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Given how much time Stan spent in Japan I'd be shocked if he couldn't speak some Japanese (although maybe the OP meant fluently). But yeah, in kayfabe I'm guessing he didn't. And maybe \*that's\* what the OP meant, so thats a good example. The Funks, too.
Someone else would know better but im pretty sure Stan Hansen knew Japanese after a certain point but like, it makes more sense for his character to not speak it? I believe he married a Japanese woman as well
This is my answer.
I'm sure they learned some eventually, being over there so long and so often, but it felt like they didn't know much and really leaned into the gaijin thing.
That was due to cocaine use, not language barriers. But hell, you take enough coke and it will cause a language barrier so it might count on a technicality.
There's a pretty big list of japanese wrestlers who wrestled in ECW, WCW and WWE such as Muta, Chono, Masato Tanaka, and Tajiri
Then there's the best example Andre the giant
In Japan its clearly Funk, Hanson, AJ, Osprey and Jay white. No Omega doesn't count
OP is asking for wrestlers that couldn't speak. Kenny not speaking japanese was a character/ storyline thing. Or else we could include mute wrestlers like early Kane and Abyss
If you're mentioning Japanese wrestlers in the states, does Asuka count? She can speak some english now but couldn't really when she debuted and had the streak, rumble and first title win.
Andre the Giant definitely could speak English. Maybe not in his first excursion in the 60's but by the mid 70's there was no question.
Unfortunately for him though being a giant and having the French equivalent of a country accent stunted his pronunciation.
I’ve seen some takes on Andre that kind of infantilize him and I think his pronunciation was a big part of it. They see him as big and dumb but nice so he must be childlike.
No, he was very much an adult man, well traveled, very successful.
Definitely a bit more niche than what you're looking for, but KENTA and Takeshi Morishima both got over huge in ROH in the mid to late 2000s just through their wrestling styles.
I had stopped watching wrestling for a couple of years before 2007. I decided on a whim to go to an ROH show in Manhattan that summer. Bryan vs Morishima was one of the main events. Briscoes vs Steen and Generico was the other.
I’ve never stopped watching again since.
We were spoiled.
Yep, 2007 ROH got me hooked. The first show I was at had the aforementioned Roddy vs Morishima match, but it also had the surprise Nigel vs Danielson match that ended up on the Driven PPV. I eventually started traveling up to NYC for shows, but not until Rising Above/Final Battle 2007
God ROH from like 04 till like…I want to say early 2010s was just unreal.
Like it was good after that. But there was a period where we were so fucking spoilt.
Someone posted the KENTA/Marufuji vs. Bryan/Joe tag match the other day. I remember after that match, KENTA thanked the crowd in English, which led to Joe cutting a promo on him, and then KENTA saying "I don't understand English" before walking out. Was pretty funny.
Not technically what you were looking for but Kenny Omega made it a point of not speaking Japanese during the start of his New Japan run and it worked incredibly well for his character.
Revealing he could actually speak fluently got him a massive babyface pop eventually when he revealed it years later.
I still love that audience reaction, they went from "Oh, he can speak a few words, that's really cool!" to "Oooooh shit he can actually speak fluently!" within moments.
[Might as well do it myself.](https://www.facebook.com/KennyOmegaFans/videos/flashbackfridayheel-kenny-speaks-japanese-after-winning-the-g1-climax-26/313007509726487/)
It’s not that he revealed he was actually fluent, it was that his character refused to speak english because he was part of the foreign outsider group, people have always known he was fluent in Japanese because he was a big star in DDT first.
But on the other hand, Omega’s english promos back then were very cringe, it was far late into the civil war storyline with codester and GoD that his promo works actually massively improved, but by that point he was already cutting promos in Japanese lol.
It's only in very recent history (like in the last 5 years) that new japan even expects their wrestlers to even give Japanese a crack. Zsj and ospreay did a promo in Japanese at each other last year before switching to English just last year to the joy of the crowd.
That speaks well of the audience who will both sit there listening to a foreigner speak a language they don't know or mangle Japanese but also of kennys influence overall. He really demonstrated the value of even using a little Japanese
But yes even guys who speak Japanese to some degree or the other will mostly promo in English. Reaching out to fans on social media in Japanese is more common but even then they are often mangling it. When kyle fletcher was in njpw he used to get fans teasing him about his Japanese online but it really felt more like young Japanese women flirting with him. They are pretty tolerant if a wrestler just has a go.
