| “ | I know Americans. Coddled, arrogant, privileged. You have no idea what it is like to sacrifice, what it's like to go hungry. Even for one meal. Everything in your life is empty calories. Then maybe it's true. You are what you eat. | „ |
| ~ Wolf's prejudice towards Johnny Lawrence. |
| “ | John Lawrence. One of us is about to have a lot more fun than the other. | „ |
| ~ Wolf before fighting Johnny Lawrence. |
Feng Xiao, better known as Sensei Wolf, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Kwon Jae-Sung) in Season 6 of the 2018 YouTube Red/Netflix series Cobra Kai.
He is the abusive and ruthless sensei of the Iron Dragons that secretly worked for the dojo's benefactor, Terry Silver, and quickly developed a rivalry with Miyagi-Do sensei Johnny Lawrence, becoming his arch-rival.
He is also a three-time Sekai Taikai champion and former cage fighter.
He is portrayed by Lewis Tan.
Personality[]
Despite not actually training under Kim Sun-Yung or any Cobra Kai sensei, Wolf's general philosophies about both karate and winning generally seem to align with theirs; winning must come at all cost. This is most prominently seen in how he treats his best student Axel Kovacevic, whom he displays abusive behavior towards to the point of having left scars on Axel's back, in an effort to push him to be the best student possible. He seems highly egotistical, frequently berating Johnny, and even choosing to fight him during the brawl for pure sadistic pleasure. In Season 6 Part 3, Wolf becomes far worse, as he is willing to do anything to win, as he encourages Axel to break Robby's leg, and later threaten his star pupil to break Miguel's spine, showing his lack of morality towards his opponents. Given that another spinal break would likely have killed Miguel, it’s possible Wolf has taken a human life in the past, which is part of why he’s so dark. And he shows to be rather sociopathic, as he attacks Johnny before their final match.
Wolf’s violent and brutal nature, which showcases the true meaning of “No Mercy”, is also one of the main reasons why Terry Silver asked Wolf to team up with him, as he knew Wolf could strike fear into the hearts of everyone, including Johnny, Daniel, Kreese and Kim Da-Eun, which he did. Wolf’s lack of morality and intense need for fear and domination over others is also seen after Kwon’s death. Not only does Wolf not care at all that Kwon died, but he also treats it like a method of getting under Cobra Kai’s skin.
Cora Kai’s greatest weakness is they are incapable of handling competition, and in the rare event that a new dojo shows up that is superior to them, they either become fearful or enraged; as seen when after Axel and Zara made a mockery out of Kwon and Tory, Kreese and Kim Da-Eun became scared of the Iron Dragons and jealous of not having Axel and Zara in their dojo. When Kwon died, it terrified the Korean branch of Cobra Kai and Wolf knew this, allowing him to use it as an excuse for Axel to scare the living crap out of his opponents.
Though little is known about his backstory, his remarks to Johnny imply a poor upbringing, where he presumably had to fight for everything that he had, which would fit in with his Cobra Kai-esque beliefs. Despite all this, he does bow to Johnny after losing to him, showing some degree of respect.
Biography[]
Wolf is the Sensei of the Iron Dragons, the winners of the last Sekai Taikai, and is apparently a 3-time champion. Despite this, Wolf lost ownership of the dojo due to mixing with some bad people. Forced to fight in cage matches in Bangkok, Wolf met Terry Silver, a man who offered to pay his debts and give him his dojo back in exchange for him humiliating Silver's rivals Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai on the next Sekai Taikai as defending champions.
During the Sekai Taikai, he first meets Johnny Lawrence at the pre-match dinner, stealing the latter's steak and mocking him that he has no idea how to win in Barcelona. However, Johnny responds by calling him an idiot, resulting Wolf insulting Johnny more that he does not tolerate any respect. On the first match, his students are able to defeat other dojos including Cobra Kai, where Zara Malik and Axel Kovacevic were able to defeat Tory Nichols, Kwon Jae-Sung, and Yoon Do-Jin easily. At some point, he tried to kidnap Daniel LaRusso by luring him into a building that was guarded by Terry Silver's henchman, Dennis De Guzman, though Daniel was able to escape easily, believing that Kreese was the perpetrator. However, Daniel, along with Chozen Toguchi, John Kreese, and Kim Da-Eun would later find out that Terry Silver and Sensei Wolf were behind the kidnapping, as both of them are revealed to be working together so they can defeat and humiliate both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do at the tournament.
When Kreese confronts and punches Silver for supposedly stealing his eunjangdo knife (while it was actually the Miyagi-Do sensei’s who did to it mess with their enemies’ minds), Wolf keeps him from attacking before Gunther Braun intervenes and Kim takes Kreese away.
