Jacques Rougeau was a wrestler known for his time in WWE in the 1980s alongside his brother Raymond and in the 1990s when he became The Mountie. Jacques and his brother Raymond were known as The Fabulous Rougeaus until 1990 and defeated other legendary teams such as The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake). However, he achieved his greatest success as The Mountie, a Canadian mounted police officer, and became Intercontinental Champion after defeating Bret Hart in January 1992. Two days later, he lost the title to Roddy Piper at the Royal Rumble PPV.
Two years later, we stopped seeing him as The Mountie and he returned to the WWE tag team division. Rougeau teamed up with Pierre Ouellet to form the team The Quebecers and won the WWE Tag Team Championship three times. Jacques Rougeau spoke with the American podcast TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING to reminisce about his best years in the individual division of Vince McMahon's company as The Mountie.
His time as The Mountie
"To be honest, I had the best moments of my career as The Mountie. I worked with guys like Macho Man, I remember a match against him in England. I had matches against Undertaker, Sid Vicious, and Big Boss Man, many fantastic memories. There's nothing I haven't done as The Mountie. I remember matches against Tito Santana or Koko B. Ware. I had a lot of fun with that character and, honestly, I think I made people believe that I was The Mountie. I was convinced that they believed in me. It's tremendous because when you create a character, as I say in my school, you have to believe in it if you want people to believe in it too. I had a brother-in-law who was in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he gave me some tips and moves they used when they arrested someone; so those moves I used in the ring were taken from real life."
The controversial confrontation against The Big Boss Man at Summer Slam 1991
"It's one of the best matches I've had in my entire career. Ray Traylor (Big Boss Man), who unfortunately passed away, was a very kind person. I never saw Big Boss Man talk badly to anyone in the locker room or disrespect someone, he was like Owen Hart. Working with a guy like him for a year or a year and a half all over the world was like having a night off every night and it was a pleasure because he made sure I didn't get hurt. He took care of me and I took care of him. It was a great time in my career."
Not being able to use the name The Mountie in Canada
"I did so much to make the Royal Canadian Mounted Police look so bad that they took me off television and never let me appear again with that character. The only way they would let me was if I removed the sleeves from my uniform, the shirt, if I kept the black pants and if they announced me as Jacques Rougeau. Everyone knew me as Jacques Rougeau, so it was also fun. I think the mounted police took it too seriously. It's like banning movies that feature corrupt or bad police officers. I think my character was becoming so strong that in the end they decided to send a letter to Vince saying that I would not be allowed to wrestle on television anymore. After they decided to take away that character because what was happening wasn't helping me, I took a sabbatical year and returned a year and a half later with Carl Ouellet as The Quebecers. We had the same outfit and our entrance theme was "We're not the Mounties". I think Vince wanted to bring it back somehow."
The impact the character had on Jacques and how it is currently remembered
"The Mountie was great. I will never forget when I won the Intercontinental Championship against Bret Hart and when I lost it to 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. I had three action figures that were sold at Toys R Us stores worldwide. Now I give lectures at schools against school bullying. They don't know me because they are too young and have only heard about me. I make a lot of appearances and I appear on TV. When I arrive, I take off my belt and bring out the action figures so they know that I was important. All of that was done thanks to The Mountie character."