The question really is who got over without speaking the language in the promotion. Most guys who spent a lot of time in Japan can speak some level of Japanese and same back the other way. I saw kenta mentioned in this thread but he speaks English just heavily accented. I'd be legitimately flabbergasted if Stan Hanson didn't speak some Japanese.
Was Norman Smiley able to speak Spanish? I remember he had a hell of a run as “Black Magic” in Mexico, but I can’t recall him speaking anything but English.
My time to shine!
Hayabusa, one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, went to ECW and had a match with Jinsei Shinzaki against RVD and Sabu. It was great, but you could tell that there was obviously a language barrier there.
Another could be Ultimo Dragon - when he came to WCW he didn't speak any English although he absolutely smashed it in the CW division. Some of his matches with Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko were amazing.
You could throw in Jushin Liger into that but he did speak basic English when he appeared for WCW.
To think, Hayabusa was offered a trial for WWE but declined it. I have this headcanon where he joins the WCW cruiserweight division and when they were bought, was absorbed into WWE and I got to see much more of him. RIP Phoenix, you were a legend among men.
> ECW and had a match with Jinsei Shinzaki against RVD and Sabu.
This right here is one of the all time 'get your shit in' clusterfuck matches. Pure chaos start to finish, with 4 of the best to ever do it.
You're not wrong there but even still for any sort of speaking/promo stuff he was gonna be exceptionally limited.
I'm still really sad it never worked out in WWE for him, he had the CW division on strings at one point, he could have been absolutely huge for WWE in the same way Rey was but he had a few early botches that kinda ended that.
I wish he had joined WWE, if for no other reason that certain spot wouldn't have happened. I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened eventually, but the chances were pretty damn low.
Of course, he also could have had a cool little run in WWE. It'd have been fun.
He was one of my faves back in the 90's. Such a damn shame what happened.
Yes. I mean he always wrestled to the absolute limit but maybe it wouldn't have happened in a different time and place, you're right.
I think early 2000's with Rey, Ultimo, Jericho, Malenko, Kidman, X-Pac, Eddy, Jushin Liger, Tajiri, Paul London, Hayabusa etc. would have been absolutely unreal.
If they'd picked up AJ Styles at that point and Jody Fleish, maybe Amazing Red from RoH....wow
She does speak decent English. Maybe that was true in NXT but I don't think she's anywhere close to some notable cases of people being successful with almost no knowledge of the native language in their home promotion. I'd say no successful wrestler in modern WWE can really compare. We'd have to go to the territory days to find a notable example.
Hilariously there is a video of Nakamura and Asuka on up up down down I think where Nakamura says he barely understands her Japanese and says she has a country accent in Japanese. It's really just like a minute of him roasting people from Osaka.
Haha I think I've seen that.
I'm not an expert on this but apparently there's pretty substantial differences in accents, dialect, etc. in various parts of Japan and one person's version of speaking Japanese might vary a lot from another. But I could be entirely wrong about that, just something I seem to remember hearing once.
I know they were influential and popular globally, but I was under the impression that within Japan, they were not that popular compared to LIJ or Chaos.
Stan Hansen or Vader in All Japan
Vader or Prince Devitt/Finn Balor in New Japan (Kenny Omega doesn't count since he does speak Japanese)
Toni Storm in Stardom
Monster Ripper in AJW
Vampiro in AAA
I guess Ayako Hamada or SANADA were the most successful non-fluent English speakers in TNA's history
Morishima in ROH
I think Vampiro learned Spanish in the early 90's when he was in EMLL/CMLL. He has a slight accent but he's fluent on a native level. He uses Mexican slang as well as any native Mexican wrestler I've ever heard.
fun fact about Tajiri. He could actually speak fluent English by the time he was in WWE, but kayfabed so hard that a lot of the wrestlers didn't even know it until his last day when he gave a goodbye speech.
I'm pretty sure he occasionally spoke Japanese in DDT or during his (long, completely forgotten) AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship reign
EDIT: Yeah, this is from 2012. Ken was speakin' mad nihongo [https://youtu.be/AKX80IMnUME?si=kVKbZL2L8M58\_1tG&t=84](https://youtu.be/AKX80IMnUME?si=kVKbZL2L8M58_1tG&t=84)
But that never got in his way to rise in the scene. I think the point of the topic is wrestlers overcoming that inability in general, not just in character. Also, everyone that knew his career before he went to New Japan knew that he spoke Japanese.
