If WWE’s global domination has mostly consisted of exporting Americana, it has also tried to create a global village of its own with Superstars— they don’t call them wrestlers—from all over the world, even if some of them, like Canadian-cum-Russian-cum- Italian Santino Marella seem to change nationalities at the drop of a hat. “We are making more of an effort to recruit from other countries,” says Stephanie McMahon, EVP of creative development and operations, who is currently looking to China for talent. McMahon is part of the team with her father, Vince, and a dozen or so secretive writers who create and re-create the WWE Universe each week. They still thrive on caricatures, like the hot-tempered Irishman and the lusty Italian. But the overtly nationalistic narratives, like Sgt. Slaughter beating up on the Iranian Iron Sheik in the 1980s, have been toned down. “The over-the-top character rooted in the xenophobic mentality,” former writer Paul Heyman says, “the WWE is really trying to get away from that.”

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