1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,360 From this day forth, I will haunt your very breath! 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:07,040 I will be your shadow in the darkness! 3 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,200 Hailing from wrestling royalty, 4 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:13,520 Luna Vachon emerged as one of the squared circle's most unhinged 5 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:15,840 and most unforgettable characters. 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,200 When you saw Luna, you were seeing a monster come to life. 7 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:22,760 Crazy, wild, Satanic. 8 00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,200 You all can keep your stinking, 9 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,640 -rotten mouths shut! -Despite being 10 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:30,960 consistently marginalized by a male-dominated industry, 11 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:35,280 Luna was driven to push boundaries and redefine women's wrestling. 12 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:37,280 -My mom was the bad girl. -Come on! 13 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,880 You saw her in an alley, you'd want to run. 14 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:41,560 Dare to have the balls 15 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:45,080 to do the gimmick that I do and rip my vocal chords. 16 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,720 I'm here to say what I have to say. 17 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,160 Her volatile persona sprang from a traumatic upbringing 18 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:53,480 and a string of personal tragedies. 19 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:55,120 It wasn't an easy childhood, 20 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:59,160 her dad having a wrestling company, wrestlers staying in the house. 21 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:01,480 She was pretty. They took advantage. 22 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:04,720 While working alongside wrestling's top stars, her battles 23 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:08,120 with addiction and mental health became all-consuming. 24 00:01:08,280 --> 00:01:11,200 She's schizophrenic. That's some serious shit. 25 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:13,360 She'd go from, "Oh, thank you so much. 26 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,600 Oh, that's so sweet," to, "What are you talking about?!" 27 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,080 Of course she was self-medicating. Sniffing yayo all day, every day. 28 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:24,200 She would stay up for a month straight. 29 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,040 -Making me sick! -The next day, she'd be like, 30 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,800 "I don't know. What happened?" "You don't remember punching him?" 31 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:33,920 This is destruction. A camera man just got knocked down. 32 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,240 Betrayed by the world she adored, 33 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,880 one final act of defiance would ignite her self-destruction. 34 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,280 -She stood up to Vince. -She didn't want to just be boobs. 35 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:45,680 She wanted to be a wrestler. That was it. 36 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:47,720 That was enough. She fucking had it. 37 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:51,160 You're in pain, you're hurting, so you turn to other things. 38 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:53,000 And up in flames you go. 39 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:03,480 There are two ways 40 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:05,800 to slide easily through life. 41 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:08,120 One way's to believe everything. 42 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:10,520 The other, to doubt it. 43 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:13,000 Luna Vachon and The Black Harts. 44 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,880 I used to always think wrestling was real. As a kid, 45 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,480 you think it's real. Like, that's what she always was to me. 46 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:22,000 She was always Luna. 47 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:24,920 Hi, my name's Van Hurd, 48 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:26,960 and my mom's Luna Vachon. 49 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:29,600 Ever since I can remember, I was so young, 50 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,000 the mohawk, the bleached hair, the extensions. 51 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:35,200 Very, very soon, 52 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:39,040 I will wipe you from this earth! 53 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:44,160 It was nuts. She would show up to my elementary school with a snake. 54 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,240 I just remember she came to give me a hug and that snake almost got me. 55 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:53,640 I was so embarrassed. I hate to say it, I was. 56 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:58,720 But then, it was just normal for me. That was my mom. 57 00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:02,400 I believe she loved wrestling more than she loved anything in life. 58 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,800 Her passion truly was pro wrestling. Anything she ever spoke to me about 59 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,880 in her deeper, darkest hours was pro wrestling. 60 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,280 I'm David Heath, better known as Gangrel. 61 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,520 I've been a pro wrestler for 34 years. 62 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,320 Gangrel there. Look at his teeth! 63 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:20,600 I met Luna at a Florida Championship Wrestling show. 64 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,040 She came in, kicked the door open. She hollers, "Fresh meat," 65 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:26,440 and points at me. I'm the only one there. 66 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:28,600 Then she slams the door and walks off. 67 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:31,080 Now, you gotta picture a girl with a mohawk, 68 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,080 blood all out of her nose, her tongue's like, "Agh!" 69 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:35,960 She's growling. I was terrified. 70 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:39,200 I didn't want anything to do with her after I met her. 71 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:41,960 But, we became friends. So much so that we said, 72 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:44,400 "I'd never go out with somebody like you." 73 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:46,920 She says, "I'd never go out with you either." 74 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:51,160 I go, "Good, I'm glad we agree." And somewhere it crossed the lines. 75 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:56,240 There's many faces to my mom. Her real name is Gertrude. 76 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,920 And she used to, like, tell me nightmare stories 77 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,600 about how she had to stand in front of the class 78 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:03,400 and say her name was Gertrude. 79 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,440 And when they found out that her dad and her uncles were the Vachons, 80 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,960 and they were, like, some of the most hated tag teams ever... 81 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:19,000 Oh, the Vachon family are like wrestling royalty in Canada. 82 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,800 I'm Mick Foley, often known 83 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:23,880 as The Hardcore Legend. 84 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,640 Luna's uncle was Maurice "Mad Dog" Vachon. 85 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,880 Her aunt was Vivian Vachon. 86 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:33,600 Get your hands off me. Who do you think you are? 87 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:36,600 Luna's father was Paul "Butcher" Vachon. 88 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,760 All of the Vachons were, you know, 89 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,200 odd in a beautiful type of way. 90 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,680 Brutal chop to the neck. "Butcher" Paul Vachon had his moments. 91 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:51,160 My name is Paul "The Butcher" Vachon. 92 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,640 And I am the father of Luna Vachon. 93 00:04:56,800 --> 00:04:59,480 Luna's origins with the Vachon family are rooted 94 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:01,280 in a chance encounter 95 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,480 following a harrowing tragedy on December 18th, 1966. 96 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:10,920 I was wrestling in Atlanta, Georgia, 97 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:16,920 and I was staying at a motel and I heard a gunshot. 98 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,400 And at first I opened the door and looked around 99 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:22,320 and couldn't see anything. 100 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:26,600 So, I went back to sleep. 