In the Sekai Taikai semifinals, when Wolf sees that Axel hasn't scored a point against Robby, he orders his student to attack him which he obeys. During the all-dojo brawl, he was able to briefly get into a fight with Daniel and Johnny. However, he is one of the few to be shocked when Kwon Jae-Sung accidentally kills himself with Kreese’s knife while he tried to murder Axel.
While the tournament is cancelled due to Kwon’s death, Silver is able to convince the remaining dojos to agree to resume it a month later, now taking place at the All Valley Sports Arena in San Fernando Valley. During the boys semifinal match, Wolf convinces Axel to use dirty tactics on Robby Keene by having him break his leg, thus putting him out of tournament commission.
With Robby unable to compete and Sam withdrawing from the tournament rather than fight her former rival Tory, the Iron Dragons were set to win by default. However, it turns out that much to Silver and Feng’s shock and anger, it turns out that Johnny has took over Cobra Kai and has became Sensei again from a remorseful Kreese after a brief reconciliation, and appointed Miguel Diaz to take Kwon’s place.
During a sparring session at the Iron Dragons dojo, he and Terry chastise Axel for not breaking his opponents arm as well as having Samantha LaRusso in his mind, even telling him that he has already lost the fight due to being distracted by her.
During the girls finals, Zara Malik loses to Tory, giving her first defeat in her career. As a result, during the boys finals, he urges Axel to cheat, this time by breaking Miguel’s spine which had already been weakened in his previous injury. However, Axel decided to fight fair, which infuriates him, and results him losing to Miguel easily. Feng then scolds Axel, who, disgusted by his dishonorable actions, leaves the Iron Dragons for good. As a result of Cobra Kai and Iron Dragons being tied for the most overall points, the deciding tiebreaker match is announced to be a Sensei showdown between Johnny Lawrence and Wolf.
Prior to their match, Wolf confronts Johnny at the locker room, proclaiming that he is confident that he’ll win despite the cheering crowd supporting Lawrence, and taunts Johnny about the humiliation he will feel once he loses the match for the rest of his life despite Johnny admitting that no matter what happens, he is already a winner in the eyes of his teammates, family, his own students, and friends. When Feng mocks Johnny on his newborn daughter, Johnny attacks him and nearly has his arm broke before Feng relents, saying that he would break him right now, but only for the tournament. As he knocked Johnny to a corner, he admits that he is confident that he’ll win. After arriving at the mat with his fellow students, with the exception of Zara and Axel, he asks about Silver’s whereabouts, only to receive no answer as he is unaware that Kreese was able to sacrifice himself to kill Silver and Dennis on their personal yacht.
During the match, Johnny’s confidence is shaken earlier by Feng as he proves to be more than a match for Johnny, as Feng was able to land illegal strikes on Johnny that gave him a 2-0 advantage including kicking him on back of head and elbowing Johnny's nose. However, Daniel motivates Johnny by urging him that defeat, fear, and pain don’t exist in Cobra Kai and restores his confidence, allowing Johnny to make a comeback by landing a point against Feng. Despite being landed an illegal hit by Feng, Johnny scores another point, giving the score tied 2-2. In the final round, recalling his 1984 defeat to Daniel, Johnny forgoes his strike first mentality in favor of a defensive posture he learned at Miyagi Do before and allowing Feng to make his first move. In a similar way to how he lost to Daniel with his crane kick move, Johnny goes on the defensive which allows him to sweep Feng’s leg. Despite countering Johnny's next strike and sweeping his foot while doing the Shaolin Sunset, both manage to get up. Feng tries to hit Johnny, but he blocks it and then hits him in the face, knocking him down and ultimately, land the final point, which gives Cobra Kai their first Sekai Taikai championship. As Cobra Kai celebrates their victory, he bows to Johnny before angrilly pushing his way out through his students by telling them to move!
