10 Times WWE Asked You To Blindly Hate Foreigners
6. Ludvig Borga
As the aforementioned Yokozuna was on a tear as WWE Champion in the Autumn of 1993, a new foreign menace was unleashed on flag-waving babyface Lex Luger as a distraction from the title chase following his disappointing SummerSlam '93 count-out win over the sumo star.
Ludvig Borga introduced himself to the fanbase via a series of perplexing vignettes in which he criticised America for it's poor environmental and educational policies. Espousing the the virtues of his home country Finland in comparison, he exhibited blanket disgust at what he considered a complete abuse of the land Americans constantly professed to love. As he traipsed through littered backlots and desecrated wastelands, it was sort of hard to argue with him.
Astonishingly (!), destroying American superstars was his way of punishing the country for the misdeeds.
Having previously chosen ethnic backgrounds for heels predominantly based on countries the United States had experienced socio-political or military issues with, asking fans to hate somebody from Finland just didn't take. Legitimately Finnish, Tony Halme was at least convincing in the character, but when the bewildering nuances were replaced with the usual 'USA sucks' rhetoric, he was dead in the water.
Losses to Luger followed throughout the winter, and he never returned to the company following a January 1994 ankle injury.