La Résistance
Encyclopedia
La Résistance is a heel
professional wrestling
tag team
and former stable who performed for World Wrestling Entertainment
.
in the main event. Sylvain Grenier had been working as a referee for two months prior to the re-match between Hulk Hogan
and The Rock. During the afrementioned match, Grenier served as the referee, who contributed to Hogan's loss. It was later announced that Grenier was French-Canadian, so essentially it was a Canadian who cheated the fans this time (overlooking that neither Hogan nor The Rock were from Canada, so neither was the hometown represetative). Grenier would continue to serve as a biased official who decided matches to Mr. McMahon
's wishes. The original planned result of this was for Grenier to continue playing in favor of villains long enough so that numerous fan favorites to be cheated and confront him. Claiming racial disrimination, he would call in friend René Duprée to help him enforce "cultural sensitivity". However, after Hogan defeated McMahon at WrestleMania XIX
, the angle was changed completely, removing Grenier's role entirely before it could begin to go far enough to call in Duprée.
Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on the April 28, 2003 edition of Raw as La Résistance by attacking then-fan favorite Scott Steiner
. Steiner had made remarks two weeks earlier comparing France to hell and Grenier and Duprée were offended. La Résistance went on to feud with Scott Steiner and Test who was forced to be Steiner's tag team partner by Stacy Keibler
. La Résistance ended up defeating Steiner and Test at Judgment Day
on May 18, 2003 in the team's pay-per-view debut. Their most notorious insult to the United States came on Memorial Day
in 2003 when they interrupted Raw announcer Lilian Garcia
as she was singing America the Beautiful
. After several minutes of Grenier calling America barbarians and saying that France would not allow the US to be the police force of the world, the sound of glass shattering suddenly filled the arena when Steve Austin
cleared the ring of La Résistance and said some unflattering remarks about the French nation.
On the May 26, 2003 edition of Raw, Grenier defeated Rob Van Dam
in a Flag match to win a World Tag Team Championship shot. Grenier and Duprée went on to win the World Tag Team Championship from Kane and Rob Van Dam at Bad Blood
.
came out to attack La Résistance they brought Conway in the ring with an American flag. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned to Conway, he attacked them with the American flag and then tore it off the pole and laid it on top of them. However, Conway's role was that of a manager at first.
Originally, the Dudley Boys were due to get revenge on La Resistance in a non-title match at Unforgiven, allegedly leading to a title match loss at the following pay-per-view. The match was announced as a '6-man Table Elimination match', declaring that the winning team would be the one to physically force each of their three opponents through wooden tables. La Resistance were due to team with Rob Conway to take on The Dudley Boyz (including Spike Dudley). A few days before the pay-per-view, La Resistance beat down all three Dudleyz after an unrelated match. Grenier and Dupree picked up Spike Dudley and tried to perform a spinebuster, throwing Spike Dudley over the top rope and through a wooden table outside of the ring. In reality, both men threw Spike into the top rope, causing him to fall to the floor outside of the ring. On the way down, Spike hit his head on the table and suffered an immediate concussion. After doing nothing for almost 2 minutes, they repeated the stunt with a heavier opponent. Again, the opponent was thrown into the top rope. But this time, he did hit the wooden table, but he also landed on the injured Spike Dudley.
At the Unforgiven pay-per-view, the match was changed to a 3-on-2 handicap match (with the Dudleyz losing Spike). And if the Dudleyz were to win, they would win the Tag Team titles. And as such, the Dudleyz did win the match and the titles.
La Resistance went on to feud
with several other tag teams, including Hurricane and Rosey
, and the team of Garrison Cade
and Mark Jindrak
before Grenier suffered a back injury in October 2003. Conway was now inducted as a fully-fledged member of La Resistance, continuing the team with Duprée. However, the duo failed to make an impact as a tag team or singles competitors.