101 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:31,240 The next morning, there was a knock at my door. 102 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:38,120 She said, "The man that owned this motel shot himself. 103 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:41,680 He was my husband." 104 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:48,560 And I met her daughter who was then 4 years old. 105 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:54,120 Who became my daughter because I married the widow. 106 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:57,840 To Luna, I was the only father she ever knew. 107 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,840 Adopted into the Vachon dynasty, Luna is instantly enamored 108 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,320 by her new family's celebrity status. 109 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,960 My aunt was one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time. 110 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:10,280 She was known as The Wrestling Queen. 111 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:12,520 I'll break her leg! 112 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:17,480 I grew up going on the road and cleaning up the dressing room 113 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:20,360 for her and helping her put her curlers in her hair, 114 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:24,520 and that's all I wanted to do was be like my Aunt Vivian. 115 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:30,000 She wanted nothing more than to join that kind of pantheon and, you know, 116 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:34,120 carry on the tradition. They tried to talk her out of it. 117 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:36,320 She did talk about how her family said, 118 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,040 "This is really a very hard industry for women." 119 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:42,760 But there was no stopping her. 120 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:44,800 My name's Jeannine Mjoseth. 121 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,920 I used to be known as Mad Maxine, or Lady Maxine. 122 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:50,960 Well, I'm 6-foot-2. 123 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,400 And I've always been athletic. And I love costumes. 124 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:57,880 I'm an extrovert. I thought, why not use what God gave me to, 125 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:02,600 you know, really make a splash? I went out and got a mohawk. 126 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,440 I think Moolah saw money in my mohawk. 127 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:10,400 The latest protégé of The Fabulous Moolah. 128 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,800 To train at Moolah's was the equivalent of going to Harvard. 129 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:17,080 I mean, she was the place that women went 130 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:19,320 to become professional women wrestlers. 131 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:22,840 It is The Fabulous Moolah! 132 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,680 Also training with The Fabulous Moolah, 133 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,800 Mad Maxine meets a teenage Luna, 134 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:32,000 whose sweet demeanor is worlds away from her alter ego. 135 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:37,040 She looked like a babyface. She had this very cherubic, very sweet face. 136 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:41,360 And when you would say, "You should be a babyface," she'd get so mad. 137 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:46,240 Because all she ever wanted was to be, like, a badass heel. 138 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:49,280 I had a strong sense of trepidation 139 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,480 because what I saw going on at this camp, 140 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:57,840 the young, underaged trainees, the little lambs, as I think of them, 141 00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:59,680 you know, the naive young women 142 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,760 who thought they could trust Moolah, thought she was like a mother figure, 143 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:05,520 but then she'd take advantage. 144 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,720 I never seen her afraid of anybody, but when Moolah walked into a room, 145 00:08:09,880 --> 00:08:13,680 she'd shake and be super nervous and scared, like they'd been beaten. 146 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:17,520 Moolah held a lot of power over her. Moolah would say something like, 147 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:20,520 "You're sleeping with me tonight, hun." 148 00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:23,520 So, you know, I just heard a lot of stories like that. 149 00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:29,760 She said that Moolah had sent her out to this guy in the west 150 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:34,120 and the guy said he'd pay her $500 to take photographs. 151 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:37,000 She didn't know that you can't just trust people. 152 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:39,480 And so, she went out there. 153 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:45,600 The guy attacked her, tried to rape her. She fought him off. 154 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:51,480 Obviously, you can't trust a person who does that to a 16-year-old girl. 155 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:53,840 It's just... It was appalling. 156 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,120 But she said, you know, "Moolah's the only show in town. 157 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,440 You've gotta train with her if you want to make it." 158 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:03,840 Every girl that trained with her has a Moolah story. 159 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,360 My name is Kim Sacks. 160 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:08,840 You might also know me as Penelope Paradise. 161 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,120 Or, better yet, the great and powerful, 162 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:14,440 beautiful but very deadly Penelope Paradise. 163 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:18,600 She had such high hopes, and she wanted so much. 164 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:20,640 I mean, she wanted to be Hulk Hogan. 165 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,960 She wanted to be, like, the best heel there was. 166 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,120 Luna leaves Moolah's camp behind 167 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:28,600 to join Championship Wrestling from Florida, 168 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:32,200 where Kevin Sullivan and his Army of Darkness are terrifying fans 169 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:34,200 across the state. 170 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:36,600 Kevin Sullivan had a great mind. 171 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:38,680 You had to be able to draw 172 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:41,400 from the same cities every single week. 173 00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:44,880 And you did that by getting them emotionally invested. 174 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,040 Characters had to be on almost 24/7. 175 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,440 I have done some horrible things in the past! 176 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:54,680 They were not afraid to get fans upset. 177 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:58,240 Really upset. 178 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:01,520 Evil and darkness has always prevailed. 179 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:03,800 I saw a face of fear. 180 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:06,520 Kevin had Florida scared to death of him. 181 00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:09,560 Just, you know-- Tampa was scared to death of him. 182 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:11,640 Pandemonium everywhere, baby! 183 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,360 And people thought that he was passing curses on to them. 184 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,520 All this devil stuff, nobody had seen anything like that. 185 00:10:18,680 --> 00:10:20,720 People were legitimately scared of him. 186 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:22,920 On behalf of Sports Review Magazine... 187 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:24,960 In October of 1985, 188 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:28,040 Luna makes her debut as an unassuming journalist, 189 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,720 and her character quickly falls victim 190 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:33,000 to the dark powers of Kevin Sullivan. 191 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:34,720 Oh, my God. Oh, no, he just-- 192 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,160 My mom coming out as a reporter, and then, 193 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,400 Kevin Sullivan came out and whacked her face. 194 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:42,640 All of a sudden, she turned into Luna. 195 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:44,920 You know, she was considered crazy. 196 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:48,280 And crazy and lunatic, they're basically the same thing, 197 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:49,880 so Lunatic Luna. 198 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:54,120 And now Luna offered up everything to me. 199 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:58,720 She stripped herself of vanity. 