 Grenier in 2005 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1977-03-26)March 26, 1977 (age 48)[1] Varennes, Quebec, Canada[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | M. Canada[1] Sly[1] Sylvain[1] Sylvan[1] Sylvain Grenier[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2] |
| Billed weight | 250 lb (113 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | Montreal,Quebec, Canada[3] France[3] |
| Trained by | Dory Funk Jr.[1] Rocky Johnson[3] |
| Debut | 1998[1] |
Sylvain Grenier (born March 26, 1977)[1] is a Canadian retiredprofessional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure inWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
He is best known for his time wrestling for WWE between 2002 and 2007 where he was part ofLa Résistance and became a four-timeWorld Tag Team Champion (once withRené Duprée and three times withRob Conway). After his release from WWE, Grenier became aFrench-language commentator forTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)Impact! for a number of years and continued to wrestle on theQuebec independent circuit.
As a child, Grenier lived with his parents inVarennes, Quebec. Grenier playedbaseball,tennis andhockey at an amateur level. Grenier worked as amodel.[citation needed]
Grenier made hisprofessional wrestling debut in 1998.[1]
Grenier auditioned for series one and two ofTough Enough, therealitytelevision program produced byWorld Wrestling Entertainment in 2001 and 2002, but was unable to attend the selection process due tovisa problems.[4] While he was inFlorida training and taking part in a modeling shoot, Grenier met WWEproducerPat Patterson, with whom he became good friends. Patterson invited Grenier to attend WWE events for a few tryout matches under the ring name "Sly Grenier". Following a match, Grenier was offered a contract by WWE, and assigned to WWE developmental territoryOhio Valley Wrestling.
During this period, Grenier made two appearances for WWE, the first atNo Way Out in 2003 as areferee during the match betweenThe Rock andHulk Hogan in which he helped The Rock to win that match; the other atWrestleMania XIX during the match between Hogan andVince McMahon.[5]
On April 28, Grenier returned to WWE, debuting on theRaw brand alongside fellow French CanadianRené Duprée. The duo were collectively known asLa Résistance, and were billed asFrenchmen who were highly critical of American efforts in thewar on terror. Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on the April 28 episode ofRaw as La Résistance by attackingScott Steiner who had recently made remarks comparing France tohell, offending Grenier and Duprée.[6] La Résistance went on tofeud with Scott Steiner andTest (who was being forced to be Steiner's tag team partner byStacy Keibler) until theJudgment Day pay-per-view where La Résistance defeated Steiner and Test.[7]
Grenier and Duprée went on to win theWorld Tag Team Championship fromKane andRob Van Dam at the2003 Bad Blood event.[8][9] After that the decision was made to addRob Conway as a third member who began by posing as an American serviceman being abused by Grenier and Duprée until theDudley Boyz came out to save him. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned to Conway, he attacked them with the American flag they had given him before tearing it off the pole and laying it on top of them. The trio began carrying theFrench flag to ringside and singing theFrench national anthem before their matches.[10] During their time together the trio feuded with several tag teams; including theDudley Boyz,The Hurricane andRosey, andGarrison Cade andMark Jindrak.
They held the titles untilUnforgiven 2003 when they dropped them to The Dudley Boyz in a three-on-twohandicaptables match.[11] During the match, Grenier suffered neck and back injuries, and was diagnosed with a broken neck a month later.[3] The trio eventually reunited on the edition of March 15, 2004, ofRaw. when Grenier returned. This reunion only lasted a week, as Dupree was drafted toSmackDown! on March 22, 2004, during theDraft Lottery.[12]
Without Dupree, Grenier and Conway continued toteam together as La Résistance onRaw. WithAmerican-Franco hostility subsiding, WWE ceased billing the team as being from France and instead promoted them as being haughtyFrench Canadians who carried theflag of Quebec to the ring, with Grenier often singing theCanadian national anthem. Grenier has later said that he preferred teaming with Conway over Duprée, stating "Rob made me love wrestling again".[13]
The team held the World Tag Team Championship three times.[14][15][16] Their first title reign began when they defeatedChris Benoit andEdge on the May 31, 2004, episode ofRaw in Grenier's home town of Montreal.[14][17] They dropped the championship to them atTaboo Tuesday when Benoit was able to defeat both Grenier and Conway, despite Edge abandoning Benoit during the match.[18] La Résistance re-captured the championship on the November 1 episode ofRaw when Edge walked out on Benoit again.[15] Two weeks later, however, in a three-way tag team elimination match,William Regal andEugene were the last men standing, beating both La Résistance and the team ofTajiri andRhyno.[19] Their final Tag Team Championship win occurred at a Rawhouse show in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on January 16, 2005. La Résistance defeated William Regal and Jonathan Coachman (who substituted for Eugene due to suffering an injury).[16] La Résistance dropped the championship a few weeks later on the February 7, 2005, episode ofRaw in Tokyo, Japan to William Regal and his new tag team partner Tajiri. on the March 14 episode ofRaw, La Résistance were defeated byThe Rockers (Shawn Michaels andMarty Jannetty) in a Rockers's Reunion. atWrestleMania 21, Grenier competed in a 30-man battle royal where he was eliminated byHeidenreich.