Grenier returned to the stable on the March 15, 2004 edition of Raw. One week later, Duprée was drafted in a lottery by WWE's other brand, SmackDown. While on SmackDown, Dupree retained the La Resistance theme song as his own. Conway changed his name to Robert Conway, and continued the La Resistance team with Grenier. Now that Dupree was on SmackDown, the stable stopped pretending to be French, and started representing French Canada (particularly Quebec). Conway and Dupree also debuted a new finishing move based upon Conway's spinning neckbreaker.
(later changed to simply the Province of Quebec) instead of France and wore new ring attire with the blue and white colours of Quebec along with the traditional fleur-de-lis
. Several months after the loss of Duprée, La Résistance went on to defeat Edge
and Chris Benoit
for the World Tag Team Titles in Grenier's home town of Montreal
, Quebec
to a standing ovation.
With the help of Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff
La Résistance managed to keep hold of the titles for five months. Towards the end of their run, La Resistance had become too dependent on cheating and Bischoff to help them retain their tag team titles. Both members of La Resistance had been included in an Internet poll for the first PPV
Taboo Tuesday
. The winner of this poll would challenge Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Title (being villains, neither man was likely to win). However, Bischoff told them that they were not representing the Tag Team Championship properly, and they were removed from the poll. There was another poll to determine who would challenge Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship (either Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit or Edge). La Resistance were told that they would have to defend the Tag Team titles against a team made up of the two men who did not earn the World Heavyweight Title shot.
During Taboo Tuesday the announcement was made that Shawn Michaels had been voted for a title shot with 38.72% of the vote compared to Edge's 33.42% and Benoit's 27.86%; this meant La Résistance would meet Edge and Benoit in a rematch of their championship victory five months earlier (Benoit and Edge). They would lose the titles to Edge and Benoit, even though Edge left the arena half-way through the match leaving Benoit to win the match on his own. As Grenier and Conway invoked their rematch clause thirteen days later on Raw, the dissension between Benoit and Edge would continue and finally be their undoing as La Résistance won the titles back (Even though Benoit won and defended the titles alone, the WWE still recognises Edge as being the co-holder of the titles with Benoit). Soon after, on the November 15, 2004 edition of Raw, La Résistance lost the World Tag Team Championship again, this time to Eugene
and William Regal.
Grenier and Conway managed to win the World Tag Team Championship for the third time together and fourth since the creation of the stable. This championship win was a rare one since it was won at a Raw-brand house show
on January 16, 2005 in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
. This time, La Résistance defeated Regal and Jonathan Coachman
, who was taking the place of the legitimately injured Eugene (who would miss several months due to a left patella tear at New Year's Revolution). Grenier and Conway soon lost the belts back to Regal and his tag team partner Tajiri
, on an episode of Raw taking place from Tajiri's hometown of Tokyo
, Japan
.
La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the gold (mainly on Sunday Night Heat
) from Regal and Tajiri in many different matches but just fell short during each one. During their "last shot" for the gold the team thought they had won back the titles only to have the decision reversed by referee Mike Chioda
due to La Résistance's Grenier pinning Tajiri, not Regal, who was the legal man. La Résistance went on to lose the match.
While this was to be their last chance to win back the gold from Regal and Tajiri, the team were given one more chance during a Tag Team Turmoil match during Backlash
. In the match, La Résistance managed to eliminate the champions but were still unable to win the match and regain the titles as they were defeated by the winners of the match, Rosey and The Hurricane. The next night on Raw, La Résistance tried again to win the titles in a match against the new champions but were unsuccessful again. They would feud with Hurricane and Rosey, having various filler matches on multiple Pay-Per-View events.
and Val Venis
, while Grenier was defeated by both Val Venis and Chris Jericho
before both men competed in a triple threat match (against Intercontinental Champion
Shelton Benjamin
for the title), Benjamin won the match, not long after the La Résistance members began to argue and fight. This altercation between the two led to a taped main event match on June 6, 2005, for the June 12 episode of Sunday Night Heat
. This match saw Rob Conway portray the heel
character, and defeat Sylvain Grenier.
