Corsica Joe

Professional wrestling career

Miquet moved to the United States at some point before 1947 and made his professional wrestling debut in 1947, using his real name as his ring name. In 1948 he defeated Bob Lortie to win the Canadian Junior Heavyweight Championship, a championship he was said to have held for two years. Miquet spent most of 1953 wrestling in Germany where he used the name Billy Virag, possibly to avoid confusion with his brother Felix Miquet that was known in the wrestling circuits throughout Europe. In 1954 he worked as the masked ring character "Mr. M" in Germany before returning to the United States in mid-1954, once again billed under his birth name. After competing in the north eastern United States and Canada for several years Miquet began wrestling in the south east around 1957. In Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling he became known as "Corsica Joe", billing his as hailing from the French island of Corsica. A few months later wrestling promoters Nick Gulas and Roy Welch in the NWA Mid-America promotion teamed Miquet up with French-Canadian Jean Louis Roy, billing him as "Corsica Jean" to form a tag team known as "The Corsicans". The team became the first holders of the Mid-America version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship and over the next two of years the Corsicans held the championship on no less than seven occasions as well as the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship on three separate occasions. The Corsicans faced off against virtually every tag team in the NWA Mid-America promotion at the time, including The Fabulous Fargos (Jackie Fargo and Don Fargo), Mike and Doc Gallagher, Yvon Robert and Billy Wicks, Don and Luke Fields and The Heavenly Bodies (Don and Al Greene).

In mid-1959 the Corsicans toured Texas, working for the Dallas, Texas based Southwest Sports, Inc.. In Texas the duo won the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship on one occasion as well as the local version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Miquet, as Corsica Joe also held the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship for a few weeks. By 1960 the Corsicans were back in the south west, holding different versions of the NWA Souther Tag Team Championship, including the Gulf Coast version twice, the Florida version once, the Georgia version twice, and the Mid-America version again. They also captured the Mid-America version of the World Tag Team Championship and Georgia Championship Wrestling's NWA International Tag Team Championship. After years as a tag team the Corsicans finally split up in 1966, leaving Miquet to team with Chin Lee for one last run with the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship. In 1969 he briefly worked for Central States Wrestling as the masked Mephisto #2, and would work as the masked "The Blitzer" for NWA Mid-America in 1972. Miquet retired from wrestling in 1973 at the age of 52 or 53. Although retired in 1973, Joe did make appearances for the NWA World Wide area, with Bert Prentice being the promoter. Joe did team up with his wife in a match, in Nashville, against Clarence Santini (as Spunkmeyer) and Shorty Taylor. this was Joe's last match.

Personal life

Francois Miquet was the brother of Felix Miquet who was also a wrestler, but who worked primarily in the United Kingdom so the two never worked together. Miquet was married to a female pro wrestler named Sarah Lee, some times billed as "Sara Corsica" or "Mrs. Corsica Joe", and they were together as husband and wife for almost 45 years of marriage until she later died at the age of 76 in 2008. Miquet died on March 14, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 90. On 2008 Miquet, as Corsica Joe, was inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame

Championships and accomplishments