Fans love to equateWWEprogramming to that of “cinema” but cinema is an entirely different beast compared to professional wrestling. That isn’t to discredit professional wrestling by any means. It’s live theatre, at its core, and theatre is a distant cousin to filmmaking, but nonetheless, movies present a unique challenge for in-ring competitors.
Not everyone is cut out for acting or moviemaking, wrestlers included, but those who have been able to transition their in-ring charisma into movies have always been bound for success. It may not necessarily be for a marquee leading role, but it could be for a show-stealing cameo that leads to more. After all, The Rock’s small role inThe Mummy 2led to starring inThe Scorpion King. He went fromhaving tremendous WWE matchesto mega-blockbusters. Which other WWE Superstars have made some notable cameos?
9Chris Jericho, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Kane, and The Big Show
MacGruber
Next toThe Longest Yard,MacGruber probably has the largest ensemble of WWE Superstar cameos in one movie. The title character of thisSaturday Night Livespin-off starts the movie with recruiting a team of special operatives to take down Dieter Von Cunth. That team consists of Chris Jericho, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Kane, and The Big Show.
On paper, in wrestling terms, this looks likeone of the greatest factionsever assembled, and the movie treats their joining of forces like a big deal - until all the wrestlers are killed off unceremoniously in a van full of explosives. Keep in mind that all of this happens within the first 15 minutes of the movie, and within five minutes of the WWE Superstars first appearing on the screen.
8The Rock and Zelina Vega
Fighting with My Family
Fighting with My Familyis both a biopic based on the life of Saraya Knight (a.k.a. Paige in WWE) and a fictionalized adaptation of the 2012 documentaryThe Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family.Dwayne Johnson was moved enough by the documentary that he was inspired to take steps as a producer to bringPaige and her family’s wrestling legacyto the big screen.
The Rock also makes a cameo as himself, running into Saraya (played by Florence Pugh in her breakout role) at the beginning of her WWE career while backstage during a SmackDown taping.He inspires her to take her career to the next level.In the movie’s final act, they reunite backstage at WrestleMania XXX, where The Rock tells Paige she’ll make her Raw debut the next night to wrestle AJ Lee for the Divas Championship. AJ, meanwhile, is played by former WWE Queen of the Ring, Zelina Vega.
7Roman Reigns
Hobbs and Shaw
Speaking of The Rock, his movie career away from the ring has seenthe former WWE World Championspend the past decade or so as the scene-stealing Luke Hobbs in theFast and the Furiousfranchise. The same year thatFighting with My Familycame out, the Hobbs character received his own spin-off movie alongside Jason Statham,Hobbs & Shaw.
Practically serving as the Head of the Table to the Anoa’i Family in real life, The Rock goes out of his way to make sure he can cut a check for his other family members. In doing so, he gets an onscreen job forhis fellow Bloodline brethren, Roman Reigns. He is a distant cousin to Johnson, but in the movie, he plays his brother, Mateo.The cameo kicked off a small, rising movie career for Reigns, following it up with roles inThe Wrong Missy, Rumble, and the upcomingPickup.
6Chris Jericho
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot(andTerrifier 2and3)
To Chris Jericho’s credit, the first-ever WWE Undisputed Champion has carved out an impressive movie career for himself. He was mentioned earlier as one of the WWE Superstars in MacGruber, but he’s been in a good handful of major productions since then. Most recently, he made a small cameo at the very end ofTerrifier 2, playing Adam Burke, a nurse at the Miles County Psychiatric facility.Terrifier 2’smost surprising cameo characterreturns inTerrifier 3, albeit not for long as he’s killed off quickly.
RIght before that, he makes a small appearance in Kevin Smith’s eighth Askewniverse production,Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, where he plays a Grand Wizard to the Ku Klux Klan. Jericho acting in all of these projects in unison with each other proves that his new gig in All Elite Wrestling allows him to balance his in-ring career with pursuits outside the ring.
Spring Breakers
Are you jacked up on Jesus?
Not many wrestling fans are going to be quick to rank Jeff Jarrett amongthe greatest WCW World Champions ever, but that doesn’t make his impact in the business any less important. The TNA founder has been especially tied to his devout faith outside of the ring, even going as far as to baptize his daughter. By chance, after Val Kilmer dropped out of reading for the part, Jeff Jarrett was given an opportunity to bring his faith into a new venture: acting.
Selena Gomez’s Faith character, the good girl of her bad girl friend group, likes to attend Christian youth groups, and the youth pastor is none other than Double J. His cameo is only there for a brief couple of minutes, but in that time, he delivers the absolute gem of a line: “Are you jacked up on Jesus?”
On top of the stellar movie career he has carved out for himself as a leading man in projects likePeacemaker,The Suicide Squad,Fast X, andThe Marine, John Cena also has a few cameos to his name. For many, the ones that immediately spring to mind are his self-aware presence inFred: The Movieor the himbo gym rat Steven inTrainwreck. However, when it comes to his best brief performance, it’s hard not to point to a more recent appearance inBarbieas Mermaid Ken.
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The best part is that this cameo almost didn’t happen, as it wasn’t originally planned in the cards. Then again, wrestlers are known for improvising on the fly, so when he and Margot Robbie just happened to be in London filming respective movies at the same time, John Cena did not hesitate tomake thisBarbiecameo happen.
3Big Show
The Waterboy
Right before signing with the WWE, Paul Wight (then known as The Giant in WCW) would find a new audience by appearing in one of the most beloved movies of Adam Sandler’s career. InThe Waterboy, he’d play Captain Insano, a professional wrestler who Sandler’s character idolizes. As he’s being interviewed on television (interestingly enough, by WWE interviewer Kevin Kelly), Bobby calls in asking if his favorite wrestler wants to hire him as an experienced waterboy.
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It’s one of the more memorable, outright hilarious moments of the movie.It left enough of an impression to kick off an acting career for the Big Show, including a short-lived WWE sitcom produced on Netflix,The Big Show Show.
2Hulk Hogan
Rocky III
Whether this is the best cameo from a WWE wrestler is up for debate, but it most certainly has to be recognized asthe most important movie cameo in WWE history. Hogan leaped at the opportunity to appear in the second Rocky Balboa sequel, butthen-WWE owner Vince McMahon Sr.had no interest in crossing over to Hollywood. As a result of Hogan filming the part,Vince Sr. released Hogan from his WWE contract.
However, he’d soon be usurped in power by his son, Vince Jr., who bought the company from under Vince Sr. One of theWWE Chairman’s best business decisionsas the new owner was re-hiring Hulk Hogan and, to capitalize on the superstardom of being inRocky III,would push Hogan as WWE Champion for several years.
1Randy Savage
Spider-Man
This is probably the first cameo that comes to most people’s minds when asked which WWE Superstar had the best movie appearance.Macho Man’s cameo as Bonesaw has practically taken a life of its own. Most people would get the reference if someone went into a random crowd and screamed, “Bonesaw is ready!” Randy Savage plays Bonesaw, a wrestler who a pre-superhero Spider-Man must fight in a cage if he wants to get paid.
Randy Savage finds a way to bring the insanity of Macho Man into this character for the perfect kind of typecasting. Savage was always one of the most entertaining characters in the ring, delivering some of the best promos, but noWWESuperstar has been able to re-capture their gimmick into a completely new character on the big screen as Savage did as Bonesaw.
