Hollywood and professional wrestling aren’t poles apart. There are a lot of similarities in the drama and action that takes place in both fields and this makes the transition from one to the other a bit easier.Over the years, many wrestlers have tried their luck in the movie business and while some of them made it huge in the silver screen, others had to settle for a shorter career. The former category includes some groundbreaking performances from the lights of Rock and Batista, but instead of dissecting those big roles further, let’s take some time to appreciate the smaller roles.Seeing a wrestler poking up somewhere in between a film is always a pleasant sight for the WWE fans and there have been many instances like that. So buckle up the seat belts and prepared to be surprised with some of the best movie and television cameos by professional wrestler.
#10 Chris Jericho, Kane, The Great Khali, Mark Henry and MVP MacGruber
MacGruber might not be a name that rings a lot of bells. The film wasn’t as famous as some of the other films on the list, but it certainly did have an array of WWE superstars.
Chris Jericho, Kane, Great Khali, Mark Henry and MVP found their place in the storyline where the main character, MacGruber, lined up all these superstars to avenge the death of his wife. On any other day, this would’ve ensured the doom of the villain but this wasn’t one of those days.
MacGruber ends up killing all these superstars in an utterly ridiculous fashion after he leaves them in a van filled with C4s. And you though only Vince McMahon had bad ideas about storylines.
#9 Kevin Nash Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Kevin Nash is the last name we’ll expect to see in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, but deal with it. Even all the die –hard TMNT fans out there would’ve missed this cameo from Nash as his face was never shown in the first place.
In the Secret of the Ooze TMNT movie, Nash played the role of super shredder which is a better version of the actual villain Shredder who drinks ooze to become super shredder, confusing right?
It’s hard to know whether it’s Nash or not due to the heavy gear that he wears around but thanks to many reliable sources including IMDB, we can shout out confidently that Nash once was the main villain of a TMNT movie.
#8 Undertaker Suburban commando
You’ve seen Undertaker as the Dead man and you’ve seen him as the American Badass but you’ve never probably seen him as a henchman who wants to take out an intergalactic warrior played by Hulk Hogan.
If you see the video now, it’s clearly a small role for the legendary name like Taker but the funnier part of the story is his looks. Taker’s scary and mysterious look was having a main stay in the WWE programming so coming out in a film dressed up like this was something new for the fans.
There wasn’t much to do for Taker in the movie and his only job was to make look Hogan good as the Hulkster was the John Cena of wrestling during that period.
#7 John Cena Ready to Rumble
Ready to Rumble is a film about a wrestler so it’s obvious there are going to be a lot of them all around the screen. Names like Goldberg, Sting, DDP was there to be seen throughout the film but there was a bigger star amidst all those chaos, John Cena.
It was before Cena made it big in the business with all those pushes and burials so no one noticed the blond Mohawk guy who was there in a brief scene. Cena was seen pumping his muscles in the gym during one scene of the movie and it’s a blink and miss cameo to be frank.
It’s a cameo by the one and only Cena nevertheless and you wouldn’t look into the Ready to Rumble movie same after his information.
#6 Dwayne The Rock Johnson The Other guys
Ever wanted to see a ridiculous cameo from The Rock? If the answer was yes, then look no further because the 2010 flick, The Other guys, has just what you want.
The film starred Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in lead roles but what made everyone talk was the cameo from Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Samuel Jackson. The duo played the role of two over confident cops who thought they could do anything.
And anything includes jumping off a 20 storey building. Unfortunately for them, the concrete below was unforgiving and both the characters were killed right there and then. (Rock had the idea of aiming for the bushes before the jump by the way).
#5 Bret Hart Simpsons
Simpsons are always known for some of the most intelligent cameos ever. So when they decided to have Bret Hart in a similar role, it was a sure shot success story.
The Hitman was introduced into the plot as a buyer of the Burns mansion after Montgomery Burns was forced to sell his prized possession after going bankrupt.
Hart, known to be a die-hard Simpsons fan was actually thrilled with the idea of featuring in the show while WWE decided to have him and Bart Simpson on the cover of their magazine. The cameo turned out to be a great one and Hart even got rewarded with an action figure on the 25th anniversary of the Show.
#4 Big Show Waterboy
Adam Sandler movies are forgettable most of the times but for a wrestling fan, Sandler’s Waterboy would be ringing some bells here and there. That’s because it had Big Show playing a funny cameo where he was named Captain Insano.
Show was billed as the Giant during those days in the WCW and even after having the WCW logo alongside his cameo, the company decided to go with the Captain Insano name which made no sense at all.
To further the confusion, Show was wearing a patriotic costume as well. This might’ve been WCW’s idea of testing a new gimmick but thankfully for Show, his Captain Insano chapter went down just like the movie.
#3 Hulk Hogan Rocky III
Professional wrestling was just starting to break away from the territory days in the early 80s and this made the idea of main stream attention a bit out of the reach. However, Hulk Hogan broke all those constraints when he starred in the third installment of the Rocky series.
Hogan stood towering over Sylvester Stallone as though the Italian Stallion was a cruiser weight and the two had a good fight after which Rocky came out on top.
The Hulkster’s star power sky rocketed after the cameo and when Vince McMahon took over his father’s dynasty, the first thing he did was sign in Hogan as the face of the company.
#2 Big Show Jingle All the way
Away from all those predators and Sky net, Arnold settled for a much lighter role in the film Jingle All the Way. For the ones who didn’t see the film yet, it’s basically about a father who wants to get a Turbo Man Doll for his son as a Christmas present.
It might sound easy, but the whole plot revolves around how hard it is for Arnie to get his hands on that doll. He goes through a lot of mess and at one point; he also makes his way into a black market where he meets a giant Santa.
And the people behind the movie couldn’t find a better person than Big Show to play the role. The rest was history as videos of Big Show vs Arnie matchup started making rounds in the internet.
#1 Randy Savage Spiderman
It wasn’t the green goblin, sandman or the Venom; it was Macho Man Randy Savage that was the first true enemy of Spiderman. Rubbing the eyes won’t change those words, because it’s damn true.
The legendary WWE superstar played the character of Bonesaw McGraw in the first Spiderman movie and jobbed himself to put over Peter Parker. It might’ve been not a big role for the standard of Savage, but it was indeed a crucial one to show what lied ahead for Spiderman.
There won’t be many fans out there that missed this cameo but since Spiderman is by far ‘the’ most successful film in the list and since they portrayed wrestling as a real deal, this deserves to top the list on any day.
