Line #3 Wrestling/LunaVachon


1	[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lunavachon_8938.jpg]]
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3	->''In a world full of butterflies, it took balls to be a caterpillar. I love that quote from Luna, and in a way I can't help but hope that this life was but a chrysalis of sorts for her; that for a woman who never seemed completely comfortable in her own skin, this life was just a prelude to becoming the beautiful butterfly god always meant for her to be.''
4	->''But that would be too easy and so anti-Luna. There are enough beautiful butterflies out there already. Maybe we should be able to appreciate the beauty of the caterpillar without needing or wanting it to change for our viewing pleasure. Maybe Luna was perfect just as she was. Maybe she was exactly who she was supposed to be.''
5	-->-- ''[[{{Wrestling/MickFoley}} Mick Foley]]'', on the life and death of ''[[{{Wrestling/LunaVachon}} Luna Vachon]]''.
6
7	Gertrude Elizabeth Vachon (January 12, 1962 – August 27, 2010), better known by her ring name '''Luna Vachon, was a Canadian-American {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er and manager originally from UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, Georgia. Among her in-ring achievements, she was a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/tn/uswa/uswa-wm.html USWA Women's Champion]], the inaugural [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/jd/awf-wm.html American Wrestling Federation Women's Champion]], Great Lakes Championship Wrestling Ladies title holder, Sunshine Wrestling Federation Women's Champion, WWOW Televsion Champion, LMLW World Champion and POWW Tag Team Champion.[[note]]With Hot Rod Andie[[/note]] She was inducted into the Wrestling/{{WSU}} Hall of Fame in 2011.
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9	She began training at the age of 16 with her aunt Vivian and Wrestling/TheFabulousMoolah before beginning her career in earnest by 1985. Her first on-screen role was as a TV reporter named Trudy Herd, who was in Florida to interview FCW wrestler Wrestling/KevinSullivan. Sullivan instead brainwashed her into becoming "Luna", a {{cult}}ist in his "Army of Darkness", resulting in her [[MadnessMakeover bizarre makeover]] and trademark statico voice. Luna was teamed with the Lock (formerly Winona Littleheart), forming the Daughters of Darkness. When that team broke up, she knocked around the independent circuit as a manager, forming the aptly-named Black Harts, Apocalypse (alongside Wrestling/DavidHeath) and Destruction (w/ Tom Nash.) She made her [=PPV=] debut in the ''Street Fight Lingerie Battle Royal'' at the ''[[Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation AWA]]'s [=SuperClash=] III''.
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11	She made a surprise Wrestling/{{WWE}} debut at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} IX'', first spotted in Wrestling/ShawnMichaels' corner during his match with Wrestling/{{Tatanka}}. She would go on to feud with [[Wrestling/SherriMartel "Scary" Sherri Martel]] and [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} Alundra Blayze (Madusa)]] before leaving. In 1995, she made (another) surprise debut at the end of ''{{Wrestling/ECW}} Enter Sandman'', siding with Wrestling/TommyDreamer in his feud with Wrestling/{{Raven}}. They would team up against Raven and Wrestling/StevieRichards to unsuccessfully challenge for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ecw/ecw-t.html ECW World Tag Team Titles]] at ''ECW Hardcore Heaven'' on July 1st, though Luna would defeat Richards in a cage match two weeks later at ''Heat Wave.'' In 1997, she resurfaced in WWE as the manager of [[Wrestling/{{Goldust}} ("TAFKA") Goldust]] on ''Raw,'' which led indirectly to her famous feud with [[Wrestling/{{Sable}} Rena Mero (Sable)]] and Wrestling/TheHeadbangers.
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13	Luna disappeared from television for a short while but, in 1998, she redebuted on ''Raw'' as "Princess Luna" of Wrestling/TheOddities. While the Oddities' face turn rewarded her with more political clout, she proved [[StupidEvil too nutty to remain neutral for long]] and made another play for Sable's title. Unfortunately life began to imitate art, and Luna was released for good in 2000 following a series of brawls with Mero backstage.
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15	Sadly, she was found dead of a drug overdose after years of suffering with UsefulNotes/BipolarDisorder on August 27, 2010. She was posthumously inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 as part of the Legacy Wing.
16	----
17	!! "Luna-Tic Tropes":
18	* ActionGirl: In the Attitude Era, she was, along with Wrestling/{{Ivory}} and Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}}, one of the very few women in the [=WWE=] who was an actual trained wrestler and not just there to be eye candy.
19	* AmazonianBeauty: If she did anything even remotely resembling a glamour shoot, she'd be showing off her biceps.