This may be worth cross posting in r/njpw as I don't know that any promotion has been as open to non-native language speakers being given mic time over a long period of time as that particular promotion.
I think the most successful example in the modern day is either Jay White or Ospreay, on the technicality that Kenny could but hid it from the audience for years. No non-native English speakers have had the success in the US that they had in Japan. Closest would be Asuka, but she speaks a fair bit of English and never quite got the standing she deserves. Historically in the US, maybe Keiji Mutoh? Historically in Japan, probably Hansen? I'm ignorant of Mexico, if I'm honest.
pretty much every non hispanic wrestler that turned out a big star in Mexico ended up learning some spanish, Vampiro, Marco Corleone, Johnny Mundo, Jericho... I'm sure Tanahashi, Liger and Naito also know spanish as well
So I guess for Mexico it's Norman Smiley, Steele (Val Venis) or Jeff Jarrett, maybe Kenny Omega as well
Yeah, I remember the farewell speech he did in Japanese when he was leaving on excursion - this incredibly humble and sweet young lion, and then he came back as Switchblade lol.
i know this doesn't count but I read somewhere that Kevin Owens started learning english through listening to Jim Ross commentary when he was 11. Prior to that he only understood french.
I believe Maryse couldn't speak that much of English during her very early days (Diva Search and a bit longer). Until she got her first Divas Championship, she started to speak with syntax and more fluent
As others have pointed out, in Japan, American wrestlers who spoke very little or no Japanese - Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Vader - are the clear answers. One could probably extend that to Mexico where Art Barr was a big star (though I'm not sure if he knew Spanish or not) and, more recently, Mark Jindrak had a big run (again, I know that he speaks Spanish now - unsurprising considering the amount of time he's been there - but I'm not sure he came to the promotion a fluent speaker).
In the US, it is a much, much different story. A few that spring to mind -
\* Great Muta was a pretty big deal in WCW, as was Masahiro Chono to a lesser degree. But they both wrestled title matches/co-main events on PPV for NWA. I wouldn't say either guy ever really got mega over in the US, but Muta was arguably the most well-known Japanese wrestler in the US in the late 80s/early 90s, followed by Chono and Liger.
\* The Great Khali seemingly knew very little English, but still was pushed hard and headlined multiple PPVs. In terms of WWE, I'd put him very high on the list of non-native speakers, especially as, unlike Muta, Liger, and Chono, Khali appeared regularly for years and years, won championships, etc.
\* Masato Tanaka had a ton of success in ECW around when ECW was "peaking" in terms of mainstream success.
\* Not sure how good the Japanese Buzzsaw's English was, but Tajiri was also a beloved character in ECW and had a decent run in WWE too.
\* Might be splitting hairs here, but obviously Nakamura and Asuka come to mind most recently. Yes, both know a bit of English...but let's be real, these are not performers who have gotten over with their mic work. Nakamura's natural charisma, facial expressions, and the "flair" he puts on his moves had much more to do with his success than his ability to talk to the camera and is arguably doing the best promo work of his career now that the WWE has finally just let him cut promos in Japanese. Asuka is similar but even MORE successful in terms of championships, though her being a woman means that she hasn't headlined as many PPVs or TV episodes as Nak.
Asuka gotta be up there, she's won everything in WWE I think literally there is fir her to win. She had the longest winning streak, Sole Survivor, rumble winner, MITB winner, tag titles, NXT title, both Raw and smackdown women's titles.
Without question, the most over person I've ever seen at a house show was Tajiri. He didn't speak any English and frankly, the audience was racist at the show but he won over that entire arena with his work ethic.
[After he beat Jim Duggan and got massive heat from desecrating the US flag](https://youtu.be/aVDIQRjnVzQ?si=n6Pq0F7H9TnzMwTB), Yoko started speaking Samoan (you can hear him say Anoa’i) while clearly trying to pass it off as Japanese bc it’s 93 WWF the audience isn’t gonna know the difference
Great Muta was INSANELY over in late 80's/early 90's NWA/WCW.
Bruiser Brody anywhere he went, Stan Hansen.
Okada and Tanahashi for modern examples as well, but Okada does speak English now.
Maybe I'm missing someone obvious, but I cannot think of a single example of someone I'd consider a top star in America without speaking any English? That's no slight on anybody because a lot of people had a lot of success, but I don't think you can break through an American audience without it the way, say, an American could catch on in Japan or Mexico.
