10 WWE Booking Gimmicks And Characters Other Companies Are Doing Better

The evil foreign heel shtick is a tired, boring trope of modern professional wrestling that honestly, should've been left behind years ago. WWE have even updated the "this country sucks!" version of the character into a somehow more-uncomfortable "I'm proud of my country, and that's why you boo me" iteration (see Rusev, Jinder Mahal, and Alberto Del Rio).

Japan was also guilty of a foreign heel or two in the 80s and 90s, but by the 2010s, outside talent (unfavourably known as "gaijins") became relatively common place in feds like NJPW, and led to the emergence of stars like Prince Devitt, Karl Anderson, Kenny Omega, and the Guerrillas of Destiny.

By sheer happenstance, the noted names banded together with a few pals to form the all-gaijin stable, Bullet Club. The group were cocky, disrespectful, openly mocked opponents and fans, and were generally, a bunch of bastards.

The group really took off in 2014 under the leadership of AJ Styles who battled with Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships, becoming the first non-Japanese Heavyweight Champion since 2005.

Then came the Kenny Omega era, whose series with Okada made history and broke many a star rating system.

All without having to neg on Japan.