Author: With her guttural growl and imposing presence, Luna Vachon was a force to be reckoned with. While she later developed one of the most outlandish and colorful characters in wrestling, growing up as a Vachon, she longed to become a wrestler like her Aunt Vivian and make her father and uncle proud. She did just that and more.
While she defeated many imposing adversaries in (and out of) the ring, her battle with the biggest foe of all, her demons, became too hard to overcome. This is her unforgettable story.
“This is the sport of kings and gentlemen. It’s not the sport of bimbos and boob jobs. So if you can’t wrestle, you ought to keep your (bleeping) ass out of the ring!”
– Luna Vachon.
Luna Vachon – Upholding Wrestling Tradition and Family
“I grew up wanting to be part of this business so badly,” Luna once remembered. “My family discouraged me at first. My Aunt Vivian was a wrestler, so they knew the kind of toll wrestling could take on a woman’s body. I didn’t let that stop me, though. It was in my blood, and all I wanted to do was become a wrestler.”
Born Gertrude Wilkerson on January 12th, 1962, in Atlanta, Georgia, Luna Vachon patterned her aggressive ring style, promo delivery, and unruly personality after her adoptive father, Paul “The Butcher” Vachon, and especially her Uncle Mad Dog Vachon. She was exposed to the business from an early age and wanted to become a wrestler herself.
After being taught the basics by her adoptive father, uncle, and her aunt Vivian Vachon, who Luna remembers, “started coaching her in Minnesota on a mattress,” Luna was sent to The Fabulous Moolah’s Camp in Columbia, South Carolina. “They told me that I was too skinny to be a heel,” recalls Luna, who only weighed 110 lbs. “But I wanted my aunt to be proud of me, so I persevered.”
Luna’s admiration for her aunt was evident in a 2008 shoot interview with On The Mat Television. “She was known as the ‘Wrestling Queen.’ Many privileged to see her in action proclaim that she was one of history’s most gifted female grapplers. “She wrestled like a man and was one tough hombre, says Luna.
“I used to be very close to her because she was only 11 years older than me. That’s all I wanted to do, be like my Aunt Vivian.”
Did you know? Vivian Vachon was heavily featured in the 1973 film aptly titled “Wrestling Queen.” The film offered a unique snapshot of the boisterous and exciting wrestling world from the early ’70s when the territories were still prevalent, and Hulkamania was more than a decade away. You can read more about Vivian and this film here.
Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) became her next stop, where she met and became roommates with future wrestlers Peggy Lee and the statuesque Lady Maxine. Luna had a couple of matches calling herself Angelle Vachon — a name Moolah had given her.
She later became a “sports journalist” named Trudy Herd, who presented Kendall Windham with an award for “Wrestler of the Month.” In one of wrestling’s most deplorable angles, the unpredictable Kevin Sullivan mercilessly attacked Kendall and his accompanying father, Blackjack Mulligan. Vachon heroically tried to intervene, but Sullivan thwarted her attempted act of heroism by slapping her hard, twice in the face.
![Peggy Lee, a young Luna Vachon, and Lady Maxine in Florida. [Original photographer: David Audet]](https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/6029a43441705a047e9dd5413e55c8b2.jpg "Luna Vachon - A Force in the Ring with an Unfortunate End")
Kevin Sullivan was banned for two weeks from any television appearances until he apologized to Trudy Herd. To the fan’s surprise, when he did try making amends, the situation took a strange turn when nineteen-year-old Trudy wanted to join his Army of Darkness due to Sullivan’s slaps making her “feel something she had never felt before.”
Sullivan explained that to join him and his Army of Darkness, she needed “to sacrifice something.” Luna agreed to obey his commands and became one of his slave girls, along with The Lock (Winona Littleheart) and the Fallen Angel (Woman). They initiated Trudy into the AOD by shaving her hair and just leaving a bawdy mohawk similar to Lady Maxine’s (aka Mad Maxine).
The transformation from mild-mannered journalist to the eerie she-devil Luna Vachon commenced.
While chatting with fellow readers on the Pro Wrestling Stories Facebook page, a reader asked Jeannine Mjoseth (Mad Maxine and Lady Maxine) if Luna copied her distinctive look. She clarified this: “I started it with my mohawk, and she took it and made it her own while she was with Sullivan’s Army of Darkness.”
