When Robert finally hung up his boots, a new local hero was needed to anchor Quinn's promotion. Although ex-patriate Frenchman Edouard Carpentier would initially rival him in popularity at the beginning of the 1960's, the torch was (unofficially) passed from Robert to another local sensation: Johnny Rougeau. Well known as a protege of Robert's, Johnny was a popular junior heavyweight champion in Montreal and won his first International heavyweight title on November 7th, 1961 in, of all places, Ottawa by defeating the villainous Hans Schmidt (who would be Johnny's bitter rival throughout most of the decade). He lost the belt some eight months later to Killer Kowalski but his reputation as a babyface headliner was solidified.

Ironically, Johnny would leave the wrestling world shortly after that as the business began to suffer a severe decline in Quebec. The situation bottomed out when Carpentier vacated the International title in 1964 for more lucrative paydays elsewhere and Quinn passed away months later. In the meantime, Rougeau had become a successful nightclub entrepreneur. But the nightclub circuit in Montreal was waning as well and with Quinn now gone, the position of promoter was now wide open and Johnny made his move. With an initial investment of $50,000 and a solid french-language television deal with CFTM channel 10, Rougeau formed Eastern Sports Enterprises in 1965 and dubbed his promotion "All-Star Wrestling" ("Les As De La Lutte" in French).

Over the next decade, Rougeau's popularity as a wrestler (floating in and out of retirement several times) and now as a promoter soared. His involvement in the Quebec junior hockey league furthered his reputation around the province as well. But Johnny's most significant idea was to build his promotion around the Rougeau family name. Starting with the recruitment of his brother Jacques Sr. and followed soon after by his son Raymond (billed publicly as his "nephew"), Johnny implemented this concept well before Stu Hart did in Calgary, or Fritz Von Erich did in Dallas. Sure enough, Jacques Sr. was handed the torch following Johnny's swan song in the early 70's and all seemed well.

However, the Montreal promotional wrestling wars of that period saw the Vachon brothers' Grand Prix Wrestling constantly battling him for the loyalty of local fans and Jacques Sr.'s claim as the top star in Quebec was murky at best. Even a pair of inter-promotional matches at the Forum against Grand Prix champion Don Leo Jonathan failed to settle the score. When both promotions finally died of their wounds in 1975, Jacques Sr. was one of the few survivors and ultimately became the unchallenged top babyface for various Quebec promoters during a terrible business period for wrestling. By 1977, wrestling was pretty much dead in Montreal and an accidental hand injury convinced Jacques Sr. to retire. Ironically, his son Jacques Jr. would make his professional debut for Stu Hart in Calgary that same year.

Finally, after years of neglect, Frank Valois, Andre The Giant and Gino Brito formed what would later be known as "International Wrestling" in 1980. Since all three were veterans of the Quebec scene, they realized that a strong local hero was needed to carry the fledgling promotion and repair the lineage that had been broken during the late 70's. With Carpentier too old, Jacques Sr. retired and Raymond still considered a junior heavyweight, Dino Bravo was chosen as the heir to Yvon Robert's throne.

Although he lacked the hardcore French-Canadian appeal of his predecessors, Bravo proved to be a good choice. His workrate in the ring was as good as anyone's of that era and a shrewd array of good villains and smart booking restored the reputation of pro wrestling in Montreal. Even though they never managed to secure a stadium show like Grand Prix and Rougeau (a proposed Bravo vs. Hulk Hogan bout at the Olympic Stadium sadly never materialized), many of International Wrestling's shows at the Forum actually drew larger gates than any previous local promotion.

Also enjoying a renaissance during the early 1980's was the Rougeau family name. After honing his skills in the Gulf Coast territories in the U.S. (where he engaged in a memorable feud with fellow Quebecer Jos Leduc), Jacques the son returned to form an incredibly exciting tag team with his "brother" Raymond. Although Bravo was the official headliner in main events, it was the Rougeau team who truly electrified fans all over the province, and Jacques was the one everybody was talking about. Tall and solidly built like his father, Jacques displayed a combination of youth, size and athleticism that surpassed those of his other family members. Handsome and charismatic as well, it didn't take a genius to figure out that this was THE wrestler of the future in Quebec. Sure, Bravo was still on top and Rick Martel was next in line behind him. But by the time the decade would come to a close, it was a sure thing that Jacques Rougeau would pick up the torch, and it was also becoming evident that he could very well turn out to be one of the greatest International champions Quebec had seen since Yvon Robert.

Suddenly, in January of 1986, everything changed.

The emerging colossus that was the World Wrestling Federation had had it's eye on the Montreal territory for quite some time. They'd been on local English-language TV for a few seasons and had even once promoted a few shows in Quebec City. In fact, Jacques (in between stints with International) had briefly joined the WWF in 1984 for a now-forgotten May 31st television taping in the Montreal suburb of Verdun on the undercard of a Hulk Hogan vs. David Shultz championship main event. Now, Vince McMahon decided to play hardball. Following an unprecedented six-month co-promotional deal with International at the Montreal Forum, the WWF exited the agreement and signed an exclusive deal with the arena for Federation shows. At the same time, an even bigger coup was announced: the Rougeau brothers were jumping to the WWF. That event, more than any other, signaled not only the beginning of the end for International, but also the end of the Yvon Robert legacy in Quebec. From that point onward, Quebec fans would be cheering American mega-stars like Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Steve Austin and The Rock  instead of local born-and-bred heroes.

In all fairness to the Rougeaus and all the other local stars who followed them to the WWF, it's difficult to begrudge those men their right to look after their families financially. Even if they hadn't seen the writing on the wall in terms of what the WWF was doing to the territories, the huge six-figure contracts that they signed were far more than they ever could have made in International Wrestling and they weren't wrong in choosing the path that they did. Nevertheless, it was sad for longtime Montreal wrestling fans to have to watch the local scene and all it's wonderful history come to an end, only to be left with wistful dreams of the classic matches and champions that could have been.

Still, as we are now well into a new millennium, hearty congratulations should go out to Jacques Rougeau for taking a huge personal financial risk in his noble attempt to restore the roots and legacy of local Quebec wrestling on a major scale. The fact that he even made it to the Molson Centre with his "Lutte Internationale 2000" group is a miracle in and of itself. Although we'll always look with a longing glance in our minds to his International heavyweight title reign that could have been and SHOULD have been, we can be thankful that there is at least one man out there who still cares enough about the legacy of his uncle, his father, Yvon Robert and many others, that he would be willing to step up and do something about it.

Whether or not he ultimately succeeds or fails, my hat goes off to Jacques Rougeau.

NEXT MONTH :

A look at Richard Charland, the wrestler who just couldn't get a break.