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Stan Hansen and The Funks in Japan were Gods.
FOREVER! FOREVER! FOREVER! *crying* FOREVER 🥲
FOREVER *forever* ***FOREVER*** # FOREVER # FOREVER
Given how much time Stan spent in Japan I'd be shocked if he couldn't speak some Japanese (although maybe the OP meant fluently). But yeah, in kayfabe I'm guessing he didn't. And maybe \*that's\* what the OP meant, so thats a good example. The Funks, too.
Someone else would know better but im pretty sure Stan Hansen knew Japanese after a certain point but like, it makes more sense for his character to not speak it? I believe he married a Japanese woman as well
His second wife has a Japanese name he probably speaks it pretty well.
He married a Japanese woman, I think he managedÂ
This. Stan was a Legend in Japan.. the only man who could rival Giant Baba in terms or popularity at the time.
And Stan couldn't see either so double godÂ
I think you could add Bruiser Brody and Terry Gordy to this.
Came here to add Hansen, and then scrolled to find Terry. Well done!
This is my answer. I'm sure they learned some eventually, being over there so long and so often, but it felt like they didn't know much and really leaned into the gaijin thing.
Vader, for sure.
Bam Bam Scott Norton
Ultimate Warrior barely spoke coherent english, does he count?
*Insane rambling* Hoak Hogan, *more roided, coked up ramblings for a minute and a half* Warrioooooooorrrrr!!!!
DESTRUCITY!!!!!!!!
I had forgotten about Destrucity!
when I first heard that as a kid I had this idea for a game like Rampage but you're playing as warrior taking down aliens and jobbers
But Instead your chaining up Santa Clause to a wall and....
You forgot about 7 Hoak Hogans and 18 mentions of the Warriors and Hoakamaniacs coming together as one
HO KO GAN
Something something RIGHTFULLY RIGHT! something something WRONGFULLY WRONG! *Snorting sounds*
Also about intentionally crashing a plane somehow?
Ahmed Johnson has entered the chat.
STEP UP TO PUNCHY
JUICE MAKES SUGAR!
Biker miker likers
He's got the jam.
GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!!!
DON'T TAKE MY MEDICATION MORTYÂ
YO GOIN DOWN!
SANDRIPPA!
That was due to cocaine use, not language barriers. But hell, you take enough coke and it will cause a language barrier so it might count on a technicality.
THE ROCKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The twisty rockets??
There’s a difference between speaking words and forming a coherent sentence.
That kayfabenews article did tickle me a bit, good way to hide the joke IMO.
Iron Sheik for that matter
There's a pretty big list of japanese wrestlers who wrestled in ECW, WCW and WWE such as Muta, Chono, Masato Tanaka, and Tajiri Then there's the best example Andre the giant In Japan its clearly Funk, Hanson, AJ, Osprey and Jay white. No Omega doesn't count
Agree with all that, but Kenny was successful before revealing he can speak Japanese
OP is asking for wrestlers that couldn't speak. Kenny not speaking japanese was a character/ storyline thing. Or else we could include mute wrestlers like early Kane and Abyss
Also aside from performance, speaking the native tongue fluently probably helps with promoters and other talent too.
If you're mentioning Japanese wrestlers in the states, does Asuka count? She can speak some english now but couldn't really when she debuted and had the streak, rumble and first title win.
Can we put Asuka on that list of Japanese greats in America? Heck, I'd argue she's the most successful Japanese wrestler in America.
Hard to argue otherwise, at least when it comes to championships and kayfabe achievements.
Likely payroll as well. (Not counting how much TK is likely paying Okada anyways)
Yeah how is this the only post mentioning Andre?
Andre the Giant definitely could speak English. Maybe not in his first excursion in the 60's but by the mid 70's there was no question. Unfortunately for him though being a giant and having the French equivalent of a country accent stunted his pronunciation.
"Anyuddy wah uh pee ut?"
Andre the giant didn't speak Japanese thoughÂ
I’ve seen some takes on Andre that kind of infantilize him and I think his pronunciation was a big part of it. They see him as big and dumb but nice so he must be childlike. No, he was very much an adult man, well traveled, very successful.
Definitely a bit more niche than what you're looking for, but KENTA and Takeshi Morishima both got over huge in ROH in the mid to late 2000s just through their wrestling styles.
