Opinion by SPMAN

With the impending debut of snooty frenchmen Les Nouvelles in the WWE, I beleive now is a good time to look back and the long lineage of french (or french at heart) wrestlers in the WWE.

First of course there was Pat Patterson, well known for his french-canadian heritage (among other things) Patterson did not play a snooty frenchmen the way others did, in fact being French wasn't part of his character at all. Sure, sometimes he would cut a heelish promo in French, but that was about it. Patterson may not have done much to help the plight of the French Wrestler, but his presence helped pave the way for future superstars.

Next came the French Duo The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, Jaque and Raymond. Debuting as faces, the duo soon found their niche by turning heel and joining up with (the very non-French) Jimmy Hart. They were Wanna-Be Americans who moved to the ritziest location in America they could find, and pretended to be Americans. Their Entrance music even claimed them to be "All American Boys". The fans saw through this though, and continued to boo the Rougeaus because despite their efforts, they were still snooty and French. They also feuded with The Bushwhackers a lot which is a death sentence to anyones career.

Then there was Canadian Strongman Dino Bravo. He was French, but it wasn't part of his character. More important was his kooky manager Frenchy Martin, a short little guy who wore a blue coat and a monocle. He would lead Bravo to the ring, and cut bizarre promos in what seemed to be jibberish. Most fans agreed that Frenchies vernacular was no language they had ever heard. Frenchie even had his own interview segment filmed exclusively for the French Syndicated Market. Frenchie Martin was quickly forgotten about though, and replaced by (the still very non-French) Jimmy Hart

The Mountie came from Montreal, but was not very French. Like Patterson, he would cut the occaisional heel promo in French, but that really wan't his character. Following the tradition of his bretheren before him, The Mountie was managed by Jimmy Hart (Really, he's not French!). The Mountie would trot out to ringside with some real kickass entrance music in the background (I'm Da Mountie! I'm Handsome! I'm Brave! I'm Strong!). Perhaps the most memorable part of The Mounties gimmick though the fact that he used a Cattle Prod long before Scott Hall made using Caddle Prods cool. After defeating his opponent (usually a jobber) The Mountie would climb into the ring and shock his opponent senselessly with the caddle prod. Despite the very cool gimmick, The Mountie was not a very successful wrestler. Sure,he had a cup of coffee title reign with the IC belt, but that was more of a case of him wrestling the right opponent on the right night. For the most part, The Mountie was little more then a Jobber to the Stars.

By far the most successful successful French Wrestlers were the unforgettable tag team The Quebecers, Jaques and Pierre. The Quebecers broke new ground for French Wrestlers, mainloy by not being managed by the least French man in the entire world, Jimmy Hart. Instead, The Quebecers were led to the ring by Johnny Polo, the man who was not quite yet Raven. The Quebecers also had very kick ass entrance music, that didn't make a whole lot of sense (We're not Da Mounties....Cause Da Mounties always get their man!). The Quebecers were very French indeed, but they were not snooty about it at all (although they did have a few homosexual overtones). These were Frenchmen with an attitude. After winning the Tag Titles from The Steiner Brothers, The Quebecers went on to be one of the most dominating Tag Teams of the Mid-Ninties, defeating all comers, including the heavily (and I mean heavily) favored duo of Men on a Mission at Wrestlemania 10. Oh yeah, and they wrestled The Hart Brothers at Royal Rumble 1994 starting the feud which led to one of the greatest matches of all time. Unfortunatly it was not meant to be, Jaques was for all intents and purposes retired, he had only signed a one year contract in 1993, and didnt want it to be renewed when it came up in '94. Pierre's career continued though as he soon returned as evil pirate Jean Pierre Lafiette, feuding with Bret Hart. He was last seen during a short run in WCW 2000 under the name "Rave".

Alas, The Quebecers were the end of the line for wrestlers the French Fanbase could look up to. The Hart Foundation supposrted all Canadians, including the French, but they were not French themselves. Will Les Nouvelles be the second coming for French Wrestlers? We can only hope.