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Missy's Manor: Thoughts On The Passing Of Luna Vachon

Posted: Aug 28th 2010 By: CMBurnham

When I heard that Luna Vachon passed away from Bill Apter, I was devastated. Luna was such a great person that had been forgotten by many wrestling fans after her quiet retirement in 2007. I spent the better part of Friday grieving. I loved Luna to death. We would run in to each other on & off over the last 14 years. Our lives might have gone in a million different directions, but we always clicked in getting along.

I met Luna during 1996, during the ill fated AWF based out of Chicago. Luna would walk up to with that gravely voice that I originally thought was her being in character 24/7. Nope, the voice was legit. I helped Luna with her wig, since she was playing the character of Peggy Sue with Honky Tonk Man. She thanked me after we got the wig down right & said ?I heard that you are the biggest bitch in wrestling, but I like you?. Luna won me over as a friend for life that day.

I always felt some what guilty that when the valet craze was big, novices like me would get national TV stardom in comparison to Luna Vachon who was a second generation wrestler. Luna had to break her ass in the dying days of Florida, low pay offs in Memphis, & being one of the few regular Americans in JWP. Luna didn?t take crap from anybody & had no problems putting anybody in their place if she felt she was disrespected. She earned everything she got in wrestling from hard work & making herself unique.

Luna was one of the few American women wrestlers that made it on her own by refusing to be booked with Fabulous Moolah?s troupe. Luna balked at the premise of giving a cut of her money if she was the one taking the bumps & making the long drives. Luna?s hard work paid off when most of us first saw her in WWF in 1993 with her feud with Sensational Sherri. Sherri is one of the most universally respected women that had ever entered this business. I remember reading an interview in which Sherri put over Luna over to WWF when the premise of working with Luna was presented to her. Keep in mind that WWF in 1993 had not really exploited the cat fight craze that WCCW & UWF had presented prior to WWF.

Many people credit Sunshine & Precious with pioneering the cat fights in 1984. I say Sherri & Luna perfected it in 1993. They were beyond stiff on their famous cat fight on RAW to the point that I questioned why it took anybody so long to hire Luna on a big stage. She had a unique character that would still stand out in 2010. Her promos were not an artistic success [they could be best compared to Ultimate Warrior], but she had something that you couldn?t keep your eyes off of with the crazy hair, tattooed veins on the head, & scary voice

People fail to forget what a great worker Luna could be at times. I remember Luna worked an indy show against Alicia towards the end of her career in 2007. Luna put on a brawl that was reminiscent of Bruiser Brody in the 1980?s in which they tore the building apart. Both wrestlers made the most jaded fan suspend their belief for a few minutes at the stiffness of the match. At the end of Alicia taking a stiff beating, Luna would put her over cleanly. In the end, Luna was over for being a crazy brawler & Alicia had her stock rise to the local fans for beating an established star.

I remember Luna & others telling me about the infamous fight she had with Alundra Blayze in 1994. Alundra would work too stiff with Luna nightly with the excuse that she was working ?Japanese style. One night, Luna could take no more & beat the hell out of Blazye for not lightening up. The end result was that they never had a problem in the ring ever again.

In 2007, I was busting Luna?s chops about her biker boyfriend at the time being possibly an anti-semite. I was just doing it to see if I could get a rise out of Luna. Luna would call me up a few days later & say ?F*CK this sh*t about the Jews & The Hells Angels, I still love you no matter what?.

Too bad not many people saw the kinder side of Luna, since she would probably be pissed that it would kill off her character. Luna was such a sweet heart that she would offer a friend of a wrestler a couch to crash on, since being a friend of Luna was enough for her to go out of her way for a stranger. Luna would go out of her way to look after a young referee that got sick from partying with the other wrestlers. Luna had such a kind heart that she looked after the young referee because she didn?t want him to lose his job at the start of his career.

I love Luna for willing to fight New Jack when he went on his drunken tirade on me at last years Ring Roast. Luna had more guts then almost any wrestler that night in refusing to back down in the confrontation. She earned my life time loyalty for sticking up for me. I remember after the Roast, Luna apologizing that she should have beaten New Jack up. Luna would then pause, then blurt out that she just found out that she?s a grandma. I was amazed how Luna could switch modes from wanting to kick ass to being ecstatic that she now got a grandson. Unfortunately that night would be the last time I would run in to Luna.

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that Luna lost all of her belongings in a fire. I tried to make every phone call & email to track down Luna to help her out. Unfortunately I could not get in touch with her to find out what kind of clothes that I could mail her. I felt terrible that all I could do for Luna was find her post office address & put up a plug for where to send any donations.

I think it was rather funny that when I was writing about the kindness of Luna that my computer crashed. I thought for a moment that maybe it was divine intervention that Luna didn?t want me exposing that she was a sweet heart despite the rough exterior. I hope Luna?s sons are aware that their mother was one of the toughest-big hearted woman that I had ever encountered in the business.

I finished writing this article on Friday & I cried my eyes out for almost an entire day. I loved Luna for being one of the most genuine people that I ever met in the business. I hope many other friends, fans, wrestlers, & family members of Luna have just as many fond memories of Luna that I have.

Please pardon any typos or grammatical errors. I wrote this article from the heart. I wanted to share my thoughts & memories on one of the nicest people I ever met in the biz.

Tags: Missy Hyatt, Honky Tonk Man, Fabulous Moolah, WWF, WCCW, UWF, Sunshine, Precious, Bruiser Brody,