Dean Kiyoshi Higuchi (July 18, 1940 – February 20, 2021) was an American bodybuilder and professional wrestler, known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

, Dean Ho. He competed in North American promotions including

Pacific Northwest Wrestling Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) (also known as Big Time Wrestling and Portland Wrestling) is the common name used to refer to several different professional wrestling companies, both past and present, based in Portland, Oregon, United States. T ...

, the

World Wide Wrestling Federation Capitol Wrestling Corporation Ltd. was an American sports promotion company. It was run by Vincent J. McMahon from 1953 to 1982. Operating as the Capitol Wrestling Corporation (CWC), the company was originally a professional wrestling and boxing p ...

and Big Time Wrestling during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. A longtime veteran of the Vancouver's

NWA All-Star Wrestling NWA All Star Wrestling (sometimes referred to as NWA Vancouver) is a Canadian professional wrestling promotion, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. All-Star Wrestling folded in 1989 but returned in 2007 no longer affiliated with the National Wr ...

, he feuded with

Terry Adonis Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albritton (1955–2005), Am ...

, The Brute and former

NWA World Heavyweight Champion The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is Tyrus, who is in ...

Gene Kiniski Eugene Nicholas Kiniski (November 23, 1928 – April 14, 2010) was a Canadian athlete who played football for the Edmonton Eskimos and then became a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion. "Canada's Greatest Athlete", as he b ...

Bodybuilding career

After graduating from

President Theodore Roosevelt High School President Theodore Roosevelt High School is a public, co-educational college preparatory high school in Honolulu, Hawai'i. It is operated by the Hawaii State Department of Education and serves grades nine through 12. Roosevelt High School is accre ...

, Higuchi was one of Hawaii's prominent bodybuilders during the 1950s winning the title "Mr. Hawaiian Islands" competition in 1956 and finishing in sixth place in the "Mr. America" competition in Philadelphia.

Dean's Gym

He opened his gym on Kalakaua Avenue in 1957, and it was a popular training center for both bodybuilders and professional wrestlers. Many of the areas top bodybuilders such as Mike Brown and professional wrestlers trained for decades including

Don Muraco Don Muraco (born September 10, 1949) is an American retired professional wrestler and podcaster. He is best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation from 1981 to 1988, where he held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Cha ...

, Beauregarde,

Rene Goulet Robert Bédard (July 12, 1932 – May 25, 2019) was a Canadian professional wrestler. better known by his ring name, the "Number One Frenchman" Rene Goulet. Early life Robert Bedard was born on July 12, 1932 in Quebec City and played hocke ...

and

Karl Gotch Charles Istaz (August 3, 1924 – July 28, 2007) was a Belgian-born German-American professional wrestler and trainer, best known by his ring name Karl Gotch. In Japan, Gotch was known as the "God of Wrestling" due to his influence in shaping the ...

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Making his professional wrestling debut during the early 1960s, he lost one of his earliest matches to Rocky Columbo in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

on April 6, 1962. During the mid-1960s, Higuchi began competing for promoter

Ed Francis Edmund Charles "Ed" Francis (June 11, 1926 – November 18, 2016) was a professional wrestler and wrestling promoter in Hawaii in the 1960s. Many wrestlers who came through Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s were bound to come across the name Ed Fra ...

feuding with El Shereeh and also teaming with Kazimoto and Al Torres during early 1965. Later, while in Francis's Big Time Wrestling, he appeared in televised matches against Fuji Fujiwara, Bill Dromo,

Tosh Togo , better known as Harold Sakata, was an American Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestler, and film actor of Japanese descent. He won a silver medal for the United States at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London in weightlifting, and later b ...

