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Had his pro wrestling career taken a different path, Rick Martel could very well have been listed among the industry’s all-time greatest villains rather than just writing the forward for a new book championing such bad guys.
"The Heels" (ECW Press, $19.95) ranks and provides behind-the-scenes details about some of the most heinous in-ring characters in grappling history. “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers, Gorgeous George and Ed “The Sheik” Farhat are given top billing by co-authors Greg Oliver and Steven Johnson, with modern-day stars like Paul “Triple H” Lesveque, Ric Flair and Kane among the 111 performers chronicled in the 400-page tome.
Martel was an intriguing choice to write the forward, as he worked against a slew of notable heels while wrestling as one of the industry’s top baby faces for most of the 1980s. But if Martel had his druthers, he would have turned bad in World Wrestling Entertainment long before double-crossing “Strike Force” tag-team partner Tito Santana in 1989.
“I was tired of being a baby face for 15 years,” said Martel, whose good looks and scientific wrestling prowess typecast him in that role following his 1972 debut. “I wanted to change and I told (WWE owner) Vince McMahon, ‘Look, if you won’t let me do this here, I’ll do it somewhere else and walk out.’ Finally, Vince called me up and said, ‘OK, let’s give it a try.’”
McMahon, who had vetoed previous requests by Martel for such a turn, made the right decision, Martel quickly blossomed as “The Model,” a narcissistic character whose “Arrogance” cologne and ridiculously oversized atomizer were incorporated as foreign objects in his act.
“It didn’t take me long getting comfortable being raised around a heel brother (Michel) and traveling with him my first couple years in the business,” said Martel, who came from a pro wrestling family. “Even before I was in wrestling, I heard guys talking in his car about what a heel and baby face should be like.
“When you see a movie, you want the people to feel good at the end. That’s what being a heel is all about. He’ll go in and get (crowd) heat and finally make the people pop when the baby face begins to kick him all over the ring.”
Martel had a memorable run as The Model with high-profile feuds against Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Shawn Michaels. But two things kept Martel from being even more successful.
In that pre-Zoolander era, the male modeling industry wasn’t as large a target for animosity by wrestling fans as it is today. Plus, Martel was already beginning to wind down his wrestling career by venturing into real estate investments near his Quebec City home.
“Throughout my career, I saw guys give so much to the business and some had so little to show for it,” said Martel, whose real name is Richard Vigneault. “I remember when Stan Stasiak went to (WWE) and was a top heel there and then saw the downside of his career in Oregon when he was refereeing and (promoter) Elton Owen would humiliate him in front of us. Stan didn’t have a dime and had to take all that stuff. I said, ‘Man, that’s not going to be me.’”
After leaving WWE in 1995, Martel mounted a comeback two years later in World Championship Wresting. Although he still looked sharp inside the ring, Martel couldn’t stay healthy long enough to make an impact and retired the following year after suffering knee and neck injuries.
Martel, though, doesn’t have wrestling completely out of his system. Martel and Tony Garea, with whom he held the WWE tag-tam titles twice in the early 1980s, recently reunited to halt Deuce and Domino’s post-match beating of Jimmy Snuka and Sgt. Slaughter on July’s Vengeance pay-per-view show. Martel enjoyed the experience so much that it didn’t matter that he was cast in a baby face role.
“To go into the ring and start hitting people and the crowd going crazy, I didn’t think I would get to relive that energy and have that adrenaline again,” said Martel, 51. “I hope I can do it again. It would be great.”
(More of the Rick Martel interview can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com. Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez at alex@wrestlingobserver.com. Please include your full name and city of residence. Because of volume, no phone calls will be accepted.)
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