The wrestling business is filled with some colorful characters. From space men to cavemen and everything in between, there’s literally something for everyone. No matter the era or the promotion/territory/carnival, the evil foreign villain has always been a staple.
Following World War II, a University of Texas football player named Jack Adkisson became the goose stepping Fritz Von Erich, a Canadian became Karl Von Hess, and many others would go on to be evil Germans and Japanese people to feed popular sentiment. Whether it was the Russians and Iranians in the 80s to the French in the 2000s, foreign villains never truly go out of style. This trend is old as wrestling itself and continues onto today, where Italians can pass as Middle Eastern and guys from Minneapolis can be Iranian bastards. But not every foreign villain is that memorable once their time has passed. For every Iron Sheik, you’ll find a Skull Von Krush. With that in mind, here are 5 Forgotten Foreign Fanatics. And yes, I stole the name from a 1993 Survivor Series Team, what of it?
R to L: Pat Tanaka, Mr. Fuji, Cultural Appropriation
5. The Orient Express
The Orient Express was a tag team that competed in a time when “the Orient Express” was something you could say on television. Then again, this was the time Gorilla Monsoon would regularly remark on “Pearl Harbor Jobs”, so I guess it’s all relative. The Orient Express had two iterations during their 4 year run, the first being (Pat) Tanaka and (Akio) Sato. After the breakup of the Powers of Pain, Mr. Fuji became the manager of The Orient Express, giving him someone new to manage (before being put with Yokozuna). Sato eventually returned to Japan and was replaced by Kato, who was Paul Diamond in a mask. That’s right, WCW didn’t invent putting a white guy in a mask and pretending to be Japanese, the Orient Express had that on lock in early 90s, son.
Suck it, Jamie-San
Anyway, Diamond and Tanaka were formerly known as Bad Company in the AWA (not to be confused with Terrible Company, another name for WCW in the late 90’s) and were put back together in the WWF. The team worked for the WWF until 1994, but never got farther than “that team The Legion of Doom beat up”. Tanaka would later work for WCW in c-show squash matches and Diamond would become Max Moon (#2) and eventually a top guy during the last days of the USWA. The Orient Express were one of the latter examples of using a tag team’s Japanese heritage (sort of, work with me) to get them booed, some 40+ years after that kind of character was even effective. But unfortunately, they wouldn’t be the last.
Think “effeminate Bray Wyatt”
4. Salvatore Sincere
This is what happens when you take an ok talent, add a dumb name, stir, and barely use whatever falls out of the pan. In 1996, the WWF was still in the “profession or goofy name” rut, giving anyone they brought in a goofy profession, name, or both (I’m looking at you, TL Hopper). Hiring perennial jobber Tom Brandi, WWF “creative” saddled him with the name Salvatore Sincere, a boisterous Italian who dressed like a second rate Chippendale dancer and spoke with an awful Italian accent. Think Santino Marella without the charisma…and a fedora. The whole gimmick, if you can call it that, was that Salvatore Sincere would go out before his matches and talk about how SINCERELY he loved the fans. But the thing was, hold on for this, he wasn’t actually sincere. Get it? Because his name is Salvatore Sincere and he’s not sin- yeah, it was that dumb. Anyway, the third most offensive Italian stereotype behind The Mario Brothers and any cast member from Jersey Shore, Sincere was relegated to 3-4 minute squash matches for bigger stars before finally shedding the Sincere name and go by Tom Brandi, whose gimmick was…being named Tom Brandi. You know what, maybe Salvatore Sincere was the better pick here.
Not Pictured: Dignity
3. Saba Simba
And this is where it gets weird. In the early 90s, the WWF was still in the habit of repackaging older stars with new, “fresh” gimmicks. Like Ric Steamboat dressed as an ACTUAL DRAGON. One of those new coats of paint fell on Tony Atlas, former WWF tag team champion and foot enthusiast (couldn’t make this up if I tried). Atlas supposedly “got in touch with his African roots” (he’s from Virginia) and was repackaged as Saba Simba, the only wrestler on this list named after a Power Ranger character and the lead from The Lion King. With a gimmick like that, how could he fail? The answer is “easily”. Saba Simba lasted about as long as it took to read this entry before Atlas was let go once again, thankfully saving us from his future tag partner, Dragonzord Mufasa.
He was on loan from the Power Rangers
2. Kwang
If you think this is just another Japanese entry, you’re right…and wrong…it’s complicated. How complicated? Try a Japanese ninja who is actually Puerto Rican named Juan. Confused yet? You should be. Kwang was a mysterious ninja from Japan that had all the distinction of not being named Hakushi. Instead of hiring an actual Japanese wrestler to fill the role, they instead went with Puerto Rican wrestler Juan Rivera, put a generic mask on him, and gave him a ridiculous name befitting a 1960s Batman sound effect. Kwang also had a propensity to spray green mist, because it’s a fact that 1-in-3 Japanese people breath acid (don’t quote me on that). Kwang had a decent buildup before his debut, but beyond that, the oddly tanned Japanese ninja didn’t get far after his debut. Rivera would be repackaged as *gasp* an actual Puerto Rican named Savio Vega, which he played successfully. That is until they went too far and put him in a group whose name translated to “The Puerto Ricans”, but that’s a story for another time.
Because Ivan Drago wasn’t available.
1. Ludvig Borga
I know what you’re thinking “who the f$#@ is Ludvig Borga?”. No, he’s not the newest character on Game of Thrones (I don’t watch the show, is that a good reference?), he was the Finnish villain in the WWF in the early 90s. Borga, real name Tony Halme, was actually Finnish and hailed from Helsinki, a fact Vince McMahon would remind you of every match. Every. Single. Match. Borga had a career in Japan before becoming the “Helsinki Hellraiser” in the WWF. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think “foreign supervillain”, I don’t necessarily think Finland, but apparently Vince McMahon did and tried everything in his power to make Borga look like a beast. Borga began his WWF career by ending the year-long undefeated streak of Tatanka, back when wins and losses mattered and weren’t traded like Pokemon cards. After this, Ludvig Borga teamed with The Quebecers and Yokozuna to form the aforementioned Foreign Fanatics at Survivor Series 1993 against the ultra patriotic team of Lex Luger, the Steiner Brothers, and The Undertaker for some reason. Borga would get injured and later released, never able to fully capitalize on the character. Halme would return to Japan and eventually end up back in Finland where he quietly faded away into a quiet life of being elected to national government. Wait, what?
Well that’s the list of my 5 Forgotten Foreign Fanatics. Did I leave anything out? Do you remember someone that’s even more…foreign-y? Tell me about it in the comments.
DanFraley.com 
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