20	* AmicableExes: She was married to Wrestling/DavidHeath aka. Gangrel, but they eventually split up. They managed to remain best friends regardless, and if you listen to Gangrel talk about her in interviews, it's obvious that he deeply loved her and close to breaking down in ''tears''. One interview even stated that they had to separate because they were just going to hurt each other.
21	* AntiVillain: In her feud with Sable.
22	* ArchEnemy:
23	** Picked fights with Sensational Sherri when she first debuted, intending to dethrone her as the WWF's dominant woman. Sherri's first response was [[TalkToTheFist kicking her in the throat]]. They feuded for awhile before both left the Federation due to health concerns.
24	** She later feuded with [=Sable=], who she blamed for enforcing society's idea of what an ideal woman should look like.
25	** Madusa[=/=]Alundra Blayze, combining Memphis, WWE and WCW. No love lost between these two in real life, either; there's an old interview with Luna in ''WWF Magazine'', and within her tirade of insults towards Alundra, she even refers to her as a ring rat.
26	** Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} in Memphis
27	** Raven and Stevie Richards in ECW.
28	** Doink and Dink.
29	* AuthorAvatar: She was the booker for Wild Women Of Wrestling.
30	* AxCrazy: She really seemed to ''delight'' in watching the wrestlers she managed hurt people, even if they were people who would do no good for their careers to hurt or people whom Luna did not even know. But she especially loved it when they hurt her enemies.
31	* BashBrothers: The Lock, the Black Harts, Tommy Dreamer, Bam Bam Bigelow, TAFKA Goldust, Hot Rod Andie.
32	* BattleAxeNurse: Disguised herself as a nurse to trick Wrestling/BigVanVader for The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust
33	* BeautyContest: Kurrgan, dressed in a suit, sang the "Miss America" song for her on the June 8, 1998 ''Raw.''
34	* BigDamnHeroes: TWICE at Pro Xcitement Wrestling's June 23, 2002 event.
35	** Wrestling/MikeQuackenbush was facing [[Wrestling/DevonStorm Crowbar]], and Crowbar's valet Syrena kept interfering. Quack headed to the back to find a partner, Crowbar followed...and practically ''dove'' through the curtain when he realized who Quack had found as a partner. Quack and Luna ultimately won the resultant mixed-tag match.
36	** Crossed with [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Violently Protective Wife]]: The main event was Gangrel vs. The Hungarian Barbarian. At one point, Gangrel accidentally knocked out the referee, with him clearly thinking MyGodWhatHaveIDone. Darren Wyse, the Hungarian Barbarian's manager, was on commentary and decided to attack Gangrel, leading to Luna running in and fighting off Wyse. For the record, Gangrel won.
37	* BitchAlert: Did this ''herself'', saying "The bitch is back!" when she made her return as [=Goldust=]'s new manager on the November 24, 1997 ''Raw.''
38	* BraidsOfAction: Upon her return to the WWF in 1997.
39	* CheapHeat: Her challenging Sable to an Evening Gown Match at ''Backlash 1998'', and the subsequent match itself, got the fans ''very'' much on her side, if only for one night, for obvious reasons. Still, it's better than X-Pac Heat, or no heat at all.
40	* ChewingTheScenery: Went very over-the-top in her promos.
41	* CircusOfFear
42	** The Oddities' original {{heel}} carnival sideshow gimmick.
43	** The Jackyl {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d any similarities between the gimmick and the movie ''Film/{{Freaks}}'' (see below under VideoFullOfFilmClips) during the [[Wrestling/JohnTenta Golga]]-Thrasher match that marked its debut when he, on commentary, said, "These people are normal compared to people like you (Wrestling/MichaelCole) and Wrestling/JimRoss."
44	* CombatCommentator: In Wild Women Of Wrestling
45	* CurbStompBattle: Two years later, Jessicka Havok was the one trashing people, but when she challenged Luna Vachon for the "Universal Women's Hardcore Championship belt" in 2007 at CAPW, she was hit with a [[ImprovisedWeapon refrigerator shelf]], {{force fe\|eding}}d nachos, showered with beer and given a DDT onto concrete. Wrestling/JakeRoberts knocked out Wrestling/RickySteamboat with that last one. Luna, on the other hand, still had a finishing move to deliver...
46	* CutShort: Her feud with Riptide over the "Universal Women's Hardcore Title" in the PGWA due to scheduling conflicts. After Luna's death, Riptide went by "Angel Orsini" and [[AntagonistInMourning dedicated her match]] at ''Call To Arms'' to Vachon.
