his eyes closed.

That's not a knock on Morales, but more a testament to just how flat out awesome Angle is in and out of the ring. He could work with anyone, and got great matches out of some terrible talent, and he deserves a deep run in this tournament.

Also...it's in Omaha. Basically the most white bread place in the world besides maybe South Dakota.

 

[Prince Vee]

Kurt Angle quite easily. Olympic Gold Medal and all is for nothing? I reckon not. I don't know much about Pedro Morales but I have managed to read his legacy. Still, Kurt Angle's career looked better than his. Kurt has been the stalwart of TNA and carried it over his shoulders along with few other stars which Pedro Morales hadn't done in his past. Pedro was a World Champion that's alright; Kurt is better in many ways. So Kurt wins this one quite easily.

 

[ShinChan]

Pedro Morales was really a good wrestler and has a bunch of accomplishments which prove the ntion of him being a good wrestler. But he had particular appeal within the Latin audience only.

Whereas Kurt Angle has had awesome stint in WWE and then went on to become TNA's greatest wrestler in a Flag bearer role. He wrestled many great matches and was the major player in TNA giving a bit of competition to WWE in the past. And Angle also goes over in terms of in-ring work.

So Kurt Angle.

 

[nightmare]

This would be a good match. Better than it looks on paper. Still not enough of a problem for Angle though. The guy is a machine.

 

[Dave]

Angle takes this one for my money.

Morales is a legend, there is no doubt about it. But Kurt Angle is, quite simply, one of the best wrestlers to ever have entered a wrestling ring. This was the guy who was literally brilliant at every single aspect of the wrestling game. The same guy who won every single accomplishment that there was to be won. And he did it in every single situation that he was put in. The Olympics, the WWE, TNA; it didn't matter. Angle was pure gold (no pun intended).

It has been pointed out before, Morales had a huge impact on the industry. But Kurt Angle was the industry.

 

[OYDK]

Yeah, Angle's legitimacy gives him the edge in this one. While Morales was a great talent and a huge star in his own right, there's just no way he'd find a way to beat Kurt Angle in a one on one wrestling match.

I could very well see Morales hold out defensively for a good 20 minutes but eventually Angle would pick the ankle and that would be it. It's a shame Morales ran into Angle in the first round as he really did have an incredible career. Against most others his kayfabe accomplishments would be more than enough to move on.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Pedro Morales was very good, a former WWE champion but for my money Kurt Angle is arguably the finest wrestler to ever lace up a pair of boots. He has EVERYTHING!

It's been said many times by many people that no-one has taken to pro-wrestling as naturally and quickly as Angle, especially as he came from an amateur background. He looked a top star immediately after he debuted. He's got every tool needed to be a star in the business and I don't think I've ever seen a bad Kurt Angle match.

Whether he was playing the goofy heel, a babyface or a wrestling machine, he's pretty much untouchable.

A pretty easy win for Kurt here, with the Olympic Slam.

 

[Sai the Uganda Guy]

Pedro Morales is one of the greatest wrestlers of Hispanic decent. Kurt Angle is arguably the greatest wrestler of all time (as far as in-ring work is concerned).
Morales is important to history, his 1000+ day reign is quite the accomplishment, but Angle had it all, and still has a good bit in the tank.
Morales shouldn't go in the first round, but I don't see him getting past the Olympic Gold Medalist. Vote Angle, cause it's damn real!

 

[Bernkastel]

Morales is low seeded. He was one of, if not the first Latino to gain widespread appeal, being the first Latino to win a world title. He had a long run as WWWF champ, just over a thousand days. He was also the first Triple crowd winner in WWE history.

Angle should and will go over though. He could be serious, he could do comedy, he was a wrestling machine who carried both WWE and TNA at times. He put on classic matches with men big and small, and remains one of my favorites of all time.

Actually the first to do both of those, or at least the earliest that I can think of, was Vincent Lopez. And yes, I am correcting you just to be a dick.

I'm torn on this one. Unlike Bruno and Backlund who had widespread appeal, Pedro was just a regional champion. Arguably more popular than Kurt Angle was in his prime he definitely was a bigger drawing card. Kurt Angle did carry the Smackdown brand for a year or two in the mid 00's, and then made the jump to TNA. TNA you could argue, despite being being broadcasted on national television for a number of years is a regional promotion themselves. I struggle to really even call them a true national level promotion. Having Kurt Angle carry them for the last 10 years really hasn't seen the promotion branch out much. You could say the same for Pedro and the WWE at the time, but Morales was a big draw and he made Vince Sr. a whole lot of money in the Northeast. How much did Kurt make Dixie in Florida? Was it enough to cover some of TNA's bigger losses in the past few years? I have yet to come across any talent that worked for the WWE during Pedro's time on top claiming that the promotion couldn't afford to pay them. Irregardless Pedro was a big deal, despite being a regional title holder. A bigger deal than Kurt Angle.

