| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Abudadein Mad Dog of Baghdad Prince Iaukea Rocky Iaukea Cheetah Kid (II) |
| Billed weight | 248 lb (112 kg) |
| Debut | 1981 |
| Retired | 1996 |
Rocky Iaukea is a retiredAmericanprofessional wrestler, known by his ringnamePrince Iaukea, who competed in thePacific Northwest andSoutheastern United States with theNational Wrestling Alliance during the 1980s, and inJapan during the early 1990s. From 1983 to 1990, he wrestled asAbudadein inPacific Northwest Wrestling winning theNWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship twice and theNWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship three times withMike Miller andThe Grappler. A second-generation wrestler, he is the son ofCurtis Iaukea and a cousin ofMaunakea Mossman.
The son ofKing Curtis Iaukea, a popular wrestler in the United States and Japan during the 1960s and 1970s, Rocky Iaukea followed in his father's footsteps and became a wrestler himself.[1] Making his debut in 1981, Iaukea spent much of his early career inNew Japan Pro-Wrestling[2] before coming back to the United States to wrestle for theNational Wrestling Alliance in the mid-1980s. On February 14, 1986, he unsuccessfully challengedKendall Windham for theNWA Florida Heavyweight Championship at the Battle of the Belts II supercard held at theEddie Graham Sports Arena inOrlando, Florida.[3][4][5]
Shortly afterwards, Iaukea began wrestling forPacific Northwest Wrestling under the nameAbudadein. Hisin-ring persona was that of anArab American"heel" similar toThe Iron Sheik. Teaming withMike Miller, they defeatedBrady Boone andCoco Samoa for theNWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship inMadras, Oregon on June 25, then lost them to Boone andRicky Santana inPortland four months later. He and Miller regained the titles inLongview, Washington the following month before finally losing them to Ricky Santana and Coco Samoa in Portland on January 7, 1987.[6][7][8]
At the end of the year, Iaukea won theNWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship fromArt Barr in Portland on December 26, 1987.[9] His time as champion was brief, however, as the title was vacated on January 30, 1988, following a controversial match against Coco Samoa. He briefly won back the title fromTop Gun on January 14, 1989, but dropped it to Carl Styles a little over two weeks later.[6][10][11]
Iaukea spent his last year in PNW feuding against Pacific Northwest Tag Team ChampionsThe Southern Rockers (Scott Peterson andSteve Doll) with alliesMatt Borne andThe Grappler. He managed to win the tag team titles once more when he and The Grappler beat The Southern Rockers for the belts in Portland on October 29, 1988. After spending almost three months as champions, he and The Grappler lost the titles back to The Southern Rockers on January 7, 1989.[6][7][8] That same year, he appeared for theBruiser Brody Memorial Show where he and The V lost a tag team match to Shinichi Nakano andAkira Taue at Tokyo'sBudokan Hall on August 29, 1988.[12]
In early 1991, Iaukea joined the "Thunder Down Under" tour inNew Zealand with severalWorld Wrestling Federation wrestlers includingJim Powers,The Genius,Don Muraco,Angel of Death,Koko B. Ware,The Brooklyn Brawler,The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs andJerry Sags) andThe Bushwhackers (Butch andLuke). Wrestling under the nameMad Dog of Baghdad, he lost toSiva Afi inHamilton on March 31.[13][14] He also accompaniedTerry Gordy,"Dr. Death" Steve Williams,Dan Kroffat,Doug Furnas,Joe Malenko, andDean Malenko in a tour of Japan withAll Japan Pro Wrestling that same year.[15] Iaukea eventually returned to Japan full-time where he wrestled for AJPW andWAR up until his retirement in 1996. He later started a charter boat service and he is the owner and captain of acatamaran boat which tours the beaches ofWaikiki. In 2006, he was interviewed by Ken Hirayama and discussed his career and retirement. He also expressed his support forPro Wrestling Noah.[2]