Jacques Rougeau Says WWE Backstage Culture Was Like ‘A Walking Drugstore’ In The 80s

Jacques Rougeau had a lot to say recently about the days gone by of the WWE – specifically the state of the WWE locker room in the eighties era of WWE/WWF at the time. He also went into his relationship with legends like The Dynamite Kid and Bret Hart.

It was while speaking to It’s My Wrestling Podcast that he went specifically into what the eighties were like backstage in WWE, especially in regards to the rumored drug use, both recreational and steroid use. The WWF Steroid Scandal is the stuff of legend and now, all these years later, so many stories are coming out about that time. As it turns out, Rougeau has his very own verse to contribute on that matter as well, it would seem.

“It was a walking drugstore. I hate to tell you this because I had a feud with them but the worst was the Bulldogs. They walk in the dressing room and they have needles sticking their butt. They were walking around like ticking time bombs. You’re walking around, and then you go in the bathroom and they were all doing it you could see them. I could count on my hand, maybe two if I’m lucky, he guys that weren’t on steroids.

Everybody was on steroids, everybody but I can think of few. Santana, Martel, Mike Sharp, Lombardi, me and Raymond, Lanny Poffo. There’s not many that wasn’t on steroids. Vince knew that the kids, they liked the superheroes, the big guys, the guys who are all bubbled up. He made a lot of money with that. I remember during the time of the trial there was a few rumors backstage that we’re going to court.

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I didn’t give a shit because we weren’t on them. We didn’t care and we were actually proud of that. A lot of the guys, I had heat with because they would come and ask me to pee pee in a tube test or in a pot for them. I say no, I’m not getting implicated in your shit, it’s your shit. You get out of it.”

On his relationships in the industry, he had a lot to say on that subject as well. His contentious relationship with The British Bulldogs has been well-documented – specifically on an episode centered around the Dynamite Kid for Vice’s Dark Side Of The Ring series and in a plethora of online interviews he’s done over the years.

He also has an interesting take on why his IC title run was so short-lived.

“Bret is the greatest nicest guy to be around but he’s a hard businessman. He does not like to do favors to just anybody. He had a different philosophy of becoming a superstar which he managed to do very well. He had a different philosophy where if you lose it’s not good for your character but we’re all working together. So it was hard to do business.

I know for a fact that when Bret had to drop the title to Roddy Piper at the Pay Per View, he didn’t want to do it. So what Vince did was he took me as the guinea pig to put in between just to do this switch to get it from me to him. Bret when he lost to me for those two days I had it, he came in with 104 fever. He’s es in the ring that night when he defended the title and he had the announcer announce that I’m sick, I’m dying, but I’m gonna wrestle anyway.

So I beat that guy, I didn’t beat anybody, I just beat a guy that was sick and dead. So Bret was hard like that in life, you know? And, and that’s where they had the screw job with Bret also with Shawn Michaels in Montreal, because Bret didn’t want to give the title back to Vince when he was going for another company. So he was a hard guy to deal with.”

In the same interview, he also went into the time he accidentally burned Koko B. Ware. This was something that got him into trouble with Koko – Koko sustaining serious burns during the segment. All water under the bridge nowadays, but the eighties were definitely a crazy time to be in the WWE locker room it seems.

H/T Wrestling News