“At the beginning, they wanted to call me Moaning Mona,” Luna would recall. “But Nancy Sullivan, Kevin’s wife, said I didn’t look like the moaning type. So she suggested Luna, short for lunatic. Nancy was one of the rare female friends I ever had.”
Years later, Sullivan remembers Luna teaching someone a lesson they’d be hard-pressed to forget.
“I’m at a spot show, and Luna is with Gangrel, and a manager screwed up a spot. Mike Graham and I were in the dressing room, getting ready to work together. We’re tying up our boots, and suddenly I hear this screaming.
The manager came in, crawling on his hands and knees! Luna’s kicking him in the ass and slapping his head! One of the guys looked at us and said, ‘Hey, aren’t you gonna help him?’ And while smiling, I said to Mike, ‘Oh, we’ve seen this act before!'”
In a 2008 shoot interview, Luna Vachon summed up her thought process behind her striking look. “In a world full of butterflies, it takes balls to be a caterpillar,” said Luna.
“When I entered the sport, I wanted to attract as much attention to myself and women’s wrestling as possible. There were pretty girls and cowgirls, but nobody had a look that stood out. I wanted to take that to the extreme.”
Gangrel, who was married to Luna Vachon from 1994-2006, remembers how Luna always strived to be like her Aunt Vivian and Uncle Mad Dog. Because she saw how her Uncle always protected wrestling, Luna took exception to anyone questioning its validity.
“Luna admired her aunt but loved how people respected her uncle’s toughness,” says Gangrel.
“She permanently damaged her vocal cords trying to talk like the Mad Dog all the time. She went above and beyond, trying to be like her uncle. We’d be in a Denny’s, and someone would say, ‘Oh, that wrestling is fake,’ and boom, she’d be across the table running, trying to pull somebody’s eye out because at some point she heard that her uncle had done the same thing.”
He remembers his most extended conversation with her uncle was him issuing a warning, “If you ever hurt my niece, I’ll rip your head off!” To this remark, Gangrel could only lower his head and adhere to his counseling.
Trivia: In 1986, when the thrash band Nasty Savage was looking to do a photo shoot, the Daughters of Darkness (the Lock and Luna) were chosen because of their rugged appearance. They also sang background vocals for the song “XXX” because their angry-sounding voices seemed to match the aggressive music style.
Listen to Luna Vachon do backup vocals for the song “XXX” by Nasty Savage:
Luna Vachon and Her Rivalry with Sherri Martel and Alundra Blayze
Luna Vachon debuted in the WWF on April 4th, 1993, at WrestleMania IX. She escorted Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels to the ring against Tatanka, who had the spirited Sherri Martel in his corner.
Chaos ensued at the match’s conclusion when Luna attacked Sherri and continued her heinous assault backstage in the first aid area. During Luna’s vicious onslaught, she even slapped away a backstage worker for trying to stop her. Sherri was left lying on the floor after getting rammed into the wall several times.
Watch Luna Vachon’s Vicious attack on Sherri Martel and more!:
The WWF wanted to resurrect the vacant Women’s Championship during that same year. After defeating the feisty high-flying Heidi Lee Morgan in a six-woman tournament, the newly planned women’s division centered around the athletic Alundra Blayze (Madusa Miceli).
Without missing a beat, Luna Vachon set her sights on winning the title from the newly crowned Alundra Blayze, and a feud between the two exploded.
While Luna and Sherri were at odds, Bam Bam Bigelow confronted Sherri. This led to him being attacked by Tatanka, and the two of them feuding. Soon after, Bam Bam announced that he had fallen in love with his “main squeeze,” Luna.
He also endearingly called her his “Tick.” Fans latched onto this, and it wasn’t long before they began mockingly chanting “Luna-tic.” During matches, Bam Bam would blow Luna kisses, and in her honor, he even redubbed his impressive-looking moonsault: The “Lunasault.”
“You couldn’t hurt Sherri. The people would be going nuts. One night I broke her nose, and I told her, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!’, and I couldn’t even touch her. With blood gushing out of her nose, she replied intensely with a sneer, ‘It’s good for business, say ‘I’m sorry in the locker room,’ ‘Keep going!'”
“I’ve been waiting for this match for a long time. Beauty and the Beast, and there’s beauty right there!”
