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| 10.29.04
Getting To Know Binovich Fouranov
by Samir
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Not too many people know the real Benoit Chalifoux. As a wrestler, he incarnated La Patriote Qu�b�cois and later moved on to Le Patriote Russe, two cartoony gimmicks that allowed the wrestler to hide behind the veil of a flag. When I sat down with him a month ago, two things became immediately apparent, those being his encyclopedic memory about his wrestling career and his love for the sport that has been a part of his life since he was a small child.
Binovich Fouranov, alongside his manager Anna Minoushka
His father Jacques Chalifoux wrestled in Montreal as Buddy Rogers, jr., in tribute to his favorite wrestler of the same name. Roger initiated Benoit at a very young age, training his son in wrestling despite Mme. Chalifoux's objections. Benoit had a brief stint in the WFI of C�te St-Paul before turning his attention to training other wrestlers. He might not have known it then, but Benoit was laying one of the stones for a major development in his career right then and there.
In 1996, Jocelyn Jean of Joliette, a friend of Benoit's gave him a call and proposed the idea of starting up a federation. Historically, the cruiser weights had not arrived in Quebec in 1996, and wrestling was still the world of bigger, beefier guys like Nightmare, Marc Le Grizzly and Pierre-Carl Ouellette. Benoit was only 16 at the time, and at 5'4", felt that he had few chances to make any waves in the Quebec wrestling scene. The idea appealed to Benoit grately, so he set the wheels in motion.
He hit the pavement, filed papers, and most importantly, got his friend, future MWF wrestler Dom Hard on board. Hard's father, a welder, helped them build a ring from drawings Benoit had made of ring pieces he had seen while working in WFI. The ring, which was built in a garage, piece-by-piece, may have been considered a daunting, even intimidating task, but it was a challenge that Benoit Chalifoux relished. After 10 months of work, the ring was finished. The ring's construction instilled very early on Benoit the value of challenging oneself, and the value of work ethic as a means to succeed in wrestling.
Before long, Benoit and Jocelyn Jean founded the MWF, which featured Benoit's friends and those he had trained before. "I wanted a fed where you didn't have to be 6'2" to be someone, where a bunch of regular guys could just go and have fun," he says. "The size of your heart is what matters."
Benoit quickly became one of the Fed's bigger stars, under the guise of Le Patriote Quebecois. "Honestly, it wasn't a character that took long to come up with. I didn't waste any time scratching my head, thinking about it," he recalls. "I just wanted a cheesy, easy gimmick, something that would get cheap pops in Quebec's rural areas, places like Beauce, Abitibi, Saguenay," he laughs, "so I figured some guy, any guy, who came out with Fleur-de-Lys on his outfit would do the trick, and you know what, it did. When I saw a a guy holding up a sign that said Patriote, Tabarnak!, I knew it was working."
Benoit began to truly enjoy playing Le Patriote, but he admits that in whis MWF days, he was a very ordinary wrestler. "I wasn't flamboyant or anything, I wasn't daredevil. Actually, I found myself to be terrible and I had no idea why the MWF booker kept putting me in main events," he comments, in a self-deprecating fashion. The MWF provided Benoit with a lot of fun and memories, and he admits he will always be fond of playing Le Patriote Quebecois. However, the dream soon turning into a Nightmare, in a course of events that eventually led to the driving force behind the MWF leaving for another federation.
In November of 2000, problems began to brew when, according to Benoit, MWF talents began to complain that Le Patriote Quebecois took up too much space at the top of the shows. Benoit only heard the complaints indirectly, but he knew they were brewing. "I did nothing about them. I figured if someone would have something to tell me, the person would come up to my face and say what he had to say. Of course, that never happened."
Eventually, Benoit was presented with a petition that brought the complaints to him officially. He acted by moving aside, giving out the power to a non-wrestling director. "It didn't really work," he notes "There were other people in the back making the decisions for him." The workers even presented Benoit with a petition that stated their complaints against him. By December 2001, the combination of Benoit's dying father, the career-ending injury that put his friend Cronos into a coma, and the political nightmare that the MWF had become all combined to send Benoit into a depression. "I had inflammations in my stomach. I was coughing up blood. After our December gala, I just wasn't into it anymore, not like I had been in the past. The passion, I felt, it was gone."
Benoit alerted Wonderfred and Genocide, two wrestlers who had instrumental roles that he would take 3 months off after the March 2002 show. "They had a show while I was gone, which had to be cancelled for other reasons, but the night of the show, I got a phone call that I will never forget," he recalls solemnly. Apparently, cash had gone missing from the MWF treasury, and certain people were pointing the finger at Benoit.
"I just couldn't believe it. I bled for that fed, I sweat for that fed, I trained wrestlers, I used my own money for the MWF, I was one of the people who created that fed. Stealing from the MWF would have been like stealing from me! Yes, I used the treasury, but every time I did it, it was for MWF purposes and I always had receipts," he recalls with a bitter tone.
It was an incident that forever sealed Benoit's fate in the MWF. Soon after, Benoit phoned X-Ode, one of his MWF friends to break the news to him. Benoit was going to approach NCW to see if he could wrestle there. On April 24, 2002, Benoit resigned in writing all of his duties at the MWF, but retained ownership of the ring with Dom Hard, which he continued to lend to the MWF until March of 2003, when the MWF bought the ring from him. "The ring was the last link to the MWF for me," he notes. When asked if it was hard to sell a ring that he had a hand in building from scratch, Benoit's answer is curt: "If that's what was needed to finalize the divorce, that's what was needed."
