Hommage

Fight Flair Fight

This man.

This force of the nature.

The ultimate show man.

A man that became the man he always wanted to be.

You cannot get unfazed by this nature boy. His undeniable energy, his intensity and his love for the business.

He passed the torch to the next generation of legends like him. Ricky Steamboat, Sting, Vader, Kerry Van Erich and Bret Hart to name of few. Even if in my humble opinion his match were pretty predictable, he did put those amazing wrestlers to another level.

Right now, Ric Flair is fighting probably his biggest fight. Correction. He was always a fighter since his childhood and it wasn’t easy for him. Life is a road of challenge. Fans around the world are praying for him.

When Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes passed away, I was so crushed. I felt like when Macho Man die that I lost one of my favorite uncle. Yesterday, I didn’t expect to hear this really sad news. It’s bittersweet to think about them all.

I don’t remember exactly when was the first time I lay my eyes on Ric by watching wrestling in our big 80’s television. His long platinum hair, his bling, his jacket went off somewhere, he couldn’t stand still and I was hooked but I was like in a mode of what the hell am I seeing…

You can feel the bond he share with his brothers. Family for life!

Dusty Rhodes and him, omg, that was pure magic. Like it was dynamite.

Championship Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes Pro Aug 23rd, 1986

He got some flaws and he wasn’t the most perfect guy like no one is perfect but we are all rooting for him right now.

In the winter 1992, my mom had this pink bathroom robe that she never use it (I still couldn’t understand why). And I would wait for her to go out make some errands and I would wear it (I was 9) and walk in it like I was Ric Flair. Playing his entrance music in my head, making this face of I’m the best of the best and make a 180 degree turn in slow motion and putting my mom diamonds rings that were clearly too big for me.

Here some magical matchs of him:

Kerry Von Erich wins the NWA World Championship May, 06, 1984

Clash of the Champions 01 – (3-27-1988) Ric Flair vs. Sting

Championship Ric Flair vs Dusty Rhodes Pro Aug 23rd, 1986

My smile is slowly making a comeback while I watch those videos.

You can see sparkle into his eyes when he see Charlotte and all she have accomplish. Wrestling does bring family closer in some case. It’s really beautiful to see the both of them together.

Fight, Flair, Fight.

http://ricflair.com

Hope

I clearly remember the first time I heard about Terry Fox.

I was 6 years old and my brother left his English book on his bed (since we were going to a francophone system school). Since I love reading and looking into a book but I couldn’t read English then, I stopped at a page where a picture of Terry Fox running.

I was worried and asked my brother why one of his leg seem to be missing and replaced with something that I couldn’t understand.

As a big patient brother, he calmly explain to his worried little sister that Terry is running for finding a cure to a cruel disease. I asked him what kind of disease and it was the first time I heard the word Cancer. I was so sad that he was sick but my brother told me :

Look, he is smiling in the picture and he didn’t give up. He is a hero little sister.

I asked if he is okay and my brother told me that he didn’t but his legacy will be forever engraved and in everyone of us, we will carry Terry’s spirit. I don’t know if he remembered that discussion but I sure did.

From this moment, especially when I face small or big challenges, the first person that came in my mind is Terry Fox.

Cancer, this awful and cruel disease still hunt us ” and I’m being very polite”. There is no ones that cannot say that this disease didn’t knock on their doors one way or the other.

He did knock on mine a few times.

But on September 17th 2017, we will walk, dance, run or doing all of the above with pride, joy, maybe a few tears of joy for the ones that did, are and will fight one of the biggest fight of their life..

I will walk (hmm I’m not a good runner like I run like Phoebe on Friends … It’s not pretty at all) on September 17th and I will think do it for my father, father-in-law, hubby and friends that did encounter this awful disease.

And I will talk on The Chronicle about inspiring people that will participate in this race around Canada.

This is a beautiful quote from Terry:

”Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me”

We sure will Terry.

http://www.terryfox.org

The unforgettable fire of Chris Benoit

This is a post I was waiting a long time to write. I took my time, I meditate on it and I’m ready to talk about the big elephant in the room.

I was so shocked to hear in June 24th 2007 the death of Chris Benoit and the atrocity act of killing his wife and his young son. For me, it just didn’t make any sense at all. As you will read this post, maybe you will see some lights on this tragedy and why I want to write an hommage to him.

