Professional wrestling is culturally ingrained into not only the USA and Canada for many decades, but also Mexico and Japan. The in-ring styles are different among the three, too. American wrestling (WWE, basically now, with TNA/GFW as a poor imitator) has all been about soap opera. I include Canada here because the two countries are too similar, and Canada's proud heritage of pro wrestling usually involves their talent, like Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, Kevin Owens, and too many to count, migrating south to find super stardom. Mexico's style relies masks and aerial acrobatics. Japan? Their professional wrestling involves the most realism when it comes to fists, feet, kicks, and submissions. For a long part of their history, WWE has always been content to sign top stars from Mexico and Japan, but the talent has usually been misused or forced to play cartoonish cultural stereotypes.
Consider the above photo. It's rather infamous in WWE history. Here, you have a wannabe porn star in Val Venis, and you have a bunch of Japanese guys wanting to slice off his penis off with a samurai sword. This was during the legendary Attitude Era -- a time a lot of fans look back with misty eyes, recounting the in-ring careers of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind / Mick Foley, and so many others. But for all of the golden memories that the late 1990's and early 2000's gave wrestling fans, it also gave us a lot of horseshit that was hard to swallow. You can easily find out more about this by Googling "I choppy chop your pee pee." In terms of insulting ethnic stereotypes, those keywords should say more than enough without further comment.
Fast forward a few "eras" in WWE history, and times have changed much for the better. The days of talented in-ring talents playing ethnic stereotypes looks to be a thing of the dostamt past. No longer are Japanese athletes told to over accentuate their "Engrish" and act like heels. In this new era of WWE, they are just told to go to the ring an put on a damn good show. And that is exactly what they are doing. They are being allowed to be themselves as much as they can be while working in a market that does not involve their native language. Allow me to run through a few names.
Shinsuke Nakamura
This is, arguably, the biggest Japanese wrestling star to cross the Pacific Ocean to seek fame and fortune in North America. This guy was a household name back in Japan, and he didn't have to come here. He's not a poor man, and he didn't need the money. He could have easily stayed in Japan and became rather comfortable headlining shows for New Japan Wrestling. Only, he didn't. He came to the USA, did his time in WWE's NXT developmental territory (minor league) and proved himself before climbing into the main roster. A number of internet wrestling fans think he is currently being badly booked, and they may be right. Still, time is on this guy's side. He may not be WWE champion tomorrow, but his time is coming. Trust me. His in-ring charisma is so strong, he does not have to say a lot to get across his talent and skill set. And that seems to be the attitude towards Japanese wrestlers. Don't script them into stupid stereotypes -- just put them into a ring and let an audience become mesmerized by their work.
Akira Tozawa
Ah!
Ah!
Ah!
Ah!
Tozawa has been a guy that has gotten a guttural exclamation over as a chant in WWE. This is an ingenious way around the language barrier. To be fair, WWE is treating Nakamura as the big money maker, and that is likely a wise decision. However, Tozawa has all the same in-ring intensity. Sure, he does not have the flair of Nakamura's Michael Jackson-esque rockstar entrance, but he shares the same level of intensity once you put him in the ring against an opponent.
Currently, Tozawa is in WWE's cruiserweight division -- a place where smaller sized men square off in a more frantic, high flying, and energetic style. This means him and Nakamura will likely not clash anytime soon on American TV. This also means McMahon and company do not see the same amount of money to be made in Tozawa as they do Nakamura. But hey, Tozawa is on American TV, and American fans can be convinced more by in ring performances than Vince McMahon's notoriously shity booking instincts. Daniel Bryan, before his forced retirement due to injury, is proof of that.
Hideo Itami
Hideo Itami, better know as Kenta back in Japan, has had the most lackluster of times in the USA. Out of all the more recent Japanese wrestlers, he has not managed to effectively establish himself. Part of this was due to a huge injury he had to recover from once arriving at NXT. He is still in WWE's minor league, and he is slowly trying to find a new identity after the aforementioned buzz of his signing died off during his injury, absence, and recovery. He actually came before Tozawa and Nakamura, and he lost his "top Japanese" spot in WWE to both men. Now that being a skilled Japanese wrestler is no longer a novelty itn WWE, he now has to figure out what to do to stand out in NXT before jumping to the main roster.
Asuka
And, this is saving the best for last. Asuka. This female wrestler is still in WWE's NXT developmental territory as their women's champion. However, she has been undefeated since coming to America. Currently, she is on a winning streak that has surpassed Bill Goldberg's streak back in WCW. Since McMahon now owns WCW, their tape library, and their legacy, beating Goldberg's streak is not an accident, and it's an accolade WWE would just not give out to just anybody. WWE clearly believes in this lady. Asuka, known as Kana back in Japan, has the legacy of being one of the most dominant females in Japanese wrestling history.
Yes, she is strikingly beautiful, but piss her off, and you will end up in an arm bar or some other very painful submission maneuver. Her wrestling skills for surpasses a lot of men, and she is proof that women's wrestling can just be as intense, entertaining, and enthralling as what any of the guys do. It's a matter of time before this women jumps to the main WWE roster, and fun times await all of us fans when she can square off against the likes of Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and the others who are proving that women's wrestling can be more about athleticism and less about gratuitous displays of tits and ass.
This is just a symptom of more to come. In recent years, WWE has been trying to get more of the "world" into "World Wrestling Entertainment." Need proof? Becky Lynch, Sheamus, and Finn Balor all hail from Ireland. As much as everybody wants to hate Jinder Mahal, his current championship has all been about trying to give fans in India something to cheer or boo about. In 2017, WWE is working more towards being a more of global phenomenon and less of an American promotion masquerading as a worldwide thing. Proof of this comes in how they are trying to let their talent be real people and less cartoon recreations of what lesser informed Americans think about the rest of the world.