This Is the Greatest Professional Wrestling Entrance Ever

The wide world of wrestling is no stranger to tender geopolitical fault lines.

At the first WrestleMania in March 1985, tag team partners The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff ratcheted up the Cold War a few degrees before squaring off with the aptly named American duo, the U.S Express. Before the match, The Iron Sheik proudly waved the Iranian flag, while Volkoff gave a throaty rendition of the Soviet national anthem. The tens of thousands of American fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden booed and chucked trash at the ring in response.

Thirty years later, little seems to have changed. With relations between Washington and the Kremlin in a downward spiral again, “Russian” wrestler Alexander Rusev (who is actually Bulgarian) entered Wrestlemania 31 on Sunday in unbelievable fashion: In a tank waving the Russian flag, while being escorted by what appeared to be a platoon of Russian troops.

Who cares that the hitherto undefeated Rusev went on to lose the United States Championship belt to red-blooded American wrestler John Cena? In terms of his entrance, he was a winner all the way.