Despite the acrimony surrounding his departure, Benoit adds that he remains friends with a lot of the people still involved there. "I hated fighting with my friends there. I hated fighting over things with Wonder Fred, it wasn't worth it. They're my friends and I still talk to a lot of them over there." It seems to the reader that he might be leaving the door open for an eventual return, but Benoit quickly plays down any possibility of that happening. "Never. I am never going back. It seems harsh to say, but for me, for Benoit Chalifoux, in my eyes, the MWF does not exist."
And so, in the spring of 2002, Benoit began to wrestle in the NCW. "Dream Killer's girlfriend introduced me to it in 1996, and for years, I'd watch tapes of guys like Guy Williams and a much younger Franky The Mobster. I was very impressed by the wrestlers there. But I really marked out for Frank Blues, too."
He officially arrived in NCW on June 29, 2002, bringing his Pariote Quebecois persona to his new home. He remained the Patriote Quebecois until October, but the bookers had been discussing a gimmick change for quite awhile. "A new fed, I wanted a new start. We had been throwing around some ideas for quite awhile, until Nova Cain told me I looked like a Russian. It started out as a joke, but eventually I began to adopt it as a serious gimmick. I got new outfits made, new boots, new entrance gear," he recalls. Once he knew he it was going to be his gimmick, he began researching Soviet Customs that he could implement to make his character more believable.
"Like the salute," I laugh.
"Like the salute, he says," as he demonstrates he alignment of the fingers to the temple and the angle of the bend in the arm.
"Honestly, I love the gimmick. It's so fun to play. When I was The Patriote Quebecois, there was no way I could ever be a heel, but I'd been wanting to be a heel forever. So when I was given Le Patriote Russe, I was ecstatic. Finally, I can be a heel!"
Since June 2002, Benoit has devoted himself exclusively to NCW. He notes that being dedicated to one fed motivated him to get better as a wrestler. "Let's face it, I was average at best when I came here. I knew I wanted to get better," he recalls. Unlike many wrestlers who, once they've completed their basic training, give up on practice, Benoit did the opposite. After having trained others, he checked in to Marc Le Grizzly's practices, doing the same exercises and drills that had produced guys like Franky The Mobster and Chase Ironside.
"I think the classes have helped a lot," he says. "I was able to hang in the ring with Chakal. I think wrestling guys who are so polished and so skilled, every time I have a match with these guys, whether its Vertigo, Chakal, Frank Blues, Sunny War Cloud, it feels like an accomplishment. Even Alex Price!"
Benoit with trainer Marc Le Grizzly
When the inevitable question about his diminutive stature is posed, Benoit takes the issue head on. "I know I'm small, but I like to think that, because I've come quite a long way as a wrestler, because I've improved, I can work in credible ways with everyone. I mean, when I work a guy like Alex Price, I might work with a few more power moves. When I work a guy as big as Chase Ironside, I don't think it makes sense for me to be powering him into moves. With bigger guys, I try to work a faster style, rely on my speed and agility more than power," he explains. "I think for little guys like me, when you're in the ring, the story of the match is important. You have to have a story that makes sense, have a match that makes sense. That's how little guys get credible."
So it is with a renewed passion that Benoit applied himself to NCW, where he has wrestled almost exclusively since joining the company. In that time, he has become a decorated wrestler, earning both Tag Team title (with partner Gorgeous Mike) as well as the Intercity title, which is NCW's 2nd most prestigious belt. He credits his success to the same hard work and dedication that allowed him to build a ring when he was a teen, and the same conviction that carried him to the top of the MWF.
Benoit also represents something of an oddity in wrestling, because of his unswerving loyalty to NCW. Many wrestlers in Quebec employ the strategy of wrestling in as many feds as possible, to gain exposure, to see different styles, and to obtain a certain amount of diversity. Almost against the common intuition of the day, Benoit choses to focus on one fed only, accepting the pros and the cons of the decision.
"I get everything I want from NCW. I have friends here, a lot of them are like family to me. As a wrestler, NCW gives me everything I need. I don't know if I have the talent to wrestle everywhere, but assuming I do, my plan is to remain exclusive to NCW," he decrees. Inevitably, his dedication have allowed him to take on a larger role backstage, where Benoit is increasingly contributing by helping in the show set up, coordinating the ring crew, and helping management run the company. It seems only natural for a guy who once had his own fed to gravitate towards management.
"Like I said, this is a family for me. At first, I was cautious not to get too involved. I didn't want to get too involved, because I didn't want another MWF situation on my hands." As time wore on, though, Benoit found himself more and more at home in NCW until he felt comfortable enough to take on a bigger role.
Alex Price and Benoit, two friends who met at NCW
The plan for the future is for Benoit to continue wrestling, but he doesn't know for how long. "I've had for concussions. I always tell myself, if I have one more, I'm out of this game." Indeed, like many who have given so much to wrestling, wrestling has taken a lot out of Benoit's body. He recounts his injuries like a man reading off a shopping list (in fact, as of this writing, he has a dislocated shoulders that will keep him out of action for at least 2 months). Benoit would like to continue working hard, both as a wrestler and behind the scenes, to make NCW grow as a wrestling company. When asked to consider if all of the injuries and the time he spends are worth it, Benoit's answer is firm: "Yes, because I love wrestling. I'm young now, this is my time to make memories for me to look back on for the rest of my life."
That sentence encapsulates Benoit Chalifoux in a nutshell, a fellow who values, above all else, self-sacrifice, dedication and loyalty. He's a kid from Quebec, working hard to practice a hobby he loves. Just don't tell the Russian Patriot about that, though, the Russian Patriot is nowhere near as polite as Benoit Chalifoux. |
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