PCO (wrestler)
Carl Ouellet is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name PCO. He is known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation and with World Championship Wrestling during the 1990s. Throughout the 1990s, he regularly teamed with Jacques Rougeau as the Quebecers and the Amazing French Canadians, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship on three occasions. After retiring in 2011, Ouellet returned to the ring in 2016, undergoing a career renaissance with the gimmick of PCO: "part beast-turned-man, part old-time strongman". From 2018 to 2021, Ouellet wrestled for Ring of Honor, where he was a ROH World Champion, ROH World Tag Team Champion, and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. He joined TNA in 2022, winning the TNA Digital Media Championship before departing at the end of 2024.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1987–1993)
Carl Ouellet debuted in 1987 on the independent circuit. In the late-1980s, he wrestled for Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling as "Super Bee #1", teaming with Super Bee #2 as the "Super Bees". In 1991, he wrestled for All Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom as "Wild Carl Wallace". In 1992, he wrestled for the International Championship Wrestling Alliance in Florida as "Bash the Terminator", teaming with Crash the Terminator as "the Terminators". From October to December 1992, Ouellet wrestled for the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany. He also regularly appeared on New Catch on Eurosport, teaming with Brick Crawford as Double Trouble. From January 1993 to April 1993, he wrestled for Capitol Sports Promotions in Puerto Rico as "Killer Karl Wallace". In May 1993, Ouellet wrestled in Japan with W*ING as part of its Danger Road tour.While working in Puerto Rico, Ouellet was offered a try-out with the World Wrestling Federation, and he signed with the promotion later that year.
World Wrestling Federation (1993–1995)
Quebecer Pierre (1993–1995)
In July 1993, Ouellet debuted in the World Wrestling Federation as the tag team partner of Jacques Rougeau. As one half of The Quebecers, Ouellet adopted the name "Pierre" and dressed like Mounties. This was a reference to Jacques's previous gimmick, The Mountie, which had been banned in Canada due to concern that the heelish character of The Mountie would lead to children mistrusting legitimate Mounties. The Quebecers sang their own entrance theme, in which they stated that, contrary to appearances, "We're not the Mounties". Later in the year they were joined by manager, Johnny Polo.The Quebecers held the WWF Tag Team Championship on three occasions. On September 13, 1993, they defeated the Steiner Brothers for the tag titles. They were defeated by 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty on January 10, 1994, and again by Men on a Mission on March 29 but each time regained the titles within days. They lost the belts a third and final time to The Headshrinkers on the May 2 episode of Monday Night Raw in Burlington, Vermont. After the Quebecers lost to the Headshrinkers at a house show in July 1994, Pierre attacked Jacques, breaking up the team.
Pierre began wrestling singles matches, primarily at house shows and in dark matches. Pierre defeated Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon by count out on October 2, 1994, at a house show in Cornwall, Ontario. On October 21, 1994, the former partners wrestled one another in Rougeau's retirement match in Montreal, main-eventing a sold-out Montreal Forum. During the rest of 1994 and early 1995, Pierre continued to work in dark matches and house shows wrestling against Bob Holly, and Aldo Montoya.
Jean-Pierre LaFitte (1995)
In March 1995, Ouellet was repackaged as "Jean-Pierre LaFitte", the supposed descendant of the pirate Jean LaFitte. As a pirate he wore an eyepatch over his blind right eye. He engaged in a three-month feud with Bret Hart and stole the mirrored sunglasses that Hart handed to fans at ringside and Hart's trademark leather jacket. At In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks in July 1995, Hart defeated LaFitte in a dark match.In September 1995, Ouellet's WWF career was allegedly derailed due to legitimate conflict with The Kliq, a backstage group including main-event wrestlers Shawn Michaels and Diesel. According to Shane Douglas, who was working with the company at that time, a match pitting LaFitte against Nash, then the WWF Champion, in a Montreal Forum house show in LaFitte's hometown of Montreal was booked to end without a clean finish, with Lafitte winning by either DQ or countout, enabling the WWF to return to Montreal for a rematch at a later time. However, due to backstage politicking by Shawn Michaels the booking was reversed into a clean pinfall for Diesel. In turn, LaFitte refused to be pinned by Diesel and the match ended in a double-countout. Due to his refusal to put Diesel over, LaFitte was buried due to the Kliq's influence.
At In Your House 3 on September 24, 1995, Hart faced LaFitte in a rematch. This match ended when Hart forced Ouellet to submit by using the Sharpshooter. In his Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer described this pay-per-view match as the "show saver" and an "excellent match." Hart later recalled, "In a lot of ways, I loved working with guys like him. He was a guy, that when he threw you in the ropes, he really threw you in the rope...everything he did was power, and at the same time he was a very safe guy.... He took a lot of pride in his work, he really wanted to have a great match with me...And so we worked really hard, and it was a really good match." Hart defeated LaFitte once again on the following episode of Monday Night Raw, ending their feud.
