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The Butcher of Montreal
The bushy bearded French Canadian Paul Vachon stormed into Britain in September, 1964, knocking out both Dazzler Joe Cornelius and Gerry de Jaegar on the same night before coming in second to Peter Maivia in an eight man knock out tournament at the Colston Hall Bristol. Half a century later those fans who watched the unruly Canadian on grainy black and white television screens have full colour memories of the self-styled butcher of Montreal. 1960s fan William R told us:
“The bout which stands out in my mind was the occasion he was billed in the ‘T V Times’ to wrestle Francis Sullivan. However, on the day Joe Cornelius was substituted and won 2 – 1. The final fall was effected by the considerably lighter Cornelius lifting up Vachon and executing a perfect body slam and cross press. “
Right from the start of his British visit Butcher Paul was a top of the bill performer. Maybe as one of thirteen children Paul was used to fighting his way to the top.
John Shelvey told us:
“He went in with just about any heavyweight available at that time. Among those he hooked up with were Cornelius, Campbell, Billy Joyce, Kumuli, Lees, Pierlot, Portz, Rawlings, Reagan, Streiger, Szakacs, Veidor, Wall, to name a few of the ‘home’ boys and Gordienko, Kuti, Maivia, Kingston, Napolitano, Simonovitch, Manousakis, and Nelson to name some of the ‘visitors.’ “
Whilst victories over most of the top heavyweights are easily found throughout his record, losses via the disqualification route are in equal abundance, including his Royal Albert Hall debut against Gordon Nelson. Fortune was no kinder on subsequent Royal Albert Hall outings against Joe Cornelius, Billy Two Rivers and Jan Wilko. To dwell on such misfortune does the Canadian an injustice as we were genuinely surprised when reviewing his record at the consistent quality of his opponent during his time in Britain.
John Shelvey had the good fortune to interview Paul Vachon, with the wrestler calling John his “Aussie mate.” Paul told John of his journey to Britain. Paul and his (first) wife and three children made the long voyage from India to Marseille, aboard the LAOS, via Africa, Egypt, through The Suez, and Barcelona. From Marseille they took a train to Paris, another to Calais, a ferry to Dover and then another train to Victoria Station. Stoney broke, meant no fare for the cabbie who took them to a Boarding House in Brixton (close to you know where). He was lucky enough to bump into The Zebra Kid who loaned them some money for food and vouched for them at the Boarding House where he was also staying.
And now here’s a bit of real wrestling history that Paul revealed to John. It’s another case of Heritage going where others have never tread. Whilst in Britain Paul befriended Hektor Van Mullen, known as Le Grande Vladimir, the French based Dutch heavyweight. Van Mullen put in a good word for Paul with French promoter Roger Delaporte and Paul told John,
“I got a communication from him saying that the new rebuilt Paris Palais des Sports was having a grand wrestling gala to officially reopen that famous parks land mark and the promoter Roger DeLaporte wanted me in the main event.” Paul told John that he was apprehensive about accepting the offer as he didn’t want to let down the British promoters. So he had a word with Jack Dale, with whom he got on well. Jack gave his blessing on the understanding that Paul would advise him of potential French wrestlers to book.”
Paul continued:
“As soon as I got over there I had just about the same conversation with the French promotor who wanted fresh heavy weight wrestlers for the new Palais des Sports. As a matter of fact he said next time you come back here in about a month bring your own opponent, somebody you can have spectacular matches with. So I asked Peter Maivia. Peter, who by then had become my friend, used to come to my house in Croydon on weekends when we were off. He would bring his ukelele, his wife Leaa and daughter Ata. We would sing and the two Princesses would dance the hula for us, so would Peter.
We were booked in the main event. Picture this. A brand new Palais de Sports, big building packed to capacity with a very noisy bunch of French people, 15,000) strong or more. I make my entrance. I’m the French Canadian Lumberjack, dressed in a bright yellow chequered shirt, a bright yellow touque, the ring is empty. I come running down the aisle, crawl through the ropes and proceed to do the big high jump up and down up and down for three or four minutes until I’m out of breath. But it has the desired effect. The French are impressed by the agility and stamina of this 275 pound 6 feet l inch. Then as I am standing in the corner waiting for my opponent to show up this nice Hawaiian music comes over the public address system and here comes Prince Peter Maivia, dressed in a bright red flowery sarong with flowers in his hair and the broadest smile on his face showing the whitest teeth a south sea islander ever had. Oh and did I mention barefooted? He walked across the ring to his own corner and laid across the ring ropes as if he was in a hammock. The stage was set for a spectacular international sports event in the brand new internationally known city of lights sports venue the Palais des Sports. It came to me then that moments like this is what I had been dreaming of all my life. I am at a loss of words to describe the feelings that I underwent in situations like those. Prince Peter Maivia at first had declined to come to Paris with me because he said he didn’t know how to speak French, also he said to me God knows who they will want to book me with. He only changed his mind when I said I would be his interpreter and his opponent. Then he said, ‘Ok, I’ll go but I ain’t going down for you. I said, its good that your coming but want to or not you’re going down.”
John’s friendship with the Butcher began when he emailed him on the off-chance of learning more,
“I was blown away when, a few weeks later I received a package in the mail, from Paul, containing the three books he had written and had published, about his life and wrestling travels around the World.“
On his eventual return to Canada Paul formed a successful tag team with his brother, Mad Dog Maurice Vachon. and the pair twice won the AWA World heavyweight title. He wrestled the greatest names in North American wrestling, including Edouard Carpentier, Verne Gagne and Bruno Sammartino. In 2008 Paul was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Cauliflower Alley Club.
Paul Vachon, born 7th October, 1937, died 29th February 2024.
Page updated: 10/03/2024
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