On June 30, 2005, Grenier and Dupree were last minute trades in the 2005 WWE Draft
, which saw Grenier leave Raw to go to SmackDown! and Dupree come back to Raw. This seemingly marked the end of Grenier's already shaky tag team partnership with Conway, who remained a Raw superstar. The door was left open for Dupree to, once again, become a La Résistance member and team with Conway, but there was no attempt to take Dupree and Conway out of singles competition. All three men continued in singles careers with new gimmicks.
Dupree continued to use the original La Resistance theme as his theme music. Dupree would also claim he was from Canada and France simultaneously. After several months, Grenier started billing himself as the Embassador for Quebec. Conway changed his name back to Rob Conway and stopped linking himself to France or Canada.
While in WWE Developmental Territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling
, Conway and Grenier briefly reteamed as La Résistance in a match on November 15, 2006 to earn a OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
match by defeating the reigning champions, Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears
. However the team would not win the title match.
The original two members, Duprée and Grenier, returned to the main roster on February 20, 2007 as La Résistance, though this time they are wearing a Quebec-themed ring attire with the old French-themed La Résistance titantron. They briefly worked for Ohio Valley Wrestling and the ECW brand, but on March 1, 2007 Dupree was suspended due to a violation of the Health and Wellness policy. This left Grenier and Conway to team togeather again in OVW and dark matches for the next couple months until May 11, 2007 when Conway was released from WWE.
On July 26, 2007 Duprée was also released from his contract. On August 13, Grenier was released from his WWE contract officially ending the WWE careers of all three La Résistance members.
Grenier and Conway now take independent bookings, under the name "The Resistance".
On August 30, 2008, Grenier and Conway, as La Résistance, defeated Jay Phenomenon and Karl Briscoe to win the NCW Tag Team Championships.
Heel (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling; the term heel coming from the term take to you heels, which means to run away which heel champions tend to do to avoid losing their titles.storylines...
professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
tag team
Tag team
Tag team professional wrestling is a variation in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. A tag team may comprise two wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of established teams who wrestle regularly as a unit and have a team name...
and former stable who performed for World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
.
False start on SmackDown
The La Resistance angle had an unsuccessful start in February 2003. During a pay-per-view show in Montreal, the WWE mocked the Montreal ScrewjobMontreal Screwjob
The Montreal Screwjob was a controversial, purportedly real life professional wrestling event in which the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, Vince McMahon, double-crossed the defending WWF Champion, Bret Hart, during the main event match of the professional wrestling pay-per-view event...
in the main event. Sylvain Grenier had been working as a referee for two months prior to the re-match between Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
and The Rock. During the afrementioned match, Grenier served as the referee, who contributed to Hogan's loss. It was later announced that Grenier was French-Canadian, so essentially it was a Canadian who cheated the fans this time (overlooking that neither Hogan nor The Rock were from Canada, so neither was the hometown represetative). Grenier would continue to serve as a biased official who decided matches to Mr. McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
's wishes. The original planned result of this was for Grenier to continue playing in favor of villains long enough so that numerous fan favorites to be cheated and confront him. Claiming racial disrimination, he would call in friend René Duprée to help him enforce "cultural sensitivity". However, after Hogan defeated McMahon at WrestleMania XIX
WrestleMania XIX
WrestleMania XIX was the nineteenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on March 30, 2003 at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Washington, and the first...
, the angle was changed completely, removing Grenier's role entirely before it could begin to go far enough to call in Duprée.
Debut on Raw
The stable was instead officially created on Raw, when WWE aired vignettes of Duprée and Grenier as two arrogant "Frenchmen" (rather than French-Canadians) attacking the United States and its foreign policy from a French news studio.Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on the April 28, 2003 edition of Raw as La Résistance by attacking then-fan favorite Scott Steiner
Scott Steiner
Scott Carl Rechsteiner is an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Scott Steiner. Steiner is perhaps best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling alongside his older brother Rick as the Steiner Brothers and as a member of the New World Order...