La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the title, mainly onSunday Night Heat, but fell short during each one. La Résistance were given another chance at Regal and Tajiri during a Tag Team Turmoil match involving five teams duringBacklash. In the match, La Résistance managed to eliminate the current champions but were defeated by the last remaining team, Hurricane and Rosey.[20]
The team split in mid-May 2005 after repeatedly quarreling over which of them was the superior wrestler. Grenier and Conway went into singles competition with announcers claiming that the members of La Résistance were trying to "one up" each other in singles matches without the other man in their corner. This saw Conway defeat ajobber andVal Venis, while Grenier was defeated by both Val Venis andChris Jericho before both men competed in a triple threat match (withIntercontinental ChampionShelton Benjamin for the title), Benjamin won the match after the La Résistance members began to argue and fight with each other.[21] The altercation between the two led to a main event match for the edition of June 12, 2005, ofSunday Night Heat. This match saw Conway portray theheel, and defeat Grenier.[22]
Grenier was a last minute trade in the2005 WWE Draft, forcing him to leave Raw and go toSmackDown! ending his already shakey tag team partnership with Conway.[23] After being traded he was not seen on television for a few months, eventually re-debuting onSmackDown! on September 1, 2005.[24] He was repackaged with agimmick of anarcissistic malesupermodel known simply as "Sylvain", though his name was later tweaked to "Sylvan", the same spelling that was used in the original La Resistance vignettes. His new gimmick saw him speak with a light French accent, wear sunglasses and use techno music for his entrance.
Sylvan soon began a brief feud withHardcore Holly, which saw Sylvan determined to protect his "perfect face" at any cost. Sylvan gained a victory over Holly on the October 7 episode ofSmackDown! with help fromMr. Kennedy.[25] AtNo Mercy 2005 after Kennedy defeated Holly, Sylvan came out and continued his feud with him by attacking the injured Holly, which led to Sylvan losing a singles match on an episode ofVelocity and ahardcore match the following week onSmackDown!, ending an almost two-month feud.[26][27] Sylvan entered the2006 Royal Rumble, but was quickly eliminated by Bobby Lashley.[28] After this, Sylvan slowly reverted to using anti-American tactics while still retaining his model gimmick. However, this change was short-lived and he was soon taken off of television, where he began wrestling in dark matches beforeSmackDown! tapings and in OVW.
On the June 16, 2006, episode ofSmackDown!vignettes designed to look like vacation promotion videos forQuebec and starring Sylvan ("the Ambassador at Large for the Beautiful Province of Québec", or "the Ambassador of Québec" for short) began airing. On July 7 he appeared in-ring to cut apromo attempting to "make peace" with theUS fans by welcoming them to visit his home province. The fans responded with a chorus of boos and a loud "USA" chant.[29] In the coming weeks he continued to appear backstage, telling everyone within earshot how much better Québec was than where ever they were from. He made his ring return with this gimmick on the July 28SmackDown! with a win overTatanka.[30] Sylvan would go on to job against the likes of Tatanka,Vito, andBatista under this gimmick.[31][32][33] Sylvan's losing streak ended on the firstCW Network episode ofSmackDown! on September 22, 2006, when he defeated Tatanka again by using the ring ropes for illegal leverage.[34] The following week onSmackDown!, Sylvan defeatedJimmy Wang Yang, who had insulted Canada the week before.[35] The next week, Sylvan cheated again to take a lead in the feud.[36] The following week, Sylvan finally lost to Yang in a six-man tag team match.[37] After disappearing for a couple of weeks, Sylvan finally returned to cost Yang a match versus Gregory Helms. After that match, Matt Hardy came out to help Yang ward off Helms and Sylvan. The following week, Hardy and Yang defeated Helms and Sylvan, ending Sylvan's feud with Yang.
