One of the patriarchs of the vibrant Montreal wrestling scene, legendary wrestler Jacques Rougeau, Sr., father of former WWE Superstars Jacques Rougeau Jr. (The Mountie) and his tag partner Raymond Rougeau, passed away on Canada Day, July 1, 2019, as broken by the family in a statement released on Tuesday. The statement read as follows:
Rawdon, July 2, 2019
Official Press Release of the Rougeau family
It is with sadness and a lot of sorrow that we announce the death of Mr. Jacques Rougeau, yesterday, on July 1, 2019, at the age of 89 He has been fighting for a while with pulmonary fibrosis, but he is still part gently, surrounded by his family that he loved so much.
This love is also shared with the public, while he has been a professional wrestler for many years. In the company of his brother Jean, he made the rain and the good weather in the four corners of Quebec, particularly in the 60 s and 70. S who don’t remember his battles with the sheik, Abdullah the butcher, Hans Schmidt or Maurice Vachon?
He has been part of the Quebec landscape for several years and it was important for us to share the news with all those who followed him, appreciated and loved in his public career. He has worn a name that resonates so much in this middle and mainly in Quebec that these three sons, Raymond, Jacques and Armand, one of his daughters, Joanne, as well as three of his grandson walked in his steps, working all in The middle of the struggle at one time or another.
But if for you he was a popular wrestler, for us, he was a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great and esteemed great-grandfather. He was the quiet force of our family and his departure is and will be very painful.
Media friends and fans of wrestling, we thank you for the love you have given him over the years and be assured that this feeling was shared.
The Rougeau family
Jacques Rougeau Sr. got into pro wrestling in 1956, five years after his brother Johnny Rougeau had started. The two brothers followed the footsteps of their uncle, Eddie Auger, who was a wrestler himself from the 1940s through to his death in 1973. He was the first French-Canadian wrestler to tour the world wrestling. While Johnny would be the bigger star of the two, Jacques was still a beloved hero in Montreal.
The Rougeau brothers ran International Wrestling Association (IWA) in Montreal during the 1960s and 1970s, when Johnny and partner Bob Langevin took over the promotion that had been a standard bearer in Canadian wrestling since Eddie Quinn‘s promotion started in the 1920s. Jacques was a 5x IWA International Champion. He didn’t just compete within IWA though. He went on several tours with NJPW during the early to mid-1970s, facing the likes of Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi, and Katsuhisa Shibata (the father of another NJPW star, Katsuyori Shibata). In the early 1980s, he also competed for Jerry Jarrett & Jerry Lawler‘s Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), where he was a 2x NWA Mid-American Heavyweight Champion and feuded with Terry Taylor over the Southern Heavyweight title.
All three of his sons, Jacques Jr., Raymond and Armand, entered professional wrestling. Jacques Jr. and Raymond found success in the WWE in the 1980s as the Rougeau Brothers. Following Raymond’s retirement, Jacques found even greater success in singles competition as The Mountie. He finally found tag team gold in WWF as part of The Quebecers. Alongside current Ring of Honor star PCO, they won the WWF World Tag Team titles three times. Sadly, Armand’s wrestling ended in 1987 following a serious injury. Jacques Sr.’s daughter Joanne has also worked as a promoter, a bodybuilder and worked for WWE in marketing. She was once married to another Quebec wrestler, Denis Gauthier, and their son Denis Jr. had an 11-year career in the NHL with the Calgary Flames, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings.
The entire staff of Last Word on Pro Wrestling sends our condolences to the entire Rougeau family during this tough time.