. Steiner had made remarks two weeks earlier comparing France to hell and Grenier and Duprée were offended. La Résistance went on to feud with Scott Steiner and Test who was forced to be Steiner's tag team partner by Stacy Keibler
Stacy Keibler
Stacy Keibler is an American actress, model, and former professional wrestler and valet, best known for her work with World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment ....
. La Résistance ended up defeating Steiner and Test at Judgment Day
Judgment Day (2003)
Judgment Day was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that took place on May 18, 2003, at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina...
on May 18, 2003 in the team's pay-per-view debut. Their most notorious insult to the United States came on Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
in 2003 when they interrupted Raw announcer Lilian Garcia
Lilian Garcia
Lilian Annette García , is a Spanish-American singer. She is best known as the former ring announcer for WWE's Raw brand. During her time in WWE, she became the first Diva to remain with the promotion for ten years.-Early life and career:...
as she was singing America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward....
. After several minutes of Grenier calling America barbarians and saying that France would not allow the US to be the police force of the world, the sound of glass shattering suddenly filled the arena when Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin , better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler...
cleared the ring of La Résistance and said some unflattering remarks about the French nation.
On the May 26, 2003 edition of Raw, Grenier defeated Rob Van Dam
Rob Van Dam
Robert Alexander "Rob" Szatkowski , better known by his ring name Rob Van Dam , is an American professional wrestler and actor who is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
in a Flag match to win a World Tag Team Championship shot. Grenier and Duprée went on to win the World Tag Team Championship from Kane and Rob Van Dam at Bad Blood
Bad Blood (2003)
Bad Blood was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on June 15, 2003 at the Compaq Center in Houston, Texas. It was the second event produced under the Bad Blood name and starred wrestlers from the Raw brand...
.
Robert Conway
In spite of the team winning the Tag Team titles after only 1 month (making Dupree the youngest title holder ever in the WWE), the pair failed to get over with fans. The duo made a number of silly mistakes during televised matches and skits, and fans were unable to take them seriously as a legitimate tag team. In mid 2003 the decision was made to add a third member. Enter Rob Conway, who, on the August 18 edition of RAW, posed as an American serviceman being abused by Grenier and Duprée. When The Dudley BoyzDudley Boyz
Team 3D was a professional wrestling tag team, consisting of Brother Ray and Brother Devon, formerly sporadically joined into a stable by Brother Runt on several intervals...
came out to attack La Résistance they brought Conway in the ring with an American flag. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned to Conway, he attacked them with the American flag and then tore it off the pole and laid it on top of them. However, Conway's role was that of a manager at first.
Originally, the Dudley Boys were due to get revenge on La Resistance in a non-title match at Unforgiven, allegedly leading to a title match loss at the following pay-per-view. The match was announced as a '6-man Table Elimination match', declaring that the winning team would be the one to physically force each of their three opponents through wooden tables. La Resistance were due to team with Rob Conway to take on The Dudley Boyz (including Spike Dudley). A few days before the pay-per-view, La Resistance beat down all three Dudleyz after an unrelated match. Grenier and Dupree picked up Spike Dudley and tried to perform a spinebuster, throwing Spike Dudley over the top rope and through a wooden table outside of the ring. In reality, both men threw Spike into the top rope, causing him to fall to the floor outside of the ring. On the way down, Spike hit his head on the table and suffered an immediate concussion. After doing nothing for almost 2 minutes, they repeated the stunt with a heavier opponent. Again, the opponent was thrown into the top rope. But this time, he did hit the wooden table, but he also landed on the injured Spike Dudley.
At the Unforgiven pay-per-view, the match was changed to a 3-on-2 handicap match (with the Dudleyz losing Spike). And if the Dudleyz were to win, they would win the Tag Team titles. And as such, the Dudleyz did win the match and the titles.
