Mad Dog Wrestling honours Quebec WWE legend, raises funds for sick children

His name is legendary in professional wrestling rings across the globe.

World Wrestling Entertainment Hall-of-Famer Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon is the inspiration for a local wrestling production company that will host events to raise money and create memories for sick children.

Mad Dog Pro Wrestling will host its first gala at John Abbott College on Montreal's West Island Saturday night.

"Mad Dog Pro Wrestling is a way to honour his legacy and to promote wrestling shows, old-school wrestling shows," said founder Andy Ellison.

"I think this a good way to do that and honour someone who really gave his whole life to pro wrestling."

Mad Dog is part of the legendary Quebec Vachon family of wrestlers that includes Paul "Butcher" Vachon, Vivian Vachon, and Luna Vachon.

Maurice's son, Mike Vachon, was the last of the family to enter the ring, and he now lives in Windsor, Ont. 

"People might not know this, but my father had over 50 championships that he made, one throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia and a couple of other countries," he told CTV News. "He was quite the athlete. I remember, as a kid, I used to follow him. He used to run almost every day. You know, he ran, like, five miles every day, and he was in such great shape."

Mad Dog last stepped into the ring in Montreal in 1986. He died in 2013.

The company that bears his name will present wrestling events once a month for the next year at John Abbott and raise money for the Starlight Foundation, which supports children with serious illnesses.

Starlight families are given free tickets to the show.

"Starlight families, they're really stuck focusing on the illness," said Starlight Canada's special events manager, Jessie Neiman. "They spend a lot of their time in hospital or or treatments and and they don't get the time to plan activities. So Starlight's really there for them to to help, let them forget for a little what they're going through in their their struggles, and to let them create lasting memories as a family."

Ellison has vivid memories of the first wrestling show he went to as a nine-year-old boy.

"It was at the old CFCF studios on Ogilvy Avenue, 405 Ogilvy Ave., and I remember that day waiting in line for what seemed like hours," said Ellison. "The doors finally opened to the studio and there was this ring and the lights. It wasn't a huge venue, but for a nine-year-old boy it seemed enormous."

Ellison went on to wrestle some of the ones he saw as a boy and wants to pay forward the memories to the next generation.

"Those memories that I had, I want to pass those on," he said. "I know how important they are because it's not really about wrestling in a sense because even though the marquee says wrestling, it's about more than that."

The memories will honour a Quebec family's legacy in the ring.

"To be thought of even 40 years after his last wrestling choke, you know, it says a lot," said Mike Vachon. "It shows that people are still intrigued by that, that name, that man, that legend, if you want to call it."

More information on the shows is available at maddogprowrestling.com.