5 WWE Superstars who had fake accents
WWE and professional wrestling as a whole is an interesting industry. Some of the biggest icons in the history of the business channel their real personalities on-screen and turn them up to eleven.
Meanwhile, other stars come up with or are given a gimmick far different from their true self. While that shouldn't work on paper, some WWE Superstars have managed to excel in those roles.
While there have been a large variety of gimmicks in wrestling history, some don't just change the personality of a superstar but also their heritage. Some talents are billed from different countries they were born in.
Some even take it further by using fake accents. Sometimes these accents are done for laughs. Other times, they're used for establishing a persona. Below are five WWE Superstars who had fake accents.
#5. Apollo Crews recently dropped his accent
Apollo Crews was born in California and raised in Georgia, USA, and has an American accent. On the other hand, his parents were born and raised in Nigeria.
Crews debuted on WWE NXT in 2015. Six years later, in 2021, the former Intercontinental Champion switched his gimmick up. He began calling himself Nigerian royalty and noted that the new accent represented who he really was.
Recently, Apollo switched brands and returned to NXT. Upon his arrival at the developmental show, the former United States Champion lost the Nigerian accent and returned to his regular dialect.
#4. Hall of Famer Razor Ramon used an accent
Razor Ramon is well known for using fake accents in professional wrestling. His real name was Scott Hall, and he was born in Maryland, USA. Despite that, he lived in a military family and moved constantly.
The legendary Scott Hall made his debut as Razor Ramon in 1992. By the time he joined the World Wrestling Federation, the Hall of Famer was already wrestling in various territories for the better part of a decade.
Upon joining the company, he was no longer "Big" Scott Hall or Diamond Studd. Hall became Razor Ramon. The movie Scarface inspired the gimmick, and he used a fake Cuban accent.
The character quickly clicked, and Razor became one of the top stars in the promotion, though not often in the main event picture. When he joined WCW, he briefly retained the accent before dropping it.
#3. King Booker developed an accent
Some WWE Superstars use an accent as part of a major gimmick change or when they debut to stand out from the crowd. Booker T, on the other hand, added an accent during arguably the most successful period of his career.
Booker grew up in Texas but didn't have a particularly heavy accent. Still, there was no mistaking that he certainly didn't have a fancy accent. However, he eventually began to use one on TV.
In 2006, he won the King of the Ring tournament and became known as King Booker. With his glorious victory, he started using a fake English accent.
The fun aspect of this twist on his character was that the fake accent would vanish when he lost his temper. The contrast delighted the WWE Universe.
#2. Kofi Kingston once used an accent
Right now, everything hurts. https://t.co/E8uZQ1w4vf
Kofi Kingston was born in Ghana but moved to the United States and attended Boston College. Upon making his WWE debut, he didn't use an American or Ghanaian accent.
Vignettes for Kingston started airing on ECW in 2007. In the videos, Kofi had a Jamaican accent and claimed to be from the island. Soon after, the popular star made his in-ring debut and began an incredibly successful career in World Wrestling Entertainment.
Kingston eventually dropped the Jamaican accent near the end of 2009. The change was sudden, and D-Generation X even acknowledged it on television. Since then, Kofi has been billed as being from his real hometown of Ghana, West Africa.
#1. Former WWE star Lana
Lana made her NXT debut in 2013. By this point in her life, she had already dabbled in acting and modeling. Born in Florida, Lana moved to Latvian SSR with her family and spent most of her childhood and teenage years there.
While she spent much of her life in a Russia-controlled state, when she debuted on NXT, she used a fake Russian accent for her character. She became the manager for Rusev, the man who would later become her real-life husband.
In 2018, Lana slowly phased out her accent, and before long, the Russian accent was gone entirely. For the remainder of her time with World Wrestling Entertainment, the accent would only come out when saying "Rusev."
A fun aspect of professional wrestling is how it mixes reality and fantasy. Some wrestlers channel their real personalities on-screen, while others portray somebody completely different. Regardless of these stars' accents, all have made their unique mark in WWE.