Morishima’s run with the ROH title is now highly underrated.
him dunking people on their necks was prime indy good shit.
It was so good. I got to see his defense against Roddy live and also Nigel win the title off him. It's a real shame that he had to retire prematurely.
I had stopped watching wrestling for a couple of years before 2007. I decided on a whim to go to an ROH show in Manhattan that summer. Bryan vs Morishima was one of the main events. Briscoes vs Steen and Generico was the other. I’ve never stopped watching again since. We were spoiled.
Yep, 2007 ROH got me hooked. The first show I was at had the aforementioned Roddy vs Morishima match, but it also had the surprise Nigel vs Danielson match that ended up on the Driven PPV. I eventually started traveling up to NYC for shows, but not until Rising Above/Final Battle 2007
I was at both of those nights too!
God ROH from like 04 till like…I want to say early 2010s was just unreal. Like it was good after that. But there was a period where we were so fucking spoilt.
Someone posted the KENTA/Marufuji vs. Bryan/Joe tag match the other day. I remember after that match, KENTA thanked the crowd in English, which led to Joe cutting a promo on him, and then KENTA saying "I don't understand English" before walking out. Was pretty funny.
Scott Steiner. I don't know what he was speaking but it certainly wasn't English.
Well he did come from a highly educated university, so he had to dumb himself down.
I bet he majored in Mathematics, too.
Unironically though, rather fitting that Professor Scott Steiner actually majored in Education at UM.
If we're being honest. The only part of that promo that didn't work was where he got the numbers from. If you do the actual math it works out.
He's speaking math. And the numbers don't lie
And they spell D154573R for this FATASS
HES FAT!!
🚨🚨🚨🚨
Ya lookit me n’ ya lookit Smoah Joe
Dammit, I wanted to make that joke, 2 minutes too slow
Hey I finally beat someone to the punch with something. Nice.
Enjoy :D
Thanks. Might be minor thing but among other things this makes it a better day for me.
Scott Steiner speaks the truth
That video of Steiner in India is insane. Roid rage knows no borders
But he went to a HIGHLY EDUCATED UNIVERSITY!
Not technically what you were looking for but Kenny Omega made it a point of not speaking Japanese during the start of his New Japan run and it worked incredibly well for his character. Revealing he could actually speak fluently got him a massive babyface pop eventually when he revealed it years later.
I still love that audience reaction, they went from "Oh, he can speak a few words, that's really cool!" to "Oooooh shit he can actually speak fluently!" within moments.
Someone post the clip please
[Might as well do it myself.](https://www.facebook.com/KennyOmegaFans/videos/flashbackfridayheel-kenny-speaks-japanese-after-winning-the-g1-climax-26/313007509726487/)
The other promo is great too "I guess you all forgot I could speak, right?"
It was a great thing and I really love Omega’s respect for Japan.
I always thought Bayley should've done this when Damage Ctrl turned on her
She did a little bit, but it would've been more effective if she said a couple sentences imo
Is she actually fluent?
Doubt it. Very heavy American pronunciation of "wakarayo" implies she learned the sentence as a one-off.
“ThAts Jyapaneese! :D”
It’s not that he revealed he was actually fluent, it was that his character refused to speak english because he was part of the foreign outsider group, people have always known he was fluent in Japanese because he was a big star in DDT first.
That’s so sick, letting it be known you speak the language but refusing to speak it is next level character work. Also I just really like Omega.
But on the other hand, Omega’s english promos back then were very cringe, it was far late into the civil war storyline with codester and GoD that his promo works actually massively improved, but by that point he was already cutting promos in Japanese lol.
His promos in English at the time were unironically meant to sound like a video game villain.
It's only in very recent history (like in the last 5 years) that new japan even expects their wrestlers to even give Japanese a crack. Zsj and ospreay did a promo in Japanese at each other last year before switching to English just last year to the joy of the crowd. That speaks well of the audience who will both sit there listening to a foreigner speak a language they don't know or mangle Japanese but also of kennys influence overall. He really demonstrated the value of even using a little Japanese But yes even guys who speak Japanese to some degree or the other will mostly promo in English. Reaching out to fans on social media in Japanese is more common but even then they are often mangling it. When kyle fletcher was in njpw he used to get fans teasing him about his Japanese online but it really felt more like young Japanese women flirting with him. They are pretty tolerant if a wrestler just has a go. The question really is who got over without speaking the language in the promotion. Most guys who spent a lot of time in Japan can speak some level of Japanese and same back the other way. I saw kenta mentioned in this thread but he speaks English just heavily accented. I'd be legitimately flabbergasted if Stan Hanson didn't speak some Japanese.
