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We reach the letter I. Only 8 wrestlers for now, the other pair are the 2 Is of Paul Lincoln's Soho café!

Prince Curtis Iaukea

Rule-bending Anglo-Hawaiian globetrotting super-heavyweight, 6’7” 30 stone Hawaiian Champion Curtis Iaukea (pronounced ‘E-U-Kowa’) had the accolade of being introduced from the ring during a tv bill when he first arrived in the UK in October 1966, having recently dropped his U.S. Heavyweight championship to Killer Kowalski at Madison Square Garden. The Prince was seen very briefly in televised action at the end of that month against Johnny Yearsley. Feuded in UK with the Outlaw. In spite of his bulk seemed often to exit the ring horizontally on a stretcher. Failed to show for a promised return tour. Went on to lose his Hawaiian Championship to Peter Fanene Maivia. However, in Melbourne in 1970 he defeated Billy Robinson for a version of a world title that the Mancunian had won in Japan.

Hermann Iffland

West German heavyweight champion whose first claim to fame in the UK was the unfortunate fifties hospitalization of Gwyn Davies. Later achieved the accolade of numbering amongst the lucky 14 wrestlers to appear on the first Royal Show in front of H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh at the Royal Albert Hall in May 1963, going down by the odd fall in three to Dazzler Joe Cornelius. Regular winner of West German tournaments on his home territory.

Dwight J. Ingleburgh

The face of the handsome visiting American star, Dwight J. Ingleburgh, appeared on posters throughout the country in a career spanning three decades. It seemed so exotic to have this big star from New Jersey visit our small public halls, corn exchanges and social clubs. The reality was less glamorous. Dwight J. was, in fact, known to friends and family as Sam Betts, and came from the exotic east, Barnsley. That should take nothing away from this hard working and entertaining wrestler who made a substantial contribution to three decades of wrestling. If fans felt all the better for believing he was a visiting American star then no harm was done. Sam, or Dwight, wrestled mainly for the independent promoters from the 1950s until the 1970s. Charlie Glover trained him in the ways of the ring, and did the job well as Dwight went on to wrestle throughout Europe, the Middle East, Singapore and India. Ingleburgh is seen on the offensive against the Indian champion, Dara Singh.

Mitsu Inoue

Bouts involving this 1971 Japanese visitor began in such good humour. The Japanese heavyweight would offer a half smile before bowing deeply to the audience, his opponent, and seemingly anything that moved. The first round or two were usually fought within the rules, with the obligatory pauses for the occasional bow. The initial signs of irritation, when things were not going the Japanese wrestler’s way, would be the unleashing of a flurry of chops. Their force stopped his opponent in his stride, temporarily at least, but when they weren’t enough Mitsu Inoue would discard the rules and use any tactic to win. In his 1971 Royal Albert Hall bout against Steve Veidor he dragged the Cheshire heavyweight from the ring o start a rare ringside brawl amongst the fans.

"Iron Fist" Clive Myers

The slick welterweight who turned pro in 1970 after successful amateur wrestling and weightlifting experience took little time exciting the public in any bout he was involved in. The token Welterweight Championship of the West Indies was awarded to him, but had all but the most gullible fans questioning its validity. By the mid-seventies word was out of his arm wrestling prowess and championships. Then we recognised him immediately for a brief masked spell as Iron Fist, so obviously he that no mystery was ever intended. He adopted a colourful and exaggeratedly acrobatic martial arts style and seemed a serious threat to opponents of all weights as his career peaked in unmasked combat. He teamed with the likes of Kung Fu and Chris Adams, and had memorable battles with Rocco and Nagasaki. He also featured in one of ITV’s most spectacular finishes to a bout, a review of which can be read in Armchair Corner under Spring heeled and surly.

Len Ironside

Aberdeen’s Len Ironside found success in the 1970s and 1980s, and is probably one of those wrestlers destined for a longer, more successful, career if the sport had retained its popularity. Career highlights included a televised loss to Jim Breaks, which brought him to the attention of a national audience, and defeat of Tony Borg to take the vacant Commonwealth Middleweight title in 1980. As early as 1980, though, Ironside had a love other than wrestling. Local politics was his great interest, and in 1982 he was elected a local councillor in Aberdeen. Just seven years later he was chosen Leader of the Council. Add to this public service a Governor of the Robert Gordon University. Chairman of Aberdeen International Youth Festival, Patron of the Grampian Special Olympics, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Culture and Commerce, and the award of a CBE in 2002 for Services to Local Government and we’ll all agree that the lad did well.

Karel Istaz

Many readers of Wrestling Heritage are of an age that they have vivid memories of American magazines of the 1960s, where they read of the exploits of Thesz, Sammartino, Gagne, and a man called Karl Gotch. Few at the time were aware that a less than a decade earlier Gotch had been a regular feature of Northern rings. In those days he had been known as Belgian heavyweight Karel Istaz. Istaz came to Britain in 1950, bringing impressive amateur credentials as a Belgian representative in the 1948 Olympics. His mission when he came to Britain was to learn to really wrestle in the old fashioned professional style developed in Lancashire. He became a regular at the Billy Riley gymnasium, known as the Snakepit, and he was a devoted student. He was destined to remain a student at Wigan for eight years before emigrating to the USA where he became one of the few Europeans to reach the top of the profession.

Red Ivan

Billed in Britain as a Ukranian with a Polish mother, Red Ivan was brought in as cannon fodder for Big Daddy in one of the more pitiful storylines that the latter days of British wrestling had to offer. Ivan appeared on television and vastly outweighed his first opponent Andy Blair. A further demolition job ensued on Burly Barry Douglas, who again gave away over two stones in weight. Just when Red Ivan seemed to be establishing his reputation as a formidable likely opponent for full blown British heavies such as Davies or Roach or Bartelli he was required to succumb most unbelievably to the out of condition “Mams and Dads Favourite”. Fans were left wondering about what might have been, and a good showman and fine athlete let his entire reputation go up in smithereens.