Well, earlier today I was writing my BTB for another site and it was set in 2008, and I was preparing to debut Vladimir Kozlov. I was just considering what sort of path I was going to set for him, and it made me notice how much I've come to despise the way almost all foreign characters are booked.
I can remember almost zero cultured wrestlers that have ever debuted in WWE, TNA, or WCW that weren'tat one point slapped with a foreign nationalist gimmick. Kozlov always had the red coloring, and ring gear which would sometime utilize the Soviet Union's flag. He was nicknamed the Moscow Mauler of course and his entire being was booked around being a Russian animal.
Then there's William Regal who never escaped being the stuck up blue blood Brit. Same goes for David Taylor. Then you've got Finlay and Sheamus. You'll never find either of these guys void of a typical four-leaf clover green. Then you've got the Mexican factions which are just the worse.
Hunico and his buddy Camacho get the stereotypical and somewhat racist gimmick of riding a low rider bicycle to the ring with some hispanic music playing in the background, wearing wifebeaters, shorts, and socks up their knees. Eddie G had his lowrider, Chavo was always the Latino Warrior, and even Rey Mysterio was a member of the Latin World Order back in WCW. You've got LAX, Mexican America, and so on, featuring wrestlers who had little other gimmick than "Latino".
Back in the 80's there were tons of Russian soviets, from Ivan Koloff, to Ivan Putski, to Boris Zhukov, and so on and so forth. All of them were communists, hellbent of Russian supremacy.
Middle easterns have been featured prominently in a cocky, quasi-terrorist fashion dating all the way back to the original Sheik. Guys like the Iron Sheik, Muhammed Hussan, and Daivari have been no different, and have managed to keep that tradition of Middle Eastern glorification going.
The biggest shocker is that guys like Edge, Benoit, and Jericho all managed to never be stuck with a pro-Canadian gimmick. The Hart Foundation got formed to start a USA vs. Canadian war within the WWF, which turned guys like Bret and Owen into typical Canadians, and in modern times we even saw the formation of The UnAmericans and Team Canada. Christian and Test were barely even recognized for being Canadian because it didn't dominate their entire gimmick, but when Lance Storm came into the picture it was all about waving the Maple Leaf flag and making hockey jokes.
I find it ridiculous that someone like WWE can't hire a guy from England, bill him from England, and not give him a perfectly normal gimmick, free of excessive use of Union Jack and British jokes. What is it that prevents TNA from using Douglas Williams the way they use Austin Aries or even Brian Kendrick? Is it impossible for them to wrap their heads around the concept that he has other things going for him besides being British?
I'm generally not someone who likes to nitpick small issues in the wrestling business. I don't expect perfection in booking, or in competition. I enjoy the sport, and keep a positive attitude, but when you run something through the ringer as many times as they have with this foreign gimmick, it gets real old and real annoying, to me at least. I would just like to see someone from a foreign country get the rub Randy Orton or John Cena does without having his entire existence clouded with being from somewhere other than USA.
....thoughts?
I can remember almost zero cultured wrestlers that have ever debuted in WWE, TNA, or WCW that weren'tat one point slapped with a foreign nationalist gimmick. Kozlov always had the red coloring, and ring gear which would sometime utilize the Soviet Union's flag. He was nicknamed the Moscow Mauler of course and his entire being was booked around being a Russian animal.
Then there's William Regal who never escaped being the stuck up blue blood Brit. Same goes for David Taylor. Then you've got Finlay and Sheamus. You'll never find either of these guys void of a typical four-leaf clover green. Then you've got the Mexican factions which are just the worse.
Hunico and his buddy Camacho get the stereotypical and somewhat racist gimmick of riding a low rider bicycle to the ring with some hispanic music playing in the background, wearing wifebeaters, shorts, and socks up their knees. Eddie G had his lowrider, Chavo was always the Latino Warrior, and even Rey Mysterio was a member of the Latin World Order back in WCW. You've got LAX, Mexican America, and so on, featuring wrestlers who had little other gimmick than "Latino".
Back in the 80's there were tons of Russian soviets, from Ivan Koloff, to Ivan Putski, to Boris Zhukov, and so on and so forth. All of them were communists, hellbent of Russian supremacy.
Middle easterns have been featured prominently in a cocky, quasi-terrorist fashion dating all the way back to the original Sheik. Guys like the Iron Sheik, Muhammed Hussan, and Daivari have been no different, and have managed to keep that tradition of Middle Eastern glorification going.
The biggest shocker is that guys like Edge, Benoit, and Jericho all managed to never be stuck with a pro-Canadian gimmick. The Hart Foundation got formed to start a USA vs. Canadian war within the WWF, which turned guys like Bret and Owen into typical Canadians, and in modern times we even saw the formation of The UnAmericans and Team Canada. Christian and Test were barely even recognized for being Canadian because it didn't dominate their entire gimmick, but when Lance Storm came into the picture it was all about waving the Maple Leaf flag and making hockey jokes.
I find it ridiculous that someone like WWE can't hire a guy from England, bill him from England, and not give him a perfectly normal gimmick, free of excessive use of Union Jack and British jokes. What is it that prevents TNA from using Douglas Williams the way they use Austin Aries or even Brian Kendrick? Is it impossible for them to wrap their heads around the concept that he has other things going for him besides being British?
I'm generally not someone who likes to nitpick small issues in the wrestling business. I don't expect perfection in booking, or in competition. I enjoy the sport, and keep a positive attitude, but when you run something through the ringer as many times as they have with this foreign gimmick, it gets real old and real annoying, to me at least. I would just like to see someone from a foreign country get the rub Randy Orton or John Cena does without having his entire existence clouded with being from somewhere other than USA.
....thoughts?
