Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of The Mountie
Vince McMahon had an idea of a corrupt Canadian Mountie gimmick. He wanted Jacques Rougeau to be repackaged as a singles wrestler to bring his gimmick to life. Rougeau loved the idea of getting a singles push in the WWF and was all onboard with it. Jacques went as far as to work behind the scenes with his brother in law, who was an actual Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. He was taught all the different aspects of how to portray the character including terminology and how to properly arrest a suspect.
With Rougeau “all in” with the gimmick, vignettes began airing in December of 1990 that were produced by Bruce Prichard. It was McMahon who insisted ‘the Mountie’ character carry a weapon. Vince’s choice would be for the Mountie to carry a cattle prod. After victorious in a match, the Mountie would “arrest” his opponent and then shock them with his cattle prod. The gimmick was successful and got over…except in Rougeau’s home country of Canada. According to him, the real Royal Canadian Mounted Police took offense to the gimmick and ordered that the gimmick not air on Canadian TV.
If the Mountie was booked to wrestle in Canada, he had to remove his shirt and be called Jacques Rougeau instead of being called the Mountie. After a while, the pressure from the RCMP was too much and Vince decided to scrap the gimmick altogether. Rougeau would return to the WWF teaming with Carl Ouellet as the Quebecers.
