Gertrude Vachon

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Gertrude Vachon
Statistics
Ring name(s) Luna Vachon
Angel Baby
Trudy Vachon
Angelle Vachon
Billed height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Billed weight 140 lb
Born January 12, 1962
Montreal, Canada
Trained by Paul Vachon,
Vivian Vachon,
The Fabulous Moolah,
Steve Lombardi
Debut 1986

Gertrude Vachon is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by the ring name Luna Vachon. She is the daughter of Butcher Vachon and the niece of "Mad Dog" Vachon and Vivian Vachon. She is married to fellow wrestler David Heath, who is better known as Gangrel.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Beginnings

As a child, Gertrude Vachon wanted to continue her family's wrestling legacy, especially that of her aunt Vivian. Attending wrestling events she used to play in the ring, which often resulted in "unofficial training" with various World Wide Wrestling Federation stars. Though her family objected to her entering the wrestling business and tried to dissuade her, as a female wrestler's life at that time was harsh and working opportunities few, she pressed on and was eventually sent to train under her aunt Vivian, who also attempted to make her quit. She then was sent to The Fabulous Moolah, whose training was both hard and prestigious. Gertrude started her pro career wrestling for Moolah's all-women's promotion, taking Luna as her first name.

[edit] Independent circuit

In 1986, Luna debuted in Florida Championship Wrestling, where she first appeared as a news reporter handing an award to Kendall Windham. In the process she was (kayfabe) brutalized and abducted by Kevin Sullivan and his Army of Darkness stable.

She originally came in as a replacement for Winona Littleheart, one of Sullivan's valets, who had recently left for Japan, but later the two women were teamed together as the Daughters of Darkness, Lock and Luna. The two were given the gimmick of "half-crazy, half-sane ladies" and fought each other while being led to the ring on chains. As part of that "two-faced" gimmick, she shaved one half of her head while the other half remained (relatively) normal, making this the first step to her trademark mohawk hairstyle. Looking back, she has expressed her uneasiness about some of elements of the Satanism angle.

During this time in Florida Luna first wrestled Madusa Miceli, beginning a long-lasting in-ring rivalry. She also traveled to Japan with her father, Butcher Vachon, who managed her in singles and the Daughters of Darkness in tag team competition.

In the early nineties she took over management of The Blackhearts, a masked tag team coming out of Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. The team consisted of Luna's Tom Nash, a childhood friend of Luna's and then her husband, and David Heath, her future husband, under the names "Apocalypse" and "Destruction" respectively. Luna worked with them in Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling, in Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation and finally Giant Baba's All-Japan, where the team split up.

[edit] First WWF stint

In 1992, while wrestling in Puerto Rico, she tried to get David Heath a job with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which resulted in her being hired by the WWF.

Luna's first WWF appearance was in April 1993 at WrestleMania IX, accompanying Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels in his match against Tatanka, who was accompanied by Michaels' former valet Sensational Sherri. After the match Luna attacked Sherri at ringside and later in the first aid area, starting a vicious feud between the two.

At the same time Luna and Sherri were at odds Bam Bam Bigelow had a confrontation with Sherri, leading to his being attacked by Tatanka and the two of them feuding. Soon after, Bam Bam (kayfabe) announced that he had fallen in love and presented Luna as his "main squeeze". He also endearingly called her his "Tick", which fans combined with her name to the chant "Luna-tic". From then Bam Bam was then seen blowing kisses to Luna at the end of matches, and in her honour even included one of her signature moves, the Moonsault, into his repertoire. A mixed tag team between the two pairs was planned for SummerSlam 1993, but had to be cancelled because Luna (legitly) injured her arm and then Sherri left the WWF. Instead, Bigelow and The Headshrinkers fought and lost to Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns in a six-man tag team match.

During the summer, before her injury, Luna also competed for the Memphis-based United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where she feuded with Miss Texas, defeating her for the USWA Women's title on August 2, 1993. The title was later vacated.

In the autumn of 1993, Bam Bam and Luna ran afoul of some practical jokes from Doink the Clown, leading to a Survivor Series style match at the 1993 event of the same name pitting Bam Bam, The Head Shrinkers and Bastion Booger against four Doinks. During this time Luna was the cause of dissension between Bam Bam and his part-time tag team partner Bastion Booger, who had also (kayfabe) fallen in love with her. At WrestleMania X, Bam Bam and Luna finally got their revenge on Doink by beating the Clown and his midget side-kick Dink in a mixed tag team match.

