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He wasn’t from Venezuela. Neither was he from Spain. He wasn’t even a Mendoza.
Don Mendoza was a post war heavyweight wrestler for at least twenty years, possibly quite a few more. The reason for the ambiguity is that although we have discovered the name Don Mendoza on the posters from 1947 onwards we have found a wrestler using his birth name during in 1939. What we don’t know is whether he was the same man.
Our own recollections of Don Mendoza come from the end of his career in the second half of the 1960s. Apart from his formidable stature the one thing that stood out for us was his hairy chest. The hairiest chest in wrestledom? Maybe, maybe not, but certainly hairy enough to gain him the nickname Gorilla and make a lasting impression on us as young fans in the 1960s. There were also the tatooed arms, apparently a legacy of wartime service in India.
We remember him always billed from Huddersfield but he was from Southport, naming his profession as a confectioner in 1939 and remembered as owner of a sweet shop in Duke Street. The family including his son, wrestler Al Miquet, moved to Huddersfield in the late 1930s.
A serious injury almost ended his career prematurely but he come back and went on to become a popular post war heavyweight until the late 1960s, our last sighting being in 1968. For the last couple of years he worked for the independent promoters.
He was big, tough, a welcome addition to any bill, and was missed when he retired from the ring.
Reviewed 28/02/2022
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