 |
| Ricky Martel |
| Real Name: Richard Vigneault Born: Quebec City March 18th 1956 Championships won: WWF/WWE Tag Team (3 times) AWA World Championship (1984) WCW TV Champ (1998) Commonwealth Champion(3 times) Not family related with Pierre 'Frenchy Martin Vigneault and Sensational Sherri Martel. FACT: The only Quebec-born wrestler to ever won two belts of the two major world federations of the 80-90's: WWE and WCW. His fights against Dino Bravo in Montreal and Nick Bockwinkel in the AWA were sell-out classics. His nephew, Kevin, was introduced in a special segment of the TV Show International Wrestling, as he was encouraging him to train for his big bouts for this federation. |
 |
|
| Copyright 2004, DeUxKonE, Montr�al, Qc |
| Qu�bec Wrestling |
 |
| He is perhaps one of the classiest, most handsome wrestlers that ever fought in the world of wrestling. However, the major part of his career was out of his homeland. |
| Born in Qu�bec City in 1956, Richard Vigneault's older brother, Martin (who passed away in 1998) fought in several federations while Rick was learning the tricks of amateur wrestling in school. A two-week trip with Martin while he was in Stampede Wrestling gave him the wrestling bug. One day after his final year of high school started, he quits courses. Then a phone call from Martin in Nova Scotia asks Rick to replace an injured wrestler. This started his wrestling career at age 17 in 1973. |
| In 1974, he joins All-Star Wrestling in Montr�al. However, though Martel was a fan favorite, he was too much compared to another young wrestler, Raymond Rougeau (and for the worst, the Rougeaus were promoters). A promoter advised him to make his mark elsewhere, seeing the talent that Rick showed in Grand Prix. He then flew to Japan and Texas. |
| 1977 was a great year for him as he was wrestling in New Zealand as he became champion of the British Commonwealth. He toured also Australia and had the chance to hold the belt three times. Then he moved to the WWWF where he became tag team champion with Tony Garea (he was noticed in Qu�bec by the then weekly WWWF show, CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING). |
| He joined INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING in Montr�al in 1982, and did tag team mostly with Dino Bravo, then the heavyweight champ of the federation. At a certain point, Martel challenged Bravo for the belt. For many fans, it was a rivalry paralleled to the NHL Montr�al Canadiens and the former Qu�bec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) as the two wrestlers came from both cities. Unfortunately for Martel, Bravo outsmarted him. |
| In the meanwhile, he received a call from Verne Gagn� to join the AWA, following a reference by Nick Bockwinkel who fought him in 1978 along with his manager Bobby Heenan. He moved to Minnesota and impressed a lot of fans. His feuds with Nick Bockwinkel will remain as one of the great rivalries in that former federation... |
| When Hulk Hogan, who was at the AWA at the time, left for the WWF in 1983, Martel took the opportunity to content for the belt. However, it wasn't easy to strip it from Bockwinkel, since he had The Brain in his corner. But Jumbo Tsuruta (who died recently), a japanese rookie, beated Bockwinkel. Then Martel challenged the young Japanese wrestler to a championship bout in St-Paul, on May 13th 1984. Obviously, Rick won over a cheering crowd at the former Arena (now rebuild and renamed the Xcel Center)... |
| After losing the belt to Stan "�the Man�" Hansen, Martel went back to Qu�bec and did INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING again. Many Qu�bec wrestling fans saw him battle the greatest foes in that federation, which included the Masqued Superstar, King Tonga, Rick Valentine, Sailor White, Steve Strong, Michael Hayes, and more... |
| In 1986, INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING was fading due to the big influence of the WWF. Vince McMahon Jr asked Martel to join the WWF while the Qu�bec federation crumbled. A decision that he did not regret however. He teamed up first with Tom Zenk, who created the Can-Am connection. But after Zenk left him, he joined Tito Santana to create Strike Force. The team won a tag team belt at the time. |
| But Martel wanted a change�: after consulting Vince McMahon, he turned down on Santana and became "�The Model�", an arrogant and posh wrestler, from an idea suggested by J.J.Dillon. He also promoted a perfume called "ARROGANCE". However, the gimmick caused more trouble to Martel, though he enjoyed being a heel with this caracter. |
| In the beginning of the 90's Martel left the WWF and appeared in smaller promotions. Then he stopped for a while to become a commercial real estate broker in his native Qu�bec City. But wrestling took over when one of his buddies, Don Callis (known to Canoe readers as Cyrus...), convinced him to give it a try again... He started to tour again until he joined World Championship Wrestling in 1998. He was involved in an angle between Raven and Booker T. In the meantime, he won the TV championship belt, only to lose it again against the Harlem brawler in the 98 Spring Stampede Pay per view (he also got injured accidentally). Martel did co-host the french version of WCW for a while. When his nephew Kevin started the former CCW, he came to support and sometimes helped train the rookie wrestlers. Finally, Martel put an X to a glorious career and now lives a quiet incognito life in Quebec City with his wife. |
| Source�: the Other Arena, SlamWrestling (Greg Oliver). |
 |
| Two of Quebec greatest wrestling champs: The Late Dino Bravo, and Rick Martel |