Today, Canadian wrestling legend, Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon passed away at age 84. Maurice, along with being part of the Vachon family, was also a multiple time heavyweight champion in AWA and WWE Hall of Famer. No disrespect to the man what-so-ever, but - despite all these accolades and accomplishments and rivalries with guys like The Crusher or Dick the Bruiser - I will always remember him most for his participation in the Diesel/Michaels match at In Your House 7 in 1996.
The match between Diesel and his former tag team partner, Shawn Michaels is a notable match in of itself as it serves as the last match that Kevin Nash ever played the character of Diesel in WWF before jumping ship to WCW (not counting a couple of years ago where Nash was dressed in the Diesel gear during his Royal Rumble return). The match was also a "No Holds Barred" match for Michaels' WWF championship and the first PPV or televised match Mad Dog Vachon ever got involved in. Well, a part of him got involved at least. See, Mad Dog Vachon was just a spectator in the audience that night until Diesel got out of the ring mid-match and threw the 67 year old man over the guardrail. Diesel then grabbed at Vachon's leg and ripped it off revealing an artificial leg that Vachon had from losing his real leg in a hit-and-run accident. That's when Diesel took Vachon's prosthetic leg and brought it into the ring to use against Michaels.
Unfortunately for Diesel, the leg was snagged away from him by the Heart Break Kid - who ended up using it to tune up the band and harness super "Mad Dog" powers for a devastating Sweet Chin Music. So devastating in fact that Kevin Nash was never seen in the WWE again until 2002. In a way, one could argue that it was the power of Mad Dog Vachon (and his fake leg) that drove Kevin Nash away all along.
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