Raymond Rougeau

Raymond "Ray" Rougeau (born February 18, 1955) is a former Canadian professional wrestler and French language television presenter and commentator.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1971–1986)

Raymond Rougeau began training with his father Jacques Rougeau, Sr. and his great-uncle Eddie Auger at the age of fourteen. He debuted in 1971 at the age of sixteen in Joliette for his father's Montreal promotion as a babyface. In 1974 he and his father fought The Love Brothers in Toronto. In 1976, Raymond relocated to Atlanta, Georgia to work for Jim Barnett in the National Wrestling Alliance along with his close friend Pierre Lefebvre. In 1985 he and his brother Jacques Rougeau Jr. fought Ron and Jimmy Garvin in Montreal.

World Wrestling Federation (1986–2002)

The Fabulous Rougeaus (1986–1990)

In February 1986, Raymond and his brother joined the World Wrestling Federation, debuting during a tour of Australia. During their first year with the company they faced and defeated such duos as The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), The Moondogs, Jimmy Jack and Dory Funk, Jr., and The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake).

Although they lost their match at WrestleMania III in 1987 to Valentine and Beefcake they did win the WWF Tag Team Titles later that year, albeit briefly. Jacques and Raymond upset The Hart Foundation for the titles at the Montreal Forum on August 10, 1987 but the championship was later returned since the challengers won the match after using Jimmy Hart's megaphone as a weapon. The title win was never mentioned on American TV.

After two years in the Federation, The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond) turned heel when they participated in an angle in which the Canadian brothers were announced as "From Canada, but soon to relocate to the United States", and had an intentionally annoying entrance theme in which they sang (partly in French) about being "All-American Boys" as well as now having Jimmy Hart as their manager (The Rougeaus were also briefly billed as being from Memphis, Jimmy Hart's home city). They also waved tiny American flags, infuriating fans, who questioned their sincerity. Also, they would humorously attempt to start "USA!" chants, which led to further negative fan "heat". According to Jacques, the widespread antipathy of American fans inspired Vince McMahon to turn them into villains. They would feud with The Killer Bees, The Hart Foundation (who had turned face in between), The Bushwhackers, and The Rockers during their heel run.

Raymond went into semi-retirement three months after SummerSlam in 1989. His last match was in the WWF was at the Royal Rumble in 1990, which the Rougeau Brothers lost to the Bushwackers.

Announcer (1992–2002)

In late 1992, he replaced Edouard Carpentier as the play-by-play announcer for the French syndicated WWF programming distributed to Quebec, Europe and Africa. He commented alongside Jean Brassard from 1994-1999 then for a short period with Philippe Hartman 2000-2002.

As his brother was still an active competitor as one half of The Quebecers alongside Pierre, Pierre turned and started attacking Jacques. Raymond left the announcing table and ran to the ring to save his brother. Rougeau would later accompany his brother in his first retirement match on the WWF held on Montreal.

He could also be seen as an interviewer and a presenter on WWF programming in 1993 and 1994.

He came out of retirement in August 8, 1996 to face Owen Hart in a boxing match at the Montreal Molson Centre during a WWF house show despite not being active as a competitor for years.

Rougeau would come out of retirement once again in March 1998, when he teamed with his brother, Jacques, and Carl Ouellet to defeat the team of Adam Copeland, Shawn Stasiak, and Tom Brandi in a dark match for WWF Shotgun Saturday Night.

In 2000, Rougeau participated in the "Lutte 2000" event, where he defeated Richard Charland.

He left the WWF in early 2002 when they stopped producing French editions of their programming.

Personal life

Rougeau now owns income management properties and has been active in city council politics in Rawdon, Quebec since 2002; he was initially elected with 72% of the vote and was re-elected unopposed. He's elected for the first time in the November 2002 municipal election and is reelected in 2005, 2009 and 2013.^[2] Opposed by two candidates, he's reelected with 66,12% of the vote in November 2013.^[3] He occasionally promotes wrestling shows in Montreal along with Jacques.

Rougeau has a son born in 1990.

In September 2011, Rougeau was credited with saving the life of a 77-year-old hunting friend who was lost in the woods, near Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec for two days. Rougeau flew his own plane for the rescue mission after a police search did not lead to the man being found.^[4][5]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Juji-gatame^[1]
  • Sleeper hold^[1]
• Signature moves
  • Boston crab^[6]
• Managers
  • Jimmy Hart^[7]

Championships and accomplishments

• Lutte Internationale
  • Canadian International Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Jacques Rougeau (4), and Pat Patterson (2)
• Lutte Internationale 2000
  • Lutte 2000 Championship (1 Time) ^[8]
  • Johnny Rougeau Tag Team Championship (1 Time) – with Jacques Rougeau ^[9]
• National Wrestling Alliance
  • NWA Montreal Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• National Wrestling Federation
  • NWF World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him 291 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1994^[10]

References

External links

• Raymond Rougeau at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview
• Online World of Wrestling profile
• The Rougeau Family profile