10 "Foreign" Wrestlers Who Weren't Really Foreign At All
When all else fails, at least WWE has racial stereotyping.
International wrestlers have a long and storied history in American professional wrestling, with a number of those from foreign lands making up the WWE Hall of Fame.
In fact, some of the most recognised names from wrestling's yesteryear are international performers. Without taking a moment to think: Bruno Sammartino, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff and Andre the Giant. When you throw Canada into the "foreign" family, that list becomes even greater.
Despite the diverse population professional wrestling draws, the majority of pro wrestlers in WWE tend to be American. However, the company is no stranger to playing make-believe with its performers' nationalities.
Professional wrestling once found success on the simple formula of 'good guy against bad guy'. With most of North America once operating on the old-time belief that all "foreigners" are akin to the devil, it's no surprise that WWE would want to capitalise on the easy generation of heel heat.
Not exclusive to just heels, plenty of recent babyfaces have had an international gimmick slapped on them and been told to make it work. Even those who weren't born in the US or Canada have had their nationality altered for the sake of it.
These are 10 "foreign" wrestlers who weren't really all that foreign...
10. Lana
In case you hadn't noticed, Lana's accent is about as authentic as a genuine Japanese cuisine restaurant in Calgary. The Ravishing Russian in fact comes from Portuguese and Venezuelan descent and spent most of her childhood in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Though she spent years learning ballet in Latvia, Lana was born in the very un-Russian city of Gainesville, Florida. Once pursuing her love for ballet, Lana applied her dancing abilities in the United States from 1999 until her NXT signing in 2013. This is where the real foreign fun begins.
As a Portuguese-Venezuelan-American adopting a terrible accent accent, Lana became the Russian social ambassador for Rusev, a Bulgaria-born grappler who was cast as a Russian. Good stuff.
Lana's phony Russian accent is made all the more humourous now that she is making it on her own in the Women's Division with no storyline ties to the world's largest nation.