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| Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon |
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| Copyright 2004, DeUxKonE, Montr�al, Qc |
| Qu�bec Wrestling |
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| Born: Montreal, September 29th 1929 Brother of Paul "�The Butcher�" Vachon and Vivianne Vachon Uncle of "Luna" Vachon |
| Pacific Northwest promoter Don Owen gave the right nickname to a wrestler whose first mission was brawling until the opponent said "�Uncle�". That was Maurice Vachon's main motto. |
| Born days before the financial crash of 1929, Young Maurice was raised in the district of Ville �mard, southwest of Montr�al, a mainly working-class borough. His father was a policeman and said one day to one of his friends that his son will become an important man. As a kid, Maurice was such a prankster. He attended at a young age many wrestling shows (walked to the Forum, which was not far from his home) and, of course, champion wrestler Yvon Robert was his idol. However, he didn't like school so much, so at age 14, he wanted to be a wrestler and started to take courses at the Montreal's downtown YMCA. |
| Under the rule of Chief Jim Cowley, he learned that to beat a wrestler doesn't mean to be stronger than your opponent, but to be smarter. Vachon took this advice and used his small height (he's 5 foot 4) and his wits to beat his opponents. He was chosen to represent Canada at the 1948 Olympics. The Turkish opponent who beated him at the time (by points, not by pinning) said that he never had such a hard time to beat a tough opponent like Vachon. Two years later, he went to the British Empire Games held in Auckland, New Zealand. This time, he won the Gold Medal... |
| A short while after, Vachon took several jobs as doorman at the posh night clubs that flourished in Montr�al in the fifties. A friend, who heard about the several fights he seldom had with rowdy patrons, rather encouraged him to go into pro wrestling. Vachon took the advice and started his career with a bout at the Montreal Forum in 1954. However, promoter Eddy Quinn was shy of using Vachon with its exceptionnal wrestling qualities, because he feared at the time he might detroned his champ Yvon Robert who was top grossing wrestling attraction. |
| Vachon took his act on the road and became a tough heel in the north Saguenay region. To draw crowds in the local arenas, he bought TV time each Thursday night before the evening news. He explained in a rowdy way how he will beat his opponent on the Saturday night gala. With this kind of promotion, Vachon revolutionized the sport and later the wrestling declaration was successfully used in Qu�bec by wrestlers like Jacques Rougeau Jr and managers like the infamous Eddy "�the Brain�" Creatchman. And this bravado declaration worked�: there were full houses each time in Jonqui�re and Chicoutimi, but of course, Vachon was the booed man, along with his brother Paul, which also started his career at that time...Sometimes, Vachon went so much overboard that he needed police escort to take him out of the venues where he wrestled, fearing that the mob crowd might lynch him... |
| Maurice Vachon started wrestling with a clean cut hairdo and a tough guy face. He always gave a hard time to his opponents, mainly Johnny Rougeau and Larry Moquin in Montr�al, Tarzan Babin in Trois-Rivi�res, Crusher Risowski in Chicago, the Destroyer in Los Angeles, and many others. At a certain point, he shaved his hair to look like an Algerian. Don Owen, the Northwest promoter, finally gave the name Mad Dog when Vachon went overboard at a gala in Portland, Oregon, and then received a blame from Owens that "�he acted like such a Mad Dog�". The name stayed on... |
| In 1964, Vachon was crowned AWA champion under the promotion of Verne Gagn�. Then he travelled around the world, bringing his "�Mad Dog�" gimmick to crowded arenas. Without a doubt, Vachon was maybe a precursor to the many HardCore brawlers of today... He got married twice, had children, among them Mike, who tried his shot at wrestling. He also stood by his brother Paul, with whom he won several local tag team belts, and encouraged his late sister Vivianne to the top of female wrestling. |
| The seventies came and Vachon was a star with the Grand Prix Wrestling promotion in Montr�al, which he partly owned. |
| His feuds against the Leduc Brothers are great classics to remember. He also challenged at the time many babyfaces he used to fight in the past like the Rougeau family. His heel days were gone when he joined the INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING promotion in Montr�al, while fighting in Verne Gagn�'s AWA. He challenged a young wrestler named Pierre Lebf�vre, who also bore the name "�Mad Dog�". As the latter attacked his son Mike along with his buddy Michel "�Justice�" Dubois, Vachon got mad and administered a correction to both the villains. However, Vachon was beated once by Lebf�vre with the help of Dubois of course...In that case, Vachon was the most popular wrestler in 1981 in the promotion... |
| After several trips between Minnesota and Montr�al, Vachon retired in 1985 and joined the WWF as a talk-show host. Then came back to Qu�bec and did TV on a local network and advertising for the Labatt Breweries. But tragedy struck in 1986 when a truck hit him near his home in Iowa City. He lost part of his right leg due to infection. He was brought back to Montr�al by several friends for rehabilitation. He tried his luck on the fast-food business (selling hamburgers) but failed. But Mad Dog stood still and faces life in a different matter today. |
| Vachon lives quiet days at his Iowa City home. He did a TV documentary on Canada's Comedy Channel about his life, as well as few appearances with former wrestling buddies. Was honoured in a WWF House Show at the Montreal Forum in 1988 He also wrote a book called "�A Dog's life in a crazy world�". Not bad for a book title... |
| Source�: A Dog's Life in a crazy world� by Maurice Vachon, 1989 |
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| Before he bore the "Algerian gimmick", Vachon displayed his arrogance in this picture when he started his career. In Chicoutimi, wrestlers were warned that they were entering "Vachon's Territory". He bought time at the local station to tell wrestling fans how he will destroy his opponent (he didn't yet had his raspy voice, which came with too many throat injuries..). |
| The 'bold' Vachon brothers: Paul the Butcher and Mad Dog were many times champions, including in their own federation, Lutte Grand Prix, which did tough (and excellent) competition to Johnny Rougeau's "As de la Lutte" between 1972 and the end of 1974. The brothers were a very tough act and their battles between the Rougeaus (in the 60s) and the Leducs (in the 70s) are great classics in the minds of elder wrestling fans. Beside these rivalries, Mad Dog Vachon did wrestle Edouard Carpentier, the Destroyer (his great buddy Dick Beyers), as well as Killer Kowalski and later Don Leo Jonathan. The brothers were so vicious that sometimes they needed security to escort them out of the arena as fans were mad against them with all the coups they made against their favorites... |