By KIP DOYLE
Note: Full interview will be published in next edition of National Teen Set Outsider magazine.
Like Dr. Frankenstein’s creation, pro wrestler Pierre Carl Ouellet’s unexpected reemergence as “The French Canadian Frankenstein” PCO has been unpredictable and seemingly unstoppable. And similar to the original Frankenstein, PCO is one monster who’s easy to pull for.
If you were watching during the WWF’s New Generation era in the mid 90s – a down period for the company – you might remember Ouellet as Quebecer Pierre or the pirate Jean Pierre Lafitte.
At 50 years old and 31 years into a notable career that took him to championships in the WWF and WCW, Ouellet had been off of the national radar for over a decade. But earlier this year – and seemingly out of nowhere – Ouellet started gaining attention on the independent scene as the reanimated PCO, the “not human” protege of black-tongued mastermind D.Destro.
Throughout a series of self released, insane “training” videos, D.Destro has electrocuted PCO many times, bashed him with a frying pan, hung him by a noose, and ordered the actual scarification of PCO’s chest (PCO ate his own discarded flesh) and subsequent insertion of a car battery into his chest.
The videos are balls-to-the-wall and intense, just like PCO’s reckless wrestling style that involves hurling his 250 lbs. body as a weapon in and out of the ring. PCO’s new mythology has given new life to a once under appreciated career, bringing the Montreal native consistent main event bookings with top independent promotions around the world.
In the spirit of his Frankenstein-themed character, PCO spoke about his connection to the legendary horror character, scary pro wrestlers, facing bullies and more.
Which wrestlers scared you growing up and early in your career?
Someone who caught my attention was the Missing Link. He really caught my attention with how he carried himself and how crazy he looked.
I remember I was like 18-19 during one of my first times touring the Maritimes and I saw a match with the original Moondog Sailor White. A big drunk guy, pretty scary… a pretty big boy. And I saw him massacre an extra guy during a TV taping match.
But I was part of the roster, and I remember I was matched with Sailor White. And I remember I thought, “I might be in for something here, this guy might try to take advantage of me.” But the guy, he was taking fucking backdrops, he was taking crazy bumps. He made me look like a million dollars.
How did you end up developing the French Canadian Frankenstein character?
(PCO and D.Destro) had the ideas for the electricity and it all became unglued. And we really hadn’t been thinking about Frankenstein, that was the first time we thought about… me walking like him and moving like I did in the vignettes, but we didn’t know that this happened in these old movies.
And by researching more on the character, we find out that we have the symmetry. (D.Destro) tries to reanimate me and says, “It’s alive, it’s alive!” And we found out in the movie they said, “It’s alive, it’s alive!” We used exactly the same words without knowing it. We were on to something without knowing we were on to something. And then we did the fire to my arm and everything, that was also part of the movie.
Were you ever a fan of horror movies?
Not really, I really wasn’t a big horror movie guy. Because it scared me all the time and would make me jump out of my seat. I could call the shot, I knew what was going to happen. Thirty seconds later you’d still hop out of your chair and your heart stops. If I had the choice to watch a movie, I didn’t want to be stressed out the whole time.
You are known for sticking up for yourself backstage and not backing down when someone has tried to take advantage of you.
Like when I got in the Brawl For All (a poorly conceived legitimate WWF fighting tournament) with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, everybody was trying to intimidate me and scare me, they’d say “Oh Steve Williams… he’s a tough guy, he never lost a fight” and he was beating up wrestlers and stuff like that.
So Hawk from the Road Warriors came up to me before the Brawl For All and said, “Carl, you know Steve is a fucking machine. Stay in the ring with him for a bit and when he tags you, stay down so you don’t get hurt. And I told Hawk to go back to Steve and tell him I’m not going to lay down for him and tell him I am going to kick his ass.”
That really pissed me off. I thought that was a coward message to try to get a win without fighting. I was really mad. And I was ready to take a knockout or a loss or whatever it took, but I wasn’t going to chicken out of this one.
It’s just the way that I am. If it has to go there… but I’m not trying to go there. I’m trying to work, I’m trying to keep a reputation. I’ve seen too many bullies like The Dynamite Kid or Dr. Death himself. I remember seeing him scare new guys and banging his head against the locker and throwing guys around, saying “This is my place, get the fuck out of here.”
But still in 2018 the bully thing, the trying to intimidate people thing is still there with some wrestlers and that doesn’t impress me at all. I always thought if you are a bully and you are looking for trouble, you are going to find it.
See the rest of the interview in the next edition of National Teen Set Outsider magazine! PCO talks about paranormal experiences, his future goals and his ideas for a PCO movie.
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