PCO Shoots On Signing With ROH Over AEW, All Out's Backstage Fight & More - Exclusive Interview

In his more than 30-year pro wrestling career, Carl Joseph Yvon Ouellet, better known as Pierre Carl Ouellet or PCO, has worked for pretty much everyone. While he is the resident monster in Impact Wrestling at the moment, some fans may remember him better as one-half of The Quebecers in WWF during the early 1990s. The Mountie-themed grapplers went on to become three-time WWF Tag Team Champions before being re-packaged as the dastardly one-eyed pirate Jean-Pierre LaFitte. As LaFitte, he committed one of the most heinous acts in all of pro wrestling history: He stole Bret Hart's jacket and sunglasses! This led to the two men engaging in a three-month feud that culminated at WWF In Your House 3, when Hart made LaFitte tap to his signature Sharpshooter submission hold.

In the years after, Ouellet would wrestle for WCW, ECW and even the NWA before retiring in 2011. Shortly before 2018, however, Ouellet quietly started wrestling again on the indies before not-so-quietly reinventing himself once more as "The French Frankenstein," PCO. Ouellet's latest iteration sees him presented as an unstoppable monster who can only be contained by his creator, D Destro. The two men have released various insane viral videos together that see PCO doing everything from catching car batteries to having sharp-tipped darts thrown at his body. The change in gimmick led to Ouellet signing with Ring of Honor in 2018 and eventually becoming the ROH World Heavyweight Champion when he defeated Rush at ROH Final Battle 2019. 

Ring of Honor released all of their talent from their contracts in 2021. In the time since, PCO has signed with Impact and ROH has been acquired by AEW President Tony Khan.

You're pretty good friends with The Young Bucks, are you not? I know that in the past, before All In, I distinctively remember asking Matt Jackson, 'Who on the indies would you like to see here at All In?' And you were the man that he said at the time. So I didn't know if you want to talk a little bit about your relationship with The Young Bucks.

When AEW started, I was so confused because I was talking to Marty on one side, which was ROH, and I was talking with Cody and The Bucks on the other side, but thinking in my mind that they were all together, they were all going to do AEW together, or they're all going to stay in ROH or whatever. So I was talking to both sides before I knew that, okay, now I've got to pick one side. Just weird. I remember texting with Cody and saying, "Hey, Marty just texted me two days ago. I just told them everything." So it's like, okay. So they weren't talking to each other. So I was not aware of that, because I knew they were such great friends. So I never in my mind thought that maybe Marty was not going to follow, was not going to go to AEW.

And then when I had to pick side for me, ROH was the one, because I went with kind of security, so to speak, because I didn't know Tony, I didn't know how much time he would be willing to invest. I didn't have a TV deal back then. They had a few pay-per-views lined out. All In was the first one they did. Then they had the Double or Nothing coming up for Vegas. And then they could offer a money deal and things like that, but you didn't know how long it was going to last. And then you look on the other side, ROH was there for 20 years. So you're like, okay. So at that time, at that point, which was 2018, 2019, I had to make the best decision for myself. And I thought that going with ROH, because Sinclair was behind that, because they had 216 TV stations, and they were talking about going live, and, I mean, competing live show every week.

And to be fair, Ring of Honor would be in a very different place had the pandemic not hit. I know that Ring of Honor was really poised to make some big moves, and just that the chips did not fall their way due to what was going on.

Yeah, it was a great company. So yeah, I was talking to all of those guys, and I had good relationship, good conversations with all of them, and felt like I was wanted there and I was appreciated by them ... I liked all of them, too. So it's just the way, like you said, just the way that chips landed. It was just like a sure done deal one side and a sure done deal on the other side, but not the one where the future was ... We don't know the future, but it ended up AEW became so much bigger than ROH.

They bought ROH.

Yeah, exactly.

The reason I asked you about The Bucks and all this is because I know you have some familiarity with everybody that's involved with the biggest story of pro wrestling right now. So from your end, I don't know if you watched what Punk said at All Out media scrum or just read what he said, but what's your reaction when you see CM Punk go out there and say what he said after AEW All Out?

