If you go through the history of the WWE, previously the World (Wide) Wrestling Federation, you will see that virtually every Canadian wrestler who has ever worked for the McMahon family has at some point been used as a heel, and very few of them were ever turned face.

The first wrestler I can think of that came from the Great White North was Don Leo Jonathan, a man-mountain who was in and out of the 3WF during the 70's. I discovered pro wrestling around that time, but didn't watch it regularly enough until the early 80's.

Since the 80's, from Bret Hart, Dino Bravo, and the late John Tenta (Earthquake) to current stars like Chris Jericho and Edge, Canadian grapplers have been used mostly as bad guys. Other than Jonathan, the only Canucks who never got a face run were La Resistance founding members Rene Dupree & Sylvain Grenier. Sure, they were cheered in their native land when they won the World tag titles on Raw in 2004, but they never got the same kind of love in the US. The tradition lives on today, as evidenced by tapings this past week for Heat & Smackdown.

DH (Harry) Smith has been confined to the internet-only Heat since returning from a drug suspension, and is now being repackaged as a heel, largely because of how his late father, Davey Boy Smith, was rebooted as a villain during his last two runs with the company. No surprise, then, that Smith is now being billed as the Canadian Bulldog (Dad of course was the BRITISH Bulldog as a solo act). He should be returning to Raw in due course with the new gimmick, trying to erase the stigma of being squashed in nothing flat by Umaga a few weeks back.

And, then, there is Harry's cousin, Natalie "Nattie" Neidhart, daughter of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart. Nattie made an auspicious debut on Smackdown on Friday, attacking Michelle McCool. I didn't see the show, being out of town on Friday, but I had read the reports on the tapings. Smackdown now has 7 women on the roster, if you include heel GM Vicki Guerrero, who should be forced out of office any day now because her act has already worn thin, with 4 of them (Guerrero, Neidhart, Victoria, & Maryse Ouellette, another Canadian) heels. From what I understand, Nattie got the "mystery woman" treatment on Friday. Not a good way to get started with the big club. I guess we're going to have Nattie teaming with Maryse and/or Victoria up until the draft that is rumored for later this month, matched against McCool and '07 Diva Search winner Eve Torres and/or Cherry.

Should it surprise anyone that Maryse was also placed on the heel side? Should it surprise anyone that Jericho, the IC champ, is being veered gradually toward another heel run? Jericho technically isn't a full Canadian, as he was born in Long Island and currently lives in Florida, having spent most of his formative years in Winnipeg, but because he came from the Hart Dungeon in Calgary, well, I suppose it would make sense to include him, wouldn't it?

So it comes down to this question. Why does Vince K. McMahon hate Canada so much to make most of its wrestlers villains? Doing this makes Canada no different than, say, for example, Cuba. It's not that McMahon actually hates Canada as a whole. After all, WWE does have an office in Toronto. It's the "ugly American" in McMahon, embodied otherwise in John Bradshaw Layfield, the jingoistic, xenophobic, demented "patriot" who looks down on athletes from other countries. Someone should remind McMahon & JBL that Canada is often referred to as our "neighbors to the North", and as such, their athletes should be treated with a great deal more respect. In his heyday, Don Leo Jonathan was a heel largely because he was challenging the mighty Bruno Sammartino for the 3WF title. I don't know if he was ever a babyface while working for Vincent J. McMahon.

Will we eventually see Maryse & Nattie as faces? Probably, but not for a while yet. Will Edge ever see the other side of the moral fence again? Probably, but not for a long, long while, despite the fact that his act has gone stale and has 0 credibility.

Speaking of Victoria, I want to get this in. While she didn't win the Smackdown Diva competition for a custom made motorcycle, she did end up a winner after all, winning a contest sponsored by Chrysler having to do with custom cars. Congratulations to Victoria.

One last thing. There couldn't have been too many dry eyes in Orlando last Monday at Raw when they held the retirement ceremony for Ric Flair. But to spin an angle off his match at Wrestlemania vs. Shawn Michaels, just to turn Batista heel, is just plain wrong. It cheapens Flair's retirement. They may believe "The Animal" has run out of gas as a face after 3 years, although the haters would love to make a case for John Cena going down that same road. It's safe to assume that Batista will face HBK at Backlash, but a better storyline would be to keep Batista a babyface and make this about respect. I've got a pretty good idea who the uncreative jabroni was that thought this up, but I'm not saying right now.