Memorials › Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon
Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon
14 Sep 1929 – 21 Nov 2013
| Birth | 14 Sep 1929 |
| Death | 21 Nov 2013 |
| Cemetery | Riverview Cemetery Louisville , Cass County , Nebraska , USA |
| Added by | Bob Hufford on 21 Nov 2013 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120639562 |
Bio
Hall-of-Fame Professional Wrestler. A gap-toothed villain, he was one of his sport's stars for more than 30 years. One of 13 children of a Montreal policeman, he took to wrestling early and by 14 was a respected amateur competitor. Vachon wrestled for Canada as a middleweight at the 1948 London Olympics, finishing 7th, and in 1950 captured a Gold Medal in the British Empire Games at Auckland, New Zealand. Later in 1950 he turned professional and for several years 'paid his dues' by learning his trade in smaller venues. In 1955 he earned the first of his numerous professional titles when he teamed with Pierre LaSalle to take the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Tag Team belt. In the early 1960s he joined the American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) which was run by his Olympic foe Verne Gagne; compensating for his small size, he shaved his head, developed a "mad dog" persona, and used biting, clawing, and other dirty tricks along with his finishing Piledriver to become one of the fans' favorite bad guys. As time went on, Vachon was recognized, long with his frequent rival Gagne, as the AWA's superstar, winning the World Heavyweight Championship five times and frequently joining his brother Paul, sister Vivian, and, much later, niece Luna in the ring. Eventually in the late 1970s he met the fate of other aging villains by becoming a "hero" in spite of himself, a better 'fit' as he was by all reports a nice person regardless of what he had to play for the audience. In 1984 he joined Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and had some success before retiring to Iowa in 1986 where he kept busy advertising various products, writing an autobiography, and even working as a restaurant reviewer. In 1987 Vachon lost a leg to a hit-and-run driver and relocated to Omaha, Nebraska; after recovering, he remained active and was a frequent guest at wrestling shows where, though he could no longer fight matches, he was still more than capable of mixing it up on the sidelines. Named to the Quebec Sports Hall-of-Fame in 2009 and to the WWE Hall-of-Fame in 2010, he lived out his days in Omaha and died following a period of steadily declining health.
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