Professional wrestling is mainstream, period. It might not be as mainstream as it used to be during the Monday Night Wars but no one can argue against the mainstream appeal of professional wrestling. And as the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, WWE enjoys some great media attention whenever they put together a major event.
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And if this was not enough, WWE superstars have left their mark on various fields as well. Some go on to become best-selling authors and some get into the bill board charts, others mark records in Hollywood. This list is going to take a deep dig into such mainstream records made by the WWE superstars. So buckle up and read on.
New York Best Sellers
Professional wrestlers have some interesting stories to tell. The wrestling business works in such a way that every superstar out there has one thing or the other that captures the attention of fans. And when these stories turn into books, they are bound to make a good impact. A handful of superstars enjoyed a considerable amount of success through their autobiographies.
Mick Foley is a multi-time New York Best Selling author and having personally read all his books, it’s safe to say that Mick is one of the most entertaining story tellers out there on par with Chris Jericho, who has his own style. Jericho is also a New York Best Selling author. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, who co-wrote his autobiography with Joe Layden, also topped the list for a few weeks.
The Bill Board toppers
Just like literature, the WWE superstars have been a hit in the music industry as well. A handful of wrestlers have managed to break into the Billboard charts and they deserve a mention in this list. John Cena’s debut album, “You can’t see me”, debuted 15th in the US Billboards 200 chart.
Fandango’s theme meanwhile made a huge jump in the ITunes and had some huge mainstream attention as well. The WWE music group had some billboard toppers as well with the WWE The music Volume 5 reaching the second position in 2001. WWF(E) Forceable Entry managed to reach the third position in the next year as well.
UFC Days of Brock Lesnar
UFC is one company that has the popularity to give WWE a run for its money these days. Dana White has turned the whole thing into a worldwide phenomenon and he did take away a lot of lessons from how Vince McMahon built up WWE. One of the major factors that connected UFC and WWE was Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar, who established himself in the WWE during the early 2000s moved to UFC after a while and became an immediate hit. He was part of some of the highest selling pay-per-views in UFC history, a record that most UFC fighters cannot boast about. Also, Lesnar was the highest paid UFC fighter in 2010 and this landed him in the ESPN list of best paid athletes.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson becomes the highest paid actor
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is considered to be one of the most successful WWE superstars probably because of his success in Hollywood. Despite his well-rounded career in the film business, Dwayne keeps coming back to WWE which is a great thing, to say the least. The transition of Dwayne from a wrestler to a film star set up a major mainstream record.
His first leading film role came in The Scorpion King in 2002 and he was apparently paid an amount of US $5.5 million for the same. This was the highest amount for an actor in his first starring role and this announced the arrival of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to Hollywood in style.
John Cena granting wishes
The name of John Cena has turned synonymous with WWE. He has been the franchise player for the company for quite some time now and despite his busy schedule, Cena has been giving back to the society as well. His contributions to philanthropic causes deserve a lot of credit and he currently holds the record for granting the most number of wishes as part of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
Cena has granted over 500 wishes for Children with life-threatening diseases. Justin Bieber is also one of the top wish granting celebrities for the foundation but the artists has only managed to grant around 250 wishes. The margin of difference between Cena and Bieber is enough to show how good Cena has been.
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