La Résistance

This article is about a professional wrestling stable. See French Resistance for the World War II resistance movement, and La Resistance for the South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut reference.

La Résistance is a professional wrestling stable on WWE RAW, originally billed as a French team at a time when many Americans resented the French government for its perceived lack of support in the "War on Terror".

Stable history

Creation and RAW Debut

The stable was created when the WWE aired commercials of two arrogant "Frenchmen" (Sylvain Grenier and René Duprée) attacking the United States and its policy from a French news studio.

Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on RAW by attacking Scott Steiner. Steiner had made remarks two weeks earlier comparing France to hell and Grenier and Duprée were offended. Their greatest insult to the United States came on Memorial Day 2003 when they interrupted RAW announcer Lilian Garcia as she was singing America the Beautiful. After several minutes of Grenier calling America barbarian and saying that France would not allow the US to be the policeman of the world, the sound of glass shattering suddenly filled the arena when Stone Cold Steve Austin cleared the ring of La Résistance and said some unflattering remarks about the French nation.

Grenier and Duprée went on to win the WWE World Tag-Team Championships from Kane and Rob Van Dam at WWE Bad Blood in 2003.

Membership Changes

When Grenier began to have back problems in mid 2003 the decision was made to add a third member. Enter Rob Conway, who posed as an American serviceman being abused by Grenier and Duprée. When the Dudley Boyz came out to attack La Résistance they brought Conway in the ring with an American flag. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned to Conway, he attacked them with the American flag and then tore it off the pole and laid it on top of them.

In March 2004, the stable was broken up when Duprée was "drafted" in a "lottery" by WWE's other brand, SmackDown!.

Second championship reign

La Résistance still existed, but as a tag-team featuring Grenier and Conway, and now billed as a French-Canadian team. Several months after the loss of Duprée, La Résistance went on to win the World Tag-Team Titles in Grenier's home town of Montreal to a standing ovation.

With the help of RAW GM Eric Bischoff La Résistance managed to keep hold of the titles for five months, but at the first interactive Par-Per-View Taboo Tuesday they had to defend their titles against the two Superstars who were not voted for by the fans to get a World Heavyweight title shot at Triple H. This stipulation meant they would either face the team of Edge and Chris Benoit, Edge and Shawn Michaels, or Benoit and Michaels.

During Taboo Tuesday the annoucement was made that HBK (Shawn Michaels) had been voted for a title shot with 38.72% of the vote compared to Edge's 33.42% and Benoit's 27.86%; this meant La Résistance would meet the same pairing they defeated to win the championship five months earlier (Benoit and Edge).

The team of Chris Benoit & Edge managed to defeate La Résistance to win the World Tag-Team Championship, even though Edge left the arena during the match leaving Benoit win the match on his own.

Third championship reign

The team of Grenier and Conway went on to win back the tag-team championship from Chris Benoit and Edge just thirteen days after losing the title to them on an episode of RAW. Soon after, on the November 15, 2004 edition of RAW, La Résistance lost the World Tag-Team Championship to Eugene and William Regal.

Fourth championship reign

Grenier and Conway managed to win the World Tag-Team Championship for the third time together and fourth since the creation of the stable. This championship reign was a rare one since it was won at a RAW-brand house show on January 16, 2005 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Championship victories are rare at house shows since only a relatively small number of people have the chance to see them. This time, La Résistance defeated William Regal and Jonathan Coachman, who was taking the place of the injured Eugene. Eugene injured his left patellar tendon at WWE New Year's Revolution and would miss several months. Grenier and Conway soon lost the belts back to William Regal on RAW from Tokyo, Japan, after Regal found himself a new tag team partner, Tajiri.

Road to the gold

La Résistance repeatedly attempted to regain the gold (mainly on Sunday Night Heat) from Regal and Tajiri in many different matches but just fell short during each one, during their "last shot" for the gold the team thought they had won back the titles only to have the decision reversed by referee Mike Chioda due to La Résistance not pinning the legal man, La Résistance went on to lose the match, this was to be their last chance to win back the gold from Regal and Tajiri.

The team were given one more chance at Regal and Tajiri during a Tag Team Turmoil match during Backlash, in the match La Résistance managed to eliminate the champions but were still unable to win the match and regain the titles as they were defeated by the winners of the match Hurricane and Rosey, the next night on RAW La Resistance tried again to win the titles in a match against the new champions but were unsucessful again.

Signature Move(s)

Grenier and Dupree

• Bonsoir (Double team spinebuster slam)

Conway and Grenier

• Au Revoir (An assisted elevated neckbreaker slam)
• Le Crepe/Bonne Nuit (Bearhug, clothesline combination)