René Goguen (born December 15, 1983), better known by his ring name René Duprée (French: [ʁəne dypʁe]; Japanese: レネ・デュプリ, romanized: Rene Dyupuri) is a Canadian professional wrestler and podcaster. Goguen is best known for his tenure in World Wrestling Entertainment, where he is a one-time World Tag Team Champion with Sylvain Grenier as the tag team La Résistance and a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion with Kenzo Suzuki. He has also worked for Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling, Wrestle-1 and Hustle.
He is the first wrestler in WWE to win a title as a teenager. Goguen is the son of Canadian Maritimes wrestling promoter Emile Duprée.
Goguen started professional wrestling in 1997 for his father's promotion Grand Prix Wrestling in New Brunswick.
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (2002–2007)
Heartland Wrestling Association and Ohio Valley Wrestling (2002–2003)
In April 2002 Goguen signed with the World Wrestling Federation making him the youngest wrestler to sign with the WWF at the age of 18. On April 27, 2002, Goguen debuted under the ringname, René Duprée, after his father, for Heartland Wrestling Association when he defeated EZ Money. Then on October 9, 2002, defeating Johnny Jeter for Ohio Valley Wrestling. Duprée would team up with various wrestlers in dark matches on SmackDown! and Raw, while also competing in Ohio Valley Wrestling until April 2003. His first match in WWE was on November 12, 2002 in a dark match on Velocity when he lost to Chris Kanyon.
After weeks of vignettes airing, Sylvain Grenier and Duprée made their first appearance on the April 28, 2003, episode of Raw as La Résistance by attacking Scott Steiner. Steiner had made remarks two weeks earlier comparing France to hell and Grenier and Duprée were offended. La Résistance went on to feud with Scott Steiner and Test, who was forced to be Steiner's tag team partner by Stacy Keibler. La Résistance ended up defeating Steiner and Test at Judgment Day on May 18, 2003, in the team's pay-per-view debut.
On June 15, 2003, La Résistance won the World Tag Team Championship from Kane and Rob Van Dam at Bad Blood, making Duprée the youngest wrestler in WWE history to not only win the World Tag Team Championship, but any championship in the company's history at 19 years old. As a result of winning the title, he became the first teenager in the history of the WWE that has won a championship. Duprée held on to this distinction until April 2018, when Nicholas won the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 34 at the age of 10.
The third member of La Résistance, Rob Conway, was originally introduced as an unnamed American serviceman being abused by Grenier and Duprée. On the August 18 episode of Raw, when The Dudley Boyz came out to attack La Résistance, they brought Conway into the ring with an American flag. Once the Dudley Boyz had their backs turned, Conway attacked the Dudley Boyz with the American flag and then tore it off the pole and laid it on top of them. Conway, now renamed to Robért Conway, joined Duprée and Grenier and the trio began carrying the French flag to ringside and singing the French national anthem before their matches. La Résistance lost the World Tag Team Championship to the Dudley Boyz at Unforgiven in a three-on-two handicapped tables match. The trio went on to feud with several tag teams, including the Dudley Boyz, The Hurricane and Rosey, and Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak.
In October 2003, Grenier suffered a back injury, resulting in Duprée and Conway holding the tag team together. At Armageddon, La Résistance competed in a Tag Team Turmoil match for the World Tag Team Championship which was won by Ric Flair and Batista. At the Royal Rumble, Duprée competed in the 30-man Royal Rumble match where he eliminated Matt Hardy before getting eliminated by Rikishi. At WrestleMania XX, La Résistance (Duprée and Conway) competed in a Fatal four-way tag team match for the World Tag Team Championship but failed to win the titles. Grenier returned in March 2004, thus reuniting the trio. The reunion did not last long, as Duprée was drafted to the SmackDown! brand in the 2004 WWE Draft Lottery on the March 22 episode of Raw.
Championship pursuits (2004–2005)
Duprée made his SmackDown! debut on the March 25, 2004, episode of SmackDown!, defeating Billy Kidman. He briefly had a talk show on SmackDown!, called "Cafe de René", but his only guest was Torrie Wilson as the segment was cancelled after only one night. Duprée wrestled Wilson to a draw on the April 29 edition of SmackDown!. For several months, pursued the United States Championship, held by John Cena. After an incident that happened during his "Cafe de René" (the same incident involving Torrie Wilson), Duprée challenged Cena to a championship match. The match was granted by SmackDown! general manager Kurt Angle and it took place at Judgment Day. Cena retained the championship at Judgment Day when he pinned Duprée after executing an F-U. At The Great American Bash, Duprée competed in a Four-way elimination match for the United States Championship which saw Cena retain once again.
After losing to Cena, he focused on the WWE Tag Team Championship and eventually won the title with Kenzo Suzuki by defeating Billy Kidman and Paul London on the September 9 episode of SmackDown! (making him the youngest man to win the WWE Tag Team Championship at age 20). At No Mercy, Duprée and Suzuki defeated Rob Van Dam and Rey Mysterio to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. They lost the WWE Tag Team Championship on the December 9 episode of SmackDown! to Van Dam and Mysterio. This match happened just days before Van Dam and Mysterio were to challenge Duprée and Suzuki at Armageddon. At Armageddon, Duprée and Suzuki lost to Van Dam and Mysterio in a rematch. At the 2005 Royal Rumble, Duprée competed in the 30-man Royal Rumble match where he was eliminated by Chris Jericho.
On the March 24, 2005, airing of SmackDown!, he was "sacrificed" by The Undertaker as a message to Randy Orton (regarding their match at WrestleMania 21), when The Undertaker interrupted a match between Duprée and Booker T. The result of the "sacrifice" saw Duprée receiving a Tombstone Piledriver on the steel steps which lead up to the ring. Duprée was taken off television after this, working dark matches until the April 28 edition of SmackDown!, where he was defeated by John Cena. Duprée went back to dark matches and a few Velocity matches until the June 18 episode of Velocity, where Duprée came out calling himself "The French Phenom", defeating Mark Jindrak via submission. The following week on Velocity, Duprée came out with a new look, sporting black trunks with his initials as well as jet black hair and a Dalí-styled goatee.
On June 30, Duprée became one of the last minute trades in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, which saw him jump from SmackDown! back to Raw. On the July 4 edition of Raw, Duprée redebuted with his French Phenom gimmick and defeated Val Venis on the same night. Duprée began cutting promos using a new quote referring to himself as "Simply Phenomenal". Duprée also began a winning streak against superstars such as The Hurricane, Matt Striker and Tajiri before suffering a near career-ending hernia in mid-September.
Once Duprée was cleared to wrestle, WWE sent him back to Ohio Valley Wrestling for training before returning to WWE. On October 19, 2005, Duprée returned to OVW facing Robert Fury in a no-contest. On February 21, 2007, La Resistance defeated Kofi Kingston and David Hart Smith in what would be Duprée's final appearance in OVW.
On the August 8, 2006, episode of ECW on Sci Fi, a promo aired with Duprée, sporting a clean shave and long hair, announcing that he would be debuting for the ECW brand soon. Promos aired throughout the rest of August showing Duprée taking pictures, posing in mirrors, and working out, while claiming he is "the most extreme athlete in ECW history". Duprée made his ECW debut on September 12, 2006, defeating Balls Mahoney. On the February 20, 2007, episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Duprée reformed La Résistance with Sylvain Grenier, but the team's reunion was short-lived after Duprée was suspended at the start of March and sent to rehab after violating the Health and Wellness policy.