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The real issue is the same as most gimmicks (and in the case of WWE, complete nationalities)... being an army vet can't be the gimmick in and of itself unless there is a very, very, VERY unique talent at the helm. If the wrestler is a well-known flag waving, pension collecting vet, and can't be seen any other way like so much R. Lee Ermey, that is a rare and special thing. One of the reasons Slaughter worked so well was a living cartoon of what everyone believed a drill instructor was. There was life to what he was doing besides the superficial. He carried himself with the so-called command presence, looked tough, he acted tough, he talked tough! He had the whistle, he carried the riding crop, he gave "orders" in a loud, gruff, surly voice.
Just rocking camo and hoping for "USA!" chants rings pretty hollow. If the only intent is to come up against a particular dirty foreign heel, and that's as far as the gimmick is thought through, it's doomed to fail... and most of the time, that's exactly what happens. Being fair, it's exactly the same for that foreign heel if the sole expression of him is simply being that foreign heel :glares as Rusev: Meanwhile, one of the *best* foreign heels was Lance Storm in WCW. The entirety of his character was that he was better than any American he faced. He won titles "with relative ease". He bragged and backed it up. He ran down anyone who wasn't Canadian (but even some of them), because Canada produces superior wrestlers. He was such a patriot of his homeland, his national anthem would start to play before EVERY ONE OF HIS MATCHES (which would invariably be interrupted unless the show were in Canada- even WCW wasn't dumb enough to cause that kind of riot). When he got to WWE, all this depth and nuance and deadpan swagger was distilled down to "USA sucks" and he was just another generic foreign heel.
But I've strayed.
The deal is, handling this is like what I said about TJ Perkins' gimmick (pre heel turn). You have people on the roster- Xavier Woods in particular - who actually LIVE that life, but TJ seems like a corporate idea of "what kids today like"... its why New Day was so successful and Perkins seemed forced. Which itself is kind of ironic, because New Day had started out with all that forced positivity played straight, and it wasn't fucking working. It wasn't until they started being able to roll with the heel turn - to become increasingly disingenuous - that they started getting over because this started to give them depth. Now it has come full circle with added lore of cereal, unicorns, a trombone, and ice cream.
Jingoism is apparently viewed as an evergreen thing, but there still has to be something besides throwing on a uniform to make people give a shit. And it comes again with these two guys: if it is just going to be JB talking incessantly about their background every match in the same way Tenay would hit the same beats about Jessie Neal, this too is doomed from the start.
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