– Jerry “The King” Lawler, referring to Luna Vachon in a match versus Alundra Blayze.
After several unsuccessful attempts of dethroning Alundra Blayze of the WWF Women’s Championship, in the storyline, Japanese star Bull Nakano was brought in by Luna to defeat Blayze once and for all. Nakano became Alundra Blayze’s most formidable opponent during her championship run in the WWF during the mid-’90s.
She soon dropped the title to Nakano at the spectacular Big Egg Wrestling Universe on November 20th, 1994, only to regain it five months later. Then Monster Ripper, who was later made into Bertha Faye, aimed for Blayze’s title.
Watch Luna Vachon vs. Alundra Blayze for the WWF Women’s Championship:
In the acclaimed book Sisterhood of the Squared Circle by Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy, Madusa claims she wanted to drop the title to Luna Vachon. Regrettably, management didn’t share her enthusiasm.
“I told Luna that I wasn’t going to kick out or anything and that she should just take the belt. She sat there and cried, telling me nobody had ever suggested or done anything like that for her. We went to wrestle and, I knew the repercussions I would get later; still, I lay there, but the referee wouldn’t count. It was deplorable.”
Luna Vachon didn’t mince words when speaking about Madusa or the then-current state of women’s wrestling in what we estimate is a shoot interview from around 2005.
“It’s nice to see Molly [Holly] doing all she’s doing. Madusa was mad because I was in a video game, and she wasn’t. Sable was mad because my hair was better than hers on a doll. These things are petty. It was hard to understand that other women weren’t happy when nice things happened to me.”
Luna continued, “I wanted to see good things happy to women as a whole, but we keep allowing women to get into our sport who believe their shit. The promoters don’t put them in their place, which is the case with many women who’ve made it to the top.”
We have hundreds of great Pro Wrestling Stories, but of course, you can’t read them all today. Sign up to unlock ten pro wrestling stories curated uniquely for YOU, plus subscriber-exclusive content. A special gift from us awaits after signing up!
Luna Vachon – Her Second WWF Stint and Altercations With Sable
After leaving the WWF in ’94, Luna wrestled on the independent circuit before returning to the WWF in 1997. Her second stint in the WWF seems to be almost forgotten by many fans. Yet strangely, it is when we may have witnessed her peak as a wrestler and entertainer.
In 1997, Luna Vachon became manager for the eccentric and already highly controversial Goldust, helping him reinvent himself as the even stranger “Artist Formerly Known as Goldust.”
At the beginning of the Attitude Era, Goldust’s twisted enigma caught his wife and valet Marlena (Terri Runnels) entirely by surprise in a shoot-style interview. He admitted that he no longer loved her and was tired of continually being scorned and disciplined.
Fed up with living for her and his father, Dusty Rhodes, Goldust felt suffocated and couldn’t be who he was on the inside.
Luna Vachon’s most multifaceted character arose here, proving her ability to take on any role and make it work. She seemed to enjoy working with Dustin Rhodes genuinely, often mocking their opponents by dressing up as them and having pure over-the-top entertainment promos that significantly diverged into the sick and absurd.
Luna Vachon became a dominatrix, a nurse, and the perfect partner for Goldust and his outrageous antics.
Over the years, there have been stories of Sable being aloof with the other women in the company, but her husband, Marc Mero, has no problem with Vachon and even puts her over.
“She played that role so well. Luna, the top wrestler she was, was working with someone who had never wrestled. Maybe there were egos or animosity involved; maybe Sable was aloof to her in the dressing room, but there was friction whatever it was. But Luna never brought it into the ring or hurt Sable. She was never unprofessional, but she voiced her opinion backstage, and it was an unfortunate situation back then.”
Vachon, never one to mince her words, didn’t pull punches when speaking about Sable, who she felt hadn’t paid her dues and was getting unfair preferential treatment.
“I wanted to help her initially, but she told me that she didn’t need to learn how to fall, as she was going to become champion anyways. She started to believe she could wrestle anybody!” Vachon continued, “[Sable] had not paid her dues or trained. I grew up protecting the wrestling industry. I was used to the old-school mentality, not the entertainment one.”
Luna Vachon’s family members and later peers taught her to protect and respect the business from a very young age. She believed that wrestling talent should always be a more critical factor than looks.
