Gertrude Vachon was born January 12, 1962 in Montreal Quebec, Canada and was billed from The Otherside of Darkness. Gertrude came from a very respectful family in The Vachon's with her dad Paul "Butcher" Vachon who was a professional wrestler throughout the 1960's - 1970's.
At the age of 16 years old Gertrude started training under the late Vivan Vachon and Lillian Ellison (The Fabulous Moolah) as Gertrude made her professional debut in 1986 under Florida Championship Wrestling as Trudy Herd, where she became part of Sullivan's Army of Darkness, and even had a rival feud with Madusa Miceli where she was placed in a angle with.
In the early 1990's Gertrude took over the managing of The Blackharts (Tom Nash & Dave Heath which later consisted of Tom Nash & Dave Johnson in WCW)
where they worked for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling, Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling, Herb Abram's Universal Wrestling Federation, and Giant Baba's All Japan. Around this time Gertrude and Tom who were husband and wife would split and Gertrude would start dating Dave Heath thus splitting the team up of Heath & Nash.
Gertrude was placed with the late Scott Bigelow (Bam Bam Bigelow) and was even chasing the WWF Women's Champion Debra Miceli (Alundra Blayze). A angle took place where Gertrude sold Bigelow's contract to the "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase (Theodore Dibiase Sr) where Gertrude would soon leave the company after that.
Gertrude would then work the independents including the USWA in Memphis(as did Dave Heath working as The Vampire Warrior) where she had a feud with Jacqueline Moore (Miss Texas) and captured the USWA Women's Championship on August 2, 1993 as Moore would recapture the title on August 23, 1993 through out this time Gertrude and Heath would work other independents as well.
October 31, 1994 Heath and Gertrude would tie the knot.
Gertrude debuted for World Championship Wrestling on March 3, 1997 attacking Madusa to rekindle their past rival which was a very short feud before leaving WCW for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) where she sided with Thomas Laughlin (Tommy Dreamer) in his feud with Scott Levy (Raven) and The Vampire Warrior.
In the Spring of 97 Gertrude returned to the World Wrestling Federation and was placed with Dustin Runnels (Goldust) where the duo would even feud with Marc Mero/Sable. Gertrude would even go on and to have a feud with Rena Lesnar(Sable) but was not able to capture the Women's Championship from Sable.
August 1998 Gertrude became part of The Oddities which consisted of John Tenta (Golga), Robert Maillet (Kurrgan), and Paulo Silva (Giant Silva). Gertrude was schedule for a title match with Sable but the match never took place after a legit fight backstage between Gertrude and Sable which resulted in Gertrude getting fired from the company.
Six months later Gertrude returned back to World Wrestling Entertainment and was placed with real life husband Dave Heath (Gangrel) but was released after a second backstage altercation.
In 2004 Gertrude became a born again christian where she was baptized by Scott Simpson (Nikita Koloff).
Gertrude and Heath divorced in 2006 but remained as friends after the split.
After her 2000 release from World Wrestling Entertainment Gertrude stayed working on the independents until December 5, 2007 when she retired from wrestling.
Gertrude was living in Port Richey Florida working as a tow truck operator.
She is survived by two sons: Joshua and Van
NOTE FROM GEORGE: I met Angel back in the mid 90's when the USWA switched over to The Big One Expo Center from the Mid South Coliseum as Angel was a very sweet lady indeed. I would like to send my condolence to the family.
George Wren is a former pro wrestling photographer/Associate Editor for New Wave Wrestling Magazine and has did correspondents for both RRO and The Wrestling Observer in the past.
Photo credit: pxwrestling.com, accelerator3359.com
pxwrestling.com, accelerator3359.com
