Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon has died.
Vachon, who lived in St. Boniface, Manitoba (now part of Winnipeg), during his American Wrestling Association days in the early 1980s, died of natural causes early Thursday at his home in Omaha, Neb.
Vachon, who lived in St. Boniface, Manitoba (now part of Winnipeg), during his American Wrestling Association days in the early 1980s, died of natural causes early Thursday at his home in Omaha, Neb.
He was 84.
Vachon was such a national icon, his passing drew a comment from the Prime Minister.
"My deepest condolences to the family of Maurice 'Mad Dog' Vachon, a Canadian wrestling legend," Stephen Harper tweeted.
Vachon grew up in Montreal and represented Canada as an 18-year-old amateur wrestler in the 1948 Olympics in London. He followed it with a gold medal at the 1950 British Empire Games, before working as a bouncer and becoming a professional wrestler. He was a 2010 World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame inductee.
In the ring, he would routinely bite and stomp his opponents, pull their hair and rake his fingernails down their backs. Vachon, along with The Crusher and Baron Von Raschke, were the last of an era before WWE owner Vince McMahon, who leaned more toward wrestlers with bodybuilding resumes, said Aiello.
"He was the one guy you didn't want to cross," Aiello said. "He was fair, friendly and always wanted to do business, but there was a certain respect about his legit toughness.
"Yet when we got to know him, you would never know he had a mean streak. He was just the nicest man."
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