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The Mountie, aka Jacques Rougeau Jr., was back for round two of SK Wrestling's UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone. The former WWE Superstar answered several questions during the live Q&A session, and one of them was regarding his former student, Kevin Owens.
Kevin Owens started at The Mountie's wrestling school, and Riju Dasgupta (Assistant Manager- Combat Sports at Sportskeeda) asked the veteran about his experiences of training the current WWE Superstar.
The Mountie said that Kevin Owens was a phenomenon when he came to his wrestling school as the former Universal Champion was a quick learner. The Mountie admitted that he hadn't followed Kevin Owens' career closely since the Canadian left the school, but he knew about the success that followed KO. The Mountie called Kevin Owens a 'great talent' and a natural performer, who reminded him of himself.
"Kevin Owens was a phenomenon when he came to my wrestling school. He was five years at my wrestling school, but he had this ability of learning fast. So listen, I haven't followed Kevin's career that much after he left because we didn't leave on quite great terms when he left my territory. So, I didn't follow up on him, but I noticed that success was following him, and amazing to see myself in the ring at so many times because of the way he kicks, the promos. Because when I think, the guys in my school, I used to teach them from scratch. It was not only in the ring but the mic, the entrance, the arenas. He was really a great talent and a natural talent."
The Mountie did have some trouble recollecting the timeline regarding training Kevin Owens. However, Mountie did reveal that Kevin Owens was a part of his wrestling school for 4 years. Kevin Owens first got in touch with Mountie when Kevin Owens was merely 14 years old.
Dr. Chris Featherstone researched and figured out that Kevin Owens had his first match in 2000 against a wrestler named Gorgeous Mike, who was also one of The Mountie's students.
"Let me see; he must have left my school. I'm going to guess. 2012 or 2011? Not quite sure. He came to see me when he was 14 years old, and then he left when he was 18-19. So, if you know his age, then you will able to see that he came to see me when he was 14 years old. So, I don't know how old he is today.
He is 36?! So, he came to see me when he was 14, so that's 22 years ago? Jesus Christ. Time flies, eh? It can't be 98. It can't be. We're taking years off there somewhere. It could be in 2002. I would have to look it up, Chris. You got me against the ropes there. I only know that he was there for four years."
The Mountie reveals the reason behind the falling out with Kevin Owens
The Mountie said that while Kevin Owens was a great student, the WWE Superstar wanted to work for other companies, which Mountie didn't permit his students to do.
Mountie ran his own company back in the day, and the shows drew 4-5 thousand people. Mountie didn't want his talent to get injured in front of 25 people, which would have rendered them useless for his big shows.
While The Mountie understood Kevin Owens, the veteran had his way of running the company, and it was to protect his talent for the more important shows.
Mountie explained his approach in detail:
"We had a falling out, Kevin and I. One reason was because he didn't respect the fact that my boys weren't allowed to go and wrestle for other companies. And that was a rule that was very hard for the boys to understand because everybody wanted to go and learn and get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But the thing was, I was doing tremendously well with my company, and I was selling out all my arenas with 3-4 thousand people, but with no TVs. And I was going from company to company and selling the market, that was no sex, no drugs, no violence, no girls in my shows. It was really oriented towards kids. But the thing was, all my shows were sold out. Not because it was easily done, I had to go work hard, but the thing was, he was such a great talent and the talent that I produced that I taught in the wrestling business and then came did my shows is I went to every company and told them, I said, 'Hey, wait till you see the match between the Spiderman and The Mummy. And wait till you see this match, Kevin Steen - Kevin Steen was his name at the time, Kevin Steen against Gorgeous Mike. So I was selling all this talent to the companies where I was going. Many times at the beginning, the guys would go on a spot show on a Friday night and hurt an ankle or something. So they won't be able to come to my 5000 people show, because they were in front of 25 people the night before and they hurt themselves.
All the time I was giving the experience, Kevin Owens just didn't become a good talker and a good entertainer out of nowhere. He started in a business where there were 3-4 thousand people. So he knew right then how to deal with it. And believe me, the first night he went to the ring, I'm sure I had a lot of corrections to give to him, but that's the way it was. But he was a good student, he was great. So, after we had our falling out, and the couple of boys who were against my policies, which I respected. I said, 'Listen, if you want to go wrestle for other federations, do it, but I'm not going to be using you.' And that was my choice. It was my company, my business, and I did 20 years of great success with my business like that. But I understand that my boys, I do. I understand the boys being upset that they can't wrestle for another federation."
The Mountie also spoke about his clean win over Hulk Hogan and revealed stories from his time in the WWE during the latest edition of SK Wrestling's UnSKripted with Dr. Chris Featherstone.
If any quotes are used from this article, please add a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling.