, Nick Kozak, Kongozan and the

Mongolian Stomper Archibald Edward Gouldie (November 22, 1936 – January 23, 2016) was a Canadian professional wrestler. He wrestled for Stampede Wrestling for decades as Archie "The Stomper" Gouldie, with the nickname coming from the wrestler's reputation of ...

at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium during 1966. After losing to

Hans Mortier Jacob "Jaap" Grobbe (January 28, 1924 – December 15, 2010), better known as Hans Mortier, was a Dutch professional wrestler best known for his stint in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) and his feud with WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartin ...

and

Johnny Barend John R. Barend (March 27, 1929 – September 20, 2011), better known as "Handsome" Johnny Barend, was an American professional wrestler. Early life Born in 1929 in Rochester, New York, Barend started wrestling as an amateur at the age of eight. ...

in early 1967, Higuchi wrestled two matches in one night defeating Great Fuji although he lost a later tag team match with

against

Curtis Iaukea Colonel Curtis Piʻehu Iaukea (December 13, 1855 – March 5, 1940) served as a court official, army officer and diplomat of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He later became an influential official for the subsequent regimes of the Provisional Governme ...

and Ripper Collins on April 5, 1967, before moving to the mainland by the end of the year.

National Wrestling Alliance

Feuding with then NWA World Heavyweight Champion

in 1968, he lost two title matches to him on October 21 and again on December 16 in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The following year, he would avenge his loss teaming with

Earl Maynard Earl Maynard (born November 28, 1935) is a bodybuilder and professional wrestler as well as a film actor, producer and director from Barbados. Career Bodybuilding Maynard won the 1964 Universe - Pro - NABBA bodybuilding competition - part of the ...

to defeat Kiniski and Bad Boy Shields in a tournament final for the

NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship The NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship is a National Wrestling Alliance-sanctioned tag team professional wrestling championship based mainly in the Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling promotion, although the title has been contested for in the ...

in Vancouver on May 12, 1969. Continuing his long-running feud with Kiniski, he and Steve Bolus fought to a time limit draw against Kiniski and

Angelo Mosca Angelo Valentino Mosca (February 13, 1937 – November 6, 2021) was an American professional football player and professional wrestler. He was a defensive lineman in the Canadian Football League (CFL). As a wrestler, Mosca was known by the nick ...

on January 26 and, with Tex McKenzie, defeated Gene Kiniski and Moose Morowski on April 28, 1970. Losing the title less than a month later to

Dutch Savage Frank Stewart (June 9, 1935 – August 3, 2013) was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, best known for his time spent competing in Pacific Northwest Wrestling under the ring name Dutch Savage. Career Savage made his pro deb ...

and "Bulldog" Bob Brown on June 9, he and Steve Bolus defeated them on December 8 and held them until their defeat by Brown and John Quinn on February 9, 1970. He later won the tag team title with Steven Little Bear twice during 1971 and feuded with the Skull Brothers and Gene Kiniski and

Bob Brown Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is a former Australian politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian Senate on the Tasman ...

before losing the title to Kiniski and Brown for the second and final time on October 11, 1971. Staying in Vancouver in early 1973, he defeated

Sailor White Edward John White (May 18, 1949 – August 26, 2005) was a Canadian professional wrestler, best known as Sailor White and as Moondog King of The Moondogs when he joined the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in the early 1980s. White won champi ...

on January 22. Feuding with The Brute, he and Sean Reagan lost a tag team match to The Brute and Mike Webster in Seattle on March 3. After defeating Tony Bourne,

Butts Giraud Butts Giraud is a Canadian entrepreneur, musician, author, professional wrestler and a former professional football player and wrestler. He is the President and founder of The Dog's Ear T-shirt and Embroidery Company. He was a professional wrestle ...

and

Bob Hames Robert Earl Hames (January 22, 1920 – September 6, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist from Texas who played with the dance orchestras of Jan Garber, Orrin Tucker, and Stan Keller. In the early 1950s he was a staff guitarist for live producti ...

in a 6-man tag-team match with Larry Whistler and Eric Froelich on July 16, he left the promotion moving on to the northeastern United States. While wrestling in

Georgia Championship Wrestling Georgia Championship Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Atlanta, Georgia. The promotion was affiliated with what had been the world's top sanctioning body of championship titles for decades before, the National W ...

