Thanks for the memories, Edouard Carpentier
Nov 8, 2010 8:56:08 GMT -5
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Nov 8, 2010 8:56:08 GMT -5
One of my most favourite wrestlers when I watched Grand Prix Wrestling back in the day. Thanks for the triggers.
==========================================================
Edouard Carpentier dead at 84
By GREG OLIVER - Producer, SLAM! Wrestling
The great, revolutionary Edouard Carpentier died Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at his house in Montreal near the Cote-des-Neiges cemetery. He was 84.
He had a heart attack in 2000, and on Saturday he sensed a similar sensation and called 911. By the time the ambulance arrived at the house, he had died.
Carpentier had been in poor health for many years, battered from the acrobatic, high-flying style that he popularized in the wrestling business. In August, he was hospitalized and amputating a leg was discussed.
Edouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz was born outside Lyon, France on July 17, 1926, to his Russian father, an innkeeper, and his Polish mother. During the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans, and escaped to join the French Resistance.
After the war, Weiczorkiewicz participated in both the 1948 Olympic Games in London and in Helsinki in 1952 in gymnastics, though he was an alternate and he never medalled. His talents were in the rings and the trampoline.
It was Lino Ventura who suggested that he try wrestling and learned the Greco-Roman style first.
Larry Moquin and Frank Valois discovered Carpentier while touring in France. They returned to Montreal, and raved to promoter Eddie Quinn about him; Quinn dispatched Yvon Robert with them to see what they could do, as Robert was part owner of the territory at the time, and Moquin was an assistant-booker to Quinn and Robert.
In France, there was a tag match with Robert and Carpentier against Moquin and Valois, where Robert virtually refused to tag with Carpentier so he could see him wrestling. After the match, Robert, because of his position in the territory, offered a contract to Carpentier.
In 1956, Weiczorkiewicza arrived in Montreal. His debut, against Angelo Savoldi, was April 18th at the Montreal Forum. Savoldi recalled that first match. "[The fans] went wild. I lost to him in about 15 minutes. It was a 30-minute match. In about 15, 16 minutes, he jumped on my shoulder -- how the hell he did it, I don't know -- and he rolled me over, and that was it."
Within months, as Edouard Carpentier -- named after a famous French boxer, Georges Carpentier, with who he claimed lineage with in storylines -- he would revolutionize Canadian wrestling with his acrobatic moves and his impressive physique, shooting to the top of the wrestling world.
"When I come in 1956, I come because I'm the European champion and I have no more competition," Carpentier explained in 1999. Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn seized Carpentier and was soon promoting him across North America.
The rest of the story
==========================================================
Edouard Carpentier dead at 84
By GREG OLIVER - Producer, SLAM! Wrestling
The great, revolutionary Edouard Carpentier died Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at his house in Montreal near the Cote-des-Neiges cemetery. He was 84.
He had a heart attack in 2000, and on Saturday he sensed a similar sensation and called 911. By the time the ambulance arrived at the house, he had died.
Carpentier had been in poor health for many years, battered from the acrobatic, high-flying style that he popularized in the wrestling business. In August, he was hospitalized and amputating a leg was discussed.
Edouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz was born outside Lyon, France on July 17, 1926, to his Russian father, an innkeeper, and his Polish mother. During the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans, and escaped to join the French Resistance.
After the war, Weiczorkiewicz participated in both the 1948 Olympic Games in London and in Helsinki in 1952 in gymnastics, though he was an alternate and he never medalled. His talents were in the rings and the trampoline.
It was Lino Ventura who suggested that he try wrestling and learned the Greco-Roman style first.
Larry Moquin and Frank Valois discovered Carpentier while touring in France. They returned to Montreal, and raved to promoter Eddie Quinn about him; Quinn dispatched Yvon Robert with them to see what they could do, as Robert was part owner of the territory at the time, and Moquin was an assistant-booker to Quinn and Robert.
In France, there was a tag match with Robert and Carpentier against Moquin and Valois, where Robert virtually refused to tag with Carpentier so he could see him wrestling. After the match, Robert, because of his position in the territory, offered a contract to Carpentier.
In 1956, Weiczorkiewicza arrived in Montreal. His debut, against Angelo Savoldi, was April 18th at the Montreal Forum. Savoldi recalled that first match. "[The fans] went wild. I lost to him in about 15 minutes. It was a 30-minute match. In about 15, 16 minutes, he jumped on my shoulder -- how the hell he did it, I don't know -- and he rolled me over, and that was it."
Within months, as Edouard Carpentier -- named after a famous French boxer, Georges Carpentier, with who he claimed lineage with in storylines -- he would revolutionize Canadian wrestling with his acrobatic moves and his impressive physique, shooting to the top of the wrestling world.
"When I come in 1956, I come because I'm the European champion and I have no more competition," Carpentier explained in 1999. Montreal promoter Eddie Quinn seized Carpentier and was soon promoting him across North America.
The rest of the story
