Sylvain Grenier

Sylvain Grenier
Sylvain Grenier
	File:Slyvan.jpg
Born	March 26, 1977; Montreal, Quebec
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Sly; Mr. Canada; Sylvain Grenier; Sylvain; Sylvan
Billed height	185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Billed weight	113 kg (250 lb)
Billed from	South Beach, Miami, Florida ; Montreal, Quebec
Trained by	Rocky Johnson; Dory Funk, Jr.
Debut	2000

Sylvain Jober Grenier, (pronounced Syl-vahn Joebar Grahn-yay) (born March 26, 1977), is a Québécois Canadian professional wrestler, who is formerly one-half of the tag team La Résistance. He currently performs for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown! brand as Sylvan.

Career

Early career

As a young man, Grenier played baseball, tennis and hockey at an amateur level, in addition to working as a model. He eventually decided to become a professional wrestler, and on November 9, 2002 he debuted in the Montreal based Northern Championship Wrestling promotion as Sly.

World Wrestling Entertainment

Getting in

Grenier auditioned for series one and two of Tough Enough, the reality television program produced by World Wrestling Entertainment, in 2001 and 2002, but was unable to attend the selection process due to visa problems. While he was in Florida training and taking part in a modeling shoot, Grenier met WWE road agent Pat Patterson, who invited him to attend a WWE event for a tryout match. Following the match, Grenier was offered a contract by WWE, and assigned to the WWE developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling.

Referee

Grenier made his WWE debut under his own name on the SmackDown! brand, refereeing at a house show in Quebec. On February 23, 2003 at the No Way Out 2003 pay-per-view in Montreal, Grenier made his televised debut as the referee of the bout between Hulk Hogan and The Rock. Towards the end of the match, the lights in the Bell Centre were briefly switched off and when they came back on, Grenier was apparently unconscious. However as Vince McMahon, Hogan's enemy, approached the ring distracting Hogan, Grenier passed a steel chair to The Rock, who promptly hit Hogan with it and pinned him. Following the match, Grenier celebrated with The Rock and McMahon, revealing that he had been inserted into the match by McMahon to ensure that The Rock would defeat Hogan. The next month, at WrestleMania XIX, Grenier attempted to officiate a match between Hogan and McMahon, but was thrown from the ring by Hogan. This effectively ended the referee gimmick.

La Résistance

On April 28, Grenier returned to WWE, debuting on the RAW brand alongside fellow Canadian René Duprée. The duo were collectively known as La Résistance, and were billed as Frenchmen who were highly critical of the American efforts in the War on Terror. Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on the April 28th edition of RAW as La Résistance by attacking Scott Steiner who had recently made remarks comparing France to hell which offended Grenier and Duprée. La Résistance went on to feud with Scott Steiner and Test (who was being forced to be Steiner's tag team partner by Stacy Kiebler) until the 2003 Judgment Day (the team's pay-per-view debut) where La Résistance defeated Steiner and Test.

That year on Memorial Day La Résistance had their most notorious moment when they interrupted RAW announcer Lilian Garcia as she sang America the Beautiful. After several minutes of Grenier calling America "barbarians" and saying that France "would not allow the US to be the policeman of the world", Stone Cold Steve Austin came out from backstage and cleared the ring of La Résistance, making many unflattering remarks about the French nation in the process.

Grenier and Duprée went on to win the WWE World Tag Team Championship from Kane and Rob Van Dam at the 2003 Bad Blood event. After that the decision was made to add Rob Conway as a third member who began by posing as an American serviceman being abused by Grenier and Duprée until The Dudley Boyz came out to save him. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned to Conway, he attacked them with the American flag they had given him before tearing it off the pole and laying it on top of them. The trio began carrying the French flag to ringside and singing the French national anthem before their matches.

They held the titles until Unforgiven 2003 when they dropped them to The Dudley Boyz in a three-on-two handicap tables match.

During their time together the trio feuded with several tag teams; including the Dudley Boyz, The Hurricane and Rosey, and Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak. Grenier, however, suffered a back injury in October 2003 forcing Dupree and Conway to hold the group together as only a lasted a week though as Dupree was drafted to Smackdown! on March 22,2004 during the Draft Lottery.

Without Dupree, Grenier and Conway continued to team together as La Résistance on RAW. With American-Franco hostility subsiding, the WWE ceased billing the team as being from France and instead promoted them as being haughty French Canadians who carried the flag of Quebec to the ring, with Grenier often singing the Canadian national anthem.

