Richard Vigneault (born March 18, 1956) is a Canadian retired professional wrestler, trainer, and television presenter, better known by his ring name, Rick Martel.
He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.
Championships held by Martel over the course of his career include the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, WCW World Television Championship, and WWF World Tag Team Championship.
Martel is from a family of wrestlers, and made his professional debut at age seventeen when his brother Michel, a wrestler, asked him to replace an injured wrestler.
Martel already was a skilled amateur wrestler, and quickly adapted to professional wrestling.
Martel wrestled throughout the world, winning titles in Canada (in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling and Vancouver-based NWA All Star Wrestling), New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico–based World Wrestling Council (WWC).
1979
His first real success in the United States came in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA)'s Portland affiliate, Pacific Northwest Wrestling in 1979, where he became a top talent, holding the Canadian and PNW tag team titles simultaneously.
1980
He left PNW on August 16, 1980, when he lost a "loser leaves town" match to Buddy Rose.
Martel also served a stint as a booker for a wrestling territory in Hawaii, where he would help the promotion set up matches and construct the storylines that would play out inside and outside of the ring.
Martel debuted in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in July 1980.
That fall, he formed a tag team with Tony Garea.
On November 8, they defeated The Wild Samoans to capture the WWF Tag Team Championship.
His reign as champion lasted nearly nineteen months (the third-longest title reign and the longest title reign of the 1980s), during which time he wrestled several matches with NWA World Champion Ric Flair, as well as with Jimmy Garvin, Nick Bockwinkel and King Tonga.
His finishing move alternated between the slingshot splash and the combination atomic drop/back suplex.
1981
They successfully defended the title until dropping the belts to The Moondogs on March 17, 1981.
They regained the title from The Moondogs on July 21.
Their second reign came to an end on October 13, when they lost to Mr. Fuji and Mr. Saito.
1982
Though they would challenge the champions numerous times, Martel and Garea were unable to recapture the belts, and Martel left the WWF in April 1982.
1984
Martel signed with the AWA in 1982 and quickly ascended through the ranks, defeating Jumbo Tsuruta to win the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on May 13, 1984.
1985
On December 29, 1985, Martel lost the title to Stan Hansen, who forced him to submit to the "Brazos Valley Backbreaker" (Hansen's version of the Boston crab).
1986
In 1986, Martel returned to the WWF, with his tag team partner Tom Zenk.
They were billed as The Can-Am Connection.
The Can-Am Connection had been formed by Martel in the Montreal-based Lutte Internationale in 1986.
Zenk was the boyfriend of Martel's sister-in-law, and had been introduced to Martel in the AWA by Curt Hennig.
The Can-Am Connection with their youthful looks and high energy in-ring performances quickly garnered the affection of fans, and they looked likely to win the WWF Tag Team Title in the near future.
At WrestleMania III in front of 93,173 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome, The Cam-Am connection defeated Ace Cowboy Bob Orton and The Magnificent Muraco in the opening match, when Martel pinned Muraco with a flying cross-body helped by what commentator Gorilla Monsoon called "a schoolboy trip from behind" by Zenk.
They split shortly afterward; Zenk claimed Martel had secretly negotiated an individual contract worth three times more than his partner's contract (traditionally, tag teams are paid roughly equal salaries).
Martel strongly disagreed.
In Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screw Jobs, he said: “Ever since I had been fired by Jim Barnett, I decided not to discuss money matters with other wrestlers.
. . I did the same thing with Tom, and he put it in his head, or some other people put it in his head, that I made more than him.
But as far as Vince was concerned,
if you were in a tag team, you earned the same amount of money.” He also claimed Zenk "...was overwhelmed by it all... Wrestling is very hard on your body. Hard on you also mentally. It's hard physically. Tom wasn't mentally or physically hard as I thought he would be."
At the time of Zenk's departure, The Can-Am Connection was in a feud with The Islanders (Haku and Tama); Zenk's departure was worked into the feud, with the Islanders claiming that Zenk was a quitter and abandoned Martel because he knew they could never beat them.
1987
In July 1987, Martel defeated both Haku and Tama in singles competition.
Then on the August 15, 1987, episode of Superstars of Wrestling after Martel defeated Barry Horowitz, he was jumped by The Islanders.
Tito Santana, who was doing commentary in the Spanish broadcast booth, ran to the ring to help Martel fight off his attackers.
Martel and Santana then formed a tag team called Strike Force.
The team were played off as good looking pretty boys (a storyline that came directly from the Can-Am Connection), even using the theme called "Girls In Cars", which was originally made for the Can-Am Connection.
The name Strike Force came from Santana's promise that as a team they would, "be striking (The Islanders) with force."
Martel immediately came up with the team's name based on this.