In October 1995, Ouellet participated in the "Full Metal Tour" of Europe. He left the WWF in November 1995.
World Championship Wrestling (1996–1997)
In September 1996, Ouellet reunited with Jacques Rougeau and moved to World Championship Wrestling, where the duo was known as The Amazing French Canadians. They wore more traditional wrestling gear. Ouellet kept his beard and eye patch, but the team failed to duplicate the success they had found in the WWF. They had the distinction of losing to Arn Anderson and Steve "Mongo" McMichael in Anderson's last match.The Amazing French Canadians were managed by Col. Robert Parker, and they began feuding with Harlem Heat as a result of tension between Parker and Harlem Heat's manager, Sister Sherri. After Harlem Heat defeated the French Canadians at World War 3 on November 24, 1996, Sherri won the right to fight Parker for three minutes.
At a Montreal house show in April 1997, Ouellet won a "patch match" against The Giant via disqualification. He made his final appearance with WCW on the June 16, 1997, episode of Nitro, with he and Rougeau losing to Harlem Heat.
Catch Wrestling Association (1997)
From September to December 1997, Ouellet wrestled for the Catch Wrestling Association in Hanover and Bremen in Germany. Wrestling as "Jean-Pierre LaFitte", he competed in both the Catch Cup and the International Catch Cup.World Wrestling Federation (1998–2000)
Along with Jacques, Ouellet was rehired by the WWF in January 1998. In April 1998, the Quebecers took part in the tag team battle royal at WrestleMania XIV. They disbanded once more in May 1998.In July 1998, Ouellet competed in the Brawl for All tournament, but lost in the first round to "Dr. Death" Steve Williams.
In May 1999, Ouellet was sent to the WWF's Memphis, Tennessee-based developmental territory, Power Pro Wrestling, where he was known as "Kris Kannonball". That June, he defeated The Blue Meanie in a dark match for Shotgun Saturday Night.
In July 1999, Ouellet - along with other WWF employees such as Bart Gunn and Vader - worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling as part of a talent loan.
Ouellet left the WWF once more when his contract expired in January 2000, unhappy with the way he was being used.
Extreme Championship Wrestling (2000)
Ouellet briefly working for Extreme Championship Wrestling in mid-2000, squashing jobbers for several weeks before losing to Justin Credible in a match for Credible's ECW World Heavyweight Championship on ECW Hardcore TV.Return to WCW (2000)
Ouellet and Rougeau had a second run in WCW in August 2000, briefly joining Team Canada at the New Blood Rising pay-per-view. Rougeau—who had additionally served as a guest referee in Lance Storm's win over Mike Awesome—left immediately afterwards, upset with the WCW creative team's plans for him, while Ouellet worked two more dates in Canada and was awarded the WCW Hardcore Championship by Storm on August 14 as Storm held three different titles at the same time. He lost the title that same night to Norman Smiley.Due to working visa issues, Ouellet could not work in the US, and had to be released back to Canada soon after.
Independent circuit (2000–2005)
Between 2000 and 2003, Ouellet appeared with Rougeau's International Wrestling 2000 promotion. He headlined an event in the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal on December 29, 2000, facing King Kong Bundy in front of an audience of 4,000. In the summer of 2003 Ouellet decided to begin wrestling in the Quebec area once more.Ouellet returned to the Puerto Rican promotion International Wrestling Association, this time wrestling as Jean-Pierre Laffite. He was brought in by Savio Vega to join his stable, The corporation. Immediately he feuded with then-IWA Intercontinental Champion Ricky Banderas, a feud that lasted around 3 months. He was managed by José Chaparro, another member of Vega's Corporation. At Summer Attitude, after a losing effort to Ricky Banderas. In April 2005 defeated Banderas to win IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship for first time in his career. Lafitte left IWA.
NWA: Total Nonstop Action / Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003, 2005–2007)
In November 2003, Ouellet debuted in NWA Total Nonstop Action as "X", a masked wrestler who competed primarily in the X Division as he had a feud with Christopher Daniels and Sonjay Dutt. He left after two months.In February 2005, Ouellet began hosting the French version of TNA Impact! from the RDS studios with Marc Blondin, replacing Michel Letourneur. He even had a war of the words against comedian Jean-René Dufort, to which Dufort responded by adopting the wrestling gimmick "La Punaise Masquée" and "challenging" Ouellet to a match. However, Dufort backed out before the match could take place. In October 2007 he quit the company and was replaced by Sylvain Grenier.