, he held the

NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship The NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship was the top tag team championship in Georgia Championship Wrestling from 1968 to 1980, when it was replaced with the NWA National Tag Team Championship. The title was revived in 1998 by Music City Wrestling ...

with

Ken Mantell Ken Lusk, better known by his ring name Ken Mantell, is an American retired professional wrestler, promoter and booker who competed throughout the National Wrestling Alliance in the 1970s and 80s. He is a former NWA World Junior Heavyweight Ch ...

defeating Black Gordman and Goliath on July 2 before losing them to Jimmy

and or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boole ...

Johnny Valiant John L. Sullivan (born Thomas Sullivan; November 25, 1946 – April 4, 2018) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name, Johnny Valiant. He competed in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), which be ...

a little more than two weeks later on July 16, 1976. He also helped Rick "The Dragon" Steamboat, who was also wrestling in Georgia at the time, develop his martial arts and ring psychology during his early career.

World Wide Wrestling Federation

Wrestling for the World Wide Wrestling Federation during the mid-1970s, he and

Tony Garea Anthony Gareljich (born 20 September 1946) is a New Zealand retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Tony Garea. He is best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestl ...

teamed to defeat

Toru Tanaka Charles J. Kalani Jr. (January 6, 1930 – August 22, 2000) was an American professional wrestler, professional boxer, college football player, soldier, actor, and martial artist who, in fighting rings, was also known as Professor Toru Tanaka, o ...

and

Mr. Fuji Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara (May 4, 1934 – August 28, 2016) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known professionally by his ring name Mr. Fuji (or Master Fuji to his protégés). He was famous for often throwing salt in the eyes ...

to win the WWWF World Tag Team Championship on November 14, 1973. Holding on to the title for four months, they eventually lost the belts to Jimmy and Johnny Valiant on May 8, 1974. They continued to team for a time defeating Jack Evans and Hans Schroeder on November 24 however, by summer 1975, they had gone their separate ways. Later that year, Ho left the WWWF.

From San Francisco to Vancouver

Returning to Vancouver for a time, he and George Wells defeated Dale Lewis and Seigfried Steinke on January 12, 1976 before losing them to his longtime rival Gene Kiniski and Seigfried Steinke on February 9. In 1977, Higuchi began wrestling in the San Francisco-area defeating

Alexis Smirnoff Michel Lamarche (February 9, 1947 – January 5, 2019) was a Canadian professional wrestler, known by his ringnames Alexis Smirnoff and Michel "Justice" Dubois (''Mike "The Judge" Dubois''), who competed in North American regional promotions incl ...

for the

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship The NWA United States Heavyweight Championship is a name used for several secondary championships used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1953. At least twelve different versions of the NWA United States Heavyweight Champion ...

Daly City, California Daly City () is the second most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with population of 104,901 according to the 2020 census. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco (sharing its ...

on July 16 holding the title for two months before losing the title to

Bob Roop Robert Michael Roop (born July 22, 1942) is an American retired amateur wrestler and professional wrestler whose career spanned high school, college, the United States Army, amateur and professional wrestling. He was an American heavyweight Grec ...

on September 17. Higuchi later regained the title, which had been vacated after Roop left the company in December 1977, winning a tournament on January 14, 1978. During early 1978, he also teamed with

Pepper Gomez José "Joseph" Serapio Palimino Gomez (April 21, 1927 – May 6, 2004) was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder, better known by his ring name, Pepper Gomez. Known for his exceptional abdominal muscles, he would allow rivals to per ...

and later

Mando Guerrero Armando Guerrero Llanes (born June 9, 1950), better known as Mando Guerrero, is a retired Mexican American professional wrestler. He also was the trainer for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, an all-female professional wrestling promotion. He ...

against his old tag team partner Sir Earl Maynard and later teamed with Gomez and Guerrero in a 6-man tag team match against

Texas Red Texas Red or sulforhodamine 101 acid chloride is a red fluorescent dye, used in histology for staining cell specimens, for sorting cells with fluorescent-activated cell sorting machines, in fluorescence microscopy applications, and in immunohist ...

