Raymond Rougeau (born February 18, 1955) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician, former professional wrestler and

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

commentator. He most notably worked for the World Wrestling Federation between 1986 and 2002, firstly as one of The Fabulous Rougeaus, and has been the mayor of Rawdon, Quebec, since 2021.

Professional wrestling career

Canada and Georgia (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 Joliette () is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of G ...

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 Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

to work for Jim Barnett in the

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion and governing body owned by Billy Corgan and operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA be ...

(NWA) 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

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 Bret Sergeant Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal U ...

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 briefly upset The Hart Foundation for the WWF Tag Team Championship at the

Montreal Forum Montreal Forum () is a historic building located facing Cabot Square, Montreal, Cabot Square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Called "the most storied building in hockey history" by ''Sporting News'', it was an indoor arena which served as the home o ...

on August 10 that year. The decision was reversed to a disqualification and the championship returned, since the challengers initially won after using Jimmy Hart's megaphone as a weapon. After two years in the Federation, The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond) turned heel when they participated in an

angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle can refer to a number of concepts relating to the intersection of two straight Line (geometry), lines at a Point (geometry), point. Formally, an angle is a figure lying in a Euclidean plane, plane formed by two R ...

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 James Ray Hart (born January 1, 1944) is an American professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician. He is signed to WWE in a Legends deal. He is best known for his work in WWE when it was still known as the World Wrestling ...

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, and humorously attempted to start "USA!" chants, which led to further negative fan "heat". According to Jacques, the widespread antipathy of American fans inspired

Vince McMahon Vincent Kennedy McMahon ( ; born August 24, 1945) is an American businessman and former professional wrestling promoter. McMahon, along with his later-estranged wife Linda McMahon, Linda, is a co-founder of the modern WWE, the world's largest ...

to turn them into heels. They feuded 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 SummerSlam is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by the world's largest professional wrestling promotion, WWE. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind th ...

in 1989. His last match in the WWF was at the

Royal Rumble The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after, and centered on, the Royal Rumble match, a modified Battle royal (professional wre ...

in 1990, which the Rougeau Brothers lost to The Bushwhackers.

Commentator (1992–2002)

In October 1992, Rougeau replaced Edouard Carpentier as the

play-by-play In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

commentator for the French syndicated WWF programming distributed to

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. He commentated alongside Guy Hauray from October 1992 to April 1994, then Jean Brassard from May 1994 to November 1998 when the WWF stopped producing French-language TV shows. It resumed in January 2000 after the WWF landed a new TV deal in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and Rougeau returned with a new co-host, Philippe Hartman, until January 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 commentary table and ran to the ring to save his brother. Rougeau later accompanied Jacques in his first retirement match in the WWF, held in Montreal. Rougeau was also an interviewer and presenter on WWF programming in 1993 and 1994. He also did English

for the international version of Superstars in 1998. Rougeau came out of retirement on August 8, 1996, to face Owen Hart in a

boxing match Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing punches at each other for a p ...

at the

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Molson Centre during a WWF house show despite not being active as a competitor for years. Rougeau came out of retirement again in March 1998, when he teamed with Jacques and Carl Ouellet to defeat 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. Rougeau left the WWF in early 2002 when it stopped producing French-language versions of its programming.

Return to WWE (2017–2021)

In May 2017, it was announced that Rougeau would return to WWE as a French language commentator, reuniting with Jean Brassard, for the PPVs on the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, a division of TKO Group Holdings. The service relied on technology develo ...

. In April 2021, after

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

became the new home for

, due to rescheduling, Rougeau and Brassard didn't continue providing their services, leaving the company again.

Political career

Rougeau owned 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 was elected for the first time in the November 2002 municipal election and is reelected in 2005, 2009 and 2013. Opposed by two candidates, he was reelected with 66,12% of the vote in November 2013. He occasionally promotes wrestling shows in Montreal along with Jacques. In 2021, he was elected Mayor of Rawdon with 61% of the vote.

Personal life

Rougeau has a son who was 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.

Championships and accomplishments

*International Wrestling Association **IWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) * 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) **Johnny Rougeau Tag Team Championship (1 Time) – with Jacques Rougeau *

**NWA Montreal Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) * National Wrestling Federation **NWF World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **NWF World Junior Heavyweight Championship Tournament (1973)Pro Wrestling History
Prowrestlinghistory.com Retrieved March 17, 2019 *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The maga ...

'' **PWI ranked him 291 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1994

References

External links

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Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rougeau, Raymond 1955 births Canadian colour commentators Canadian male professional wrestlers Living people People from Lanaudière Professional wrestlers from Quebec Professional wrestling announcers 21st-century mayors of places in Quebec Canadian sportsperson-politicians 20th-century male professional wrestlers 20th-century Canadian professional wrestlers 20th-century Canadian sportsmen