200 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:00,440 You know, she shaved her head 201 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:04,440 and she put all these kind of veins on her face. 202 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,080 And she interacted with the camera and the fans 203 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,840 and in a way that was just monstrous. 204 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,680 I swear she's possessed. 205 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,280 It wasn't as though she went behind the curtains after her match 206 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:20,280 and then, all of a sudden, she's just, you know, Luna. 207 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,440 She carried on the pretense that this was who she actually was. 208 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:30,720 Well, that's it for  Coach's Corner. 209 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,160 With her new career now taking off, 210 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,480 Luna indulges in the extreme excesses of the era. 211 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:38,840 It snowed every day in Miami, in the '80s, 212 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:41,080 is what everyone said back then. 213 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,240 If my memory serves me correctly, it was, like, Quaaludes 214 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:49,040 and coke and acid. 215 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,360 She pushed every boundary she could come across. 216 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,960 How can you take a hundred pills a day? How do you even get 217 00:11:57,120 --> 00:11:58,440 a hundred pills a day? 218 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:01,600 She wanted everything to look like, 219 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,720 you know, everything was beautiful and all roses. 220 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:08,720 You knew it wasn't, but that's what she tried to portray. 221 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:11,240 I don't think it was a very easy childhood, 222 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,080 with her having wrestlers staying in the house. 223 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:18,080 I mean, she's claimed to have been, you know, raped and stuff like that. 224 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:22,840 I believe there were some inappropriate family relations, 225 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:24,880 maybe. 226 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:26,760 I didn't know Vivian at all. 227 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:29,840 I never met her. She didn't talk about her very much. 228 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,560 She just said that she was abused by her aunt. 229 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:34,880 And she just basically left it at that. 230 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:40,160 -She didn't want people to know that. -Like, a little girl can idolize. 231 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,160 You want to be like somebody, you idolize something. 232 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,200 People will use that against you. That happened to her. 233 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,680 I wasn't there, so I didn't see it. But I believe some of it. 234 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:51,680 I think it probably set the path 235 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,080 for some of the self-destruction later on. 236 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:57,400 What she called love, that wasn't really love, you know. 237 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:02,200 I don't think, knowing the family that she's from, 238 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:05,600 that anybody would do that. 239 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,800 I don't believe it. 240 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,400 Luna Vachon's deranged antics captivated audiences, 241 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:15,360 but, unknown to fans, her over-the-top persona 242 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,400 was born from a lifelong struggle with mental health outside the ring. 243 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:22,640 She was studied from the Emory University since she was 2 244 00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:24,520 for depression and being bipolar 245 00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:26,680 and schizophrenia and stuff like that. 246 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:30,320 So, it was a roller coaster of hoop-de-hoops and loop-de-loops. 247 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:33,480 Luna has this persona of being tough, badass, but really, 248 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:36,080 she was the shyest person in the room. 249 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:39,440 A lot of people called her Angelle, or I called her Angelle. 250 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:43,640 That's what her dad would call her 'cause she hated Gertrude or Trudy. 251 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:46,240 Give it 10 minutes, it's like Florida weather. 252 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:48,440 She'd be some other personality. 253 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,600 There was, like, Angel, Trudy, Angelle, you know, like... 254 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:55,760 -Then there was Luna. -She was chemically imbalanced. 255 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,040 She was definitely bipolar. 256 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:00,920 In her day-to-day life, you would call her Angel. 257 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:04,560 And she spoke with this childlike voice. 258 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:06,960 And then you could be hanging out with her, 259 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,800 and she'd get a phone call and they'd piss her off, 260 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:13,520 and then, she's Luna and she's crazy for the rest of the day. 261 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:18,240 I mean, one time, we were in Tampa and Luna and I had to share a room. 262 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:22,400 And she got into a tangent, she just snapped for whatever reason. 263 00:14:22,560 --> 00:14:26,400 One thing led to another and it's me and her from bed to bed. 264 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,400 Lamps are flying. You would think we were killing each other. 265 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,320 You know, and then now we gotta go wrestle. 266 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,280 Even no matter how mad you get, 267 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,720 somebody can hold you and say, "Okay, you've got to stop." 268 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,760 You couldn't do that with her. She'd make a joke like, 269 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,600 "Oh, I better take my little blue pill," but she knew 270 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:51,120 -if she was really wobbly, let's say. -It would be probably difficult 271 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:53,000 -to be married to her. -Yeah. 272 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:57,000 But, like, picking Dicky wasn't the best situation. 273 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:00,240 -Dirty Dick Slater. -I hear they call you Filthy Richard 274 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:02,640 in Parts Unknown, but that's another story. 275 00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:05,600 My first stepdad. I heard he used to beat my mom up. 276 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:09,000 I never saw anything. I never even really saw them fight. 277 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,520 I never saw them fight. Ever. I never saw him lay a hand on her. 278 00:15:12,680 --> 00:15:14,480 I saw her bruises, after the fact. 279 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:16,840 I'm sure she did not give them to herself. 280 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:21,280 And when they split up, I was like, "Okay, good. That's out of her life." 281 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,680 We met at Florida Championship Wrestling. Terrified of her. 282 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:27,760 Swore her off. Bloody nose, scared. "Fresh meat." 283 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,560 Next thing you know, I'm tagging with Tom Nash. 284 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:34,080 We're doing the Black Hart thing. And Tom knew her from school. 285 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:37,520 So, then, a month or two down the road or something, he goes, 286 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,680 "Luna called. She wants to go down to training with us." 287 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,640 I'm like, "No! I don't want anything to do with her." 288 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:45,120 Still, I don't know why. 289 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:47,800 Whatever the forces of the universe, nature. 290 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,520 We get in, she's in the back seat. He's sat over here. I'm driving. 291 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,400 And then she crawls over, and she starts hitting me. 292 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:57,400 "Why don't you like me?" 293 00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,920 She rips my shirt off. I get to the house. 