When the WWF's women's division was revived, Luna's old rival Madusa, who had entered the WWF under the name Alundra Blayze, won the Women's Championship. Luna set her eyes on the title and had a series of matches with Alunda, all resulting in victories for Blayze. It was during this time the (kayfabe) relationship between Luna and Bam Bam first showed cracks after interference in a match backfired. In the summer Luna (kayfabe) sold Bam Bam's contract to "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, who was beginning to build his "Million Dollar Corporation".

Luna then "invested" the money to bring Japanese wrestler Bull Nakano into the WWF, hoping she would win the Women's title from Alundra Blayze. Nakano dominated Blayze in their matches, but Blayze managed to retain her title until November 20, 1994 when Nakano succeeded in defeating Blayze in a match in Tokyo, Japan. However Luna was unable to capitalize on the new champion and never get the title herself.

On Halloween 1995, Luna (legitly) married fellow wrestler David Heath, whom she had managed for some time before. The WWF even broadcast a segment of Luna's "midnight wedding to a vampire" (Heath). That November she left the WWF.

[edit] ECW and independent circuit

After leaving the WWF, Luna wrestled on the Independent circuit. Upon the recommendation of Kevin Sullivan's wife Nancy, she entered Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

She was (kayfabe) brought in by Tommy Dreamer as a part of the long running feud between him and Raven. Luna and Raven (as Johnny Polo) had worked in the WWF simultaneously and Dreamer announced Luna as "someone out of your past". While in ECW Luna would stand with Tommy, feuding with Raven and his lackies, which included Stevie Richards, and even her husband The Vampire Warrior (who, in kayfabe, had become jealous of the time she was spending with Dreamer), having more than a a few matches physical confrontations with Richards, including a steel cage match between the two.

[edit] WCW

In early 1997, Luna had a short run with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), again going after her rival Madusa. Luna interfered in Madusa's matches against WCW Women's champion Akira Hokutu, preventing a title win by Madusa. Luna and Madusa met each other in a series of matches, including a classic match at the 1997 Slamboree. Although Luna dominated the matches, Madusa managed to get the pinfall every time.

[edit] Second WWF stint

Later in 1997 Luna returned to the WWF, but not without some complications. First no one actually knew exactly where she was; even her father only knew that she was staying in Florida. The WWF actually hired a private investigator to find her. When she was found, working as a waitress at a Shoney's restaurant, she was first brought back into the company as Goldust's manager, helping him to reinvent himself as The Artist formerly known as Goldust. The pair sported a variety of different outfits and roles, including a dominatrix and slave, a "New Year Baby" and his nurse.

Goldust was already involved in a feud was against Vader. Luna's first appearance had her wheeling the allegedly paralyzed Goldust to the ring and then blinding (kayfabe) Vader with some "medical fluid". Later when Goldust, dressed like a Christmas tree, recited poems in the ring, he was attacked by "Santa Claus", who turned out to be Vader. Vader eventually defeated Goldust at the 1998 Royal Rumble.

The Goldust/Luna pairing also took to imitating other wrestler's gimmicks, often those of Goldust's opponents. At one point Goldust and Luna impersonated European Champion Triple H and Chyna in a title match against Owen Hart. What Triple H had intended as a "joke" resulted in Owen beating Goldust and Commisioner Slaughter awarding the title to Hart, considering Goldust to be a legit replacement.

At this time, Goldust also teamed up with Marc Mero, which led to another feud, as Luna and Mero's valet Sable started to fight outside of the ring. The feud culminated in a mixed tag team match at Wrestlemania XIV, pitting the two couples against each other and ending in Sable pinning Luna. After this Luna challenged Sable to an "Evening Gown Match" at Unforgiven 1998 and scored the victory by stripping her opponent down to her underwear.

The animosity between Luna and Sable was not entirely kayfabe. As Sable's popularity increased, she adopted a presumptuous attitude towards other competitors. According to Luna, as the two trained in the preparation for their Wrestlemania match, Sable refused to learn how to "take bumps" while Luna was threatened by WWF officials that hurting her opponent in the ring would put her job in jeopardy. Sable also annoyed Luna with bragging about being promised the Women's Championship, a goal that had hitherto eluded the veteran Canadian. Luna was also hurt after she had carried Sable in their match, Sable was universally congratulated while Luna was only consoled by Owen Hart. Still, Luna described the match as "one of the most awesome nights of my life".

