 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Curtis Piehu Iaukea III (1937-09-15)September 15, 1937 |
| Died | December 4, 2010(2010-12-04) (aged 73) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | King Curtis Iaukea Prince Kuhio The Wizard Prince Curtis Iaukea The Master |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)[1] |
| Billed weight | 290 lb (130 kg)[1] |
| Debut | 1955 |
| Retired | 1980 |
Curtis Piehu Iaukea III (September 15, 1937 – December 4, 2010) was an Americanprofessional wrestler better known asKing Curtis Iaukea. Iaukea won championships in several of the major regional U.S. promotions, both as a single and in various tag team combinations, during the 1960s. He then competed in theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) where he won theWWF Tag Team Championship with Baron Scicluna. He was also laterThe Master of theDungeon of Doom inWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW). Under the name "Iau Kea" he appeared in the filmThe Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze withMoe Howard declaring "That's not a man! That's a committee!".[2]
He was the great grandson of ColonelCurtis P. Iaukea, a royal chamberlain and diplomat to the court of KingKalākaua and QueenLiliuokalani[3] and son ofHonolulu Police Department Inspector Curtis Iaukea II. He attendedPunahou School and theUniversity of California Berkeley as an economics major where he lettered as alineman until he left in his third year to pursue professional football. He played as atackle for theBC Lions from 1958-1959 and theMontreal Alouettes in 1959.[4] He was also in camp with theOakland Raiders in 1960.
Iaukea came to Don Owen's Pacific Northwest territory, commonly known as Portland Wrestling in 1961, wrestling under the moniker Prince Kuhio.[5] Teaming with Haru Sasaki, the two would capture the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Titles on January 19, 1962, holding them for two months. A year later, while traveling betweenOregon and the Hawaiian Islands, King Curtis would capture the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title on September 5, 1963,[6]InAustralia, King Curtis was a part of thefacetag team known as the People's Army withMark Lewin andSpiros Arion.[7]
His first sojourns to Australia were in the 1964–1965 season, where he was aHeel. He was teamed withSkull Murphy. King Curtis initially wrestled as Curtis Iaukea in his first run in Australia. The King Curtis tag was the one that stuck as he feuded against Mark Lewin. After becoming a fan favorite in the seventies, King Curtis feuded againstTiger Jeet Singh andThe Tojo Brothers (Hiro 'The Great' Tojo andHito Tojo) from Japan. King Curtis was also a member of an alliance known as "The People's Army."
After retiring in 1980, he turned tomanaging. In ICW, known as King Curtis, he managedKevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin, taking on thegimmick of a crazed cult leader. His faction feuded withJoe Savoldi andAustin Idol. In the 80's, he also appeared with Sullivan in Championship Wrestling from Florida as "The Chairman of the Board".
Curtis Iaukea re-appeared briefly in the WWF promotion in 1986 as The Wizard, a manager and mouthpiece forKamala. The Wizard claimed to be in communion with the spirit of the late originalGrand Wizard. He later teamed Kamala withSika before selling the pair toMr Fuji. Then, Iaukea left the WWF in 1987.
He also appeared briefly inWCW as 'The Master' of the Dungeon of Doom stable in 1995, reuniting with both Kamala and Sullivan (who, as Dungeon leader, would address Iaukea as "my father", and he would address Sullivan as "my son") His role in the Dungeon was to conjure up new Dungeon members for Sullivan's war withHulk Hogan. He would leave WCW by the end of 1995.[8]
Iaukea had a son namedRocky Iaukea.[9]
Iaukea also had a daughter, Sydney Lehua Iaukea, a 'Native Hawaiian educator'. Iaukea focuses on Hawaiian politics, and has particularly studied her relation to her great-great-grandfather,Curtis P. Iaukea. In an article published in theHawaiian Journal of Law and Politics in 2021, Iaukea discusses her father, stating that 'many still remember his wrestling matches, and the showmanship and wrestling character he embodied'. Yet, he left his family without financial or familial support, but she was 'left speechless because of the larger-than-life image my father so masterfully displayed'.[10]
On December 4, 2010, Iaukea died at his home in Papakolea.[9]
,Internet Wrestling Database