I know the guy on the left is professional wrestler Hiro Matsuda but I can’t identify the wrestler he is tangled up with during a match in the old Jacksonville Coliseum. Let me know if you can help identify the other wrestlers in the photograph. I’m sure someone out there has encyclopedic knowledge of professional wrestling from the 1960’s that they would like to share.
Update: Thanks for the prompt feedback! It looks like who we have in the ring with Hiro Matsuda is none other than Don Curtis who first wrestled in Jacksonville in 1961 as the “Buffalo Bomber” and later made Jacksonville his home. You can read more about him in his obituary published by The Florida Times-Union after his death in 2008. He was quite a guy!
Tags: Don Curtis, Hiro Matsuda, historic photography, Jacksonville Coliseum, professional wrestling, vintage photograph, wrestling
I think the individual wrestling against Matsuda is Eddie Graham. He was a long time wrestler and then promotor of the sport.
Most of the photos I have showing Eddie Graham show him with longer blond hair. https://vintagejacksonville.net/2012/02/02/eddy-graham-with-haystacks-calhoon/ I think we have someone else here.
Hiro Matsuda is wrestling Don Curtis. The man on the ring apron is Tim Woods, who later wrestled under a mask as Mr. Wrestling.
The wrestler on right is local legend, Don Curtis.
Don Curtis
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Isn’t that Don Curtis, who later became a wrestling promoter and Coliseum manager?
Left to right: Hiro Matsuda, Tim Woods, Don Curtis.
(Courtesy of the wonderful Dotty Curtis)