294 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:02,760 His name's Rusty Brooks. He had a ring in his yard. 295 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,760 And I don't know if she jumped off the top rope 296 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:07,240 or where she came from, 297 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,440 but she latched down and bit me in the middle of my back. 298 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,320 She was on, like a pit bull. I couldn't get her off. 299 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:15,560 I'm trying to reach. She's locked in. 300 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:18,680 I end up diving through the ropes, which breaks her off. 301 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,640 And I got her against this tree. 302 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:23,800 And he's like, "No, hey, that's Dick Slater's girl!" 303 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:25,960 I go, "She's crazy. She's bit me!" 304 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:29,240 And he goes, "That's Luna, you idiot! You know, chill out." 305 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:31,600 Before that scar healed on my back... 306 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:35,080 I call her the original vampire because before the scar healed, 307 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,920 -we were best friends. -With Luna as their manager, 308 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:40,560 Tom Nash and David Heath become fixtures 309 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:43,320 on the independent circuit as The Black Harts. 310 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:45,960 Listen, you worry nothing about the snake. 311 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:48,320 You should worry about the tag team titles 312 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:51,520 because they'll be around the waist of The Black Harts. 313 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:53,160 Tom had a big crush on her. 314 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,120 And the next thing you know, like, they were married. 315 00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:58,640 He adored her. He did. And he did love her. 316 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:02,400 Tom Nash and my mom were married. 317 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:07,640 And Tom used to go to work and then Dave used to show up. 318 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:09,800 That's some shady shit right there. 319 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:13,240 They got in a few fights and he accused me of being with her. 320 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,640 And he started talking a lot of stuff. 321 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:18,880 "I know you guys are together." This and this and that. 322 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,120 Then, he swung on me and I snapped. I feel really bad. 323 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,440 I puked the next day when I saw what I could do to somebody. 324 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:27,000 The fallout from the fight 325 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:28,560 breaks up The Black Harts. 326 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:30,680 Shortly after, Luna's brief marriage 327 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,280 to Tom Nash also comes to an end. 328 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:36,120 I look at her as this wildflower on a side road. 329 00:17:36,280 --> 00:17:38,800 You ever see a beautiful wildflower in the wind? 330 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,800 If you pick it and cage it, it's gonna die. You know? 331 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:45,240 So you just should admire it from afar for the beauty it is. 332 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:48,400 She was a beautiful person. She had a lot of love in her. 333 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:51,760 She just wanted to be loved and was so misunderstood, so... 334 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:53,560 So, where was the wedding? 335 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,840 Oh, it was great. It was Halloween. I wrestled a cage match that night. 336 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:01,400 Came home, right at midnight. And then we got married. 337 00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:05,600 Yeah, instead of wedding rings, we got vampire bites, yeah. 338 00:18:05,760 --> 00:18:08,040 Then I got her here, right there. 339 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:12,440 Put it on my drinking hand, 340 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:16,560 so I remember not to drink too much so she wouldn't kill me. 341 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,440 The newlyweds perform together across the globe, 342 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,720 with an eye to eventually breaking into the World Wrestling Federation. 343 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:28,880 She was sending stuff in for me to get booked. 344 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,560 She was sending my stuff, with me and her in it. 345 00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,800 And then, she got hired. I'm not gonna lie, I was, like, 346 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:37,000 jealous and stuff, I was like... 347 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:40,480 But I was super, super happy for her at the same time. 348 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,200 On April 4th, 1993, Luna's dreams would come true as she debuts 349 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:49,040 in the WWF on wrestling's grandest stage, WrestleMania. 350 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,800 You're watching WrestleMania. All of a sudden, 351 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,360 your mom's coming out with Shawn Michaels 352 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,120 and they're at Caesar's Palace, they're outside. 353 00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,520 And then, her and Sherri Martel get into it. 354 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:04,600 -Oh, she clotheslines Sherri! -Boy, did she nail her! 355 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:07,120 Luna Vachon! Picking Sherri up! 356 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:09,600 I was like, "Oh, my goodness." 357 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,880 She did it, she did it. That was her dream, and there she is. 358 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,320 She was the first female ever to be on a video game. 359 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,760 The game was called  WWF Raw. 360 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,640 We got that whole console just for that game. 361 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:28,280 And I, Luna Vachon... 362 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:34,720 I will be the goddess of the squared circle! 363 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,120 All you're doing is trying to make it. Then, if you put it in 364 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:41,440 all the extracurriculars like the drugs, 365 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,480 the depression, and the bipolar, 366 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,160 it's running, the days, and it keeps going fast. 367 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:50,880 -Next thing you know, it's gone. -After 15 years of self-sacrifice 368 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:53,640 and struggling in the independent territories, 369 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:57,080 Luna Vachon finally reaches the pinnacle of wrestling. 370 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,040 -Luna Vachon! -I'd see her a little bit. 371 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,000 Sometimes, once a year, once or twice a year. 372 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,800 She was grinding, she was on the road. I was with my grandma. 373 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:10,360 A lot of the girls did not have children, because-- 374 00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:12,800 Or they had 'em very late, 375 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:17,480 after their careers were over because they-- I mean, you can't. 376 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,600 She lived in this little pink 1950s trailer 377 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,200 that had, like, this porch addition to it. 378 00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:27,080 And I knocked on her door, and she had obviously been crying. 379 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,280 Her eyes were all swollen. And I asked her what was wrong. 380 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:32,640 She said it was one of her sons' birthday. 381 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,600 And I didn't even know she had kids until that point. 382 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:38,040 She did not talk about her kids, mostly. 383 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:39,640 My mom hit the road. 384 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:42,640 She had a dream. And she went and did it. 385 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:45,320 This man 386 00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:49,880 makes me hot! 387 00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:56,280 A few months later, Luna is paired with WWF star Bam Bam Bigelow. 388 00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:59,440 While she is regularly appearing on national television, 389 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:02,840 Luna rarely gets to showcase her in-ring skills. 390 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:04,320 At that time, 391 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,360 there just wasn't a lot of emphasis 392 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:08,720 on women's wrestling in WWE, 393 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:10,960 or in the United States as a whole. 