Sylvan returned to OVW on November 15, making a surprise appearance as Sylvain Grenier, teaming with Rob Conway to reform their La Résistance. The reformed team defeatedCody Runnels andShawn Spears to earn a shot at theOVW Southern Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful in the title match. On the December 22 episode ofSmackDown!, he disguised himself as Santa Claus and attacked World Heavyweight Champion Batista with a steel pipe. This resulted in a match with Batista that Sylvan quickly lost and would end the "Ambassador of Québec" gimmick as Sylvan disappeared from television after this.[38]
On the February 20, 2007, episode ofECW, Grenier returned and reformed the originalLa Résistance with René Duprée, defeating a pair of local wrestlers.[39] Due to Duprée getting suspended at the start of March, however, and being sent to rehab after violating the Health and Wellness policy, the team was quietly disbanded. At the August 7, 2007, taping ofSmackDown!, Sylvan made his televised return under his old model gimmick in a match againstKane, which he lost. This would turn out to be Grenier's final match for WWE, as he was released from his contract on August 13.[40]
On November 29, 2007, Grenier debuted as aFrench language commentator forTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA)Impact! television show onRéseau des sports (RDS).[41] During his time with TNA, he embarked on a feud with former commentatorPierre Carl Ouellet, with Grenier claiming that he was the better commentator. They settled their feud in a match inHawkesbury, Ontario, on June 21, 2008, in which Ouellet was victorious. Greiner was released in 2009.
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Grenier returned to the independent circuit in January 2008 at International Wrestling Syndicate's Praise The Violence where he lost toKevin Steen in an IWS Heavyweight Championship number one contendership match. On August 30, 2008, Grenier reunited withRob Conway to reformLa Résistance, and they defeated Karl Briscoe and Jay Phenomenon to winNorthern Championship Wrestling's Tag Team Championship.[42] before losing them to Kid Rock and Gorgeous Mike on October 25.[42] On December 20, at NCW's Noël D'Enfer event, Grenier defeated Samson to win the Quebec Championship.[43] He would hold the title for over 50 days before losing it to Nova Cain on February 7, 2009.[43] On April 17, 2009, he appeared forRing of Honor, competing in a six-man tag match, in which he teamed withThe American Wolves (Davey Richards andEddie Edwards) in a loss toBryan Danielson,Kevin Steen and El Generico. On November 22, 2009, Grenier defeated Darkko to win the Combat Revolution Wrestling (CRW) Quebec Championship. He lost the championship to Darkko on February 21, 2010.
On March 5, 2010, Grenier debuted as a new gimmick, known as Iceman at his TOW Wrestling show. In a match at a CRW show, he defeated the highflying Van Hawk, a mainstay in the independent circuit of Quebec. Later that night, in his usual persona, Grenier recaptured the CRW Quebec Championship by defeating Darkko andDru Onyx in a casket match at a TOW show, before losing it to Darkko two days later. In November 2011, Greiner toured several European countries as part of American Wrestling Rampage, where he predominantly teamed with formerLa Résistance partnerRené Duprée.
On November 1, 2012, Grenier decided he will be taking a break from wrestling for a while. On November 13, 2012, Grenier came to the rescue ofAlex Shelley on a PPV event.Grenier made an announcement on November 1, 2012, that he will have a few matches. Grenier facedJuice Robinson, Jay White on November 16, 2012, in a handicap match. On November 18, 2012, Grenier had a match againstKushida but lost to Kushida by distraction ofKyosuke Mikami,Katsuyori Shibata,Cliff Compton coming to the ring. Grenier became the World Lutte TOW Wrestling Champion for 389 days, but lost it to Thomas Dubois.
On January 19, 2018, Grenier announced his retirement via Twitter, but ended his retirement on October 27, 2018, returning to the ring for La Lutte C Vrai against Franky the Mobster. Grenier continued to compete on the Quebec independent wrestling circuit before returning to WWE.
On January 19, 2020, it was announced that Grenier had returned to WWE as a backstage producer.[44] He was fired during the year, along with many other wrestlers and producers as a cost-cutting measure.
Sylvain along with Rob Conway were recently FWE Tag Team Champions. FWE is based in Raleigh NC.
He currently holds the FWE Heavyweight Championship.
Since his departure from WWE, Grenier has ventured in the media industry as a TV host and executive producer on several TV shows for Sports Network in Canada. He currently resides in between the suburbs of Montreal and Florida with his wife and two kids.[citation needed]
As an entrepreneur, Grenier has succeeded in the sports nutrition business as well as the real estate industry.[citation needed]
Grenier appears as a playable character inWWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006.