47	* DarkActionGirl: Wrestling/JimCornette called her the devil in disguise, and she's beaten him in matches too... so that's [[NonActionGuy not much of an achievement]], but still.
48	* DoNotCallMePaul: (Half)-jokingly, she became a wrestler for the sole purpose of kicking the asses of everyone who [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ3zv4EtaZY made fun of her name.]]
49	-->"'Gertrude Vachon.' You Americans can't pronounce it anyway. [[PronouncingMyNameForYou It's Va-]]''[[PronouncingMyNameForYou Shon]]''."
50	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The role of "Trudy" was to appease her manager, The Fabulous Moolah, who thought she was too small to be a believable heel.
51	* EvilCounterpart: To Wrestling/BeulahMcGillicutty in ECW, though Vachon was the {{face}} because she was brought in by Tommy Dreamer and [=McGillicutty=] did a HeelFaceTurn anyway.
52	* EvilIsPetty: Repeated failed to beat Madusa in WCW, but successfully contributed to Madusa never winning a women's title in the promotion by aiding Akira Hokuto. In fact, backing wrestlers [[EnemyMine simply because they happened to be against Madusa]] was a past time of Luna's.
53	* EvilSoundsRaspy: Default Luna makes Malia Hosaka's worst sound tender, but when she really wants to heel it up Luna sounds especially harsh.
54	* FacialMarkings: Which looked like veins.
55	* FauxActionGirl: Against Sable, since Sable's contract limited the amount of bumps she had to take, forbade taking shots at her face, and her breast implants prevented her from being able to take any front bumps at all. So Luna's offense was limited mostly to kicks and forearm clubs, with maybe the odd backbreaker or bodyslam (delivered as gently as possible).
56	* FemmeFatalons: When acting as a manager, she made sure to grow out her nails extra long. Weaponized against La Tigresa in their WWC matches.
57	* FreakyIsCool: In her first promo after her ECW debut, she said, "I've always been a misfit! I've never fit into your holes!"
58	* FullyAbsorbedFinale: After their television program was done in 1996, the AWF Women's title ended up being owned Yoshimoto Women's Pro Wrestling in Japan after Luna dropped the belt to Emi Motokawa.
59	* GimmickMatches: Besides the aforementioned "lingerie street fight battle royal", [[Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]] member Vendetta Pro Wrestling gathers women wrestlers to compete in anything from a fatal four way up to a full on battle royal to honor her memory, with the winner being awarded the "Lunacy Cup". Pro Wrestling Unplugged tends to have it when Vendetta is running.
60	* GroinAttack: Defeated Stevie Richards in their cage match by making him submit to a testicular claw.
61	* HappilyAdopted: Butcher Vachon didn't officially adopt her, but by all accounts they were as close as biological family and he always presented and treated her as his daughter. Wrestling/JimCornette, a veritable fount of wrestling knowledge, had no idea Butcher wasn't her biological father until her ''Series/DarkSideOfTheRing'' episode.
62	* HighSchoolDance: [[Wrestling/DonCallis The Jackyl]] called her "The Prom Princess of the World Wrestling Federation" when she, Golga and the Wrestling/GiantSilva walked down to the ring for the Oddities' debut on the May 25 (taped May 19), 1998 ''Raw,'' adding how her "inner beauty" transcends the attributes of "a Sunny or a Sable."
63	* HumiliatingWager: She and [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]] lost a hair versus hair match in Japan to Madusa and Wrestling/EddieGilbert.
64	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: While she herself was not particularly small, it looked that way during her time as Wrestling/BamBamBigelow's valet, or "main squeeze".
65	* {{Hypocrite}}: On the January 17, 2000 ''Raw'', Wrestling/{{Ivory}} objected to having to take part in the Miss Rumble 2000 bikini contest at ''Royal Rumble 2000''. Luna and Jacqueline told her that if they have to be in it, she has to be in it. During the contest, Luna refused to show her bikini.
66	* IHaveManyNames: Was the traveling wrestler Angelle Vachon before becoming the reporter Trudy Herd in FCW, prior to being taken by the Army Of Darkness and becoming Luna. She was primarily known as "Angel Baby" during her American Wrestling Federation run.
67	* ImprobableHairstyle: Hair down to her hips, but shaved off on the sides of her head, and sometimes braided into cornrows or dreadlocks
68	* ImprovisedWeapon: Hit Sherri with a TV monitor on the April 12, 1993 ''Raw.''
69	* InsistentTerminology: Not "Moonsault", "Lunasault".
70	* LiteralAssKicking: In her Great Lakes Championship Wrestling match against Tracy Brooks, she literally beat Tracy's ass, with a [[ImprobableWeaponUser squeegee]].
