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Post by The Beast Disincarnate on Dec 26, 2013 19:09:15 GMT -5
And all the "french" wrestlers were in reality french canadians. The only real french that ever wrestled in the WWE is André the Giant I think.
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on Dec 27, 2013 3:03:01 GMT -5
Well my guess would be because their an easy target and certain demographics that make up their audience most likely aren't too fond of them.
As for La Resistance, when you have Vince McMahon a man who would like to see himself as some sort of super patriot, its hardly surprising that he would be the type to capitalize on all that stupid anti french sentiment in 2003 by creating a french heel tag team that would piss off a bunch jingoistic rednecks.
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Jessica Cadavre
Trap-Jaw
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Posts: 427
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Post by Jessica Cadavre on Dec 27, 2013 3:22:15 GMT -5
The McMahons are also Republicans, and at the time we had a Republican president.
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schma
Hank Scorpio
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Post by schma on Dec 27, 2013 3:32:26 GMT -5
WWE and really any other wrestling company love foreign heels. They make natural enemies for the patriot characters like Duggan, Slaughter, Hogan, Cena. You've got the Sheik, the Mountie (a French Canadian villain), the anti-americans, la resistance, the Bolsheviks, team Canada (some form of which has existed in just about every major organization).
The big thing with the Iraq war was that the UN wanted more time to verify that there were actually weapons of mass destruction and the US decided to go ahead anyways. France had actually told them straight up that if the US didn't go through the proper channels they would not back them. When the US refused to go through proper channels, France did not back them.
Really though, there is that assumption that Americans and to a certain extent Canadians have of the smarmy French asshole. It happens a lot in Hollywood even.
As for WW2, people tend to conveniently forget that while France as a nation officially surrendered many of the French actually fought a guerrilla war, providing the allies with important information and essentially functioning as spies and saboteurs to help the allies. I hardly call that a true surrender.
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Post by crowwreak was WRONG on Dec 27, 2013 4:51:34 GMT -5
Because France actually payed attention to the millions of people protesting the Iraq War and USA didn't.
Also, because people don't think something is racist if it's against a white person (see every time I point out that a certain stereotype about British Teeth is incredibly racist)
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Post by Piccolo on Dec 27, 2013 18:01:22 GMT -5
Also, because people don't think something is racist if it's against a white person (see every time I point out that a certain stereotype about British Teeth is incredibly racist) ... British people are a race? Since when?
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Dec 27, 2013 19:07:00 GMT -5
maybe because a certain superstar who's name must not be mentioned had a French surname Why aren't we allowed to mention Maryse?
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Post by RadcapRadsley on Dec 27, 2013 19:14:58 GMT -5
If they really hated the French then Dino Bravo wouldn't have been portayed as a French Canadian when he was booked as the worlds strongest man.
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Glitch
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Post by Glitch on Dec 27, 2013 19:34:06 GMT -5
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Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Dec 28, 2013 5:14:53 GMT -5
At the time of La Résistance, it was obviously a response to France's refusal to help America attack Irak, which is a weird thing to do considering how divisive the subject was in the US and many American people believed the war was unnecessary and would have terrible long-term consequences. Honestly, I didn't mind it as I thought the characters were good enough and it even seemed they were trying to do more than the stereotypical "cheese-eating surrender monkey" stuff with Duprée once he joined WWECW, but the jokes about surrendering do always piss me off. Yeah, surrendering to the Nazis, after months of fighting them while still recovering from the previous World War and the survivors still traumatized from losing their families and entire towns being shot by so many shells that it was literally turned into a crater, all that BEFORE air raids became a thing. You'd think when they named the team "La Résistance", they'd remember the people, in large parts civilians, who risked their lives on a daily basis to fight evil and refuse their own government's surrender. Of course you'd also think they'd remember that a big part of the reason there could be a USA in the first place was thanks to France's support to the Colonies against the British Empire (granted