The Mountie

Some of my cards I have an idea for a card and I source out the images for it, others I see an image and want to make a card out of it.  This was the latter.  I saw this picture on one of the the old school wrestling pages I follow on Instagram ... I just can't remember which one.

For any that don't know this is Jacques Rougeau who for a long time wrestled under a Mountie gimmick for the WWF ... errr, WWE.  When I was a kid I didn't care for Jacques because, well, he was a "bad guy" and I was just a dumb little kid.

Not knowing exactly what year the picture was from I chose to plug it into the 1990-91 Topps hockey inspired design I've used a couple times before.  I figured seeing as Jacques started his run as The Mountie is 1991 it was about as good of a choice as any.

'Taker

I saw a this image recently on Instagram and knew it would make for a cool custom trading card. I loved the weathered old playground hoop and that dope Adidas jersey.

Basically Mark Calaway, aka The Undertaker, is a freakishly athletic big man. In the mid '80s the 6'9" Mark was attending Texas Wesleyan University on a basketball scholarship. Mark started at center for the Division II TXWES Rams. From all reports Calaway wasn't just a big lane clogging clod, he had legitimate basketball skills with a noted affinity for the bank shot, ala Tim Duncan. Mark was offered a chance to play professionally in France but declined in hopes of pursing a career in professional wrestling.

For the card I went with a 1990-91 Fleer basketball inspired design from their Rookie Standout inserts set. This insert, in my opinion, was one of the very few bright spots in an otherwise forgettable card set.

Mark was well traveled in the wrestling world in the mid to late '80s but he's synonymous with his time in the WWF as The Undertaker, which he was memorably debuted as at the 1990 Survivors Series. So, the Rookie Standout insert set seemed like a perfect fit as he certainly was that.