Fabulous Rougeaus
| The Fabulous Rougeaus | |
|---|---|
| Tag team | |
| Members | Jacques Rougeau Raymond Rougeau |
| Name(s) | The Rougeau Brothers The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers The Fabulous Rougeaus |
| Billed heights | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) - Jacques 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) - Raymond |
| Combined billed weight | 213 kg (470 lb; 33.5 st) |
| Hometown | Montreal, Quebec |
| Billed from | Montreal, Quebec, Montreal, Quebec but soon to relocate to the United States |
| Debut | Late 1970s |
| Disbanded | 1990 |
| Trainer | Jacques Rougeau, Sr. |
The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers was the tag team of real-life brothers, Jacques Rougeau & Raymond Rougeau, best known from their run in the WWF, from 1985 - 1990.
History
Jacques and Raymond began tag-teaming in the late 1970s in their family's Montreal-based wrestling promotion. Their most notable feud in Montreal was against the Garvin brothers, Ron Garvin and Terry Garvin (who weren't actually brothers); the climax of their feud was a match in front of close to 20,000 fans at the Montreal Forum.
They were signed to World Wrestling Federation (WWF) contracts in February 1986, and debuted as clean-cut faces, The Rougeau Brothers. The Rougeaus were often matched against heel teams such as Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine, and Demolition (who called them the "Ragu sisters").
The Rougeaus actually won the WWF Tag Team Championship on August 10, 1987 at the Forum, defeating the Hart Foundation. Jimmy Hart, the Hart Foundation's manager, tried to interfere on their behalf with his signature foreign object, a megaphone. The megaphone was intercepted by the Rougeaus, who used it to get the pin and win the titles. They were announced as the new tag team champions, but the decision was later reversed and their title win is not recognized by the WWE.
The Rougeaus turned heel during a televised match against The Killer Bees, which aired during July 1988. Both teams went into the match as babyfaces, but the Rougeaus won the match by cheating. After the match, fans booed when the Rougeaus offered to shake hands with the Bees, who refused. Also during this period of time, the Hart Foundation had turned babyface and dumped Jimmy Hart as their manager. Jimmy became manager of the Rougeaus to solidify their heel turn. This was also done in part because the Rougeau Brothers were not getting over with fans, and Vince McMahon felt they might be more successful as heels. The Rougeaus began calling themselves The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and feuded with the Harts during the fall of 1988 into early 1989, with the storyline being that Jimmy Hart still had a contract with the Hart Foundation, and was subsequently giving his percentage of the Foundation's earnings to the Rougeaus as a bonus. The Rougeaus developed a facetiously pro-American gimmick, billing themselves as soon to relocate to Memphis, Tennessee and using the theme song "All-American Boys". The theme song was an upbeat rock number in which the Rougeaus further rile the fans by claiming their affinity for whitebread things like "preppy" hairstyles and Barry Manilow's music. The bridge of the song (in French) admits they are aware the fans despise them, slyly confirming that their ingratiating demeanor is phony and done to mock the fans.
The Rougeaus had a real-life altercation with Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington backstage in 1988. "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig had framed the British Bulldogs (Billington and Davey Boy Smith) in a prank at the Rougeaus' expense were Billington repeatedly slapped and punched Jacques in the face while Jacques had his back turned. Tension between Billington and the Rougeaus mounted until the night Jacques punched Billington in the mouth with a roll of quarters in hand causing Billington to lose four teeth. Billington nursed a grudge against the Rougeaus, and planned to attack them after their 10-team, 20-man elimination match at the Survivor Series 1988 PPV (which was Billington's final match in the WWF). The match had the Rougeaus & Demolition & Brain Busters & Bolsheviks & Los Conquistadores vs. The British Bulldogs & The Rockers & The Hart Foundation & The Young Stallions & The Powers of Pain. To prevent Billington from taking his revenge, the match was booked so the Rougeaus were the first team eliminated, with Bret Hart pinning Jacques in the bout's opening minutes with a small package. The Bulldogs were kept in the match until they were one of the final four teams remaining. By the time the Bulldogs had been eliminated and made their way back to the locker room, the Rougeaus had already been rushed out of the building.
The Rougeaus' next big feud was against the Rockers in 1989. The feud began when the Rockers debuted a new theme song for themselves with them singing (this new theme was soon dropped, however). The Rougeaus claimed that the Rockers were "copycats," and hit Marty Jannetty in the throat with Jimmy Hart's megaphone. The teams feuded over the summer of 1989, producing many excellent, raved-about matches. At SummerSlam 89, the Rougeaus teamed with fellow Canadian Rick Martel, defeating the Rockers and Tito Santana in a six-man tag team match. After their initial feuds against the face teams of the era, the Rougeaus quickly devolved into a comedy tag team, often coming out on the short end against The Bushwhackers.
Raymond, who suffered from chronic back pain for years, retired in 1990 and moved behind the microphone; briefly as an interviewer for English-language WWF broadcasts, then as host of their French-language TV shows. He came out of retirement in 1996 to face Owen Hart in a boxing match at the Forum and now occasionally wrestles in Jacques' Montréal-area promotion, Lutte International 2000.
Jacques went on to singles success, winning the Intercontinental title as the Mountie before teaming up with Carl Ouellet to win three Tag Team titles as The Quebecers. He briefly retired, reunited with Ouellet as The Amazing French Canadians in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and appeared sproadically in the WWF and WCW before retiring from full-time competition. He occasionally wrestles for his own promotion.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- La Bombe Rougeau (Bearhug hold, seated senton combination)
- Double dropkick
Championships and accomplishments
- Montreal International Tag Team titles (3 times)
Further Reading
The Fabulous Rougeau’s history is covered in a chapter dedicated to the team in the book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams
- Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson (2005). "The Brothers: The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers". The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-5502-2683-6.