Over the years, plenty of Canadian wrestlers have left their respective marks on the WWE (along with its predecessor, the WWF).
Always the fan favourite when performing at home, legends like Bret Hart, Trish Stratus, and Edge have not been shy about rocking the maple leaf in the heart of the ring.
With that said, a handful of Canadian-born stars were billed as being from elsewhere during their tenures in the WWE.
Here are six WWE stars you may not have known were actually Canadian.
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper
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From his stage name to his signature kilt and bagpipe entrance music, the legendary Roddy Piper was as Scottish as they came…
Well, not exactly.
Despite being billed as coming from Glasgow, Scotland, Piper, born Roderick George Toombs actually hails from Melfort, Saskatchewan, and grew up in Winnipeg.
The wrestler’s gimmick wasn’t a complete facade, though, as he was of Scottish heritage.
Santino Marella
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Making his debut live on Raw in 2007 during an episode filmed in Milan, Italy, Santino Marella was presented as a local fan that Vince McMahon randomly selected as an opponent for Umaga.
Speaking in a thick Italian accent throughout much of his WWE tenure, Marella, who later became a villain on the circuit, is actually from Mississauga, Ontario, where he now runs a wrestling training facility.
Born Anthony Carelli, he is of both Italian and MĂ©tis descent.
Ivan Koloff
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Known by the ring name “The Russian Bear,” Ivan Koloff made his WWF debut at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, and went on to win multiple championships.
Before that, he was originally billed as an Irish villain character named Red McNulty.
But Koloff, born Oreal Donald Perras, was neither Russian nor Irish, but rather a Montreal-born kid who grew up on a dairy farm in Ontario.
Killer Kowalski
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Standing tall at 6-foot-7, Killer Kowalski was one the most imposing wrestling heels of the 1950s.
Born Edward Władysław Spulnik, Kowalski was the son of Polish immigrants and grew up in Windsor, Ontario.
One of his most notable moments came at the Montreal Forum in 1954 when he accidentally removed a part of his opponent’s ear, helping him solidify the “Killer” nickname.
Jinder Mahal
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The nephew of Impact Wrestling legend Gama Singh, Jinder Mahal’s WWE run featured plenty of nods to his Punjabi heritage.
But despite what many thought, Mahal, born Yuvraj Singh Dhesi, is a Calgary native.
In 2017, Mahal was crowned the 50th WWE Champion and the first of Indian descent.
Pat Patterson
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Although billed as being from San Francisco for most of his career, WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, born Pierre Clemont, was actually from Montreal.
In fact, Patterson, credited with inventing the concept of the Royal Rumble, only learned to speak English in his mid-20s, eventually becoming an American citizen.
His wrestling reign was especially long as he became the oldest person to win a title in WWE history, clinching the 24/7 Championship at age 78, one year before he died in 2020.
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