10 Great Foreign Wrestlers Who Contributed To The WWE
Nearly all Pro Wrestling legends—Hogan, Flair, and Austin among others—are from USA, but what about guys from outside the USA like Bret, Jericho, Andre, and of course, Chris Benoit.
This article is pretty much going to feature guys from outside the U.S how have contributed well to the WWE from 2000 - Present.
Honourable Mentions
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Dave Finlay (Pictured)—Trained great talents like Punk and Melina and won the US championship in his late 40's.
Wade Barrett—Introduced us to The Nexus, won the first series of NXT and has a pinfall victories against Jericho and Cena.
Iron Sheik—Made many appearances throughout the years and won the gimmick battle royal at WM17
El Layla—Last ever Woman's Champion and first Unified Diva's Champion who has posed for playboy.
Owen Hart—His great matches and legendary family have done a lot, too much for the WWE. If he was alive he would probably be in the top 3 of this list.
Lance Storm—Brilliant heel who formed a good stable as well as an Intercontinental Championship and four-time Tag Champion.
Tajiri—A+ comedy, great ability to turn from heel to face and served as a great Cruiserweight Champion.
Muhammed Hassan—If it was not for controversy he would be our WWE Champ.
Khali—Well, the kids love him...
Carlito—Multiple Secondary titles and dominance in the tag team industry.
Ultimo Dragon—True Wrestling legend who put on excellent matches in the US.
Vladimir Kozlov—Served as a dominating undefeated heel when WWE had a poor main event card, pinned Taker and is one part of one of WWE's only remaining Tag Teams.
La Resistance—Decent heel tag team
Gail Kim—One of very few talented Diva's currently on the roster
Maryse—Helped bring heat to Ted Jr. and also served as a strong heel diva.
Rikishi—Centered around a high-profiled angle with Steve Austin and also was once WWE number one contender.
Katie Lea Burchill—Was released unfairly as she was one of very few Diva's who could put on a good show.
Sheamus—Though Irish-man who won two World Title's and a Slammy award all inside his first year with the WWE.
There are many more; feel free to comment and I will edit your opinions in.
10. Umaga
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What better way to start the slide show?
Umaga, or Rosey as he was first known, was definitely a force to be reckoned with.
The Samoan star is a distant relative of the Rock, Rikishi and The Uso’s.
Umaga has destroyed WWE Legends Ric Flair and John Cena as well as other talented individuals like CM Punk and MVP.
Despite his brutality he is not very decorated inside a WWE ring and has only won one solo championship—The Intercontinental Championship.
Before we knew Eddie Fate as Umaga (portraying a Savage gimmick) we knew him as Jamal. A Fun loving Big Guy who hung out with the Hurricane and fought Crime.
This gimmick would have been very well suited to the PG Era.
Eddie Fatu sadly passed away in 2009. RIP to one really talented individual.
9. William Regal
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While serving as Intercontinental Champion or being RAW's GM, Wether Regal always did a good job. Some of his TV Time with Eugene was very, very funny.
Regal has worked with Christian, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho and many more guys who have all the abilities of a World Champion.
He has also trained WWE stars Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, as well as mentoring Ezekiel Jackson. All three of these men again have many abilities that are needed to become World Champion.
The above is enough contribution to make him a worthy member of this list but then again so does his accolades.
Regal has become IC Twice, Tag Team Champion, and European Champion multiple times as well as beaten former World Champion CM Punk in the finals of the King of the Ring tornument back in 2008.
Regal also gave us memorable moments in the Attitude Era when he served as WWF Commissioner.
8. Christian
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Christian may have never had his hand raised as WWE Champion, but he is definitely a great asset to the company. I doubt Vince even realises how important the Canadian is.
WrestleMania 17 has been dubbed the greatest WrestleMania of them all by most WWE fans and many wrestling sites.
One great match at the pay-per-view was the meeting between Edge and Christian, The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) (c) and The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff).
Edge and Christian won the match and along with the Tag Title reign Christian has had eight other reigns, seven of those with his brother.
He also served as a brilliant Intercontinental Champion and some would say he carried the ECW Brand on his own being the only really established star on the brand.
In that time he won the ECW title twice and held it for almost a year if you add up the days of both reigns altogether.
7. Trish Stratus
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This powerful Canadian WWE Diva ruled their then-credible division from 2000-2006.
In this time there were no The Bella's, Alica Fox, or LayCool. There was only ruthless and brilliantly talented Diva's like Lita, Molly Holly, Victoria, and of course, Trish herself.
