Asian champions

[Karsten Langenfeld]

I think they always pronounced him Hak-shi or something. The u was silent. It took me a few minutes too

[Dennis]

Shows how good his run was, couple of years ago and no one hardly remembers.

Fair point. I remember only because I wanted to sleep threw all his matches.

[Los Conquistador]

I think the reason is in American wrestling, you need a good strong character whereas in asian promotions, its all about being able to go

Its hard to make that transition to a main stream level

[masakaritko]

Great Muta WAS the NWA World Champion while it was in use in WCW, as he won it from Masahiro Chono, another Asian, but lost it to Barry Windham. But yes, I do see the point of this thread is that there have never been any asian world champions in the WWE, other than Khali. BUT, there have not been ANY oriental world champions in WWE. I think most of the guys that could skyrocket to the top were they to join wwe have one giant hurdle in front of them- language barrier. They know this, so they realize their careers would be better off if they remain in Japan where they can guarantee to remain successful. The closest thing wwe has had to a japanese world champion is a samoan posing as a japanese sumo wrestler. kinda sucks, japanese wrestlers have always been some of my favorites, especially Great Muta, Ultimo Dragon, Tajiri, and Taka Michinoku. Of course I am a fan of several current Japanese wrestlers that only compete in japan, like Shinsuke Nakamura, who is one of my personal top ten wrestlers in the world.

[thedag]

fans don't get in to asian wrestlers. not like wwe hasn't tried.

[Sahu]

Funaki/Taziiri were Cruiserweight Champions, Kenzo Suzuki was a former WWE tagteam champion and The Great Khali is a former WHC....Batista is a Fillippino who is South East Asian by ethnicity..so he should be the one great champion from Asian Region..but, no one I guess knows that he's an Asian.....

[Viperfish]

Funaki/Taziiri were Cruiserweight Champions, Kenzo Suzuki was a former WWE tagteam champion and The Great Khali is a former WHC....Batista is a Fillippino who is South East Asian by ethnicity..so he should be the one great champion from Asian Region..but, no one I guess knows that he's an Asian.....

Batista sure doesn't look Filipino. He's not pure Filipino which is probably why, he's half Greek too.

[thedag]

Funaki/Taziiri were Cruiserweight Champions, Kenzo Suzuki was a former WWE tagteam champion and The Great Khali is a former WHC....Batista is a Fillippino who is South East Asian by ethnicity..so he should be the one great champion from Asian Region..but, no one I guess knows that he's an Asian.....

we know he is asian it was covered in post number two.

[Sahu]

we know he is asian it was covered in post number two.

When i said no one I meant general public not the internet fellas..

[deadly56]

Shows how good his run was, couple of years ago and no one hardly remembers.

I wouldn't call six years a couple of years ago.