Quebecer wrestlers who had been part of Grand Prix Wrestling, one of the most successful wrestling promotions in Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick),  got involved and quickly became the heart and soul of this newly born promotion.  Guys like Frenchie Martin, Pierre  “Mad Dog” Lefebvre, Michel  “Justice” Dubois (later known as Alexis Smirnoff in the AWA), Zarinoff Leboeuf, Gilles  “The Fish” Poisson, Serge Dumont, Ludger Proulx, Len Shelley and the Rougeaus (Jacques, Jr. and Raymond), as well as Bravo, who quickly became International Champion,  would help Valois’ promotion get recognition and become a  high-rated  program on provincial  television.

In the spring of 1980, Varoussac Promotions would obtain their first TV contract on a French network, under the name  “Les Étoiles de la lutte” (Stars of Wrestling).  Hosts for this first version of the promotion’s weekly program were French legend Edouard Carpentier and a self-proclaimed martial arts expert called Guy Aubray. At this time, Vince McMahon, Sr.’s WWF would occasionally come to Montreal and book some of its wrestlers with guys who were part of Varoussac Promotions. (Actually, Quebec was kind of a  “free land” where foreign promoters could come join the saddle and promote their guys.) Since  “Les Etoiles de la lutte”  was recorded in Sherbrooke (South Eastern Quebec, about 30 minutes away from the USA), you would see WWF stars such as Ken Patera, Jimmy Snuka, Mr. Fuji, Mr. Saito, The Wild Samoans, among others, come to Quebec once in a while.  

Some say Gino Brito, Sr. was a good friend of Vince, Sr.’s at the time. Meanwhile, since, like I said earlier, Quebec was a  “free land”, AWA stars would come to Quebec as well, which explains the presence of stars like The Destroyer (Dick Beyers), Billy Robinson and even Hulk Hogan, for instance, in Sherbrooke, just inside the border.  Of course, back then, Hogan wasn’t the big star he would become years later in the WWF. At a special event held at the Velodrome in Montreal in the summer of 1983, despite the presence of Hulk Hogan on the roster for the night, barely 3000 fans went to see the AWA guys face Gino Brito, Sr.’s hard workers. According to one of my sources, this place really wasn’t the right spot for promoting wrestling: fans were far from the ring and could barely see what was going on inside the squared circle.  

Varoussac Promotions would keep promoting professional wrestling until 1984 all over the province of Quebec, directed by Brito’s booking.  Meanwhile,  “Les Étoiles de la lutte”  was a very important factor for Varoussac’s succeeding, since the program aired on Sunday mornings, aiming to promote and sell events that were held every  Monday night at the Paul-Sauvé Center, THE big wrestling spot at this time period. Greats such as Abdullah the Butcher, Jos Leduc, the Rougeaus, Dino Bravo and the Masked Superstar (yep, Bill Eadie) would make Paul-Sauvé Center famous—unfortunately, about 20 years later, this place is closed and isn’t of any use anymore, as well as the Montreal Forum, home of the great Montreal Canadiens and palace where the Kowalskis, Yukon Erics, Yvon Roberts and others wrestled in the middle of the century.   

A decisive year in wrestling history in Quebec has to be 1984, since Gino Brito, Sr. bought Valois’ and Andre’s shares of Varoussac Promotions and created International Wrestling. In early 1984, International Wrestling signed an agreement with Verne Gagne’s AWA so wrestlers like Rick Martel, Stan Hansen and others could perform on Quebecer soil for this particular promotion.  Remember Vince, Jr. had bought the WWF from his father a short while ago and WWF stars wouldn’t come to Quebec because Vincent K. wouldn’t allow them to raise the popularity of another wrestling promotion (Varoussac Promotions). As a result, a new weekly program was born :  “Lutte Internationale” on the French network, and simply “International Wrestling” on the English network.  While Ed Carpentier and Guy Aubray promoted Monday night’s weekly non-broadcasted events at the Paul-Sauvé Center in Montreal, focusing on wrestlers from Quebec, André Belisle and Gino Brito, Sr. would comment matches featuring stars coming from the AWA who would face our Quebecer guys. The International Wrestling/AWA agreement was the only way IW could bring American stars to Quebec in a way to attract major crowds. Many people still say that the WWF’s intrusion on Quebecer soil in the early 1980s was a sneaky way to slowly take control of this small territory: fans got used to seing WWF stars and were disappointed when McMahon, Jr. refused to let his guys go to Quebec. The damage was done: Varoussac Promotions’ wrestlers, as well as International Wrestling local stars, had seen the exposure the WWF could grant them with. Some IW stars were only waiting for their contract to end with IW and for Vince to give them a call… Vince had bought “Maple Leaf Wrestling” and started running shows recorded in Brantford, Ontario.  In this way, he would interfere in a certain way in Brito’s  business, since IW  wasn’t only touring all over Quebec but also in Ontario and a part of New Brunswick.  IW had to forget about the Toronto area and visit Northern Ontario towns.  Vince had put officially one foot on Canadian ground:   “Maple Leaf Wrestling”  was televised on Saturdays at noon… in the same time slot as  “International Wrestling”.   

