If you only saw his lone WWF match at the 1997 Royal Rumble you wouldn’t think he was anything special.  The fact is that Perro Aguayo held multiple championships south of the border and was a major draw there whether he was a “rudo” or technico”.  He may have been undersized even by Mexican standards, and he wasn’t a high flyer by any means, but Perro Aguayo was a popular luchadore whose penchant for brawling and blading made him an icon to the Mexican audience.

Saddled with one of the worst gimmicks in WWE history (which says a lot), Bob Holly was going nowhere as the happy race car driver, Thurman “Sparky” Plugg.  As the Attitude Era emerged, Holly was allowed to develop a more hardcore style thus becoming the aptly named Hardcore Holly.  Holly’s take no prisoners attitude seemed like a natural fit and he became a solid performer on the mid card for nearly a decade.

His appearance on WWE television may have been a brief and forgettable appearance as Mr. Perfect’s manager, Coach, but in Los Angeles, John Tolos was a brutally savage wrestler who was a title taking machine in the West Coast.  The Golden Greek was feared and the rough style he showed was often imitated by others.  Tolos captured numerous titles as both a single and as a team in his many years in the ring.  It is a shame that he is best known to most wrestling fans for his thirty days as one of the most colorless managers in wrestling history.

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.