Hey Adam Goldberg A play-testing note about the Heel Foreigner move. The auto botch because you can’t speak the language doesn’t work when a character is playing a Canadian, English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh character.
I know, those countries may not have been in mind when inspired to make this playbook, but Canada has a long history of Anti-American ‘Foreigner’ styled gimmicks.
Yea, but then you also had wrestlers like The Mountie
I suggest you listen to a YouTube clip of Kevin Bridges, a Scottish comedian. While I have no issues telling what he is saying, many english speakers would.
I was thinking that there are a few ways to do it:
-You end up like Ludvig Borga, where you are technically speaking Engish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5-LOBA4Ryk
Alternately, and I was thinking of this for Noreen St. George, you CAN speak English, but you don’t to. Your trainer/attache/personal chauffeur does the great majority of your speaking. You won’t grace the fans with more than a few dismissive snorts.
Yea, but then you have classics like Bret Hart, that ran with that gimmick for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqHEfvsD4Ao
A-ha! But Bret Hart and Lance Storm started out as faces.
The Mountie was a technician with a cool outfit.
So, if you heel turn, do you suddenly switch moves? Because then the move works even less if you transition into this playbook.
Huh, I think this on Nathan Paoletta! Looking back at my original draft of the foreigner, heels could take “Brave Boys in Uniform” OR the Free Manager. I think we simplified it for formatting.
Maybe so, but reading the move, myself and the player found it frustrating. Because of how many examples of Anti-American English speaking wrestlers and gimmicks there were.
The UnAmericans, La Resistance, The Quebeccers, Team Canada, Alberto Del Rio.
I think, the amount of English speaking anti-American gimmicks, likely outnumbers the non-english speaking one’s at this point.