I must admit I don’t know much more about the  year of 1984. What I do know is that 1985 saw some of the most brutal feuds in the history of this province take place. From this point on (1985), regular stars who were part of International Wrestling were : The Masked Superstar, AWA World Champion Rick Martel (who was born in Quebec City), Dino Bravo, Jos Leduc, the Great Samu (Samula Anoai), Tarzan  “The Boot”  Tyler, Pierre  “Mad Dog” Lefebvre, Frenchie Martin, Gino Brito, Jr., the Rougeau Brothers (Jacques, Jr., Raymond and Armand), King Tonga (today’s WWF Haku and former WCW Meng, but we’ll get back to him in a future chronicle), AWA Tag Team Champions at the time the Road Warriors, as well as Quebecer jobbers like Richard Charland, Sunny War Cloud, Yvon Laverdure, Denis Goulet, Claude Hébert, André Proulx, Bob and Rocky De La Serra, among others.   

Some of the hottest feuds of 1985 certainly were the ones involving the Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond), International Tag Team Champions at the time,  against the Garvin brothers, Ronnie and Jimmy, even though this feud only lasted three months.  Another hot  rivalry was  Jos Leduc against Dino Bravo, his former friend.  This year also saw the Rougeaus feud with Leduc and Abdullah the Butcher, a quite unequal set of teams, even though the Rougeaus, huge fan favorites, kept up with the biggest team International Wrestling ever had to offer.  

However, 1985 may have been probably the hottest year in IW history, but it’s also been a year of major losses. First, in early January 1985,  “Les Étoiles de la lutte”, until then used to promote Brito’s wrestlers, was bought by the WWF and asked to broadcast WWF programs. Ed Carpentier, who had previously criticized the WWF for being a  “kicking and gouging” organization, would introduce the new show saying  “Les Étoiles de la lutte” now would show true champions. Vince’s money had struck again. But  there was more to come, unfortunately…  

In the end of 1985, International Wrestling, and a major part of Quebec’s wrestling tradition would fade due to the shocking, tragic deaths of Tarzan  “The Boot” Tyler, his protegee Pierre  “Mad Dog” Lefebvre and referee Adrien Desbois in a car crash, on December 24.  Tyler had been a dominant manager in IW  during 1985, leading guys like Leduc, King Tonga, Lefebvre, Frenchie Martin, and others.  He was also involved, at this time, in the ongoing feud between the Rougeau Brothers and Abdullah and Leduc.  Both teams were scheduled to face off on December 28 in Sudbury, Ontario.  Former hated wrestler in Grand Prix Wrestling, Tyler had come back in 1985 to become one of the most hated managers of the area.  

The following year (1986), International Wrestling had a few new comers who became regular headliners on the weekly show.  The Rougeaus had left  for the WWF, telling Brito they had no choice but to think about their careers.  Same thing for King Tonga, who would appear in the WWF as International Champion and later become Haku, as well as Dino Bravo, who also got attracted by Vince’s big money—Bravo had previously taken the Rougeaus’ departure for  the WWF with a little anger.  As a result, new main-eventers in IW  were the Long Riders, AWA team formed with a young  “Wild” Bill Irwin and his late brother Scott  "Hog”  Irwin, former Super Destroyer; Dan Kroffat (a.k.a Phil LaFon); Tom Zenk; Alofa the Polynesian Prince (today’s Rikishi at his debut, when he was 20 and weighing about 215 pounds!); Rick Martel; Sheik Ali; Abdullah the Butcher, Steve Strong (not the original old school big guy with blond hair: International Wrestling’s Strong was Steve DiSalvo, a 6’3’’, 290 lbs. mastodon billed from Boston, Massachusetts); and Jos Leduc, who stayed briefly in IW before getting a brief stint in the WWF, if memory serves me well.   

