Okay, so we've established two huge legends from Europe that had title runs, Sammartino and Andre; while Sammartino's was considerably long (underexaggeration), Andre's title run was only a day, so, ehh.
Just to clear up, this thread has nothing to do with the defunct European championship, I don't know what the hell some of you people are talking about. I gotta go with Phoenix (love the Punt'd pic, btdub) that Kane doesn't really count; nothing screams castillian like Glen Jacobs.
I think the question right now can be modified as to is there any Europeans right now who might one day win a major title, and no ECW and Women's titles (WWE has two, are you f*cking kidding me?) don't count. Im also assuming that we are keeping this within the WWE so let's go.
DJ Gabriel is from England, he's not the biggest guy in the world, but he's got a hell of a phsyique and a decent amount of charisma. Besides that you have Sheamus from Ireland, Drew McIntyre from Scotland and Lawrence Knight, also from England all still in FCW waiting for a call up. Of the three, I think Sheamus is got the best chance, but it's still a little early to tell for any of those prospects.
As far as guys already well established within the WWE, I just don't see anyone who can really compete with the level of talent that's already taken the top spots. I really like Regal, but when you have Edge on both shows, Orton as the top heel, and Jericho rounding out the top, there just isn't any room for him. I like Regal better with the Intercontinental match-ups anyway which give some credence and dignity back to a great title that was kind of misused the past couple of years.
Finlay's on ECW right now, playing second fiddle to a newly returned Christian who in his own right should be anywhere but ECW playing along FCW call-ups. I think it's amazing that Finlay's career has had such an amazing resurgence in WWE in the first place, and as a face no less. Who would've thunkit that all you needed to do to get an Irishman over was to give him a shillelagh and a leprechaun?
In all unfortunate truth, I know we're all thinking the same thing. Koslov's the closest thing to a potential champ. Why? Because WWE consistently ignores the fact that they haven't been able to successfuly push a big, slow ESOL wrestler since Yokozuna. We were stupid back then, didn't know the difference between Japan, Polynesia, or Samoa. Had no internet to wikipedia him and see his "born in California" on the sidebar. Who knows? Maybe that would've changed how Yokozuna got over, but the truth is WWE doesn't buy that we don't automatically buy into big guys anymore.
That's how Great Khali won a title, Vinnie Mac thought we were booing him because he was a big, scary monster, but we booed him because we legitimately did not want to watch him stagger through a pathetic attempt at a wrestling match. In fact I'm not sure to this day anything Khali's done could actually be classified as a "wrestling match", but I digress.
Koslov is walking the same line. Granted I do think people are a touch too hard on him, probably because he has every resemblance to Khali's push a few years back; in comparison, at least to a few of the turds they've left steaming in the ring, most notably Khali, Koslov can at least, at times be competent in the ring (not good, just not particularly bad), and everybody knows they have to give Mark Henry a monster push once every two years just to see if we've changed our minds about him. So in Koslov's first, undeserved inexplicable monster push and with a little more potential than Khali, I'm willing to cut Koslov some slack under the condition that he A) not win a world title anytime soon and B) expand his skill set.
Koslov isn't the best wrestler, but unlike Khali or Henry or Big Daddy V, he is an actual bonafide athlete with sambo and kickboxing titles and at least has some foreseeable room for improvement, whereas Henry, V, Khali, and likely others we've yet to see (there's this other terrible big guy in FCW named Black Pain, now Sweet Papi Sanchez, who botches moves like you've never seen before) have absolutely none. If Koslov improves, and of course some major accident happens to keep Triple H, Edge, Orton, Cena, Jericho, and the Hardyz out of the scene for a timeframe or two, I wouldn't put a legitimate shot at the belt past Koslov somewhere a year or two down the line.
