The WWE have never really been concerned about the possibility of offending members of their audience, that is if they think it might benefit a storyline; trying to develop heat for Randy Orton by having him suggest that Eddie Guerrero was not in heaven but in hell only a matter of months after his passing, is a fine example of such a case. The company also don't shy away from creating clichéd, stereotypes from time to time; such as 'Cryme Tyme', a tag team made up of two street thugs from Brooklyn, who would steal everything in sight and then sell it for a profit, they were also often shown to make white people nervous. I can see why this could cause offense. However, it is the international wrestlers, or at least those made to play international characters, that seem to get the worse dose of stereotyping thrown at them. Take Kofi Kingston for example, a man born in Ghana, raised in America and given the gimmick of a Jamaican. Try to picture the discussion in the creative team's office as they thought that one up, 'the kid has got talent but he needs a gimmick, I don't know much about Ghana. Let's say he is from Jamaica. Yeah, that works... we got any reggae beats on the computer, we'll need it for his entrance music'. Read on to see which characters made it into the top ten...
A wrestling enthusiast, currently educating the youth of Taiwan English; there are now a bunch of Asian kids running around with Yorkshire accents. Read about that trip and others at dragonstravel.com.
