Paul Leduc, a longtime wrestler and promoter best remembered as one half of the Leduc Brothers, died August 30 at age 89.
Leduc had been hospitalized since July. He was placed under palliative sedation the day before his death and died early Sunday morning with family at his side, according to Le Journal de Montréal.
Leduc became a major name in Canadian wrestling alongside Jos Leduc, who was actually his friend Michel Pigeon. The two were presented as brothers and adopted a lumberjack look that became closely associated with them during their run together.
Their partnership took them well beyond Quebec. The Leducs worked for Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling and won its International Tag Team Championship in 1969. They later became two-time Grand Prix Wrestling tag team champions and worked one of the most memorable rivalries of the era against Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon and Paul “The Butcher” Vachon.
One match between the Leducs and Vachons drew 17,008 fans in Quebec City, a record crowd for a wrestling event there.
The Leducs also had success in the United States. In 1973, they defeated Dick Slater and Dusty Rhodes for the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.
Leduc was also part of one of wrestling’s stranger intersections between the business and real life. He was legally married inside the ring at the Montreal Forum in 1971, years before wrestling weddings became a familiar television angle.
He retired from regular competition in 1978, but wrestling remained part of his life. Leduc later became involved with Jacques Rougeau Jr.’s International Wrestling 2000 and worked with his son Carl. In 2000, he founded the Fédération de Lutte Québécoise, keeping him connected to another generation of wrestlers long after his own days as a regular performer were over.
Leduc entered wrestling in the 1950s despite being considered undersized for the business. He was around 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds when he started, and later said one of the things he was most proud of was succeeding after being told he was too small to make it.
Leduc is survived by his daughter, Kim, and sons, Carl and Yan. A public memorial is scheduled for September 27 in Longueuil, Quebec.