71	* MeaningfulName: She's crazy, and her name is ''LUNA''.
72	* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: She once said that she's a bandit from the wild untamed future, a place that was before and will be again, whatever that meant. A pity she never had screentime with Warrior. Still better than the kind of lame promos people have to recite today.
73	* MostCommonSuperpower: At a time when this wasn't a particularly common trait with female wrestlers.
74	* NoIndoorVoice: She didn't seem to have a setting lower than "scream at the top of her lungs."
75	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The Music/InsaneClownPosse were supposed to face The Headbangers on the November 23 (taped November 17), 1998 ''WWE RAW'', as part of the Oddities-Headbangers feud, but Violent J said that they weren't ready. Luna was so stunned by this that she actually spoke in her normal voice instead of the monster voice she'd been using for over a decade.
76	* OvershadowedByAwesome
77	** The fact that she was the second woman to crack Pro Wrestling Illustrated's top 500 list is often forgotten due to the fact her [[Wrestling/{{Jacqueline}} Miss Texas]] had beaten her to it.
78	** The same wrestler is also the reason Luna being one of the first women on television to hold her own against male wrestlers is often forgotten, although Luna got to be the very first woman playable in a WWF/E game ever.
79	* PartsUnknown
80	** "The Other Side of Darkness"
81	** Averted at ''Backlash 1998''. Because she was associated with Goldust at the time, she was announced for her Evening Gown Match with Sable from Hollywood, CA.
82	* PerkyFemaleMinion: To Kevin Sullivan, Wrestling/BullNakano, The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust and the Oddities, though she was more like a manager and in the former case, ''Bull Nakano'' was usually the perkier.
83	* PowerStable:
84	** The Army of Darkness
85	** Wrestling/TheOddities
86	** (in USA Pro): the Wrestling/DungeonOfDoom
87	* ReligiousBruiser: Became a born-again Christian and was baptized by none other than Wrestling/NikitaKoloff.
88	* TheRival
89	** Vanessa Harding, who had a hard time getting over a loss to Luna. It might reach to UnknownRival territory, considering Harding sits a top very few pecking orders, few of which were in Vachon's stomping grounds.
90	** Lexie Fyfe on the independent circuit, both as a wrestler and as a promoter. Though Fyfe did not own her own promotion until two years after Vachon's death, she was associated with "Slam Promotions" where she used her connections to arrange bookings. This had the odd side affect of also making Vachon a rival to Fyfe's "[[TheApprentice greenhorn]]" Lorelei Lee.
91	* SheCleansUpNicely: Subverted - even though she participated in the odd 'glamour' photoshoot, she always did so wearing some kind of costume that would fit in with her gimmick. After donning the Luna Vachon gimmick in the first place, she never took it off. The closest you'd see to a "cleaned up" Luna was not shaving the sides of her head.
92	* SquashMatch: Flattened the debuting "Wrestling/{{Gillberg}}" on the January 11, 1999 ''Raw'' in a brisk '''1:04.'''
93	* TagTeam:
94	** The Daughters of Darkness with The Lock as members of the Army of Darkness.
95	** Satan's Sisters with BadassBiker "Primetime" Amy Lee.
96	* TaintedVeins[=/=]TwoFaced: What her makeup is supposed to emulate. Also her time teaming with The Lock while they were both in the Army of Darkness.
97	* TropeCodifier: WWE do love their crazy female heels. Luna was undoubtedly the first of these to pop up in the company. [[Wrestling/LisaMarieVaron Victoria]], Wrestling/MickieJames, Wrestling/AJLee and Wrestling/{{Paige}} have definitely felt her influence. That said, it's unthinkable that WWE would ever let any of the Divas go as over-the-top as Luna, especially in terms of their appearance.
98	* UnstoppableRage: In her first promo after her ECW debut, she asked rhetorically if there was anything as compelling as rage and said, "Wake up Crow Man! My rage will be your horror show!"
99	* VideoFullOfFilmClips: The Oddities' entrance video mixed footage of the team with clips from the 1932 horror classic ''[=Freaks=]'', even starting with the lines, "We wouldn't lie to you folks, we told you we had living breathing monstrosity."
100	* WrestlingFamily: The adopted daughter of Butcher Vachon and adopted niece of Mad Dog and Vivian Vachon. Also her brothers, Pitbull and The Beast. She also dated Dick Slater and was married to Gangrel.
101	** In addition, her second son, Vincent (better known as Van), is best known for his appearances on [[Series/HellsKitchen Hell's Kitchen]], where he participated in Season 6 and All-Stars.

Context Wrestling / LunaVachon