La Resistance went on to feud
Feud (professional wrestling)
A professional wrestling feud is a staged rivalry between multiple wrestlers or alliances of wrestlers. They are integrated into ongoing storylines, particularly in events which are televised...
with several other tag teams, including Hurricane and Rosey
Hurricane and Rosey
Rosey and The Hurricane were a professional wrestling tag team in World Wrestling Entertainment based on the Raw brand. While in the WWE, their ring personas were those of a duo of superheroes....
, and the team of Garrison Cade
Lance Cade
Lance Kurtis McNaught was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment where he performed under the ring names Garrison Cade and Lance Cade....
and Mark Jindrak
Mark Jindrak
Mark Robert Jindrak is an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment...
before Grenier suffered a back injury in October 2003. Conway was now inducted as a fully-fledged member of La Resistance, continuing the team with Duprée. However, the duo failed to make an impact as a tag team or singles competitors.
Grenier returned to the stable on the March 15, 2004 edition of Raw. One week later, Duprée was drafted in a lottery by WWE's other brand, SmackDown. While on SmackDown, Dupree retained the La Resistance theme song as his own. Conway changed his name to Robert Conway, and continued the La Resistance team with Grenier. Now that Dupree was on SmackDown, the stable stopped pretending to be French, and started representing French Canada (particularly Quebec). Conway and Dupree also debuted a new finishing move based upon Conway's spinning neckbreaker.
Conway and Grenier
While Duprée went to SmackDown and established his French Phenom persona, Conway and Grenier were left to keep La Résistance together as a unit. (Neither Duprée nor the La Résistance tag team changed their entrance music; Dupree and Japanese wrestler Kenzo Suzuki formed a short lived tag team that used a remixed version of it.) Conway began being billed as Robert Conway (pronounce Robe-air), and he and Grenier began being announced as hailing from Quebec CityQuebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
(later changed to simply the Province of Quebec) instead of France and wore new ring attire with the blue and white colours of Quebec along with the traditional fleur-de-lis
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...
. Several months after the loss of Duprée, La Résistance went on to defeat Edge
Adam Copeland
Adam Joseph Copeland is a retired Canadian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Edge. He is currently signed to WWE under a Legends contract....
and Chris Benoit
Chris Benoit
Christopher Michael "Chris" Benoit was a Canadian professional wrestler whose career and life ended in a murder–suicide...
for the World Tag Team Titles in Grenier's home town of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
to a standing ovation.
With the help of Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff
Eric Bischoff
Eric Aaron Bischoff is an American entrepreneur, and professional wrestling booker and on-screen personality currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling...
La Résistance managed to keep hold of the titles for five months. Towards the end of their run, La Resistance had become too dependent on cheating and Bischoff to help them retain their tag team titles. Both members of La Resistance had been included in an Internet poll for the first PPV
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
Taboo Tuesday
Taboo Tuesday (2004)
Taboo Tuesday was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on October 19, 2004 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the first annual Taboo Tuesday event, marking the first time in which the fans were given the chance...
. The winner of this poll would challenge Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Title (being villains, neither man was likely to win). However, Bischoff told them that they were not representing the Tag Team Championship properly, and they were removed from the poll. There was another poll to determine who would challenge Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship (either Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit or Edge). La Resistance were told that they would have to defend the Tag Team titles against a team made up of the two men who did not earn the World Heavyweight Title shot.
During Taboo Tuesday the announcement was made that Shawn Michaels had been voted for a title shot with 38.72% of the vote compared to Edge's 33.42% and Benoit's 27.86%; this meant La Résistance would meet Edge and Benoit in a rematch of their championship victory five months earlier (Benoit and Edge). They would lose the titles to Edge and Benoit, even though Edge left the arena half-way through the match leaving Benoit to win the match on his own. As Grenier and Conway invoked their rematch clause thirteen days later on Raw, the dissension between Benoit and Edge would continue and finally be their undoing as La Résistance won the titles back (Even though Benoit won and defended the titles alone, the WWE still recognises Edge as being the co-holder of the titles with Benoit). Soon after, on the November 15, 2004 edition of Raw, La Résistance lost the World Tag Team Championship again, this time to Eugene
Nick Dinsmore
Nicholas "Nick" Dinsmore , better known by his ring names Eugene and U-Gene, is an American professional wrestler...
and William Regal.
