This Edmonton wrestling celebrity is in his 70s, wears a straw hat, and doesn't wrestle
By Ariel Fournier
Once a month, the Prairie Wrestling Alliance turns an Edmonton seniors' centre into a wrestling venue, and once a month, Eugene Jolivette is there. He isn't a wrestler, but he is famous among fans.
At 71, Eugene is an unlikely hero at the event. A former boxer with a Golden Gloves amateur title in Alberta, he used to hate wrestling.
"I was never interested in wrestling even when I was a kid. Never," he said.
But his girlfriend, Val Legarde, a longtime wrestling fan, took him along.
Val is hard to miss and she has become known for her heckling. At matches, she will yell insults at wrestlers and laugh and cheer until her voice is gone the next day.
Normally Eugene will stay quiet beside her, but one match last year moved him to leap out of his seat.
It happened after Nizar Watfa, known as Sheik Shabaz in the ring, stole Eugene's hat and threw it to a rival wrestling team.
"I turned around and the first thing I saw was this old man wearing this old hat, so I just grabbed it and threw it," the Sheik said.
"All of a sudden, I look behind me and this old man is trying to kill me."
"I was gonna punch him in the face," Eugene said.
"They're not allowed to touch us and we're not allowed to touch them. So when he ripped my hat off and tore it apart, I lost it."
After the match, the promoter and the wrestler worked it out with Eugene and they agreed that they would turn this feud into a regular part of the show.
To fans and other wrestlers, Eugene has become known as "the guy with the hat." Val said people will sometimes stop them in the street.
For the Sheik, it's all part of a tradition in wrestling.
"Pro wrestling has always been about crowd interaction," he said.
"Without a crowd we would just be a bunch of guys fighting each other in our underwear, so to have them be a part of the show sometimes be the show as well, it's it's really fun for everybody."
But for Eugene, it has become about much more than entertainment. Since he became part of the act, he's only missed one match.
Last September, Eugene had a heart attack, and his heart stopped briefly during surgery. Though doctors brought him back to life, a blood clot later travelled to his brain and caused a stroke.
While he was recovering, the wrestling promoter put Eugene's hat on his chair and vowed to hold the seat until he returned.
One month later, Val asked permission from Eugene's doctors to let him leave the hospital for the first time so he could be at the match. He got a weekend pass, which he used just for the match.
Eugene entered the room from behind the stage like the wrestlers before a match and the crowd went wild.
"When I rolled him out we had to go all the way around the arena, because everybody wanted Eugene to slap their hands like the wrestlers do," Val said.
Eugene said he was surprised and touched by their reaction. Now, Val said, these matches and the other wrestling fans are what's motivating him while he goes to physiotherapy during the week and his health improves.
"This is like an extended part of your family. We're all family here."
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