Many foreign heels in wrestling are not foreign at all.  Lawrence Simon was one such athlete, but as opposed to playing the role with a shaved head and little words, he developed a character named Boris Malenko with multiple levels that was more sinister than stereotypically foreign.

Finally wrestling a reduced schedule, unlike many of the stars of the 1990’s from New Japan had more than just an appearance or two in the United States.  The Japanese star wrestled frequently for WCW and was even the NWA World Heavyweight Champion while the legendary promotion was endorsed by WCW.

There have been a plethora of excellent wrestlers from the United Kingdom, but few of them have made a serious dent in the American Market.  Dave Findlay was one of those rare exceptions; a fact that becomes even more remarkable as he really didn’t make an American impact until his late 30’s.

Although multiple wrestlers would don the “Tiger Mask”, nobody embodied the character better than the original, played by Satoru Sayama.  He was a lightning quick combatant who was the precursor to many of the high flying lighter Japanese wrestlers who followed.  It may have taken a colorful mask for him to draw the attention of the fans (especially the younger ones) but when they did, they found a wrestler who was not just quick, but was technically proficient.  His matches with the Dynamite Kid remain classics as were his series with Kuniaki Kobayashi.  Tiger Mask does have an early history with the WWE as he was their WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion in the early 1980’s, but he walked away from the industry in his prime and though he did come back his overall body of work is much less than it should have been.