Robert Bédard

Robert Bédard was a Canadian professional wrestler. better known by his ring name, the “Number One Frenchman” Rene Goulet. Robert Bedard was born on July 12, 1932 in Quebec City and played hockey as a defenseman, and nearly dying after an opponent’s skate cut into his throat. In addition to hockey, Bedard trained as a bodybuilder and a boxer, but decided to try out wrestling after another boxer warned him he’d be “punch-drunk” by the time he was 25. Goulet began his career in Quebec City, Quebec, in 1957, with his first match being against Gerard Dugas. Bedard adopted his ring name Rene Goulet when he began working in Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo’s Minneapolis territory. Gagne and Karbo changed Bedard’s name to capitalize on his good looks (and the popularity of singer Robert Goulet). Despite not knowing English, he succeeded, and he and his wife would both work hard to learn the language. He spent the early part of his career traveling the territories, spending a significant amount of time in the AWA. He achieved his greatest fame in the 1970s and 1980s with the World Wrestling Federation, winning the WWWF Tag Team Championship with Karl Gotch on December 6, 1971 by defeating “Crazy” Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler. Karl and Goulet dropped the belts to Baron Mikel Scicluna and King Curtis Iaukea at the next television taping on February 1, 1972, staying on a few more months before looking for new opportunities. Goulet worked briefly in Germany in the early ’70s, with promoters deciding to name him Buddy Rogers, Jr. He was in the first WWF match ever televised on the USA Network, with his opponent being Tito Santana. Goulet was well known as a very dependable wrestler who could always be trusted to have a good match. As a result, he was often selected to have matches with rookie wrestlers so he could carry the match. The list of wrestlers who had either had their first match or one of their first matches against Goulet includes Ric Flair, Chris Taylor, the Iron Sheik, Jim Brunzell, Greg Gagne and Ken Patera. He was the subject of a full-page photo in the third issue of People Magazine of March 11, 1974. The photo was taken of Bédard in a bear hug from Chris Taylor in Taylor’s first professional match. While in the AWA in the early 1980s he was known as “Sgt. Jacques Goulet” and used a claw hold he called “le scorpion”. He worked as a road agent for the WWF until 1997 and could frequently be seen coming to the ring to maintain control when wrestlers got into fights. He had a recurring role in the classic wrestling show, TNT, as the host of “Cafe Rene”. Goulet died on May 25, 2019 at the age of 86. His death was reported that December.