There were interesting feuds during 1986 as well, but I’ll keep it quiet for now, as this time period is the one I remember the most, so I’ll get back to it in a near future.  Meanwhile, during 1986, International Wrestling also had a deal with World Wrestling Council  (WWC) from Puerto Rico: one organization could lend wrestlers to the other.  This is what explains the fact that Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody wrestled in Quebec in 1986 (mostly Abby), as well as a guy like Hercules Ayala, who came to Quebec with the goal of getting rid of Jos Leduc.  Ayala would become International Champion by the end of the year.  David Schultz also had a brief stint in IW, as well as Jason the Terrible, Sweet Daddy Siki and Kamala.  On another end, the WWC/IW agreement allowed Rick Martel to be part of WWC’s World Title Tournament, and allowed strong men Steve Strong and Jos Leduc to go to PR and  face PR’s own  Carlos Colon.  

However, the WWF’s domination was deranging.  According to what Gino Brito said on Gary Will’s  Canadian Hall of Fame  website, he had lost a lot of money trying to keep up with Vince’s circus.  It was soon quite obvious that big stars wouldn’t stay long on Quebecer groud and would venture for a wealthier  nest… Shortly after, Rick Martel was joining the WWF and would form Strike Force along with Tito Santana, which was, I believe, the final nail in IW’s coffin.  In early 1987, International Wrestling would fold, proving  that professional  wrestling couldn’t survive anymore on Quebecer soil.  Top stars would join stronger promotions: Dan Kroffat would venture to PR and form the Jayhawks with  “Hangman”  Bobby Jaggers; Tom Zenk would also join Martel in the WWF and become one half of the Can-Am Connection; Steve Strong would vanish to Calgary  to Stampede Wrestling and wrestle under the name of Steve DiSalvo, after an aborted attempt to joining the WWF along with his fellow IW mates—we will also get back to this later; Alofa would join World Class Championship Wrestling and form the Samoan Swat Team along with his cousin Samu. The other guys—mid-carders and jobbers for most of them—would simply be forgotten.  

International Wrestling REALLY was an interesting  wrestling promotion and had great young talents.  Too bad Vince targeted Quebec’s territory.  As of today, a few small promotions try to survive in Montreal, despite the overwhelming domination of the WWF on cable TV.  Most of them are based in the Montreal area and are NCW (Northern Championship Wresling), booked by a young all-time fan called Bertrand Hébert—if there has to be another promo benefiting a TV contract in Quebec, it has to be NCW, which leans on guys like Pierre-Carl Ouellet (former Jean-Pierre LaFitte, one half of the Quebecers with Jacques Rougeau) and WWF reject, former CFL player Glen Kulka; RAW (based in Rosemont); FLQ (Fédération de lutte du Québec), led and administrated by Paul Leduc (Jos’ gimmick brother); CCW (led by Sunny War Cloud (real name Robert Rancourt), former IW jobber who traveled the world); ICW (led by Ludger Proulx, if I’m not mistaking); and International Wrestling 2000, managed by Jacques Rougeau, Jr. and his brother Ray.  Obviously, the only way these small promotions could know a little success is if they merged and tried to get a TV contract. Unfortunately, Proulx, whose organization shows the most violent and hardcore stuff in the province,  compared to Rougeau’s IW 2000 (which shows non-bleeding matches, Jacques trying to prove there is possible wrestling without using chairs and foreign objects), wouldn’t listen to his fellow bookers and won’t  accept any kind of association.   

Wrestling in Quebec has become a regional thing, since only two of the promotions mentioned above leave Montreal once in a while: NCW and CCW come to Quebec City, but they definitely are not what International Wrestling was in the 1980s.  

We will take a look at the violent feud that took place between the Rougeau Brothers and the Garvins, a bloody rivalry that drew tons of heat from the fans in Montreal and Quebec City.