Abilities[]
- Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial Artist: Sensei Wolf has been training in the hardest techniques of multiple styles of fighting his entire life, and has proven himself to be a highly formidable opponent. He has most likely also trained in many styles including Boxing, Choy Lay Fut, and Wing Chun-style Kung Fu, in addition to Karate. As Wolf’s former best student Axel has effortlessly defeated Cobra Kai’s top student Kwon, who’s style is rooted deep in Tang Soo Do. This allows Wolf to employ deadly and forbidden techniques, such as the Shaolin Sunset, which is highly dangerous and almost impossible to defend against. With both Mr. Miyagi and Master Kim Sun-Yung being deceased, Wolf can be considered one the greatest martial artist in the present days of the Karate Kid universe only behind Chozen Toguchi and Johnny Lawrence. During the tiebreaker sensei match against Johnny, Wolf initially gets the upper hand in the first round, he easily responds to Johnny's strikes, leading to him mocking Johnny before landing a hit on him to win his first point kicked Johnny with spinning kick in the body. The second round is mostly similar, with Feng easily avoiding Johnny's strikes. Additionally, he leads two illegal hits,kicking him on back of head and elbowing Johnny's nose. After Johnny returns from the break, Wolf reveals he is done playing. The round resumes, with Feng earning his second point with a swift kick to Johnny's face, giving him a 2-0 lead and putting him one point away from winning the Sekai Taikai. The two resume their fight. After countering Johnny's strikes in the third round, he mocks him, while there grappling, but a motivated Johnny shocks him by landing a kick on him, earning his first point. During the fourth round, the two fight in even terms before Feng hits him with another illegal hit, but no point is awarded. When the round resumes, Johnny lands a flying tornadokick on Feng's, tying the score between two Sensei's' at 2-2. In the final round, recalling his defeat by Daniel in 1984, Johnny forgoes his strike-first mentality in favor of a defensive posture and allows Feng to make the first move, his Shaolin Sunset. Similar to how this had allowed Daniel to defeat Johnny with the Crane Kick, Johnny going on the defensive allows him to sweep Feng's leg. Despite countering Johnny's next strike and sweeping his foot, both manage to get up. Feng tries to hit Johnny, but he blocks it and then hits him in the face, ultimately winning the Sekai Taikai for Cobra Kai.
- Peak human condition: Having such a strict diet and working out regularly with hard exercises, Sensei Wolf is in incredible shape. He can throw a grown man like Johnny Lawrence over his shoulder with ease, and considers fighting Johnny and Daniel at the same time to actually be a good workout for him.
- Multilingualism: Wolf is fluent in English, Chinese and Catalan. And he may be capable of speaking other languages too.
- Intimidation: Wolf invokes a highly intimidating demeanor and no one dares to mess with him. His students are scared of him, John Kreese, Kim Da-Eun, Johnny and Daniel are all highly intimidated by him, and even Terry Silver acknowledges his brutal behavior, which is why he chose Wolf as his new karate partner.
Relationships[]
Friends/Allies[]
|
Enemies[]
|
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- He is similar to Master Li from the 2010 The Karate Kid remake due to his abusiveness towards his students.
- After the deaths of John Kreese and Terry Silver in the penultimate episode, Wolf is the final antagonist of the series. He is arguably the most violent and ruthless of the trio, though Kim Sun-Yung is more evil than him.
- One of Sensei Wolf’s listed crimes is child abuse. But as the Sekai Taikai has no known age limit for its competitors, it is unknown how old Axel is, and he may not be considered a child in the eyes of the law. So this crime may not be accurate. However, in part 3 of season 6, it is revealed the Sekai Taikai is only for competitors below the age of 18 similar to the All Valley tournament. So this crime is in fact child abuse as Axel is under 18 and is still a minor. He also broke another one of his student’s arms to teach Axel a lesson
- According to Showrunner Hayden Schlossberg;
- When Wolf performed the Shaolin Sunset in the final tiebreaker match of the Sekai Taikai, he did so with the intention of killing (or at least badly maiming) Johnny. If he succeeded in using, it would have made him even worse
- Wolf is the only antagonist in the series that has encountered Daniel but did not lose to him in a fight. He easily overpowered Johnny and Daniel simultaneously in the Sekai Taikai brawl. Unlike Kreese, Silver and Dennis, who fought Daniel but lost to him at different points; Kreese in the s3 finale, Silver, in the s5 finale was quickly defeated by Daniel in their rematch at the flagship dojo after being exposed as a fraud and cheater twice by Daniel and Dennis twice in Season 6 Part 2- the first after Daniel escapes captivity in e7 and the second in the all-dojo brawl in S6 mid season finale .
- His real name , Feng Xiao (封校) literally translates to "close the school" in Mandarin.
- His style is corporate with karate and kung-fu styles for what he made for the dojo in Hong Kong.
- Given that Wolf is somewhere in his 30’s and the Cobra Kai series takes place 35 years after Daniel defeated Johnny in ‘84, Wolf was likely either born or very young around the time of the first Karate Kid film. The same can be said for Wolf’s actor Lewis Tan, who was born in 1987.
- Lewis Tan is also known for his role in the 2021 film Mortal Kombat, making him the second actor from the film to appear in the series following Josh Lawson who appeared in the season five premiere. His appearance in a cage match may be a nod to Mortal Kombat, which opens with his character, Cole Young, in a cage match.