394 00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:14,480 So, the women who were really talented in the ring 395 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:19,880 were often utilized as managers. 396 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,960 Luna was a real wrestler. She was a hardcore, real wrestler, 397 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:27,320 and she should never have been relegated to valet status. 398 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,840 I mean, we had five to six girls on a roster. 399 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,800 That was our roster back in the day in the Federation. Really? 400 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:35,520 Hi, my name is Debrah, 401 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,680 otherwise my wrestling fans 402 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:39,200 know me as Medusa. 403 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:42,360 -To the outside! -Attack! 404 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,600 There really wasn't a women's division. 405 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,560 There wasn't anything they did well with the women. 406 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:49,720 It was a men's committee. 407 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:51,240 Just men 408 00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:55,160 at a round table circle-jerking, not knowing what to do with women. 409 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,120 Why don't we have our names on the frickin' paper 410 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:00,120 or the marquee or...? 411 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:06,080 And it was... "and more." We were "and more" half the time. 412 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:10,480 It really pissed us off, you know. Luna and I did not like that at all. 413 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,040 The saying has always been 414 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,720 that girls have to work a hundred percent harder 415 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:16,720 to just get 10% of the recognition. 416 00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:20,720 Ninety percent of the guys were perfect gentlemen, they were fine. 417 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,520 There's always that 10%. There's always one or two 418 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:26,240 in the dressing room that's gotta be a smart-ass. 419 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,720 Luna would go around, going, "My clit's bigger than your dick!" 420 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:32,600 You know, and those were things that she did. 421 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,400 I remember being in Canada, and we were wrestling. 422 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:38,200 And I said, "Luna, you know, 423 00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:41,800 at this point, I don't give a shit. Let me drop the belt to you." 424 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,080 She was like, "I can't do that, man. 425 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:46,520 I can't." I said, "I'm gonna drop the belt. 426 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:50,240 What are they gonna do, fuckin' fire me? Okay. Whatever. 427 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,480 I am just so sick of them not doing anything further with us women, 428 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,720 and especially you. 429 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,040 And they don't have the audacity just one time, in Canada, 430 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,880 of all places, won't even drop you the belt? Really?" 431 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,160 I said, "When we go home, we go bah-dah-bing, bah-dah-boom, 432 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,240 here's the comeback. Just quick. 433 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,560 Roll me up, one, two, three." She goes, "Are you serious? 434 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:15,360 You'd do that for me?" I said, "Yeah, let's do it. 435 00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:17,560 I will lay down and give you the belt." 436 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:19,560 She just, like, fucking lost it. 437 00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:23,200 And she was crying and she's like, "I can't do it. I won't do it. 438 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:26,440 I won't let them fire you over something like this." 439 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,040 I remember, I was just laying, getting there for the three count. 440 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,080 She pulled me up and wouldn't do it 441 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:34,480 and I'm like, "Let's fucking just do it!" 442 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,480 She wouldn't do it. I tried. 443 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,600 She never, ever got the belt. She never had the title there. 444 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,640 Frustrated over the lack of opportunity for female wrestlers, 445 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,600 Luna forges a bond with Sherri Martel, 446 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:51,120 another skilled wrestler 447 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,120 downgraded to manager status. 448 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,600 I stand just like any other good woman, Mean Gene. 449 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,040 I'm gonna stand right by my man. 450 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:01,200 -Sherri, let's go! -Yes, Shawn! 451 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:03,280 On her way, sensational Sherri! 452 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,160 She loved Sherri. She loved Sherri to death. 453 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,600 They were friends, they traveled together. 454 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:11,840 They was thick as thieves. 455 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:13,800 They would come home, like, 456 00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:17,040 Luna would be asleep for like three days. 457 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,840 I could poke a stick at her, like, "What's going on here?" 458 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,560 I knew nothing about pills or Placidyls or anything like that. 459 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,600 So, when I found out, like, she was taking these pills 460 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,400 and it was Sherri and all that, I confronted her, it didn't go well. 461 00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:35,560 I think it was her darkest times, in my personal opinion, 462 00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,640 where she was out of control, like, beyond, like... 463 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:42,280 She could have, you know, died any-- It was, like, just that bad. 464 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,680 Luna could've been right there at the top, you know. 465 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,200 And there's no reason she couldn't have. 466 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:52,720 It's just between the mental deficiencies 467 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,800 of whatever it was that she had, and the drugs. 468 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,800 They put me in rehab because I was drinking. 469 00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:03,440 And then when I got to rehab, they fired me. 470 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:07,720 Their excuse was, "It's for her own good." They said they were worried 471 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,040 about her mental health. They said, "It's for her own good." 472 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,280 Is there positive stuff that you learned 473 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,200 from growing up like this? 474 00:25:15,360 --> 00:25:19,320 Yeah, don't do drugs. For real. 475 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:24,040 She probably chose her extracurricular activity 476 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,280 into the drugs because of wanting just to forget. 477 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:30,000 And it's like a facade. 478 00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:33,160 Sometimes when you get so soaked up 479 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,280 and just caught up into it all, you get lost. 480 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:40,640 And she always would try to kill herself. She did it a couple times. 481 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,680 You ever see her wrists, there were big scars. 482 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:46,280 You look at your mom like, why'd you do that? 483 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,760 You know what I mean? Why would you do that? 484 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,080 Despite her personal struggles, 485 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:55,200 Luna Vachon is recommended to burgeoning indie promotion ECW 486 00:25:55,360 --> 00:25:59,440 by her longtime friend Nancy Sullivan, aka Woman. 487 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:02,720 The ECW fans really embraced Luna. 488 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:04,440 They had a way of seeing 489 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:05,920 through the imposters 490 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:08,000 and spotting the real deals. 