Thanks to Chris from It’s My Wrestling Podcast for sending in the following interview with former WWE star “The Mountie” Jacques Rougeau. The interview includes Jacques talking about wrestlers taking drugs during the 90s, nearly killing Koko B Ware, Kevin Owens, Vince McMahon being scared of The Bulldogs and loads more.
Here are some transcribed highlights and scroll down to watch the full interview.
Why Vince didn’t fire him after Dynamite Kid incident, Vince being scared of The Bulldogs:
I think because Vince was afraid of the Bulldogs. I think of all the times that they were doing bad jokes to people. Cutting their pants in the winter before they went to the airport, things that were not nice, shaving a guy’s hair and losing his character. I think that Vince and the boys would laugh about it, because it was always something about ego. I think he would laugh almost like people that are afraid to face their bullies in life. You could be sitting in a class at school and you have this guy who’s always doing dirty jokes or being mean. Then he looks at you, you have two choices. You could either look at him and laugh because then he’s not going to touch you because you’re on his side. Or you can make a man out of yourself and don’t look at him and not acknowledge him. I think that Vince was afraid of The Bulldogs bullying. I think he was half encouraging it and half saying hey guys, that’s not funny, you know? I think it wasn’t the way maybe to approach it because the Bulldogs were saying okay, he heard it he laughed a little bit, but he didn’t fire us, so I think we could keep going. They got worse and worse. So when I stood up, the only guy who stood up to them, I think Vince realised that he screwed up, that he shouldn’t let it go that far.
Who was on drugs, how bad the atmosphere was backstage:
It was a walking drugstore. I hate to tell you this because I had a feud with them but the worst was the Bulldogs. They walk in the dressing room and they have needles sticking their butt. They were walking around like ticking time bombs. You’re walking around, and then you go in the bathroom and they were all doing it you could see them. I could count on my hand, maybe two if I’m lucky, he guys that weren’t on steroids. Everybody was on steroids, everybody but I can think of few. Santana, Martel, Mike Sharp, Lombardi, me and Raymond, Lanny Poffo. There’s not many that wasn’t on steroids. Vince knew that the kids, they liked the superheroes, the big guys, the guys who are all bubbled up. He made a lot of money with that. I remember during the time of the trial there was a few rumours backstage that we’re going to court. I didn’t give a shit because we weren’t on them. We didn’t care and we were actually proud of that. A lot of the guys, I had heat with because they would come and ask me to pee pee in a tube test or in a pot for them. I say no, I’m not getting implicated in your shit, it’s your shit. You get out of it.
Genuinely tasering and burning Koko B Ware by mistake:
My first match with Koko B Ware. I took my big shock stick in the dressing room, and it was a real one, people thought it was a work but it was a real one. My friend was a genius mechanic. He took a lawn mower and he took the coil, reverses the wire in there which makes a big flame at the end. When I got in the ring, my stick had two two buttons on it. He had the on and off, and underneath you have the emergency button. I wanted to make sure that when I put that emergency off that I didn’t zap someone with, I was I was afraid of my own stick. So anyway, so when I got in the ring with Koko, there we are 20 minutes in the match. He’s soaking wet. He’s doing the job for me. He’s doing me a favour. So he’s lying down in the middle and then I come with my stick and don’t ask me what happened. I must have flipped that pinky off or something. I started zapping him and he’s soaking wet now. He’s starting to shake in the ring and my god, he’s doing a good job and I’m saying to myself wow Koko, that’s a great thing to do for me! The next thing you know – you know when you burn your skin it smells like pig? So I started to smell that. So I’m saying to myself wow, Vince is good man! He even has the smell effect! This is really good! So when I get backstage and then I’m waiting for Koko to thank him so much because he made me look so good. Then it comes out – “I’m gonna kill you!” I didnt know why! I’m going holy shit, he really wanted to kick my ass!
Training Kevin Owens, what he was like as a 14 year old, attitude issues:
He was my student for five years. I’m the one who taught him how to wrestle. I knew when I was teaching him in my school, he was always ahead of the other kids. And he always wanted to go fast. I was saying hey, we’re a group, you’re not alone here the other guys paid too. So just take your time. Then after five years, he couldn’t take it anymore. He just took off and did independent things. He was arrogant. I was when I was young. I saw him in me. It didn’t bother me that because he was a likeable guy. You know, when you put him back in his place, he’d come and give you a hug. I wanted him to understand that he went out of bounds a little bit then I bring him back in line and then we had a great relationship till the day left. I always liked the guy. He knew how to be liked by people.
Why he was only Intercontinental Champion for 2 days, Bret Hart issues:
Bret Hart I must tell you I love the guy. I had a run with him, it wasn’t for the Intercontinental but my last month run there as the Mountie before they cancelled my career as The Mountie. Bret is the greatest nicest guy to be around but he’s a hard businessman. He does not like to do favours to just anybody. He had a different philosophy of becoming a superstar which he managed to do very well. He had a different philosophy where if you lose it’s not good for your character but we’re all working together. So it was hard to do business. I know for a fact that when Bret had to drop the title to Roddy Piper at the Pay Per View, he didn’t want to do it. So what Vince did was he took me as the guinea pig to put in between just to do this switch to get it from me to him. Bret when he lost to me for those two days I had it, he came in with 104 fever. He’s es in the ring that night when he defended the title and he had the announcer announce that I’m sick, I’m dying, but I’m gonna wrestle anyway. So I beat that guy, I didn’t beat anybody, I just beat a guy that was sick and dead. So Bret was hard like that in life, you know? And, and that’s where they had the screw job with Bret also with Shawn Michaels in Montreal, because Bret didn’t want to give the title back to Vince when he was going for another company. So he was a hard guy to deal with.
