Dean Kiyoshi Higuchi (July 18, 1940 – February 20, 2021) was an American bodybuilder and professional wrestler, known by his ring name, Dean Ho. He competed in North American promotions including Pacific Northwest Wrestling, the World Wide Wrestling Federation and Big Time Wrestling during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. A longtime veteran of the Vancouver's NWA All-Star Wrestling, he feuded with Terry Adonis, The Brute and former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski.
Bodybuilding career
After graduating from President Theodore Roosevelt High School, Higuchi was one of Hawaii's prominent bodybuilders during the 1950s winning the title "Mr. Hawaiian Islands" competition in 1956 and finishing in sixth place in the "Mr. America" competition in Philadelphia.
Dean's Gym
He opened his gym on Kalakaua Avenue in 1957, and it was a popular training center for both bodybuilders and professional wrestlers. Many of the areas top bodybuilders such as Mike Brown and professional wrestlers trained for decades including Don Muraco, Beauregarde, Rene Goulet and Karl Gotch.
Professional wrestling career
Early career
Making his professional wrestling debut during the early 1960s, he lost one of his earliest matches to Rocky Columbo in Portland, Oregon on April 6, 1962.
During the mid-1960s, Higuchi began competing for promoter Ed Francis's Pacific Northwest Wrestling feuding with El Shereeh and also teaming with Kazimoto and Al Torres during early 1965. Later, while in Francis's Big Time Wrestling, he appeared in televised matches against Fuji Fujiwara, Bill Dromo, Tosh Togo, Nick Kozak, Kongozan and the Mongolian Stomper at the Honolulu Civic Auditorium during 1966.
After losing to Hans Mortier and Johnny Barend in early 1967, Higuchi wrestled two matches in one night defeating Great Fuji although he lost a later tag team match with Karl Gotch against Curtis Iaukea and Ripper Collins on April 5, 1967, before moving to the mainland by the end of the year.
National Wrestling Alliance
Feuding with then NWA World Heavyweight Champion Gene Kiniski in 1968, he lost two title matches to him on October 21 and again on December 16 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The following year, he would avenge his loss teaming with Earl Maynard to defeat Kiniski and Bad Boy Shields in a tournament final for the NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship in Vancouver on May 12, 1969.
Continuing his long-running feud with Kiniski, he and Steve Bolus fought to a time limit draw against Kiniski and Angelo Mosca on January 26 and, with Tex McKenzie, defeated Gene Kiniski and Moose Morowski on April 28, 1970.
Losing the title less than a month later to Dutch Savage and "Bulldog" Bob Brown on June 9, he and Steve Bolus defeated them on December 8 and held them until their defeat by Brown and John Quinn on February 9, 1970. He later won the tag team title with Steven Little Bear twice during 1971 and feuded with the Skull Brothers and Gene Kiniski and Bob Brown before losing the title to Kiniski and Brown for the second and final time on October 11, 1971.
Staying in Vancouver in early 1973, he defeated Sailor White on January 22. Feuding with The Brute, he and Sean Reagan lost a tag team match to The Brute and Mike Webster in Seattle on March 3. After defeating Tony Bourne, Butts Giraud and Bob Hames in a 6-man tag-team match with Larry Whistler and Eric Froelich on July 16, he left the promotion moving on to the northeastern United States.
While wrestling in Georgia Championship Wrestling, he held the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship with Ken Mantell defeating Black Gordman and Goliath on July 2 before losing them to Jimmy and Johnny Valiant a little more than two weeks later on July 16, 1976. He also helped Rick "The Dragon" Steamboat, who was also wrestling in Georgia at the time, develop his martial arts and ring psychology during his early career.
World Wide Wrestling Federation
Wrestling for the World Wide Wrestling Federation during the mid-1970s, he and Tony Garea teamed to defeat Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji to win the WWWF World Tag Team Championship on November 14, 1973. Holding on to the title for four months, they eventually lost the belts to Jimmy and Johnny Valiant on May 8, 1974. They continued to team for a time defeating Jack Evans and Hans Schroeder on November 24 however, by summer 1975, they had gone their separate ways. Later that year, Ho left the WWWF.