SLAM! Wrestling Canadian Hall of Fame: The Rougeau Family
The Rougeau Family Memories
The Rougeau family is surely after the Harts of Calgary the best know
wrestling family in Canada. I've never had the occasion to see Johnny
and Jacques Sr. in action because I'm too young, but I'm sure they would
have been great competitors if they would have wrestled today. I
remember Raymond and Jacques Jr. when they entered the WWF, they were at
first good guys but gratually they became bad guys and called themselves
"All-American Boys". They were a very good tag team who never had
really a big chance to wrestle for the Tag Team Title. As Ray retired,
Jacques continued on with is solo career as the Mountie and won the
Intercontinental Title for a very short time. After that, he teamed up
with Pierre-Carl Ouellet and became the Quebecers. The Quebecers won a
couple of times the Tag Team Title before splitting up. Then Jacques
retired for a while and then made a comeback in WCW with his old friend
Pierre-Carl Ouellet as the "very stupid tag team" of the Amazing French
Canadians. This team has good chemistry but they should drop the stupid
gimmick of singing the national anthem, by doing so they would improve
their chances to compete for the WCW Tag Team Title and also gain some
popularity.
Wrestling fan from Canada.
As a teenager, I was a big wrestling fan, and whenever the WWF came to
Ottawa, I would line up the night before tickets went on sale to get
front-row seats.
Just to be different, I enjoyed cheering for the bad guys, and mocking
the good guys, and some of my favourite bad guys to cheer were the
Rougeau Brothers, Jacques and Raymond. Similarly, one of the wrestlers I
hated the most was Tito Santana, for his shameless catering to the fans.
I saw opportunity knocking around 1987 when one of the matches announced
for a card in Ottawa featured Santana against Jacques Rougeau, and as it
turns out, I made the best of it.
During the match, I openly ridiculed Santana as he tried to get cheers
from the crowd, and was perhaps the only fan in attendance to cheer
Rougeau's entrance to the ring.
Rougeau quickly picked up on this, and actually managed to work me into
the match.
At one point, when Rougeau had Santana in a headlock, he had to
repeatedly pull Tito's hair to keep him under control. Rougeau of course
kept this from the sight of the refereee, who then asked the fans with
hand gestures whether there was hair being pulled. The entire arena
answered "YES", but then Rougeau said, "I'm not pulling hair! Ask this
guy!" and pointed in my direction.
I stood up and screamed in Rougeau's defense. The headlock was allowed
to continue.
Soon after, Rougeau stood Sanatana up, headlock intact, looked over to
me and yelled, "What should I do to him now?"
I stood up and bellowed, "Throw him into the ropes and kick him in the
head!"
And my wish was Jacques command. Sanatana was promptly flung into the
ropes and felled by the heel of Jacques' boot.
Santana lost the match to Rougeau after some more dirty tactics that now
escape me, and left the ring to the sound of my taunts, looking very
frustrated, and as though he wanted to beat me senseless.
Before he left, while everyone else in the arena booed him, Rougeau came
over with a big smile to shake my hand, and said, "Thanks, pal."
Jacques was a true showman, able to improvise and feed off of the crowd,
and provided my favourite memory of all the matches I have attended.
mart0030@algonquinc.on.ca
I seen Jacques Rougeau Jr wrestling in Southeastern Champion Wrestling
in the early 80's in Mobile, AL and he was great.
Mickey R. Smith
They both used to wrestle for International Wrestling, a Quebec /
Northeastern Ontario Fed. Phenomenal matches that initially drew me
into wrestling. Legendary and victorious feuds against the Road
Warriors, Gorgeous Jimmy and Ronny Garvin, and Dino Bravo and King Tonga
(aka Meng). All these wrestlers were in their primes at this point, and
the Rougeaus, with fabulous tag moves, were the glue.
David Drewe
They are good. I feel sad when I think about this team because I remember
Jacques when he was young and on the Rougeau Brothers. I think if they can't
do any better, then Jacques should team up with Raymond to reform the Rougeau
Brothers.
NarcisKev@aol.com
Ahh, the Rougeaus. I remember a revenge match with Raymond against
Abdullah the Butcher at the Paul Sauve Arena. There was blood
averywhere. I don't know if Raymond bladed, or if it was the Butcher's
blood, but whatever the case, the crowd went wild. There were maybe 3000
people, but it felt like 10 times as many.
All the Rougeaus are/were very well schooled, and could both work and
shoot, which is not something you can say about very many wrestlers.
Mark Nixon, Un montrealais living in Denmark
I'll never forget the night at the Montreal forum (RIP) that the
Rougeau brothers won the WWF tag team belts! wow, here in the little
forum the belts change hands. it was a tearful moment with Jacques Jr..,
Raymond, Armand, (who was triple tagging with them regularly in Montreal
in the mid '80s against valentine, beefcake, and Dino bravo [RIP]) and
the legendary Jacques Sr.. hugging in the ring. for fans like me who had
grown to know and love the Rougeaus (long before the mountie was
invented). Do you think the Rougeaus won the belt?I had watched them
twice a month in Montreal. on the French version of WWF superstars, the
Rougeaus had a weekly segment called the Rougeaus brunch. on this show,
they would make fun of their English speaking heel guests who didn't
speak French. one time, they had referee/wrestler Danny Davis as a
guest. Danny agreed to French lessons so he would repeat (in French)
after the Rougeaus: "I'm a big jerk" or "I'm pretty gross." as a young
fan, this would bring on mild convulsions of laughter. I recently met
Jacques backstage at a house show in Montreal, (now I get to meet these
guys!) and reminded him of Davis' visit and we shared a laugh.