491 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:12,080 And they saw in her somebody they could invest in emotionally, 492 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,280 who could mix it up with the guys. 493 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,000 And no one doubted that she could kick Stevie Richards' ass. 494 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,080 And here comes Luna! 495 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:23,000 She was the queen of extreme, 496 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,080 that was no bullshit. 497 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:26,880 She was in her element. 498 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:32,520 And Richards, face-first into the steel again. 499 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:34,400 And Luna's loving it! 500 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,400 She had fun being a woman versus a man in the cage, being the first. 501 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,200 She liked being the first at a lot of things 502 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:44,040 and pushing the barriers and stuff like that. 503 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,240 Comes down across Richards! 504 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,040 One, two, and Luna makes history! 505 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:54,240 Winning the first ever intergender cage match! 506 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,600 I loved teaming up with Luna. There's a photo of us, like, 507 00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:00,120 holding onto a steel cage and snarling. 508 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:03,160 She could go anywhere in the world and entertain. 509 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,720 And she could hold her own with anyone. 510 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,240 And I'm including the men when I say anyone. 511 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,440 The bitch is back! 512 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:14,320 She's a devil in disguise! 513 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,760 In the late '90s, the WWF's shift to increasingly provocative storylines 514 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,200 would see Luna Vachon as a perfect addition to the roster, 515 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:24,560 and she eventually rejoins the company. 516 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,000 However, she's once again assigned 517 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:28,640 a supporting role. 518 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:30,600 Now, just to have women 519 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,520 as valets and stuff like that and being stifled, 520 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,400 and not being able to work, it would piss me off. 521 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:40,280 You'd want to wrestle when you're a wrestler, right? 522 00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:42,200 While Luna's pairing with Goldust 523 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:44,720 eventually leads her back into the ring, 524 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,200 she clashes with the WWF's new direction for women's wrestling. 525 00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:52,000 To make matters worse, Luna is set to lose a high-profile match 526 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,000 to Sable, a model groomed 527 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:55,920 for wrestling superstardom 528 00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,160 who has no experience in the ring. 529 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,920 Luna! You little bitch! 530 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:05,720 She said, "I don't have to learn to take bumps, 531 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:07,400 because Vince has told me 532 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,120 I'm going to be the women's champion." 533 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,240 -Shut up, I'm reading. -The way my psyche felt 534 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,200 at that point, knowing the dues I had paid, 535 00:28:16,360 --> 00:28:18,240 how my family stopped talking to me 536 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,800 because I wanted to be a lady in this business... 537 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,320 My children were growing up without me. I was growing up without them. 538 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,920 All for wrestling. It tore me apart. 539 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,080 Sable wasn't a wrestler. And Sable was a beautiful woman. 540 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:35,160 She probably still is, I don't know. 541 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:37,760 She didn't want to walk around with a scar, 542 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,800 or a bruise, or anything like that. 543 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:41,360 That wasn't her gimmick. 544 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,080 At WrestleMania XIV, 545 00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,520 Luna succeeds in making Sable appear 546 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,440 as a future women's champion. 547 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,160 And now let's get it on! 548 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:52,040 -Look at that takedown! -Here they go! 549 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,160 Now, we're talking WrestleMania. 550 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:57,200 This is the Super Bowl of wrestling. 551 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,080 I was told by Vince McMahon, 552 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,760 if I bruised or scratched her, I would be fired. 553 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,240 She's pulling hair! No fair, she's cheating! 554 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,720 There's an enormous amount of pressure that goes into 555 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:15,320 having a match with somebody who is relatively inexperienced. 556 00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,880 -No way! -Powerbomb! 557 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:19,840 Sable powerbombed Luna! 558 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:24,200 And so, when you take a veteran like Luna, you are basically saying, 559 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:29,360 "We trust you to make this person look the very best they can." 560 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,480 Sable with a TKO! 561 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:37,000 -Unbelievable! -She gets her through the match. 562 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,120 And Luna's, like, super stoked that she got her through, 563 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,000 happy for the girl, you know, come back and she's happy for her. 564 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:48,200 Luna comes back in, and she sees Vince McMahon and they're clapping. 565 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,760 She thinks they're clapping at her and saying, 566 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,240 "Great job, gal, you did it, you get it!" 567 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,520 They were looking over, it was Sable behind 'em. 568 00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:58,120 I passed by and nobody said 569 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,440 "thank you," "kiss my ass" or "suck my dick." 570 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:05,480 I tried talking to her. "What's wrong?" 571 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,920 She just broke down in tears. "Nobody appreciates what I did." 572 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,400 It hurt her. She wanted to be acknowledged 573 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,600 for being something other than strange, 574 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:16,240 for what she could do in the ring. 575 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,640 And on that night, we call it the grandest stage of them all, 576 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:21,720 they had this barn burner of a match 577 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,920 and it really hurt her that she was not... 578 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:27,760 noticed for it. 579 00:30:27,920 --> 00:30:31,200 Sunny came to Luna. And I think Sunny came to Luna in a nice-- 580 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,160 "Don't worry about it." She's like... So she... "Get away from me!" 581 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:38,280 Sunny wouldn't get away from her, so she just came up, 582 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,520 put her into a production box and just kept hitting her 583 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,520 on top of it, saying, "I'm not punching her face." 584 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,520 She knew if she hit Sunny in the face, she'd be fired. 585 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:51,120 Poor Sunny never knew what hit her, yeah. It was kind of crazy. 586 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:53,280 But it was just Luna being really hurt 587 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,240 -and lashing out. -Nobody talked about mental health. 588 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,520 But, like, at the same time, that was her gimmick, too. 589 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,840 So, like, was it a show? I can tell you it wasn't. 590 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,640 I think it was all the same. There was no line. 591 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:12,680 It was blurred lines, you know. Luna, Angel, Trudy, Mom. 592 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:14,600 No one spoke about that shit. 593 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,120 You know what I mean? About people's mental illness or whatever. 