Grenier and Conway managed to win the World Tag Team Championship for the third time together and fourth since the creation of the stable. This championship win was a rare one since it was won at a Raw-brand house show
House show
A house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and...
on January 16, 2005 in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. This time, La Résistance defeated Regal and Jonathan Coachman
Jonathan Coachman
Jonathan William Coachman , also known as "The Coach", is a former professional wrestling color commentator and authority figure. He is also a former college basketball player, and football play-by-play announcer...
, who was taking the place of the legitimately injured Eugene (who would miss several months due to a left patella tear at New Year's Revolution). Grenier and Conway soon lost the belts back to Regal and his tag team partner Tajiri
Yoshihiro Tajiri
, is a Japanese professional wrestler, perhaps best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment. He is currently competing in SMASH as TAJIRI.-Early years :...
, on an episode of Raw taking place from Tajiri's hometown of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the gold (mainly on Sunday Night Heat
WWE HEAT
WWE Heat was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...
) from Regal and Tajiri in many different matches but just fell short during each one. During their "last shot" for the gold the team thought they had won back the titles only to have the decision reversed by referee Mike Chioda
Mike Chioda
Michael Joseph "Mike" Chioda, is a senior referee who is currently signed to WWE. While not refereeing, Chioda, as well as the other referees in WWE, help set up the arena before shows, constructing the ring and stage areas.-WWF:...
due to La Résistance's Grenier pinning Tajiri, not Regal, who was the legal man. La Résistance went on to lose the match.
While this was to be their last chance to win back the gold from Regal and Tajiri, the team were given one more chance during a Tag Team Turmoil match during Backlash
Backlash (2005)
Backlash was the seventh annual Backlash professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Entertainment , which took place on May 1, 2005 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire. The show's six matches showcased prominent WWE wrestlers, who acted out...
. In the match, La Résistance managed to eliminate the champions but were still unable to win the match and regain the titles as they were defeated by the winners of the match, Rosey and The Hurricane. The next night on Raw, La Résistance tried again to win the titles in a match against the new champions but were unsuccessful again. They would feud with Hurricane and Rosey, having various filler matches on multiple Pay-Per-View events.
Disbanding
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 a jobberJob (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling slang, the term job describes a losing performance in a wrestling match. It is derived from the euphemism "doing one's job", which was employed to protect kayfabe. As professional wrestling is scripted, inevitably a wrestler will be required to lose to an opponent.The term...
and Val Venis
Sean Morley
Sean Allen Morley is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name Val Venis, during his time with World Wrestling Federation, later known as World Wrestling Entertainment...
, while Grenier was defeated by both Val Venis and Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho
Christopher Keith Irvine , better known by his ring name Chris Jericho, is an inactive Canadian-American professional wrestler, musician, songwriter, radio personality, television host, actor, author, and dancer...
before both men competed in a triple threat match (against Intercontinental Champion
WWE Intercontinental Championship
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It is the original secondary title of the promotion. Currently, it is the secondary championship exclusive to the SmackDown brand...
Shelton Benjamin
Shelton Benjamin
Shelton James Benjamin is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment. Benjamin has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling in high school and at the University of Minnesota. In addition, Benjamin has acted...
for the title), Benjamin won the match, not long after the La Résistance members began to argue and fight. This altercation between the two led to a taped main event match on June 6, 2005, for the June 12 episode of Sunday Night Heat
WWE HEAT
WWE Heat was a professional wrestling television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...
. This match saw Rob Conway portray the heel
Heel (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling; the term heel coming from the term take to you heels, which means to run away which heel champions tend to do to avoid losing their titles.storylines...
character, and defeat Sylvain Grenier.
