On this edition of Flashback Friday, we revisit two international wrestlers who are currently signed to WWE's NXT franchise (the pics here are mostly pre-WWE, I think). First up is Australia's Shane Haste who was renamed Shane Thorne. Before coming to America, Haste/Thorne and his tag team partner Mikey Nicholls (renamed Nick Miller) wrestled in not just their native country, but Japan as well. He recently participated in NXT's "Worlds Collide" event last month.
Next up is Italy's Adrian Severe who now goes by the name Fabian Aichner. Aichner (that's his real name) currently wrestles in NXT-UK although there was a time he fought in several matches while in the USA. Here's Severe/Aichner when he was in his "shaved head and torso" phase.
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ReplyDeleteHe is not italian like me...he is austrian
ReplyDeleteHe was born in South Tyrol, Italy.
DeleteTechnically he was born in Italy, but as I've written previously, South Tyrol is a majority German-speaking autonomous region, part of Austria until 1917, and forced Italianization programs and deportations spawned separatist and terrorist groups up into the 1970s. From his real name, Fabian Aichhner, and his previou work mainly in German and Austrian wrestling feds, it is obvious that he is an ethnic Austrian. So, my guess is that, whether or not he self-identifies as Italian, he ISN'T an Italian LIKE jobber 73. Anon.
DeleteIf as you say, he was technically born in Italy, doesn’t that make him Italian? I’m referring to his nationality, not his ethnicity.
DeleteI think it is simply the imprecision of saying that "he is Italian," since the phrase has multiple meanings regarding ethnicity, family background, culture, and citizenship. It is most readily understood as meaning he is ethnically Italian, from a culturally Italian family, born in Italy. "Nationality," is also dicey, since most nation states are based on ethnic identification. I suspect that similar issues might crop up from Kurds being called Turkish/Iranian/Iraqi, Catalans called Spanish, Frisians called Dutch, etc., etc.
DeleteThe Tirolean issue popped up a number of years ago when the body of a prehistoric man melted out of a glacier near the Austrian/Italian border. Although initially the problem was determining on which side of the boundary he was found, it later became tense when it became known that the authorities wished to take the body out of the Tirolean provinces(both Austrian AND Italian), uniting both sides of the border and stirring up separatist feelings. Anon.