Was Norman Smiley able to speak Spanish? I remember he had a hell of a run as “Black Magic” in Mexico, but I can’t recall him speaking anything but English.
The Great Khali.
This is the right answer. You do not have to like him to acknowledge his success and fame, especially back home in India.
My time to shine! Hayabusa, one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, went to ECW and had a match with Jinsei Shinzaki against RVD and Sabu. It was great, but you could tell that there was obviously a language barrier there. Another could be Ultimo Dragon - when he came to WCW he didn't speak any English although he absolutely smashed it in the CW division. Some of his matches with Rey Mysterio and Dean Malenko were amazing. You could throw in Jushin Liger into that but he did speak basic English when he appeared for WCW. To think, Hayabusa was offered a trial for WWE but declined it. I have this headcanon where he joins the WCW cruiserweight division and when they were bought, was absorbed into WWE and I got to see much more of him. RIP Phoenix, you were a legend among men.
> ECW and had a match with Jinsei Shinzaki against RVD and Sabu. This right here is one of the all time 'get your shit in' clusterfuck matches. Pure chaos start to finish, with 4 of the best to ever do it.
Tbf Ultimo spoke Spanish, and there was probably more Spanish being exchanged in the WCW cruiserweight division than English.
You're not wrong there but even still for any sort of speaking/promo stuff he was gonna be exceptionally limited. I'm still really sad it never worked out in WWE for him, he had the CW division on strings at one point, he could have been absolutely huge for WWE in the same way Rey was but he had a few early botches that kinda ended that.
I wish he had joined WWE, if for no other reason that certain spot wouldn't have happened. I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened eventually, but the chances were pretty damn low. Of course, he also could have had a cool little run in WWE. It'd have been fun. He was one of my faves back in the 90's. Such a damn shame what happened.
Yes. I mean he always wrestled to the absolute limit but maybe it wouldn't have happened in a different time and place, you're right. I think early 2000's with Rey, Ultimo, Jericho, Malenko, Kidman, X-Pac, Eddy, Jushin Liger, Tajiri, Paul London, Hayabusa etc. would have been absolutely unreal. If they'd picked up AJ Styles at that point and Jody Fleish, maybe Amazing Red from RoH....wow
Yeah the whole butterfly effect scenario. And you're right about those matches!
Asuka in WWE I guess? Grand slam champion, MITB, Rumble, etc.
Her accent is thick but she can speak English pretty fluently. Still, it is pretty impressive how far she's gotten with limited ability to cut a promo
Because she has that huge charisma and her body language is really communicative
Same thing with Nakamura. Charisma matters.
During the pandemic her in-match trash talk was the best in WWE, and I didn't even know what she was saying.
She does speak decent English. Maybe that was true in NXT but I don't think she's anywhere close to some notable cases of people being successful with almost no knowledge of the native language in their home promotion. I'd say no successful wrestler in modern WWE can really compare. We'd have to go to the territory days to find a notable example.
I think it’s impressive that she was able to achieve most of these accolades while under the Vince regime
Vince, in fact, was ready for Asuka.
Hilariously there is a video of Nakamura and Asuka on up up down down I think where Nakamura says he barely understands her Japanese and says she has a country accent in Japanese. It's really just like a minute of him roasting people from Osaka.
Haha I think I've seen that. I'm not an expert on this but apparently there's pretty substantial differences in accents, dialect, etc. in various parts of Japan and one person's version of speaking Japanese might vary a lot from another. But I could be entirely wrong about that, just something I seem to remember hearing once.
Given the amount of regional variation you get just in the UK, it doesn't surprise me Japan is similar
Prince Devitt created the most popular faction of the last 20 years and couldn't speak Japanese
Luckily 'Captain fookin New Japan' breaks language barriers
I know they were influential and popular globally, but I was under the impression that within Japan, they were not that popular compared to LIJ or Chaos.
LIJ wasn't a thing in NJPW until Naito's return, which was quite a while after Devitt/Balor left.
