Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon was once described as the “rule-breaking bad guy whose ferocity frightened everyone within reach”. But throughout his 40 year career he was a favourite of wrestling fans across North America, and in particular in his hometown of Montreal. He died Thursday, November 21, 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska, at the age of 84.
One of thirteen children of a Montreal police officer, he grew up in the working class neighbourhood of Ville-Emard in the city’s southwest. Before his started his professional wrestling career, he was an amateur and competed at the 1948 Olympics.
In a 2009 interview with the Montreal Gazette’s Ian Macdonald Vachon recalled: “I was coming home from school with blood on my shirt quite often, and my father wanted to know why. I told him guys were shouting ‘Vachon cochon [pig]’ at me and I had to fight.
“My father took me to the YMCA in Verdun to take boxing lessons. The coach said I should try wrestling instead. He said in boxing you get punches to the head and you can get punch drunk. He said in wrestling you learn how to put guys down without being hit in the head.”
By the 1950s he was travelling across North America with his characteristic shaved head, jet black beard, and his signature ‘Piledriver’ finishing move on opponents.
In 1987, his lower right leg was amputated after a car accident.
He was inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame in 2010. At the induction ceremony he sat on stage in his wheelchair, and said: “This is how I introduced myself most of the time: Mad Dog is the name, and wrestling is the game. If you don’t like my face, come and tell me to my face. Don’t talk behind my back! I’m Mad Dog Vachon, and I approve of this message.”
In that speech he told the audience through his 44 years as an amateur and professional, he had fought 13,000 matches.
The WWE biography starts with this sentence: “One of the most unorthodox characters in sports-entertainment history, Mad Dog Vachon terrorized opponents, officials and fans for four decades and made a lasting mark as a brutal competitor and a true original.”
More information:
CJAD – Wrestling legend ‘Mad Dog’ Vachon dead at 84 – here
Montreal Gazette archives – Vachon lived up to ‘Mad Dog’ name – here
CBC Archives, 1987 video report – Wrestling: Mad Dog’s toughest fight – here
WWE bio – here
WWE Induction speech, other videos – here
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