I remember how much I couldn’t wait for Fridays as a kid. Not because it was the last day of school for the week or since pizza Fridays were common. It was because at 7 p.m. CST, I’d be watching WWE Smackdown. My favorite wrestler was The Rock and I knew I could smell what he was cooking when others couldn’t.
Whether he turned heel (a villain) or face (a hero), I sat in my usual spot in the living room and watched the surreal storylines unfold with my family, not thinking that years later I’d be watching The Rock and other wrestlers outside the ring and in movie theaters.
The wrestler-to-actor pipeline is common. While some dabbled in acting, a few have Hollywood careers as strong as their wrestling resumes. Here are three!
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Obviously, I was going to start with my childhood favorite. The Rock’s acting resume is so stellar that for a while I stopped calling him by his ring name and saw him only as Dwayne Johnson. One of his first big-screen roles came in 2001 as Mathayus / The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns. In 2002, Johnson got his first lead role, returning as Mathayus / The Scorpion King in The Scorpion King. He’s been working nonstop since.
Popular movies: Moana, Furious 7 (plus his other appearances throughout the series and spinoff film), Jumanji (the film series),The Rundown, Walking Tall, The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Hercules, San Andreas, Central Intelligence, The Smashing Machine
How much have his films grossed? Over $15 billion worldwide
Dave Bautista
You know you made it in Hollywood when you earn a consistent Marvel check, and Dave Bautista did just that. If the script involves action and wrecking things, Bautista is around. Appearing in WWE under his ring name (basically his last name), Dave won the WWE Championship twice before retiring and taking on acting full time. His first movie role came in 2006 in an uncredited cameo in Relative Strangers. Dave played a wrestler but over the years expanded his characters, with his most popular being Marvel’s Drax the Destroyer.
Popular movies: Guardians of the Galaxy (plus his other appearances in movies across the MCU as Drax), Dune (part one and two), Knock at the Cabin, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Naked Gun, Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, The Wrecking Crew
How much have his films grossed? About $11 billion worldwide
John Cena
How are we watching him when we can’t see him? Only true WWE fans can answer. John Cena was my sibling’s favorite wrestler growing up, so I heard his walk-out song a lot. With a WWE career spanning 24 years, Cena set the record for most world championships (17). He was also a rapper and released an album, You Can’t See Me (2005), that debuted on the Billboard Hot 100. Cena’s first movie role came in 2006 as John Triton in The Marine.
Popular movies: The Suicide Squad, Fast X, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Trainwreck, Blockers, Bumblebee, Daddy’s Home 2
How much have his films grossed? About $5.2 billion worldwide
Header photo credit: allanswart from Getty Images via Canva Pro
