10 Greatest Wrestlers From Quebec
6. Ivan Koloff (Montreal)
Ivan Koloff (real name Oreal Perras) actually started out wrestling as an Irish heel, but it would be under a different national flag that he built his storied career.
As “The Russian Bear”, Koloff became a leading villain by the start of the 70's, and built one of the most successful foreign heel characters of all time.
He took on virtually every WWWF champion from his day, from Bruno to Billy to Bob, even holding the belt briefly in 1971. He's also the answer to the question “who ended the longest World Title reign in WWE history?”
Later with NWA, he took on the Rock n' Roll Express and the Road Warriors, most notably. He also took “The Russian Nightmare” Nikita Koloff under his wing and helped him launch a decent career of his own.
Seems like Quebec is even better at raising Russian heels than Russia itself. This writer is not sure how to feel about that.