we only did it to be dicks to the British but that's beside the point). I don't mind jokes about us being rude, snobby or even smelly but THAT, that tends to piss me off as it's a disgusting oversimplification (if not downright revision) of history. So yeah, I don't even mind a stereotypical French guy gimmick but can we please stop with this surrender bullshit? Also amusingly, I remember a comic made by a Belgian-American guy (Jerry Frissen if that rings any bell) called Luchadores Five in which a superhero group made of luchadores fight and encounter various also lucha-themed characters. One important group is a team of stereotypical French guys (although it's implied that they may be lying about their nationality) and I actually really like them for two reasons: 1. Their outfits are very cool despite being based on the sterotypical beret-wearing "French guy" outfit. 2. They're not downright evil, they switch sides depending on what they need and I love this type of villain. So basically, if they're going for a "stereotypical French guy" gimmick again, I really hope they go with something like that. I'm a Brit and when an Englishman starts to defend the French you know something's up. I'm no Englishman but in my life I've never had much trouble from anyone who is French, some nice friends stem from there. But then you get into the politics of poverty and art against the system in France and it gets a bit non-FANny. Plus they were right about British beef, the produce in the UK sucks and is frustratingly low quality sometimes. Reason why the WWE hate the French: {Spoiler}{Spoiler}Nobody ever says Italy. See? Now THAT'S an "anti"-French joke I actually find funny. The social/political climate of the times would have rendered an evil Arab/Muslim character aka the Iton Sheik as a given-but due to political correctness we get evil French or Canadians instead. Did you forget about Muhammad Hassan and Koshrow Daivari? The foreign heel is a staple in wrestling. The problem is that we are a much more politically correct society today, so an evil foreigner is harder to pull off. The social/political climate of the times would have rendered an evil Arab/Muslim character aka the Iton Sheik as a given-but due to political correctness we get evil French or Canadians instead. I personally thought Kozlov should have made references to Vladmir Putin in his promo's, since Putin portrays himself as a Russian superman and is a figure many Americans view with mistrust, but in today's WWE such an idea is inconceivable. WWE's also a company with global aspirations now so there's probably a concern about alienating large portions of their audience. that's why Kenzo Suzuki's "Hirohito" gimmick was thrown out almost immediately. WWE does big business in Japan and they don't want to go offending them. The WWE and wrestling in general were becoming HUGE in France at the time after decades of being extremely niche so I presume that's why the Renée Duprée gimmick didn't stick around too long either.
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skulldouggory
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Post by skulldouggory on Dec 28, 2013 10:29:08 GMT -5
I remember it was a prety hard thing to watch at the time. I remember watching other U.S shows like Conan and Leno and they would take pot shots at the French, and as someone who isn't American or even overly patriotic of my own country, the backlash was unbelievable at the time. Vince seems to always highlight and enlarge the stigmas of his country and reflect them on his heels. It's why i can never take the WWE seriously as a world-wide company when it tries so hardly to appeal only to it's American audiences.
Case in point when they had faces Benoit and Jericho billed from Atlanta & Manhassatet respectively out of fear the fans would turn on the Canadians.
Or when they put on a Raw or Smackdown in the U.K and have nothing but skits with outdated stereotypes that could be found offensive by the live crowd, but done for the benefit of the "real" audience in the States.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2013 10:37:04 GMT -5
The other thing is, the stereotype of the French (at least French men) is being fancy and cultured and a little effeminate. So there's a little bit of a subliminal anti-gay thing in there too. More than that, though, is just a basic slobs vs. snobs thing, with Americans casting themselves as the salt-of-the-earth regular people getting looked down on. there's also some arrogance thrown in there. At some point there was the idea the French stuck their noses up at Americans. I think it was while De Gaulle was in charge Could have been worse. Could have gave him a little poodle named Fifi. Oh wait... Could have been worse, could have made him a mime.
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Bad Moon
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Post by Bad Moon on Dec 28, 2013 13:07:20 GMT -5
As someone who's been to France once I speculate it may have something to do with some or all of the following things: Their food, their language, their attitude, their culture and the fact that they are French.
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