594 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:22,560 They saw and they were scared, and they just didn't. That was it. 595 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,200 Her just being not accepted 596 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:29,280 in this business, to a level where she thought she deserved it 597 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:33,240 because... 'cause of her skills as a worker, 598 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:35,400 and what she brought to this business. 599 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:37,920 Let's meet our contestants, 600 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:41,720 in the first ever Miss Rumble 2000 contest! 601 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,440 WWF's creative direction for women's wrestling 602 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,200 is increasingly at odds 603 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,360 with Luna's desire to showcase her in-ring prowess, 604 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:53,440 making a final showdown with CEO Vince McMahon inevitable. 605 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,800 When the Attitude Era started, it was just all sexuality. 606 00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,920 I couldn't believe Luna was putting up with that shit. 607 00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,080 'Cause she was so old-school like me. 608 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:06,680 She definitely felt pressured. She didn't feel pretty, you know. 609 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,240 Now that you got models around you, it can't feel good. 610 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:11,840 Did she say, "Come get it"? 611 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,320 They'll start hitting that pause button. 612 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,840 They wanted Luna to take her top off. She said, "You spent years 613 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,760 making me ugly, and now you ask"-- 614 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,440 And she stood up to Vince in front of everybody. 615 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:25,360 I guess what you see is what you get, okay. 616 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:26,960 My opinion? I don't know. 617 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:30,600 They didn't fire her out and out for refusing, standing up to him. 618 00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:34,200 They waited a week or two and used it as the excuse to fire her. 619 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,320 After a number of backstage incidents 620 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,280 and escalating erratic behavior, 621 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,800 Luna is released from the WWF for the final time. 622 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,120 Dare to be different. 623 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,040 Dare to have the balls 624 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,160 to do the gimmick that I do and... 625 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,040 And rip my vocal chords 626 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,080 until I don't sound like a female. 627 00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,120 Just would take a bullet for Vince McMahon, 628 00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,600 take a train hitting me for Vince McMahon. 629 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,720 And it had nothing to do with the money, it didn't, 630 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,800 it just has to do with me really caring about this business 631 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,320 and caring about women in this business and seeing that, 632 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,200 wanting it to be different. 633 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:14,160 When she got fired, we came home. 634 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,400 She goes, "I'm in the bedroom, vampire." 635 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,920 I shook my head and laughed when I seen this. 636 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:20,880 In cocaine, she had written out, 637 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,000 "Fuck you, Vince." She goes, "Watch!" 638 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:29,040 She just started-- So I'm like, "Oh!" And it was just downhill after that. 639 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,520 I mean, an easy night, an easy-going night, could be, 640 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:36,720 I don't know, couple eight balls, 10 hits of ecstasy. 641 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:38,560 Something like that. 642 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:42,880 I didn't understand her need to... Gotta have more, gotta have-- Like-- 643 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,400 "I gotta get more, let's get more." I'd be like, "No!" You know? 644 00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,440 That's ultimately what drove us apart. 645 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,760 He was smart enough to get out. 646 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,320 That's how bad it was, yes. I remember him telling me that. 647 00:33:58,480 --> 00:34:01,200 Said he didn't have a choice. He had to. 648 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,400 -Or they'd both be dead. -When we'd talk, she'd talk about 649 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:07,280 getting back together sometimes. I said, "We can't." 650 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,720 So, what I did is, I ran away as far as I could to California. 651 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,320 Unfortunately, I got married and it wasn't the right thing to do. 652 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:19,040 Like, just went and did everything I could not to come back. 653 00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,720 She was in a lull, and she was, like, trying to be normal. 654 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,240 She wasn't wrestling. She was a waitress. 655 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,160 And there was a time Luna showed up at my house. 656 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:29,920 She is beating on the door. 657 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,960 I open the door, she runs past me, and she's got a gun. 658 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,760 I don't know where she got the gun. "Is somebody chasing you? What"-- 659 00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,880 She's talking crazy. I had to get the gun away from her. 660 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:43,560 And I still never knew what happened. But she was frantic 661 00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:47,240 and crazy, so I could never have anything like that around my kids. 662 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,400 I was like, "Luna, you know, 663 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,360 I got these kids and, I mean, I'm not gonna beat around the bush." 664 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,200 I said, "I can't. You're not stable enough." 665 00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,240 Then I was like, "It's just not gonna work." 666 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:01,800 She wasn't in control 667 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:03,640 of her entire life. 668 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:06,720 And so, there's this real feeling 669 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,000 of gratification that comes from being able to hold a crowd 670 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,600 -in the palm of your hand. -Luna's sick! She's going up top. 671 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:15,960 Like, maybe you don't have it all together 672 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:20,160 the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day, but for that 15 minutes 673 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,960 you're in the ring, you are completely in control. 674 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,600 And that's a powerful feeling. 675 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,880 The biggest challenge that all of us who love it face 676 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,440 is trying to find something 677 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:36,680 that makes us feel the way we felt when we were in the ring. 678 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:41,280 And I don't know if Luna ever found that thing. 679 00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,760 How did your relationship with your mom change after wrestling? 680 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,960 We didn't talk that much, 'cause I was in culinary school. 681 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,360 I was in Texas, she was in Florida. 682 00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:56,800 I remember her driving a tow truck. 683 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:01,040 She was hanging out with bikers, outlaw bikers. I don't know why. 684 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,280 She never met my daughter. I don't think 685 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,800 she thought she was good enough. And that's that mental illness. 686 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:13,440 I talked to Luna for a final time just a few weeks before she left us. 687 00:36:13,600 --> 00:36:17,680 I was so surprised because she told me she was in a good place. 688 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:19,880 It came as a shock. 689 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:22,440 How did you find out she passed away? 690 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:28,520 I was flying to do a chef dinner in Ohio, from Connecticut. 