By the way, to answer my own question, given the belts changed hands
in Montreal, (really for the Rougeaus' sake) the WWF would not recognize
this. there were no cameras to capture the moment so it didn't count. I
only have a few old snapshots of the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers holding
up the belts.
Harris Black employ@total.net
Only memories of these guys was in 1987. A six man tag match with
Beefcake against the new Dream team, and Johnny Valient. The Rougeaus
team won, and Valient got a nice head shave!!! The other memory, was at
Survivor Series 87, when they won, with the Stallions!!! Then, they were
an awsome team. What ever happened to them, I do not know. Guys, don't
ever let Jimmy manage you again. Did Vince screw them too?
Derek M. Ellis
I personal met the Rougeau brothers when they came to Victoria to
wrestle with the WWF they were very nice and friendly because they saw
me when I was getting crushed in mass of people and the Rougeaus were very
nice to pull me out to see if I was ok and I said that I was fine and
the told me to wait after the show and they gave a personal autograph
and I got to meet other wrestlers like Dino Bravo, Brutus Beefcake, and
the Hart Foundation that was the best time I ever had
peter brust
I rememeber seening Jacques Rougeau fighting as "The
Mountie" in the WWF. I was at Sheffield (England) in
1992. He was fighting Virgil and I rememeber him
coming in to the ring singing along #I'm the Mountie#.
Jimmy Hart was practily skipping in to the ring. The
Mountie took the Mic half way Through the mtach and
shouted "I'M the Mountie"!!! Virgil then beat him up.
Mountie won by cheating. I always liked Jacques. He
was unusual and he was my fave wrestler. I
loved his hair do!
Good luck, David Scotland (UK)
All I have to say is Man can that Jacques Rougeau sing or what... Every song
he ever sang still rings in my head today from "All American Boys" to "I'm
the Mountie" to his singing on Radio WWF and even the old Prime Time show...
And I can't forgte the short lived feud about who can sing better when the
Rockers were forced to sing to their old Rocker music to compete against the
Rougeaus back in the late 80s
Cole...Cleveland,OH
Rougeau's = Greatest tag team in WWF history to never get the title belts. And that has to be the truth. They were entertaining and great to watch. Hands down they were my favorites of all time and still are.
One memory that sticks out is that in 1987, they visited my hometown in upstate New York. And that was with the "All-American Boys" gimmick. They were handing out the small American flags, as per gimmick, and luckily enough I got one. Afterwords I got a chance to get Raymond's autograph, but Jacques was already at the car, so we didn't get him.
Years later, in 1993, I got a chance to speak with Raymond at a TV taping, again in my hometown and talked about that night. Obviously he wouldn't remember a cheesy house show, but it was a great conversation, showing how great the Rougeaus are.
Jacques was always an entertainer. No matter what the gimmick. I miss that duo and it would be great to see them make
one last run to the WWF gold together.
P.J., Delhi, NY
My memories of The Rougeaus are when they became rulebreakers and joined up
with Jimmy Hart. That was the moment when what was just a plain looking
ordinary tag team became full of character and persona. The song "All
American Boys" was won of the catchiest tunes of the WWF theme music back in
those days and I believe Jimmy Hart actually composed that. I also believe
that Jacques and Raymond had a behind the scenes, real life feud with The
British Bulldogs that eventually led to The Bulldogs leaving the WWF in the
winter of 1988. I know that despite exaggerations, if any, that these two
teams at least were not found of one another and except for one SummerSlam 88
match(In fact the very first SummerSlam match ever!), these two teams
basically kept away from each other in the ring.
RingMasterDCG@cs.com
I was wondering if anybody could help me out out there. Back in the late 70's and early 80's there was a job boy in the Georgia Championship Wrestling Area by the name of Jerry Roberts who was green as grass but was a big good looking kid and showed a lot of promise to me even back then. This young wrestler was the spitting image of a young Jacques Rougeau and for years I have believed that it was indeed Jacques and that maybe his family had sent him to Georgia to get some seasoning when he was still a green rookie as I also remember seeing a very young Brett and Bruce Hart in the same area. Can anybody help me? Was this Jacques?
I would like to add that I read Dynamite Kid's book and found him to be a mean spirited bully and a real jerk. Though I wish nobody the physical impairments that he has experienced and I realize that everybody is a product of their up bringing and can have problems; I applaud Jacques Rougeau for being one of the few wrestlers to stand up to this little bully.
Most wrestlers just blew off his mean and hateful pranks and his steroid rages and abusive behavoir. Jacques was a man and stood up for himself. He was even very humble in saying that he knew that he could be obnoxious and annoying when joking around. He even admitted that he was nervous about standing up to Dynamite but he felt he had to as a man. I think that Wayne Ferris the Honkytonk Man said it best when speaking of Dynamite's mean spirited and often
violent and abusive behavoir in his RF shoot interview, "I guess Dynamite didn't think it was too funny when Jacques Rougeau knocked his F-ing front teeth out." A real man doesn't have to prove he is tough all the time or bully others and intimidate. He may even feel fear just like everyone else. But he doesn't let that fear stand in his way of doing what is
right. Bravo Jacques, you are a MAN.
John Mozuke, grouchoM@peoplepc.com