In August 1998, Luna had (kayfabe) apparently patched up her differences with Sable, as the latter, now split from Marc Mero, introduced her as the newest member of the Human Oddities stable. Luna attacked Marc Mero's new valet Jacqueline (the former Miss Texas), thereby renewing another old rivalry. Luna scored a pinfall victory in August, but lost a rematch in September.

She managed the Oddities in tag team matches against Kai En Tai (SummerSlam 1998), The Brood (headed by her husband Gangrel), the Insane Clown Posse, The Headbangers and Tiger Ali Singh.

In December Sable, who had won the reinstated WWF Women's Championship, was attacked by the masked "Spider Lady" (reprising a gimmick once performed by The Fabulous Moolah), who turned out to be Luna. She justified attacking her partner with the words: "It's about me, it's about what I deserve."

In this feud against Sable, Shane McMahon (kayfabe) personally supported Luna's efforts to win the championship after taking personal offence to Sable's attitude towards him and booked a Leather Strap match at the 1999 Royal Rumble. Leading up to that event, Luna was repeatedly attacked by an obsessed Sable fan (kayfabe). At the Royal Rumble, Sable successfully retained the title thanks to the interference of that fan, who now entered WWF competition as Tori.

During the weeks prior to the Royal Rumble, Luna also defeated Gillberg, a WWF parody on WCW's shooting star Bill Goldberg.

Luna was due to challenge Sable for another title shot several weeks later at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre PPV, but the match was cancelled due to Luna's suspension for "unruly behaviour" backstage.

Six months later, Luna returned at SummerSlam 1999, chasing the then Women's Champion Ivory backstage after a successful title defence against Tori. This started a feud between the two with Luna even scoring a pinfall victory during an impromptu match. However, at the Unforgiven PPV she lost a to Ivory in a Hardcore Rules match.

During that feud, Luna also answered a challenge from then Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett and defeated him via disqualification, thanks to Ivory's interference.

From then on, Luna reassumed her role as manager for her husband, now working for the WWF under the name Gangrel, participating in several mixed tag team tag team matches and helping Gangrel win over his opponents.

At Survivor Series 1999 she joined forces with Ivory, Jacqueline and Terri Runnels, all former rivals of her, against Tori, Debra, The Fabuolous Moolah and Mae Young. Luna's team was defeated when Moolah pinned Ivory.

At the Royal Rumble 2000 she participated in the Swim Suit Contest, though in protest against the whole event she refused to take off her gown. This angle reflected Luna's legit dissatisfaction with the "sexualisation" of the WWE's women's division.

Plans to have Luna reintroduced fully into the hunt for the Women's Championship were scrapped when, in February 2000, it was announced that Luna had been released from her contract due to allegedly taping the mouth of a producer shut. She described this event as "a joke" and that "everyone had a big laugh over it, including the producer", alleging that her release has more to do with real life animosity with Sable and Marc Mero.

[edit] Recent years

After leaving the WWF Luna continued to manage Gangrel during his independent tours all over the world, as well as wrestling on her own.

There were rumors that Luna and her husband David Heath were considered and/or contacted to be a part of WWE's new ECW brand in a gothic-like "Vampire" faction with Kevin Fertig. Heath is, indeed, under contract with World Wrestling Entertainment but has not been used on television and it is unknown if Luna is actually under contract at all.

[edit] Personal life

Luna was formerly married to fellow wrestler Tom Nash, who had attended the same high school. At one time, Luna also dated fellow wrestler Dick Slater.

Luna is married to David Heath, Nash's tag team partner in The Blackhearts. When working in the TWA, Luna and Tom increasingly fought between themselves, and one night David Heath tried to break up a brawl between the two. Subsequently, Luna and David became best of friends and eventually lovers. The two married on Halloween 1994.

Luna has two sons by Nash, Joshua and Van, and is the step-mother to David's sons, David Jr. and Donovan.

[edit] In wrestling

  • Finishing and signature moves
  • Wrestlers managed

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • American Wrestling Federation
  • AWF Women's Championship (1 time)
  • Ladies' Major League of Wrestling
  • LMLW Women's Championship (1 time)
  • SWF Ladies' Championship (1 time)
  • Wild Women of Wrestling
  • WWOW Television Championship (1 time)

[edit] External links

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