The team held the World Tag Team Championship three times. Their first title reign was when they defeated Chris Benoit and Edge on the May 31, 2004 edition of RAW in Grenier's home town of Montreal, Quebec. They dropped the belts to them at Taboo Tuesday when Benoit was able to defeat both Grenier and and Conway after Edge walked out him. La Résistance re-captured the titles on the November 1st RAW when, once again, Edge walked out on Benoit. Yet two weeks later, in a 3-Way Tag-Team Elimination match, William Regal and Eugene were the last men standing, beating both La Résistance and the team of Tajiri and Rhyno. Their 3rd and final Tag Team Title reign was at a RAW-brand House Show on January 16, 2005. La Résistance defeated William Regal and Jonathan Coachman (Regal's actual partner, Eugene, had been injured at New Year's Revolution. Coachman was forced to partner with Regal, though he was never once tagged in for the entire match.) La Résistance dropped the belts again a few weeks later on the February 7, 2005 edition of RAW in Tokyo, Japan to William Regal and his new tag team partner Tajiri.

La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the gold (mainly on Sunday Night HEAT) from Regal and Tajiri in a number of different matches but fell short during each one. During their "last shot" for the gold the team thought they had won back the titles only to have the decision reversed by referee Mike Chioda due to La Résistance not pinning the legal man. When the match was re-started La Résistance was unable to gain the victory.

The team were given one more chance at Regal and Tajiri during a Tag Team Turmoil match including five teams during 2005 Backlash. In the match La Résistance managed to eliminate the champions but were still unable to win the match and regain the titles as they were defeated by the last remaining team, Hurricane and Rosey.

The team split in mid-May 2005 after repeatedly quarreling over which of them was the superior wrestler. Grenier and Conway went into singles competition with annoucers claiming that the members of La Résistance were trying to "one up" each other in singles matches without the other man in their corner. This saw Conway defeat a jobber and Val Venis, while Grenier was defeated by both Val Venis and Chris Jericho before both men competed in a triple threat match (with Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin for the title), Benjamin won the match after the La Résistance members began to argue and fight with each other. The altercation between the two led to a main event match for the June 12, 2005 edition of Sunday Night HEAT (taped June 6). This match saw Rob Conway portray the heel, and defeat Sylvain Grenier.

Sylvan the Narcissistic Metrosexual Supermodel

File:Rib breaker.jpg

Grenier hits a rib breaker on Funaki

Grenier was a last minute trade in the 2005 WWE Draft, forcing him to leave RAW and go to SmackDown! ending his already shakey tag team partnership with Conway.

After being traded he was not seen on TV for a few months, eventually re-debuting on SmackDown! on September 1, 2005. He was repackaged with a gimmick of a narcissistic metrosexual male Supermodel known simply as Sylvain. A few weeks later he dropped the "I" and was simply known as Sylvan. He spoke with a light French accent and had a new entrance with Techno music, Sunglasses, and either a sleeveless white trenchcoat or black pinstripe coat. For his entrance he would enter through the ropes and do a catwalk to the other side in which he would pull his sunglasses down and wink to the crowd on the side of the camera.

Sylvan has had a small feud with Hardcore Holly holding a victory over the veteran Holly. This feud was used mostly to advance other storylines and saw Sylvan determined to protect his "perfect face" at any cost. Sylvan gained a victory over Holly on the October 7th edition of Friday Night Smackdown! with help from Ken Kennedy.

At No Mercy 2005 after Ken Kennedy defeated Holly, Sylvan came out and continued his feud with him by attacking the injured Holly, which led to Sylvan losing a singles match on an episode of Velocity and a Hardcore Street Fight to the following week on SmackDown!, ending an almost 2 month feud.

Sylvan entered the 2006 Royal Rumble at No. 10, quickly being eliminated by Bobby Lashley.

Sylvan, who had developed a gimmick of running away from a match to protect his face, slowly reverted back to his anti-American gimmick while still acting like a model. Eventually he started stating that his hometown of Quebec was better than anywhere in America and began referring to himself as "Quebec's Ambassador." However, these gimmicks did not stick and Sylvan soon disappeared off TV. During this time Sylvan would go on to perform in low card situations, often in dark matches before SmackDown! tapings and in OVW, while the ambassador gimmick was further developed.

File:SylvanQuebec.png

Grenier as the "Ambassador of Quebec".

The Ambassador Of Québec

On the June 16, 2006 edition of SmackDown! vignettes designed to look like vacation promotion videos for Québec and starring Sylvain (The "Ambassador of Québec") began airing. On July 7 he appeared in-ring to cut a promo attempting to "make peace" with the US fans by welcoming them to visit his home province. The fans responded with a chorus of boos and a loud "USA" chant. In the coming weeks he continued to appear backstage, telling everyone within earshot how much better Québec was than where ever they were from. He made his ring debut with this gimmick on the July 28 SmackDown! with a win over Tatanka.