Foremost, as a wrestler, he was one of the best there was in the business. I discovered Chris while I was watching a WCW pay per view as one of the members of the reform Four Horsemen. He was a quiet storm. He didn’t say much but you could see the eye of the tiger. I was mesmerized by his aura.

He was a born Montrealer that grew up in Edmonton. From a young age, he idolized one of the most avant-garde wrestler of all time Dynamite Kid (Tom Bellington) and The Best There is Bret the Hitman Hart.

Actually, Bruce Hart was the one that discover this young boy and if my memory is right, he did start training him and he did trained some really unbelievable given wrestlers.

Bruce is one of the older brother of Bret Hart and this guy is a wrestling guru. He have the eye to discover new talents and he have this perspicacity of understanding the psychology and the development of a good wrestler.

So Chris was trained at the famous Dungeon at the Hart’s house. He grew a close friendship with a fellow canadian prodigy Owen Hart. Ahh Owen and Chris could have the perfect dream tag team.

When Eddie Guerrero and Chris both won the championship belt at WrestleMania, what a beautiful moment it was in the wrestling history. Two guys from WCW that they were finally shining like a bright and beautiful diamond at the biggest night of sports entertainment. You could feel the brotherly love between the two of them.

The three amigos were a better version than the one of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chavy Chase. Dean Malenko was one of Chris best friend and they were the both of them peanut butter and banana. They were dynamite together on the ring as a team.

When he was in the ring, he was superman. He was well liked by his peers and the fans. That is ironic that I will compare him toO.J, but like O.J Simpson, he was well liked and admire by many people and bang, he committed this really awful crime and people stop mentioning his name like he never exist and was never part of this world. Ok, this week, we did hear a lot about O.J (again) like we were back in 1995.

My opinion is that except from O.J, people still love Chris Benoit and at the time, your ethical side and your rational side is in a perfect conflict. We must choose the ethical right…

From an business point, you don’t want to associate yourself with a murderer and I do understand 100%.

But…

How come someone could have this change of personality and being so violent like this? He was one of the nicest person ever. What happen?

The result of the autopsy shown that he had so many concussions that his brain was like the one of a elderly 80 years old man with an advanced alzheimer. Chris was forty when he die. It like what the fuck moment. And add the steroid and painkillers and it was a bomb ready to explose. This is so sad. We will never forget the crime he made but with the knowledge we know now about concussions, can we just forget the career of a legend? I know I will get a lot of heat for writing this but I said I will talk about his wrestling legacy with pride. I know I may shock some readers and I do apologize but I won’t apologize for changing the conversation.

The movie Concussions with Will Smith (by the way, an excellent movie and brillant performance by one of the best actor out there) is the perfect way to explain how multiple concussions can change someone behavioural cognitive especially in the sports industry.

Just to give you a small example.

In the movie, there was a football player that was inducted in the all of fame right in the beginning of the move. He was playing for actually my favorite team The Steelers of Pittsburgh. He had so many concussions that he left his family, he was living in his car in the middle of nowhere and was addicted to anti-freeze liquid… When they did the autopsy, they discovered the many concussions he had change his personality and he develop a really heavy case of Dementia. And while the movie goes, you see that many football players are committing suicide and while performing the autopsy, they had several major concussions.

You will tell me it is a movie. Actually, this movie is based on a true story and the character that Will Smith played is the one of the groundbreaking pathologist and scientist Dr. Bennet Omalu. This man is a warrior and a scientist I really admired. Thank God for Dr. Bennet.

It’s a real killer having so many concussions. They were some that was so lucky but their life did change. Bret Hart had a serious one while wrestling a reckless Goldberg. A few years later, he suffered a major stroke. I had two concussions not while wrestling or playing soccer but the first time, I was playing at my neighbour and his mom told him to not jump on the bumper bed because the bed is a little bit shaky. This kid (I’m kind) jump and all the bed fell on my little 7 years old body. I don’t remember the rest until this moment I’m typing. The second one was my only fight at grade 6 and I felt my head straight to the ground. And it was the beginning of my terrible migraine and hallucinations. Imagine having those type of situation over and over again since you were a kid until you are retiring in a sports like Football, Hockey and even Wrestling.

