I can’t remember precisely what I was looking for online when I came across this on La Résistance’s Wikipedia page (so take this with a pinch of salt). It describes Sylvain’s referee gimmick and what the original plan for the debut of La Résistance was.
The La Resistance angle had an unsuccessful start in February 2003. During the No Way Out pay-per-view in Montreal, the WWE mocked the Montreal Screwjob (from 1997′s Survivor Series) in the main event. Sylvain Grenier had been working as a referee for two months prior to the re-match between Hulk Hogan and The Rock. During the aforementioned match, Grenier served as the referee, who contributed to Hogan’s loss when he faked being unconscious which led to Hulk Hogan being distracted by Mr McMahon. This, in turn, led to Grenier giving The Rock a chair which was used on Hogan. It was later announced that Grenier was French-Canadian, so essentially it was a Canadian who cheated the fans this time (overlooking that neither Hogan nor The Rock were from Canada, so neither was the hometown representative). Grenier would continue to serve as a biased official who decided matches to Mr. McMahon’s wishes. The original planned result of this was for Grenier to continue playing in favor of villains long enough so that numerous fan favorites would feel that they had been cheated and confront him. Claiming racial discrimination, he would call in friend René Duprée to help him enforce “cultural sensitivity”. However, after Hogan defeated McMahon at WrestleMania XIX, the angle was changed completely, removing Grenier’s role entirely before it could begin to go far enough to call in Duprée.
Name: Sylvain Grenier