Well the thing is, there's a lot of information missing for me. If you're not there on a day-to-day basis and you don't see someone react on a day-to-day, or on a moment-to-moment, you don't know his attitude whatsoever, because we're on the outside. I've met Punk a few times, maybe 10 times. He's not one of my friends, so I don't know him personally. So I don't know how he's feeling, what he's going through, what the promises were, and what happened, what doesn't happen, because that's the thing with this business. And the bigger the stakes, the bigger the stages, the bigger everything is, the more problems you're going to have. So I remember even saying that he was always the king of the jungle, and there's a reason for that, because he knew he had to deal with a lot of problems and things like that.

Do you think Punk handled it the right way by airing his grievances, and calling out The Bucks, and the EVPs and Hangman Page?

I think he's old enough, he's got enough experience to know what's right and what's wrong. If you ask me how I would handle this situation, I would probably handle it in a different way. But that's me. That's the way I am. For me, in front of a camera, that's not where I like to speak out my problems, and to wash my dirty laundry in front of cameras or a microphone. I mean, it's good for the show. It creates those moments where, jeez, is that real? Was it something to spike up the interest of the pay-per-view, whatever, or if it's just personal? It's pretty damn crazy.

And it sounds like it got crazier, because then backstage it sounds like a giant brawl broke out where everybody was biting and punching each other. You've been in this business more than a cup of coffee.

I've been through those things, too. I've done it. I've been there, I've done that. So that's why I speak with experience right here. The way I've handled my things in the past, way in the past, with The Kliq, with Sean and Diesel, and it was some bad blood at that time. It was pretty bad. And if I had to redo it again, it wouldn't be like that. It would be, and first of all, sometimes you've just got to be tough mentally. You've just got to tough it up. You've just got to go through the situation.

And look at me now. With times, everything change. And probably me and Kevin Nash are super good buddies right now. I wouldn't say best friends, but every time we see each other, man, we're having fun. We went out a few times together in the past after that, and we had great nights, good fun, and good evenings, and supper, whatever. And at one point I couldn't stand him. And the reason is there's so much build up in between everybody that gets to your head, too. So you need to have a clear head ... Yeah, it's a lot, man. I know, I kind of feel where everybody's at, and it's not a good situation.

Well let's talk a little bit about you, PCO ... [What are] your thoughts on the work that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are doing, because I guess you were the third man in their first match. What does this all mean?

Yeah, no, we had a great match, which was a three-way match back in the IWS, which was probably one of the three of us, one of, all of us, the greatest match that we probably had. Not just the three of us, but as far as the trio, probably a top 10 match for the three of us depending on anybody you wrestle with, with two other guys. I mean, it was just one of those nights where everything clicked. It was just on point. The story was good, all the craziness of the match, and how the weight went, the crowd's on fire. So it was just one of those 'best of' match.

Did you see in them what everybody's getting to see now? I mean, these two guys have arguably become two of the best of their generation.

Yeah, they were labeled as big prospects, young. Kevin was labeled as one of the biggest prospects. He was only 14. And Rami, maybe, around when he was 18, 19. He was probably the guy with the most potential in IWS. And Kevin, from the get-go when he was young, because he was so athletic and he was doing things that no one else could do. But he had it, too. He had, I mean, as far as the way to walk to the ring and the whole presence. So he had it in himself. So he was really meant to do that. But he didn't have it easy. It took him 13 or 14 years to make it.

So I think at one point, and it's always like that. Sometimes something goes quick, fast. That's the first two, three years, and everybody thinks, oh, he's going to be the next world champion. He's going to be with WWE or whatever. And then there're those years where you have to put in the work. Where you had to go from Montreal to Jersey, or Philly or the Northeast coast, and just drive his car every weekend, and just pay his dues big time there for so many years, and all across the states. And so it was not easy for him. It was not easy for him, it was not easy for Rami. He didn't have it handed on a silver plate. They really worked for it. They were labeled as future top prospects, but it didn't come that easy.