Who would have thought that in the middle of a pandemic, a podcast all about Star Académie and Celine Dion starring Marie-Élaine Thibert would allow Jacques Rougeau to launch what is now the largest amateur wrestling competition in the world?
But that’s exactly what happened and so the second season of Lutte Académie starts on Sunday in a crowded Club Soda.
But let the legendary Quebec wrestler explain how it all started.
“Two years ago I had the idea of doing a kind of Star Academy of wrestling. The idea came to me during a podcast where I received Marie-Hélène Thibert who spoke to me about Star Académie and the grand prize, which was to sing with Celine Dion.
In action
As Jacques Rougeau is a man of action, it was enough for him to launch his project, which had its first edition last year with unexpected success.
“In 2022 we had 40 registrations, including 21 from Quebec, with the rest coming from the rest of Canada. There were four prizes of $5,000 and American wrestling school Nightmare Factory was supposed to host the winners for a day,” Rougeau said during a phone interview.
But the project got off to a good enough start that wrestler QT Marshall, who co-owns Nightmare Factory with Cody Rhodes, upped his bid quite impressively.
“I ended up talking so much about the company when I had the opportunity that QT Marshall called me back to give us a week and then he liked the project so much that it ended in three months.”
Progress
Last year, Rougeau invested $15,000 out of pocket to get the project off the ground, but the result exceeded expectations so much that he won’t have to dig into his wallet this year.
“We found $50,000 in sponsorships this year compared to $20,000 last year,” he says.
As such, this year there will be three winners, each receiving $10,000 in addition to a three-month residency at the Nightmare Factory in Georgia.
“They will not be accommodated during their three-month stay at the Nightmare Factory, so the stipend has been increased so that the winners don’t miss out on anything during their stay,” explains Rougeau.
This year, 60 wrestlers signed up for the competition, including 49 from other Canadian provinces, prompting Jacques Rougeau to say he would like to expand his concept to the United States and Mexico next year.
more involved
Jacques Rougeau has a powerful ally in his corner in QT Marshall, one of the big stars of All Elite Wrestling, a federation formed in 2019 by Tony Khan and his father Shahid, owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. This wrestling circuit offers great competition to the WWE.
But back to QT Marshall, who really embraced Jacques Rougeau’s idea and decided to get even more involved in the competition this year.
“He helped with the selection of the participants and would like to choose the winners with me on the giant screen. It’s a lot more rewarding when QT Marshall picks you than when Jacques Rougeau picks you,” he laughs.
And while Marshall won’t be at Club Soda from the first quarterfinals, which begins Sunday, he will have his say.
“There will be six quarterfinals and after each fight we’ll go to the giant screen and QT Marshall will make his comments and his decisions,” Rougeau specifies.
The remaining quarters will take place on June 4th, the semi-finals in August and the grand final on September 17th. QT Marshall will then be present and will even fight a eliminated wrestler.
Tickets for Sunday night are no longer available for the time being, but it will be possible to see it on the competition website, luteacademie.ca, in a few days.