She won the Women's Championship an amazing seven times and also rather unbelievably she also won the Hardcore Championship.
PWI voted her the greatest Diva of the decade.
Stratus made a special appearance on December 10, 2007 during Raw's 15th Anniversary special along with Lita, interrupting Jillian Hall as she sang by attacking her and then celebrating with Lita.
She also appeared on RAW in 2009 in Tag Team action against Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella teaming with John Cena in the process.
She has also guest hosted an episode of Monday Night RAW.
6. Bret Hart
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Hart officially left the WWE in 1997 so I suppose some of you may be wondering why he is on this list.
He still gets the crowd going mental.
He put over The Miz as a top heel.
He got revenge on McMahon.
He helped beat Nexus at SummerSlam.
He basically introduced us to the Hart Dynasty.
He shocked millions and made pro wrestling history by shaking HBK's hand.
He helped WWE prove TNA would be no match for them.
He done all this in 2010 and managed to sell millions of merchandise, become a HOF inductee, became RAW GM, saved us from that horrible Guest Host and won the US title.
Big contribution Ladies and gents.
5. Chris Benoit
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The Ruthless Agression Era was the greatest SmackDown coverage ever aired on television and one man who had a lot to do with that was Chris Benoit.
Benoit is a submission great and despite his "troubled" personal life will in my mind always remain just that.
Chris Benoit, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Eddie Guerrero, Undertaker and more contributed a lot to the WWE but did any of these men enter a rumble at the number one spot and win the whole thing?
Did any of them defeat two of WWE's biggest names (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) in a triple threat match to win their first WWE title?
Did any of them men make Lesnar submit?
NO!
Outside of the ring, Benoit had many problems but it is not our business. What he has done every week in the ring was our business and basically my childhood.
Outstanding wrestler.
4. The Rock
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The Rock's greatness did expand into the early 2000’s as he fought of the threat of WCW and did other memorable things.
If any human being on this planet doubts The Rock's popularity then please search on YouTube and find his return to his hometown of Miami. Hear the roar of every WWE fan in that building because the reception was absolutely amazing.
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan was held in 2002 and that was considered one of the company’s biggest affairs.
Even though Dwayne has been absent from WWE for a long time now and shows no real desire to return he still sells a lot of merchandise for the franchise and will continue to do so as he is one of the most charismatic stars to ever stand behind a WWE microphone.
Rumours continuously spread around the web about a possible return for The Rock as a guest star, GM and one night return for a match against current face of the company John Cena.
3. Kane
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Kane is billed from "Parts Unknown" but the man behind Kane (Glenn Jacobs) was born in Madrid, Spain.
If this legend was not being buried and used poorly for half of the last decade then "devils favourite demon" would be a little bit closer to the number one spot without doubt.
Kane has won the ECW Title, Intercontinental Title, Tag Titles and is in the middle of one of WWE's most impressive title reigns in recent times.
He has beaten WWE stars like Undertaker, Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam amongst others.
His contribution to the WWE has been incredible as he served as a jobber to World Champions like John Cena, CM Punk, Sheamus, Edge (in the past), Jeff Hardy and a couple more.
2. Edge
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It was definite that Edge was going to be in this countdown from the second that you read the heading.
Edge has one every WWE title currently applicable to him more than once.
How many wrestlers can you say done that in the WWE? Very little.
Edge has beaten the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Christian, Jeff Hardy, Batista, Kane, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guererro, Chris Benoit, The Big Show, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Jack Swagger, Rey Mysterio, The Miz, Finlay, Khali and many more big names in pro wrestling.
He has also won a Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber match, a Money in the Bank Ladder Match, as well as basically creating the TLC match in his successful partnership with long-time best friend Christian.
It seems that the only thing left for Edge to do in the business is join the Hall of Fame and win the King of the Ring.
1. Chris Jericho
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This guy is a complete genius and is well known for his dirt tactics as well as a record breaking wrestling great.
Jericho defeated The Rock and Steve Austin in the same night to become WWE's first ever Undisputed World Champion.
Years later he then defeated Rey Mysterio to win his ninth Intercontinental Champion.
Months after his IC dominance he became the first Pro to mentor a rookie to win the competition.
I listed guys that Edge beat and now here is some of the dudes Jericho has defeated: Sting, The Rock, Austin and every other athlete on Edge's slide as well as Daniel Bryan (week 2 of NXT)
Chris Jericho is hailed by many as the greatest Pro Wrestler ever.