On June 30, 2005, Grenier and Dupree were last minute trades in the 2005 WWE Draft
2005 WWE Draft Lottery
The 2005 World Wrestling Entertainment Draft Lottery took place over a three week period in June. There were ten draft picks and an eleven-person trade conducted between the promotion's two brands: Raw and SmackDown!, where twenty-two superstars were drafted and traded overall...
, which saw Grenier leave Raw to go to SmackDown! and Dupree come back to Raw. This seemingly marked the end of Grenier's already shaky tag team partnership with Conway, who remained a Raw superstar. The door was left open for Dupree to, once again, become a La Résistance member and team with Conway, but there was no attempt to take Dupree and Conway out of singles competition. All three men continued in singles careers with new gimmicks.
Dupree continued to use the original La Resistance theme as his theme music. Dupree would also claim he was from Canada and France simultaneously. After several months, Grenier started billing himself as the Embassador for Quebec. Conway changed his name back to Rob Conway and stopped linking himself to France or Canada.
Reformations
On April 3, 2006 Rene Duprée and Rob Conway teamed together in a dark match before Raw, in a losing effort against The HighlandersThe Highlanders (professional wrestling)
The Highlanders are a Scottish professional wrestling tag team consisting of storyline cousins Robbie and Rory McAllister who were best known for wrestling for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Raw brand.-History:Couch and Murray were both born and raised in Oban, Scotland The Highlanders are...
While in WWE Developmental Territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Ohio Valley Wrestling is an American independent professional wrestling promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. OVW is run by owner Danny Davis and was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance from 1997 until 2000...
, Conway and Grenier briefly reteamed as La Résistance in a match on November 15, 2006 to earn a OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
OVW Southern Tag Team Championship
The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship is the tag team titles of Ohio Valley Wrestling. Created in 1997, the first champions were Nick Dinsmore and Flash Flanagan. As of 2011, the current champions are Ted McNaler and Adam Revolver, known as The Elite in their fourth reign...
match by defeating the reigning champions, Cody Runnels and Shawn Spears
Ronnie Arniell
Ronnie William Arneill is a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name as Shawn Spears. He is perhaps best known for his stint with World Wrestling Entertainment on its ECW brand, where he briefly performed under the ring name Gavin Spears.-Early life:Born and raised in St...
. However the team would not win the title match.
The original two members, Duprée and Grenier, returned to the main roster on February 20, 2007 as La Résistance, though this time they are wearing a Quebec-themed ring attire with the old French-themed La Résistance titantron. They briefly worked for Ohio Valley Wrestling and the ECW brand, but on March 1, 2007 Dupree was suspended due to a violation of the Health and Wellness policy. This left Grenier and Conway to team togeather again in OVW and dark matches for the next couple months until May 11, 2007 when Conway was released from WWE.
On July 26, 2007 Duprée was also released from his contract. On August 13, Grenier was released from his WWE contract officially ending the WWE careers of all three La Résistance members.
Grenier and Conway now take independent bookings, under the name "The Resistance".
On August 30, 2008, Grenier and Conway, as La Résistance, defeated Jay Phenomenon and Karl Briscoe to win the NCW Tag Team Championships.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Grenier and Duprée
- Bonsoir (Double spinebuster)
- Back suplex side slam (Grenier) / Neckbreaker (Dupree) combination
- Grenier and Conway
- Au Revoir (Aided snap swinging neckbreaker)
- La Crêpe / Bonne Nuit (Bearhug / Running clothesline combination)
- Grenier and Duprée
- Entrance themes
- "Final Force"
Championships and accomplishments
- Northern Championship WrestlingNorthern Championship WrestlingNorthern Championship Wrestling is an independent professional wrestling promotion based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.It was founded in 1986 by François Poirier and Phil Bélanger in Joliette, Quebec...
- NCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Conway and Grenier (1)
- World Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
- World Tag Team Championship (4 times) – Duprée and Grenier (1) and Conway and Grenier (3)
- Top Of The World Wrestling
- TOW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Conway and Grenier
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Worst Tag Team (2003) – Duprée and Grenier