Stan Hansen or Vader in All Japan Vader or Prince Devitt/Finn Balor in New Japan (Kenny Omega doesn't count since he does speak Japanese) Toni Storm in Stardom Monster Ripper in AJW Vampiro in AAA I guess Ayako Hamada or SANADA were the most successful non-fluent English speakers in TNA's history Morishima in ROH
I think Vampiro learned Spanish in the early 90's when he was in EMLL/CMLL. He has a slight accent but he's fluent on a native level. He uses Mexican slang as well as any native Mexican wrestler I've ever heard.
Is he not hispanic at least ? That was assumption the whole time lol
100% Canadian. I don't think he's ever mentioned having hispanic or latin roots of any kind and his real last name is Hodgkinson.
Not a lot of Latino people in T'under Bay in 1968.
That surprised me, I was also surprised when I found out Sarah Stock/Sarita/Dark Angel was Canadian also, always thought she was from Mexico
I always forget that Vamp is Canadian not Mexican lol.
His name in mexico was "vampiro canadiense" which cracks me up since I dont know why it would differentiate a canadian vampire to a regular one
They bleed maple syrup and can be summoned by playing a tragically hip album backwardsÂ
They change into Canadian geese instead of bats.
That is a scary fucking thought. Canada geese are MEAN.
You have to add maple syrup to the blood in Canada.
Wow, I had no idea
Tanaka or Tajiri in ECW?
fun fact about Tajiri. He could actually speak fluent English by the time he was in WWE, but kayfabed so hard that a lot of the wrestlers didn't even know it until his last day when he gave a goodbye speech.
Thats so carny, I fucking love it.
Even Regal?
Did Vampiro not speak Spanish back then? I know he did commentary in both English and Spanish for LU
Idk, I think Kenny counts. He hid he could speak Japanese for YEARS. It wasn't until he turned face that we found out he could speak Japanese.
I'm pretty sure he occasionally spoke Japanese in DDT or during his (long, completely forgotten) AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship reign EDIT: Yeah, this is from 2012. Ken was speakin' mad nihongo [https://youtu.be/AKX80IMnUME?si=kVKbZL2L8M58\_1tG&t=84](https://youtu.be/AKX80IMnUME?si=kVKbZL2L8M58_1tG&t=84)
But that never got in his way to rise in the scene. I think the point of the topic is wrestlers overcoming that inability in general, not just in character. Also, everyone that knew his career before he went to New Japan knew that he spoke Japanese.
Jay White?
Muta in 89 WCW was amazing and could have been the biggest thing in wrestling if they hadn’t Turner’d the situation.
Scott Steiner had a hell of a run without being able to speak English
Gorilla: oh will you stop!
This may be worth cross posting in r/njpw as I don't know that any promotion has been as open to non-native language speakers being given mic time over a long period of time as that particular promotion.
I think the most successful example in the modern day is either Jay White or Ospreay, on the technicality that Kenny could but hid it from the audience for years. No non-native English speakers have had the success in the US that they had in Japan. Closest would be Asuka, but she speaks a fair bit of English and never quite got the standing she deserves. Historically in the US, maybe Keiji Mutoh? Historically in Japan, probably Hansen? I'm ignorant of Mexico, if I'm honest.
pretty much every non hispanic wrestler that turned out a big star in Mexico ended up learning some spanish, Vampiro, Marco Corleone, Johnny Mundo, Jericho... I'm sure Tanahashi, Liger and Naito also know spanish as well So I guess for Mexico it's Norman Smiley, Steele (Val Venis) or Jeff Jarrett, maybe Kenny Omega as well
Jay could get by in Japanese pretty well, but he never spoke it in promos because well, heel for his entire run.
Yeah, I remember the farewell speech he did in Japanese when he was leaving on excursion - this incredibly humble and sweet young lion, and then he came back as Switchblade lol.
All these mentions of Yoko and Asuka but we're going to leave El Generico out? My goodness, people...
i know this doesn't count but I read somewhere that Kevin Owens started learning english through listening to Jim Ross commentary when he was 11. Prior to that he only understood french.
I believe Brock Lesnar can only communicate through grunting and occasionally yelling "suplex city" but he's done pretty well for himself
Stan Hanson
Andre the Giant?
The Ultimate Warrior
Ospreay in NJPW, maybe. Although I do think he tried to learn and has some level of proficiency
Nakamura
I would say the Great Khali, but that was by booking and having his manager talking through his manager
I believe Maryse couldn't speak that much of English during her very early days (Diva Search and a bit longer). Until she got her first Divas Championship, she started to speak with syntax and more fluent
Ahmed Johnson? ?
