Wrestlers in Hollywood work well together. When you listen to interviews about the topic, it’s fascinating how they pretty much all have the same story about how the cast and crew are always so impressed at how professional they all seem. How on time they are, how humble they are, how they don’t need special treatment, and they’re ability to act. It’s almost as if people don’t realize that what the wrestlers do is just as hard, if not harder than what an actor does.
Plenty of wrestlers have had cameo performances over the years. And while not everyone is going to be Batista or The Rock, when our favorite wrestlers shows up, it makes a wrestling fan giddy to see them.
10 Chris Jericho - Jay And Silent Bob Reboot
For fans of Talk is Jericho, you will know that Le Champion and indie-film darling Kevin Smith have become fast friends. So much that Smith himself cast Jericho in his latest movie, Jay And Silent Bob Reboot. As the the nitwit stoners embark on a cross-country trip to stop a remake of a movie with their likenesses, they run into Chris Jericho here, comically playing the leader of a hate group who winds up getting a portapotty heaved at him.
9 John Cena - Sisters
John Cena is slowly but surely following right in The Rock’s footsteps of leaving WWE on top, and starting out in Hollywood. In an early film role, he shows up in the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy, Sisters.
Cena gets to show his comedic chops as a heavily-inked up drug dealer named Pazuzu, who gets invited to the sisters’s last big hurrah.
8 Stone Cold Steve Austin - Grown Ups 2
For years as the world’s toughest SOB, Stone Cold Steve Austin being intentionally funny was a rarity, until the “What?!” chants started. He got to ham it up several times in Adam Sandler movies like The Longest Yard. But The Rattlesnake’s best cameo was seeing him pop up in Grown Ups 2. He shows up as Tommy Flanagan, Lenny’s old bully growing up. Austin does a good job playing up the tough guy image as he pretends to beg off from Lenny.
7 Edge - Highlander: Endgame
When you get your start in wrestling as a faux-vampire, it’s not much of a stretch to play an immortal sword fighter. Edge shows up in the climactic chapter of the swashbuckling saga, Highlander: Endgame, as Lachlan, who runs into both Connor and Duncan MacLeod in a flashback scene. Edge was so full of himself at this time, that he and Christian even did a Five Second Pose of Edge accepting an Oscar for his performance, with his fellow co-stars in the crowd.
6 Paul Wight - The Waterboy
Grown Ups 2 wasn’t the first time Adam Sandler mixed it up with wrestling stars. Paul Wight made a guest spot in The Waterboy, doing his best Hulk Hogan imitation as Captain Insano, declaring war on Herculon. Despite wanting to help keep the mammoth man hydrated, the sweet natured Bobby got laughed at by the big man on national TV.
5 Hulk Hogan - Gremlins 2: The New Batch
“Do you think the Gremsters can stand up to The Hulkster?!” Well, you can find out in Gemlins 2: The New Batch. While the Gremlins are running amok all over the Clamp Center, they shut down several low-rate cable shows, torture poor little Gizmo, and even burn through the negative of the film. That’s when Hulk Hogan in attendance watching the movies pitches a fit, demanding that the film get restarted.
4 Ox Baker - Escape From New York
When the President of the United States get kidnapped by a terrorist group, disgraced special forces soldier, Snake Plissken, is forced to head into the prison island of Manhattan to try and rescue him in the cult classic, Escape from New York.
Along the way, he is forced to do battle in a death match against Slag, played by one of the innovators of the heart punch, old school legend, Ox Baker.
3 Randy Savage - Spider-Man
After the fall of WCW, Randy Savage was all but done in the squared circle. Who could really blame the guy either. He pretty much did everything a wrestler could ever hope to do in their career. In one of his first big film roles, he got to cameo in a very important bit role in Sam Raimi’s, Spider-Man. He played wrestler Bonesaw McGraw, the superstar that Peter challenges to win some money for a car.
2 Tor Johnson / George The Animal Steele - Plan 9 From Outer Space / Ed Wood
In a bit of inception of wrestlers making cameos in movies, one of the original crossover stars, Tor Johnson, had a friendship with schlock filmmaker Ed Wood, and played roles in several of his movies, including Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Years later, when Tim Burton tackled telling Wood’s life story, he tapped fellow wrestler, George "The Animal" Steele, to portray the Angel in the film.
1 Kevin Nash - John Wick
As many fans know, Kevin Nash has been firmly entrenched in making movie cameos since playing Super Shredder. Whenever Hollywood need a tremendous big man, generally Kevin Nash will be there. He shows up as a bouncer who runs afoul of Keanu Reeves’ vengeful bounty hunter, John Wick. Wick arrives at the club and asks Francis how much weight he’s lost, in code, how many people are inside. After Francis answers, John mercifully let’s him go. Nash simply says thank you and leaves as one of the few characters of any of the films that Wick leaves alive.