691 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:32,880 And my grandma called and said 692 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:34,760 that my mom had-- 693 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,400 She had just found my mom dead. 694 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,000 That had to have been a rough time for her. 695 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:44,280 You never want to see your kids, you know, die before you do. 696 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,800 I heard she choked, but then I also heard it was a overdose. 697 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:50,480 The wrong mix of things. 698 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,600 It could have been either one, honestly, I don't really care. 699 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:57,080 She's not here anymore, that sucks. 700 00:36:57,240 --> 00:37:00,160 You know, I don't really care how she died. 701 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,440 On August 27th, 2010, Luna Vachon's battles 702 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,640 with addiction and mental illness finally come to an end. 703 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,360 You know... 704 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:15,840 the thing is to really love people 705 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,240 and understand them while they are alive. 706 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,680 Nobody survives this world. 707 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:24,080 We've lost so many people in this business. 708 00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:26,520 Not just from drugs and pills and steroids, 709 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:31,760 but, I mean, from mental health, from just... I truly believe 710 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,760 that there could have been a lot of help, for a lot of... 711 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:38,760 talent in our business. 712 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,400 We need to do better, as an industry. 713 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:46,800 I remember just my heart aching. 714 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:52,280 You know, I was really hurting. I really adored her. 715 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,480 I thought that her family and her fans would appreciate 716 00:37:56,640 --> 00:37:58,440 a eulogy of sorts. 717 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,840 And so, I'd like to read this a little bit, if I could. 718 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,720 I said, "'In a world full of butterflies, 719 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,480 it took balls to be a caterpillar.' 720 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,000 I love that quote from Luna, and in a way, I can't help but hope 721 00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:16,360 that this life was but a chrysalis of sorts for her, that for a woman 722 00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,480 who never seemed completely comfortable in her own skin, 723 00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:23,000 this life was just a prelude to becoming the beautiful butterfly 724 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:24,920 God always meant for her to be. 725 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,800 But that would be too easy and so anti-Luna. 726 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,960 There are enough beautiful butterflies out there already. 727 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,360 Maybe we should appreciate the beauty of the caterpillar 728 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:38,240 without needing or wanting it to change for our viewing pleasure. 729 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,680 Maybe Luna was perfect just as she was. 730 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,600 Maybe she was exactly who she was supposed to be." 731 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,440 She never thought she was pretty enough to be a wrestler. 732 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,160 Her eyes, they're green. She had beautiful eyes. 733 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,960 If you looked into 'em. But people just seen Luna! 734 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:57,280 They see this character and this persona. 735 00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,240 They never seen Trudy or Angelle or looked in there 736 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,160 and seen the innocence in there, 737 00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:06,480 the innocence lost. People say, "How did you stay together so long?" 738 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,760 I go, "If you want me to be honest, 739 00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:11,600 I was worried nobody else could take care of her." 740 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,080 I love her, but should we have been together that long? No. 741 00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:20,400 Were we self-destructive and explosive and everything? Yes. 742 00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,480 But I feel a lot of guilt for her passing, you know. 743 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:25,800 And, like, I feel like I wasn't there 744 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,160 to take care of her. Maybe it was selfish. 745 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:31,760 It probably was, but I don't think we both were gonna make it. 746 00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,160 We would have both ended up in a dark fate. 747 00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:38,440 And I'm sorry, you know, tell her sorry for that too 'cause I miss her. 748 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,520 You know, I'm sorry for being selfish like that. 749 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,920 You know, to not have a funeral, I think that was 750 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:50,200 one of the hardest things for me to accept. 751 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:56,880 When Luna passed, if it was Luna's choice, she would have had, like, 752 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,720 a team of Harley-Davidsons pulling down the streets of Tampa 753 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:02,200 with her casket. 754 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,920 And, you know, firecrackers and fireworks 755 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,320 and sparklers shooting out of it, and everybody would know. 756 00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:12,160 You know, they were all gonna come see her final hurrah. 757 00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,840 No, she wouldn't have wanted that. 758 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,480 That's not her style. She was private. 759 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,720 She wanted to be left alone. She was good. 760 00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,600 Any regrets? 761 00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:26,760 I wish that I woulda changed things 762 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:28,440 for women more. 763 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,160 I regret that I gave up my family 764 00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:33,720 and didn't get what I wanted the most, 765 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,680 and that was the WWF women's title, 766 00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:38,600 which, I guess, basically, 767 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,000 isn't all that I thought it was. 768 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,320 Luna would have loved today's women's wrestling environment. 769 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:46,360 She would've loved the physicality. 770 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,720 Thrown out of this! Through a table! 771 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,360 She would have loved that she would get to work 772 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,040 with some of the best wrestlers in the world on a nightly basis. 773 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:58,960 Yeah, I think she'd be really happy to know 774 00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:01,400 how far women's wrestling has come. 775 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:05,800 -Well, boom! Beautiful... -She was such a colorful character. 776 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:08,480 She added so much to everything she was part of. 777 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:12,120 -And she was great in the ring. -There's nobody like her. 778 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,160 She was original, that's for sure. 779 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:17,040 If Luna were here today 780 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,440 and she was talking to you, 781 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:23,320 like, if she was behind my shoulder with her hands on my shoulder, 782 00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:25,920 she would look into the camera and go, 783 00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:27,800 "What the fuck's wrong with you? 784 00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,120 Why did you wait 'til I was fucking dead 785 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:32,200 before you did anything about me? 786 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,600 I should've had this done when I was alive. 787 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,840 You could've come over and talked to me. 788 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,880 You wouldn't have this little bitch imitating me." 789 00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:41,920 That's what she would have said.