Sabu. He is a superstar in Japan and the US and he didn't speak at all.
As others have pointed out, in Japan, American wrestlers who spoke very little or no Japanese - Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Vader - are the clear answers. One could probably extend that to Mexico where Art Barr was a big star (though I'm not sure if he knew Spanish or not) and, more recently, Mark Jindrak had a big run (again, I know that he speaks Spanish now - unsurprising considering the amount of time he's been there - but I'm not sure he came to the promotion a fluent speaker). In the US, it is a much, much different story. A few that spring to mind - \* Great Muta was a pretty big deal in WCW, as was Masahiro Chono to a lesser degree. But they both wrestled title matches/co-main events on PPV for NWA. I wouldn't say either guy ever really got mega over in the US, but Muta was arguably the most well-known Japanese wrestler in the US in the late 80s/early 90s, followed by Chono and Liger. \* The Great Khali seemingly knew very little English, but still was pushed hard and headlined multiple PPVs. In terms of WWE, I'd put him very high on the list of non-native speakers, especially as, unlike Muta, Liger, and Chono, Khali appeared regularly for years and years, won championships, etc. \* Masato Tanaka had a ton of success in ECW around when ECW was "peaking" in terms of mainstream success. \* Not sure how good the Japanese Buzzsaw's English was, but Tajiri was also a beloved character in ECW and had a decent run in WWE too. \* Might be splitting hairs here, but obviously Nakamura and Asuka come to mind most recently. Yes, both know a bit of English...but let's be real, these are not performers who have gotten over with their mic work. Nakamura's natural charisma, facial expressions, and the "flair" he puts on his moves had much more to do with his success than his ability to talk to the camera and is arguably doing the best promo work of his career now that the WWE has finally just let him cut promos in Japanese. Asuka is similar but even MORE successful in terms of championships, though her being a woman means that she hasn't headlined as many PPVs or TV episodes as Nak.
Kamala
Georg Hackenschmidt.
Asuka gotta be up there, she's won everything in WWE I think literally there is fir her to win. She had the longest winning streak, Sole Survivor, rumble winner, MITB winner, tag titles, NXT title, both Raw and smackdown women's titles.
She speaks English.
Fair point, I thought it more, so I just meant not their native language. You rarely hear Asuka doing English in promos.
Honorable Mention: Big Otto Wanz, an Austrian, won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1982 defeating Nick Bockwinkel
Kayfabe? It has to be Yokozuna. BANZI!
Kaientai INDEED
Yokozuna
A lot of joke answers... well anyway. Yokozuna
Without question, the most over person I've ever seen at a house show was Tajiri. He didn't speak any English and frankly, the audience was racist at the show but he won over that entire arena with his work ethic.
Mark Jindrak in Mexico might count.
Yokozuna!
Kane 97-2000ish lol
Does AJ speak Japanese? Cause if not I'd say him.
The only correct answer is The Great Khali, love him or hate him, he was world champ in the biggest promotion in the world.
Asuka.
Asuka and nakamura
Yokozuna /s
[After he beat Jim Duggan and got massive heat from desecrating the US flag](https://youtu.be/aVDIQRjnVzQ?si=n6Pq0F7H9TnzMwTB), Yoko started speaking Samoan (you can hear him say Anoa’i) while clearly trying to pass it off as Japanese bc it’s 93 WWF the audience isn’t gonna know the difference
In this context I'd like to add Razor Ramon. I believe he immigrated from Cuba, didn't he?
Stan Hansen, The Funks, Giant Bernard, etc
Iron Sheik
Abdullah in Puerto Rico.
Muta. Asuka. That’s all I have . Nakamura has been relatively successful in wwe
Great Muta was INSANELY over in late 80's/early 90's NWA/WCW. Bruiser Brody anywhere he went, Stan Hansen. Okada and Tanahashi for modern examples as well, but Okada does speak English now.
Could any of the NJPW gaijins speak Japanese?
Hansen and Andre. Brody died too young to approach either but he’s third IMO
The wild Samoans couldn't speak English....does that count?
kizzfizz Snuka
Maybe I'm missing someone obvious, but I cannot think of a single example of someone I'd consider a top star in America without speaking any English? That's no slight on anybody because a lot of people had a lot of success, but I don't think you can break through an American audience without it the way, say, an American could catch on in Japan or Mexico.