“There are girls with talent who are very beautiful, but there are also girls that arent’s so beautiful that maybe aren’t getting the opportunities because of their weight or their [lack of] beauty is holding them back. This is the sport of kings and gentlemen. It’s not the sport of bimbos and boob jobs. So if you can’t wrestle, you ought to keep your (bleeping) ass out of the ring.”
When part of The Oddities faction, Luna Vachon remembers most not wanting to work with them because they were stereotyped as gimmick workers, but she applauds people like Jeff Jarrett. The latter looked past appearances and always thought about how to have a great match with them.
The Death of Luna Vachon
During her last years, Luna Vachon became a born-again Christian after being baptized by Nikita Koloff. She tried to clean herself from her addictions, but sadly, disaster struck around Christmas 2009 when her house burned down, destroying all her belongings. The months that followed were difficult for her.
On August 27th, 2010, at the age of 48, in the area of Pasco County, Florida, she died from an accidental overdose of oxycodone and benzodiazepine. Her mother, who was visiting, had discovered her body. Investigators previously found crushed pill residue and snorting straws at multiple locations inside her home.
Vachon became addicted to meds and underwent rehabilitation, paid for by WWE, which she completed in June 2009.
Three years before her passing, she was still active in wrestling. In August 2007, Vachon defended and retained her Universal Women’s Hardcore Championship after defeating Jessika Havok, who says that Luna was one of her idols growing up and was also one of the reasons she entered pro wrestling.
Luna’s last match was on December 7th for Great Lakes Championship Wrestling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a win over Canadian wrestler Traci Brooks.
![Luna Vachon with her uncle Mad Dog Vachon and father Butcher Paul Vachon during a 2009 Cauliflower Alley Club event. [Photo taken by Wrealano@aol.com for use on Pro Wrestling Stories]](https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Mad-Dog-Vachon-Luna-Vachon-Butcher-Paul-Vachon-photographer-Dr-Mike-Lano.jpg "Luna Vachon - A Force in the Ring with an Unfortunate End")
Remembering Luna Vachon
Fierce, ruthless, wild, and crazy are all words that many employ to try and describe Luna Vachon, who had a deep-rooted love for the sport. When not in character, she had a smile that could disarm even the most jaded cynic and was smarter than most people gave her credit for.
In her autobiography, with Michael Krugman, Lita would write, “Luna was a definite inspiration for me-she had a wild look and was a genuinely tough female wrestler. She had a reputation for being crazy, but I found her to be as sweet as could be. She was always encouraging, telling me to stay true to myself.”
“She was willing to beat up a drunken New Jack for disrespecting me,” Miss Hyatt would remember. “I would like to think that Luna is in heaven since the devil was afraid that she would take his spot.”
In 2008, Luna advised anyone wanting to enter the business: “Don’t watch what is happening on Raw. Go back and watch tapes because the only thing new in wrestling is what’s been forgotten. And what’s been forgotten is the good old basic wrestling like the Tennessee and Mid-South style wrestling.”
In her last ever interview with WWE.com, Luna thanked the fans as if she knew it could be her last chance. “Thank you for all the years. Thank you to those who knew me back then and those that still remember me today. Thanks to everyone who screamed, cheered, spit on, or threw beer at me. I want to thank them for everything.”
In 2009, Luna Vachon was presented the “Ladies Wrestling Award” by The Cauliflower Alley Club, and in 2019, she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a legacy inductee.
These stories may also interest you:
- Mae Young – The Rugged Pioneer of Women’s Wrestling
- Mad Maxine | Mohawks, Moolah, and Her Unforgettable Story
- Madusa | Blayze of Glory – The Alundra Blayze Story
- Remembering “Sensational” Sherri Martel
Can’t get enough pro wrestling history in your life? Sign up to unlock ten pro wrestling stories curated uniquely for YOU, plus subscriber-exclusive content. A special gift from us awaits after signing up!
Want More? Choose another story!
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, and Flipboard!
Pro Wrestling Stories is committed to accurate, unbiased wrestling content rigorously fact-checked and verified by our team of researchers and editors. Any inaccuracies are quickly corrected, with updates timestamped in the article's byline header.
Got a correction, tip, or story idea for Pro Wrestling Stories? Contact us! Learn about our editorial standards here.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us provide free content for you to enjoy!
