Rougeau Family Honored At AEW Redemption, Rocky Romero Taken Out

AEW paid tribute to a piece of Montreal wrestling history during the Redemption Buy In show, bringing out the Rougeau family to a hometown ovation — and, by the account of the event, a segment that ended with Rocky Romero taken out.

Matt Menard, working in his “Daddy Magic” persona, introduced Ray Rougeau and Jacques Rougeau to the Montreal faithful. Ray, a beloved figure in the region going back to his days as one half of The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, drew a warm reaction from the crowd. Jacques, best known to a generation of WWE fans as The Mountie, got a very different response — he was booed loudly and had some words for the crowd and his detractors in the building.

The Rougeau name carries real weight in Quebec. Jacques and Ray were mainstays of Montreal wrestling long before either ever set foot in a WWE ring, and Jacques in particular has remained a polarizing figure in the region thanks to his history both in the ring and in the local wrestling business itself. Bringing them out for a Montreal crowd wasn’t just nostalgia — it was AEW leaning into the kind of regional history that a promotion like WWE doesn’t always bother to acknowledge, and it’s the sort of touch that tends to land hardest with longtime fans who remember exactly why a name like Rougeau still gets a reaction one way or the other decades later.

That the segment reportedly ended with Rocky Romero taken out adds an in-ring wrinkle to what could have otherwise been a straightforward nostalgia moment. Romero has spent years as one of AEW’s most reliable behind-the-scenes hands and in-ring veterans, frequently popping up in angles that connect the promotion’s roster to its history and to wrestling’s larger, older lineage — so his involvement here, even in a supporting or antagonistic role, fits a pattern of AEW using him to bridge past and present.

AEW has made a habit of using milestone or special shows to spotlight regional legends and give hometown crowds something personal to react to, and Redemption’s stop in Montreal was clearly built with that in mind. Whether the Rougeau appearance and the Romero angle lead anywhere further on AEW programming remains to be seen, but the reaction alone — a beloved babyface in Ray and a still-hated heel in Jacques — shows how much history AEW tapped into just by bringing the family out. Fans in Montreal clearly haven’t forgotten either side of the Rougeau legacy, and it’ll be worth watching whether AEW builds anything more out of the moment in the weeks ahead.