The Gimmick Table: The Origin of PCO

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 PCO

Carl Ouellet had been wrestling professionally for over 24 years, when he decided to retire from the business in 2011. While Ouellet had wrestled for major promotions like the WWF, WCW, TNA and even a brief run in ECW…Ouellet was frustrated how his career ended up. He said he always felt that with his size, strength and agility he should have been a bigger star. Ouellet was always considered a “good hand”, but never reached anything above mid card status.

During his retirement, Ouellet was still bothered about how his career ended up. He still had the “itch” to return to the ring, but wanted to do it on his own terms. Ouellet discovered that a neighbor of his was a strength and conditioning coach, who himself lost over 200 pounds. Ouellet reached out to his neighbor to begin training with him for a possible in-ring comeback. While training, his coach referenced him as a modern day Frankenstein monster. Ouellet said he wasn’t familiar at all with the character, having never read the book or watched the movies.

After viewing the film, Ouellet began to cultivate his new gimmick and persona. After 5 years away from pro wrestling, Ouellet returned to the ring under the name of PCO. Originally, it was just short for his old gimmick name of Pierre Carl Ouellet, but later morphed into ‘Perfect Creation One’ aka ‘The French Frankenstein.’ While finding success in his comeback, it wasn’t until his 2018 match with Walter (Gunther in WWE) that really set his character on fire.

Video of the match went viral and soon PCO was finding a resurgence in his career while in his 50’s. PCO wrestled marquee matches in promotions such as Major League Wrestling, TNA, Ring of Honor and various independent groups.

You can read other Gimmick Table entries here