WWE Film Study: What Today's Stars Can Learn from the Greatest Foreign Heels

From lands across the ocean, pro wrestling's heels came to WWE and elsewhere to press their boots against America's throat.

It didn't matter whether they were actually from Michigan or Hawaii; these wrestlers pulled an evil-foreigner costume over themselves for the sake of in-ring storytelling. It's harder to pull off this kind of geographical deceit in the age of the Internet and now that kayfabe is no longer breathing.

A Superstar like Rusev and his manager Lana have a rougher route to garnering heat by way of their nationality than those before them.

Even with the change in the audience's understanding, it's important to look back at the great foreign heels of the past. They offer vital lessons and excellence worth emulating.

Should Cesaro return to his anti-American ways, should Hideo Itami or Finn Balor from NXT turn heel and wish to capitalize on their foreignness, they would be wise to study the work of Nikita Koloff The Iron Sheik, Killer Kowalski, Tojo Yamamoto and others. They serve as teachers in video form.

High-Level Coldness, Viciousness

There's an art to tapping into the audience's xenophobia. It requires one to dehumanize one's self to a point. It's not a person fans are meant to be booing but an idea.

When Nelson Scott Simpson morphed into "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff, he embraced his faux Russianness to the fullest. In an interview with Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc, he talked of getting his hands on Russian books and tapes to learn the language.

As important as that attention to detail was, it was largely the cold aura he exuded that made him so memorable.

He came off as a heartless, unfeeling beast. His glare and the way he held himself added to this character. That was on display during a 1986 matchup against Magnum T.A., where he managed to intimidate simply by standing opposite his foe.

It takes this level of mastery of body language to have today's fans forget about one's actual origins. Play a character well enough, and the actor disappears. 

Carrying over that sense of evil into one's actual ring work is key too. Few have done that as well as William Regal.

He looked to torture his opponents, not just beat them. That played up the idea that he was a sinister outsider with little regard for the Americans in the ring with him.

As one can see in his abuse of Darren Young, Regal raked his arms across his opponent's head and pulled on a man's face.

Jerry Lawler sums up that part of the Englishman's game well, saying, "There is no such thing as just a hold to William Regal. Everything he does to you inflicts pain."

All heels would be wise to integrate this kind of offense, but none more than the foreign heel. It creates a sense of unfairness, signaling that this predator exists outside of the standard rules. That's more powerful when it comes from someone meant to be a foreign enemy.

Foreign Weapons for a Foreign Menace

Several of the best foreign heels of all time brought with them a sense of mystery.

That translates to a unique move set and unfamiliar ways to cut down an opponent. Tojo Yamamoto played a villainous Japanese invader for much of his long career that began in the late '50s. He didn't wrestle as he would if he went by his real name—Harold Watanabe.

Instead, his arsenal had a distinctly Japanese flair. He struck with a judo chop and often used his wooden shoes as weapons.

Years later, The Great Muta arrived to America with his own set of unique means to attack.

Muta cartwheeled into the corner, his elbow pointed out. In addition, he implemented karate-style kicks and chops.

Most notably, though, when he was in need of an escape, he spat colored mist into his enemies' eyes.

That's not something you saw from Lex Luger or Sting. This was meant to be something strange and dangerous brought over from Japan.

Before The Muta's mist-spewing days, Ed Farhat was spitting flames. The Michigan native worked as a Syrian fat cat known as The Sheik. 

The Sheik brought pencils into the ring for stabbing purposes and famously blew fireballs.

Both of those options are too dangerous for Rusev or his peers to emulate today. Still, the idea that a foreigner is armed with items that his American foes aren't is one that we don't see often enough today. It adds character depth and a sense of uniqueness and ultimately creates heat.

Losing by someone pulling one's tight is one thing, but poison mist sticks in one's memory a lot more firmly.

How to Slam America 101

When Cesaro used to trash-talk Americans, he talked about how overweight our kids were or how lazy we are. Lana and Rusev came along shortly after with plenty of badmouthing to aim at the country where they worked.

Other foreign heels have done a superior job of taking jabs at the United States. The key is to keep one's primary focus on the opponent and make America the secondary target.

In 1986 for example, Nikita's "uncle," Ivan Koloff, spoke from behind a cage wall. He certainly took his shots at America, including calling it "the second-strongest country in the world." The Russian Bear, though, aimed mostly at Magnum T.A.

It's more compelling for fans to see a story of American wrestler versus Russian wrestler than it is to try to absorb the more abstract concept of the two countries themselves being at odds.

Zero in on individual animosity. Let the crowd then extrapolate things to a larger scale.

That's how The Iron Sheik played it as well.

There was never any doubt about where he came from. He wore a keffiyeh, often held up the Iranian flag and famously proclaimed that both Russia and Iran were No. 1. Still, when it came down to promo time, there was more to talk about than international politics.

He always brought it back to his enemy in the ring and onto himself.

In the case of Corporal Kirchner, The Iron Sheik dismissed his accomplishments and called him a punk. He then preened and posed in front of the camera, talking about his own greatness.

That's pro wrestling hubris at its best.

There's no need to go on and on about the good ol' USA; there's a rivalry to sell. Today's foreign heels deal with the issue of getting their promos scripted out for them, but there is always an editing process.

That's where one needs to mark out some of the anti-American language, allowing hostility against a particular American to shine. It doesn't hurt to come up with a catchphrase as effective as The Iron Sheik's either.

The foreign heel character can still work today by diving into it as deeply as Nikita Koloff did, having it shape one's offense like Muta or spitting on America a la The Iron Sheik. Success is harder to come by without kayfabe, meaning only that would-be enemies from abroad need to study the classics more intensely.

This article is part of an ongoing series. Be sure to also check out other editions on:

• Monster Heels
• Arrogant Heels