The Last Match: The Vachon Family

Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon
October 13, 1986 International Wrestling, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
with Jos Leduc defeated Gilles Poisson & Man Mountain Moore

The eldest brother of the Vachon family and the first to enter the squared circle in 1950.  He toured around the territories collecting titles along the way including becoming a five time AWA World Heavyweight Champion holding the title a combined 770 days.

He is probably best known by my generation from when at WWF In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies in Omaha, Nebraska, when Vachon who was sitting ringside was grabbed by Kevin Nash as Diesel who then removed his fake leg and attacked Shawn Michaels with it.

Retiring in 1986 he was struck by a vehicle in 1987 during a hit and run crash the resulted in the amputation of his lower leg.  In 2010 he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  Mad Dog passed away in his sleep on November 21, 2013 at the age of 84.

Paul "Butcher" Vachon
December 3, 1985 WWF Championship Wrestling, Poughkeepsie, New York
with Terry Gibbs was defeated by King Tonga & Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

The Butcher followed his brother into wrestling starting in 1957.  He would tour around states wrestling in the AWA, WWF, NWA, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and for Stampede Wrestling in his native Canada.  The Vachon Brothers were the AWA World Tag Team Champions for 623 days from August 30, 1969 to May 15, 1971.  Butcher finished his career in the WWF retiring in 1985.

Vivian Vachon
October 13, 1986 International Wrestling, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
defeated Candi Devine

Vivian Vachon began her training in 1969 with the Fabulous Moolah.  November 4, 1971 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada she defeated Betty Nicoli for the AWA Women's Championship and would go on to hold the title for 651 days before losing it back to Nicoli on August 16, 1973.  She is best known for being the centerpiece of the 1973 wrestling documentary Wrestling Queen that also featured her brothers and other wrestlers.  Tragically Vivian and her 9 year old daughter Julie were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver on August 24, 1991 near St. Jean, Quebec, Canada.

I named my cat Vivian Vachon after her.

Luna Vachon
December 7, 2007 Great Lakes Championship Wrestling, Milwaukee, WI
defeated Traci Brooks to retain her GLCW Ladies Championship

Began her training with her Aunt Vivian at the age of sixteen and then The Fabulous Moolah.  Best known for her time WWE but she also had stings in Florida, POWW, AWA, WCW, ECW, and the independents.  Luna Vachon announced on December 5, 2007 that she would retire after her match on the 7th with Traci Brooks.  Vachon was found dead August 27, 2010 in her home from and apparent overdose.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and like my Facebook page.

Later Readers!

Random Wrestling: Women's Edition

June Byers vs. Cora Combs

Other than the 50’s I’m not sure when this match was.   It’s actually a pretty solid match that was enjoyable to watch, the crowd was into it, which is more than you can see for the current WWE non NXT product.

 Mildred Burke vs. Mae Weston

So that last match made me look for a Mildred Burke match the pioneer woman’s wrestler.  Again this match is from the 1950’s and this has a newsreel feel to it with the background music and commentary.  Burke was pretty damn vicious and dirty in the ring. 

Vivian Vachon vs. Kay Noble

From the early 70’s Vivian is the sister of Maurice and Paul Vachon and the namesake of my cat.  She was also the featured subject in the documentary Wrestling Queen that I own and it is a very good documentary on her and wrestling at that time.  Both Vachon and her opponent Kay Noble stopped wrestling full time in the early 80’s because they had children and only appeared sporadically after that.  

My cat Vivian Vachon

The Crush Girls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagoya vs. Leilani Kai & Penny Mitchell

March 16, 1986 Madison Square Garden

The Crush Girls were hugely popular in Japan as both Asuka and Chigusa reached megastar status in Japan.  When they came to the States they brought a ladies style that was unseen over here and it blew the fans away.  Most people know who Leilani Kai is.  Penny Mitchell I had never heard of until recently but have watched several of her matches and am a big fan of her work. 

 Jumping Bomb Angels: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota

August 10, 2008 from LLPW in Japan

Parts 1 & 2

The Jumping Bomb Angels were popular and successful tag team in the mid 80’s to early 90’s both in Japan and the states, they famously defeated the Glamour Girls for the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championships at the first Royal Rumble in 1988.  Yamazaki had retired in 1991, moved to New York and opened a restaurant with her husband.  This match in 2008 is her return to wrestling.  Noriyo had stated active in wrestling until her retirement in 2010. 

Masami debuted in 1978 and had a very successful career in Japan until her retirement at the end of 2008.  In 1997 Masami became the second and last WCW Women’s Champion winning the vacant title in a tournament final a couple months before the title was abandoned by WCW.

Jaguar Yokota debuted in 1977 a month before her 16^th birthday and considered one of the greatest women wrestlers of all time, she is still actively wrestling in Japan. 

Me with Itsuki Yamazaki at Legends of the Ring June 2, 2012 in Monroe, NJ

 

Sara Del Rey vs. Mia Yim

April 23, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland

RCW presents “The Supremacy”

Sara Del Rey is probably the greatest American Women’s Wrestler of all time. Since September 2012 she has been working as a trainer in the WWE for NXT, even recently being promoted to assistant head trainer.  Good for her that she found a way to live to not travel and make a living wrestling, crappy for us that she isn’t wrestling any longer.  She is only 35 so potentially she could still return to wrestling showing the world how good she is.

Mia Yim was early in her career at this point but it was clear from this match just how good she was going to become, and is.

I had the pleasure of seeing Del Rey wrestle twice in person, both for Chikara.  First time on December 3, 2011 in Everett, MA for JoshiMania where she defeated Tsubasa Kuragaki in a hard hitting match.  Then on July 28, 2012 in Portland for in a losing effort to Grand Champion: Eddie Kingston in an awesome match. 

Myself with Sara Del Rey Chikara in Portland, yup that's the Young Bucks in the background

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment and like my blog's Facebook page here.


Later Readers!

Bonus!

Here are the photo galleries to JoshiMania and Chiakara

JoshiMania Part 1

JoshiMania Part 2

Chikara: The Great Escape