The Great Goliath ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

and Don Muraco. Defending his NWA US Heavyweight title in a no disqualification match against Don Muraco, he lost the title to Muraco on April 1. After the death of then NWA US Heavyweight Champion "Moondog" Lonnie Mayne on August 13, he and "Playboy" Buddy Rose fought to a time limit draw for the vacant title six days later in San Francisco on August 19 (Rose would eventually defeat

"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian American professional wrestler. He is better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 2010 ...

in a tournament final to win the title the following month on September 16).

Return to Portland

Higuchi later returned to his home territory in All-Star Wrestling and, with Klondike Mike, defeated

Al Tomko Al Tomko (22 November 1931 – 5 August 2009) was a Canadian professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. Professional wrestling career Tomko started out as a wrestler in his hometown of Winnipeg on 9 July 1954, with the Madison Wrestling C ...

and

Igor Volkoff Pierre Lafleur (born February 13, 1939) is a former French Canadian professional wrestler who is best known for his appearances with the World Wide Wrestling Federation under the ring name Lumberjack Pierre where he was the half of The Yukon Lumber ...

on November 30, 1981. Feuding with

, he teamed with Moondog Moretti to defeat Adonis and Timothy Flowers in a tag team match on January 24, 1983. He retired later that year.

Personal life and death

In 1990, Higuchi sold his gym and retired to Canada where he ran a deli and was involved as a social worker in Vancouver, British Columbia. On February 20, 2021, Higuchi died from complications of chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the age of 80. His death was reported by former WWE referee Kevin Jefferies a week later, who believes his death was caused by his early days playing football.

Championships and accomplishments

* Big Time Wrestling ''(San Francisco)'' ** NWA United States Heavyweight Championship ''(San Francisco version)'' (

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) ** NWA World Tag Team Championship ''(San Francisco version)'' (

) - with

Moondog Mayne Ronald Doyle "Lonnie" Mayne (September 12, 1944 – August 14, 1978) was an American professional wrestler in the 1960s and 1970s who frequently went by the name Moondog Mayne. He wrestled in various National Wrestling Alliance territories, as w ...

(1) and

Ron Starr Bobby Eugene Nutt (April 3, 1951 – June 8, 2017), better known by his ring name Ron Starr, was an American professional wrestler. Starr was a mainstay for numerous wrestling territories throughout the 1970s and 80s, capturing almost three doze ...

(1) *

Cauliflower Alley Club The Cauliflower Alley Club is a non-profit fraternal organization, which includes a newsletter and website, comprising both retired and active professional wrestlers and boxers in North America. Established in 1965 by Mike Mazurki and Art Abram ...

**Men’s Wrestling Award (2010) *

( 1 time) - with

** NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship ''(Vancouver version)'' ( 6 times) - with Earl Maynard (1), Steve Bolus (1), Steven Little Bear (2) George Wells (1) and Klondike Mike (1) ** NWA International Tag Team Championship ''(Vancouver version)'' (

) - with

Sonny Myers Harold "Sonny" Myers (January 22, 1924 – May 7, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, involved in the business for sixty years. Professional wrestling career Myers held prominent heavyweight championships in several territories, most ...

(1) and Moondog Moretti (1) * NWA Big Time Wrestling **

NWA American Tag Team Championship The WCWA World Tag Team Championship was the primary professional wrestling tag team championship (professional wrestling), championship promoted by the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex area–based World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA). The cham ...

( 1 time) - with

Fritz Von Erich Jack Barton Adkisson Sr. (August 16, 1929 – September 10, 1997), better known by his ring name Fritz Von Erich, was an American professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and the patriarch of the Von Erich family. He was a 3-time world champion ...

NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship The NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling championship sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance and defended in its member promotion Pacific Northwest Wrestling, which promoted shows in the U.S. states of ...

( 1 time) - with Johnny Kostas *

** WWWF World Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) - with

References

External links

SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: Dean HiguchiProfile at Online World of WrestlingDean Ho profile
Cagematch
Dean Ho profile
Wrestlingdata {{DEFAULTSORT:Ho, Dean 1932 births 2021 deaths American male professional wrestlers Professional wrestlers from Hawaii Sportspeople from Honolulu Stampede Wrestling alumni American expatriates in Canada 20th-century professional wrestlers NWA Georgia Tag Team Champions