With that knowledge, I always felt Chris Benoit have the right to have a proper respect for his wrestling legacy. He was smart, quick in the ring, agile, not a big flamboyant wrestler but a quiet storm. He did deserve all the championship he won with all his heart. I’m proud of his achievements and I’m proud to say it out loud. I also admired what Steve Austin said about Chris:

“Well first and foremost, what I think about Chris Benoit is that guy was one of the most nicest guys I ever met in my life. He’s one of the most talented, hard working cats I’d ever seen in the squared circle. Anybody who knew Chris would tell you those exact two things. That guy loved the damn wrestling business, he was born to be a wrestler and was absolutely phenomenal. Drawing a lot of his influence from The Dynamite Kid, he blazed a path as the Pegasus Kid and his legacy as The Crippler Chris Benoit was just one hellacious career.

Speaking for myself, Chris Benoit as the person I knew, loved him. Chris Benoit as a wrestler, loved him. Chris Benoit as the person who did what he did, unforgivable. Bottom line.”

The only thing he didn’t deserve was to be another victim of the CTE ” Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy”. It’s the name of the disease that is a neurological one that is degenerative and found in the athletes that had repeated blows to the head.

Let’s change the conversation. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Let’s remember the happy times. Let’s continue to aware the community about CTE and to be a safe athlete. I’m happy the NFL, the WWE and even some universities football leagues are taking the stand for it. Thank you!

As for Christopher Michael Benoit, he will always be in my top 5 all-times wrestler. He may not be in the HOF but he will be in mine because he is one of the greatest period.

And that is because I said so!

Petite Marie

Elle était ma grande sœur si on pourrait dire. De ma tendre enfance jusqu’au début de mon adolescence, elle était toujours présente.

Elle n’était pas ma grande sœur biologique mais j’avais l’impression qu’elle était toujours omniprésente dans ma vie grâce à la télévision.

Quand elle jouait Zoé dans Peau de Banane, sa spontanéité m’était très familière. Elle avait du plaisir à jouer au petit écran et son amour était contagieux.

J’enviais toujours son petit frère Sébastien de l’avoir comme sœur et également, de jouer ensemble dans Peau de Banane. Leur complicité était magique à voir.

Mais c’est son empathie et sa douceur pour les enfants malades qui ont conquis mon cœur à tout jamais. Étant une enfant qui a été hospitalisé dès la naissance durant plusieurs mois, j’ai toujours une profonde reconnaissance pour la recherche médicale et la générosité des gens qui contribuent à l’avancement des soins pour nos petits.

Sa participation au Téléthon Enfant-Soleil était un événement que je ne manquais jamais étant enfant. Ces temoignages et surtout son regard réconfortant valait tout l’or du monde. Elle était tout un diamant qui brillait très fort.

Nous avons perdu tout un rayon de soleil au début du mois d’août 1997. Je n’oublierais jamais le lundi matin que nous avons appris ce départ si prématuré. Mon petit monde s’est écroulé et celui de milliers de québécois.

Elle était en amour, elle chérissait ses amis et elle était heureuse, si heureuse de croquer à fond dans la vie.

Elle nous a laissé le désir d’aller au bout de ses rêves et de démontrer de l’empathie envers chacun d’entre nous. Croquer à fond dans la vie restera toujours mon mantra.

20 années se sont écroulées. On s’est sûrement déjà demandé ce que Marie nous aurait réservé. Possiblement un premier long métrage comme réalisatrice et d’autres beaux projets. Mais je préfère apprécier qu’est-ce qu’elle nous a apporté au public québécois avec tant de fierté et de générosité.

Mon intérêt pour la science a été grandement nourri par l’émission Les débrouillards. Je voulais tellement y participer mais avant tout, j’étais fascinée par la chimie que Grégory et Marie-Soleil dégageait.

Elle avait un certain “aura” avec les gens. Définitivement, elle était une fille du peuple.

Elle était une amoureuse de la langue de Molière. Son amour paraissait dans sa façon de s’exprimer et durant certaines entrevues. C’est la première langue que j’ai appris et je trouvais fascinant qu’une jeune fille de la génération de mon frère ou un peu plus vieille que lui aime tout ce qui touche la littérature française. Elle était ma ultime fille super cool.

Dans ce monde qui est bombardé de reine de la télé-réalité et des “selfies”, nous oublions parfois que nous sommes entourés de personnalités publiques mais surtout d’une jeunesse aussi engagés pour des causes qui leur tiennent à cœur avec la même authenticité que Marie-Soleil.

Remercions-les et encourageons-les.

La chanson Petite Marie sera toujours associée à la troisième femme de ma vie (après ma maman et ma tante Jo) jusqu’à mon dernier souffle.

Elle s’appelait Marie-Soleil Tougas et elle restera toujours notre petite Marie à nous.