Kurt will probably win but he really shouldn't. So...

 

[NSL]

How much did Kurt make Dixie in Florida?

Without Angle, there is no more TNA. Without Morales, WWWF still happens, leading to WWF/WrestleMania, etc. TNA was definitely a "regional" promotion, as you say, but the closest they ever got to becoming a real player, was with Angle as the top dog and running through everyone. The reason Samoa Joe is taken seriously on a national level, is because of Kurt Angle. He also had great matches with pretty much anyone he ever stepped in the ring with.

 

[Bernkastel]

Without Angle, there is no more TNA. Without Morales, WWWF still happens, leading to WWF/WrestleMania, etc. TNA was definitely a "regional" promotion, as you say, but the closest they ever got to becoming a real player, was with Angle as the top dog and running through everyone. The reason Samoa Joe is taken seriously on a national level, is because of Kurt Angle. He also had great matches with pretty much anyone he ever stepped in the ring with.

I disagree with that. Without Angle, TNA still had Sting, Bully Ray, Jeff [when sober], AJ Styles, and others. I feel TNA's ultimate financial demise may have been their lack of management skills and not the talent, but... it's not like the company grew any larger than they already were despite anyone that worked for them. So you can't really say "Angle totally carried them." Because that would imply that TNA suffered under his lack of drawing power, despite their mismanagement. WWE under Pedro made money. They may not have expanded much, but they made money. A lot more than TNA ever did with Angle on top.

 

[NSL]

I disagree with that. Without Angle, TNA still had Sting, Bully Ray, Jeff [when sober], AJ Styles, and others.

Would Bully Ray or Jeff ever gone to TNA, without Angle there? Would Booker, Christian, or Steiner? Would any of the names they drew, have gone there, if it weren't for Angle already going there and being successful?

I feel TNA's ultimate financial demise may have been their lack of management skills and not the talent, but... it's not like the company grew any larger than they already were despite anyone that worked for them. So you can't really say "Angle totally carried them." Because that would imply that TNA suffered under his lack of drawing power, despite their mismanagement. WWE under Pedro made money. They may not have expanded much, but they made money. A lot more than TNA ever did with Angle on top.

You're looking at it all wrong. Angle was a draw, and was helping them expand, and then they did stupid shit like take advice from Russo, and then bring in Hogan, and the booking went all to shit and everyone was misused and the stories and matches suffered. Basically, everything he did to make them better, was undermined by stupid back office decisions that he had no control over.

 

[Tastycles]

Pedro Morales threads are basically always the same. He always loses and nobody knows anything about him so they make general platitudes and so it goes. The fact is, he was the least commercially successful long term WWF Champion ever and as such didn't last very long comparatively speaking. Angle's success is grossly overstated, but he was probably, on merit, a bigger deal than Pedro Morales.

 

[Harthan]

It's so hard to really compare guys like Morales in this situation, because footage of them just hasn't endured. All we can really know about him is scattered footage, mostly from the mid to late 80's when he was nearing the end of his career, and the statistics, mostly that we was WWE Champion for over 1000 days. That statistic is pretty huge, but it comes from an era when title reigns were just longer. It just wasn't done in the WWE to hotshot the title off and on guys, at least not off of faces. If you try to scale Angle (about 300 days as WWE Champion) and Morales to some even scale, I think that 700 day gap grows much narrower, putting all other things equal.

We don't really have a way of knowing is Morales put on some true five star classics in his time - the matches you could go and find now are really not very good, but they don't represent much of his heyday in the 70s. Angle's record of excellence, meanwhile, really speaks for itself in the ring - he's certainly one of the greatest ever to work in the ring.

It feels a little frustrating in all honesty, but I don't think there's a way to build a real case for Morales here just based on lack of evidence. It's so much easier to see and believe Angle as one of the best ever. Morales has mostly faded to myth at this point.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Angle is a bonafide legend. I wish he broke the ceiling he was so good, so charismatic so natural.