TNA wrestling star Carl Ouellet’s amazing transformation as ‘PCO’ (2025)

Editor's note: This is the second and final part of a series on TNA star PCO’s upcoming appearance at Old School Championship Wrestling’s upcoming “SpookSlam” event

It was the gimmick Carl Ouellet “was meant to have.”

For years, Ouellet had enjoyed moderate success under a number of mat aliases, personas and gimmicks. But it wasn’t until 2018, in his early 50s, that he struck gold with a character that has given him new life in the wrestling game.

In 2018, under a new “French Frankenstein” strongman gimmick known as PCO (“The Perfect Creature”), the hulking, mohawked Ouellet began his incredible comeback. This time the French-Canadian tough guy burst back with a vengeance.

A hard-hitting match against the much younger Austrian powerhouse Walter (later known as WWE world champion Gunther) on an independent show called Spring Break 2 in New Orleans put Ouellet back on the map. The Wrestlemania week match, won by Ouellet, quickly elevated PCO to superstar status in the indy world.

While prepping for that match, Ouellet debuted a series of bizarre YouTube videos in which he performed superhuman feats of strength. He would later release more vignettes, this time as a hulking, 6-1, 300-pound “non-human” with jumper cables around his neck. The videos exploded on social media.

In December 2018, Ouellet announced his exclusive signing with Ring of Honor, making his ROH debut as a member of Marty Scurll’s Villain Enterprises stable.

His improbable return to stardom was the culmination of every single failure, setback and hard time that he experienced throughout the course of his life, said Ouellet.

“The Walter match was really the turning point,” he said in a 2020 interview. “It just kept on getting bigger and bigger and snowballing. Every time I was failing or having setbacks or something was going wrong, I knew that was just the interest on what would be added to the account, but at one point I was telling myself that I wasn’t sure if I would ever collect that account.

“I asked myself what did I have to do to become world champion. I’ve been working hard, I’ve been sleeping early, I’ve done this, I’ve done that, putting more hours in the ring and being a better person. I have great respect for any champion or gold medalist. It’s very hard to get there. You’ve got to keep on grinding, keep on pushing and trying to get better and better and better, and just keep on believing. And that’s not always an easy thing to do. Especially at the age I was, it was like doubling the hard work. You’re going against the current.”

Ouellet had heard all the harsh comments— “You can’t do that, it’s not doable, you’re not in your reality.”

He didn't buy it.

“But you’ve really got to be focused and really believe in yourself,” said Ouellet, who lost the sight in his right eye at the age of 12 after an accident with a pellet gun. “You can’t be affected by outside comments because it starts from the people who are closest to you … your best friends, your family. It was a heckuva task.”

From 2018 to 2021, Ouellet wrestled for Ring of Honor, where he was an ROH world champion, ROH world tag-team champion and ROH world six-man tag-team champion. He joined TNA in 2022.

Ouellet’s goal was to become a world heavyweight champion and, less than a month before his 52nd birthday, he achieved that milestone. He became the oldest man to win the ROH world title, breaking the previous mark set by Christopher Daniels, who won the belt in March 2017, shortly before his 47th birthday.

It’s been a long road, said Ouellet, but all worth it.

“It took me two lifetimes to become world champion. I am grateful for that.”

‘Monsters Match’

Ouellet, as “PCO,” will be featured on a Halloween-themed Old School Championship Wrestling show Oct. 6 at the Hanahan Rec Center, where he will team with former WWE star Kevin Thorn in a “Monsters Match” against former multiple NWA champion The Tokyo Monster Kahagas and Montana Black.

Also on the card: Former WWE performer Sinn Bohdi will make his first OSCW appearance teaming with TNA’s Crazy Steve to square off against TNA’s John Skyler and TJ Boss; OSCW champion Facade will defend his title against Alexander Moss; TNA’s Rosemary will return to face OSCW women’s champion Kaitlyn Marie; Lodi and Chase Emery will meet OSCW tag-team champs CIA (El Oso Blanco and Don Furio); Dani Mo vs. Amanda Kiss; plus a Mini Battle Royal for the IC title featuring current IC champion Rob Killjoy, Drew Adler, Stuart Snodgrass, Jamal The Titan and Christopher Prince.

The Palmetto State Ghostbusters will be present to join in the Halloween-themed fun, but more importantly, to fundraise for the Epworth Children’s Home. OSCW will be donating a portion of ticket sales for their fundraising efforts as well.

Bell time for the show is 5 p.m. Doors open at 4:30.

Adult admission (cash at door) $15; kids under 12 (cash at door) $10. For more information, visit www.oscwonline.com or call 843-813-6592.

‘You are Frankenstein’

The genesis for Ouellet’s gimmick came during the filming of a training vignette with Johnny Destro, the man with whom Ouellet does many of his workouts and strength training.

“PCO” characterizes his persona as the “Not Human French Frankenstein.” It’s an apt description of his transformation.

“Destro, my coach and manager, is the one who found the gimmick,” said Ouellet. “I was finishing a workout with my back away from him. He’s a big fan of monster movies and things like that. He’s a big fan of Frankenstein, and he told me ‘You are Frankenstein. The way you walk, the way you move.’ All my life I’ve been trying to find a character that would fit me.”

This one fit like a glove. It would turn out to be the perfect character for Ouellet.

A series of vignettes featured the trench coat-wearing Svengali Destro digging up PCO’s corpse in a cemetery and later bringing him to life by sending volts of electricity through his body.

Ouellet credits Destro with much of his success.

Canadian arm wrestling champion Mike Roy, the man behind the Destro character, is “the strongest man in the world with his bare hands,” claimed Ouellet. “Nobody can do what he does. He’s teaching me all my feats of strength. He has the world record for number of deck of cards that he tore in 10 minutes. So many world records. He was 300 pounds before, and now he’s 135. The same feats of strength he was doing he still does it. He’s a champion in arm wrestling as well.”

Reach Mike Mooneyham at bymikemooneyham@gmail.com, or follow him on X at @ByMikeMooneyham and on Facebook at Facebook.com/MikeMooneyham. His latest book — “Final Bell” — is available at evepostbooks.com and on Amazon.com.

Did you know...

Before becoming one of the top heels in the business as Buddy Colt, Ronald Read (real name) toiled in the Carolinas during the mid-‘60s as Cowboy Ron Reed.

Although he was a fan favorite, the then-brown-haired grappler toiled for the most part in preliminaries and as a mid-card act.

A few years later he would transform into a bleached blond, braggadocious, heat-drawing heel known as Buddy Colt.

Colt would go on to win a slew of championships in Georgia and Florida before a plane crash ended his in-ring career in 1975.

On this date ...

Twenty-five years ago today on this date (Oct. 6, 1999): Robert James “Gino” Marella, better known in wrestling circles as Gorilla Monsoon, died of heart failure brought on by complications of diabetes at his home in Willingboro Township, N.J.

Monsoon, who was 62, was buried next to his son, former WWE referee Joey Marella, at Lakeview Memorial Park in Cinnaminson, N.J.

The WWE Hall of Famer set school records at Ithaca College and finished second in the 1959 NCAA Championships.

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