Jacques Rougeau Talks His Son's WWE Tryout Not Going Well And Backstage Incident With Arn Anderson
Former WWE Intercontinental and tag team champion Jacques 'The Mountie' Rougeau recently spoke to The Hannibal TV about his son Cedric's tryout with the WWE earlier this year.
Rougeau was with the WWE from 1986 to 1994. He was part of tag teams the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers and The Quebecers. He was most remembered for his heel gimmick, The Mountie. Rougeau said his son's tryout got off to a rocky start from the moment they got to the Performance Center.
"To be honest with you it wasn't a great success. We didn't have a great time in Orlando. I went as well, because I didn't want to leave him in an ocean full of sharks. The thing is also, I don't know if I can say this, I'm on the s–t list. My son right there had something against him right off the bat," Rougeau said. "The other thing is that when Vince [McMahon] was supposed to meet us, I went there to the Bell Centre in Montreal to introduce my son to him, we had a meeting at 11:30 in the morning in the cafeteria. So we showed up at 11 for the meeting, and finally we had our meeting at 7 o'clock at night. He made us wait seven hours in the cafeteria while all the boys came in looking at us saying, 'Hey, you're still there?' And finally at 7 o'clock, it wasn't even Vince that came it was Triple H, and... William Regal. He was very kind to us, all day long he said, 'Oh, I'm sorry.' He had a lot of respect for me, he really liked me a lot."
Rougeau revealed that his son had a bit of a confrontation with Arn Anderson. He said that incident, coupled with not meeting Vince McMahon, may have thrown his son off his game. He also believes being blackballed from the company himself might have hurt Cedric's chances.
"I knew that day when we left, even my son – and I'll tell you this I got a scoop, Arn Anderson tried to intimidate my son that day at the Bell Centre. We were just minding out business then Arn just came up and pushed him in the cafeteria and said 'Hey, watch out man!' And my son just turned around and said 'Oh, I'm sorry,' because, you know, I raised my kid to be polite. So that day, my son, he did it very gentleman-like but inside it must've hurt his feelings," Rougeau said. "It must've hurt his feelings to wait seven hours for someone who didn't even show up, Vince McMahon. So I think from then on he lost a lot of, they did well, WWE did well. They tried to take away his passion for wrestling, because you've seen him, he had it. It's amazing because when I went to the school out there we spent six minutes wrestling in the ring. The rest was only crossfit. It was all chains on your back, doing push-ups, running, it was nothing about the wrestling I knew of. So I'm part to blame for that to because I never followed the wrestling for the last fifteen to twenty years. So I'm part to blame for this, so I'll take my part of the blame."
Rougeau said he thinks Cedric still deserved a chance because he had a unique combination of size and skill-set. He believes Cedric would've been able to develop into an international star with the right training that would've been offered to him at the Performance Center. But unfortunately he doesn't think his son was given a fair shot at a WWE career.
"But at the same time, you take a guy like Cedric, he's bilingual, speak perfect English and French, he does drop kicks, back-flips, he was even doing a 450 before injuring his leg three or four years ago. He broke his leg doing a 450 off the top. For a six-foot-seven guy, 300 pounds, you don't see that s**t," Rougeau said. "But all I have to say is that if you have seven rings in a school in Orlando, and have so many great teachers, and he's not perfectly like you want him, you have a school – take my son and finish what I started."
"Change him in the new generation, give him what he needs," he continued. "But you can't take a guy – six-foot-seven, 300 hundred pounds, bilingual – because for marketing in France, Europe, and Africa, everywhere. If you have a candidate like that, who's not perfect, but has all the assets to become a great champion one day then take him in and help him. So I don't think the mentality was to help him that much. I think the mentality was to break him, and I think they've succeeded in that psychologically when we didn't meet Vince, and physically in Orlando. So I think my son lost interest there."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Hannibal TV with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Hannibal TV