Édouard Carpentier

Édouard Carpentier
Carpentier in March 2010
Born	17 July 1926 Roanne, Rhône-Alpes, France
Died	30 October 2010 (aged 84) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Édouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz Édouard Carpentier Flying Frenchman Eddy Wiechoski
Billed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Billed weight	230 lb (100 kg)
Billed from	Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Édouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz (Russian: Эдуард Виецз; July 17, 1926 – October 30, 2010) was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name Édouard Carpentier. In a career that spanned from the 1950s into the 1970s, he garnered several world championships.

Weiczorkiewicz was born in 1926 in Roanne, Loire, France to a Russian father and a Polish mother. He joined the French resistance during World War II under the German occupation and was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Croix du combattant medals by the French government at the close of the war. He moved to Montreal, Québec in 1956 and became a Canadian citizen. He also became an all around athlete with gymnastic skills.

Carpentier was a crowd favourite, one of the first wrestlers to delight fans with acrobatic leaps from the turnbuckles and a variety of other aerial manoeuvres such as the rope-aided twisting headscissors. He was always a fan favourite in his bouts and was matched against numerous villains, perhaps the most well known of whom was the legendary Killer Kowalski.

The highpoint of his career was his NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign from 1956 to 1957. He won the title in a disputed contest against Lou Thesz on 14 June 1957. Some NWA territories and officials recognized the disputed win as a legitimate title change, while others did not. This led to the split of the NWA and led to the creation of the American Wrestling Association and other organizations, all with their own world titles. He was later recognized as the first holder of the AWA's Omaha version of the World Heavyweight Championship. He eventually dropped the belt to Verne Gagne.