If there’s one thing major pro wrestling promotions love, it’s celebrity guests. WrestleMania has been a star-studded extravaganza since its inception, with famous people making special appearances in non-combatant roles as timekeepers or announcers. Sometimes celebs even get in on the in-ring action, participating in a match.
Whenever a celebrity steps into the ring, there’s often a bit of skepticism from fans. After all, it’s usually a person famous for not wrestling going up against trained wrestlers, so there’s a worry that they’re going to make a mockery of the sport whether they intend to or not. So let’s take a look at stars who ventured into wrestling and defied all odds to actually put on some decent efforts.
10 Stephen Amell
Stephen Amell -- star of The CW’s Arrow -- spent months lobbying online for a gig guest-hosting Raw. Eventually, he got even more than he bargained for and teamed up with Neville against Stardust and King Barrett. He did a surprisingly good job in his match at SummerSlam 2015.
For most celebs that would be the end of their in-ring career, but Amell ended up taking part in a few more matches, including a five-on-four tag team match for Ring of Honor before making his singles debut against Christopher Daniels at All In. Defying all expectations, Stephen Amell proved that his in-ring abilities actually matched his enthusiasm.
9 Floyd Mayweather
“Legitimate” athletes crossing over into wrestling can always be a dicey affair. You’ve got legendary moments like Muhummad Ali taking on Antonio Inoki or pretty good bouts like Lawrence Taylor wrestling Bam Bam Bigelow, but then there’s nightmares like Tyson Fury vs. Braun Strowman.
By 2008, the idea of a boxer like Floyd Mayweather taking on The Big Show at WrestleMania 24 seemed like something better on paper than in practice, but the No Holds Barred match was actually well-received.
8 David Arquette
It’s understandable for any fan to still consider David Arquette a failed wrestler. After all, many point to him and his WCW World Title run -- to promote a wrestling-themed comedy movie -- as one of the myriad of things that doomed World Championship Wrestling. But for Arquette, accidentally winning a title to promote a movie isn’t enough.
Decades after that infamous moment, Arquette embarked on a career in indie wrestling, which proved to be quite a redemption story for the actor. After all, what actor would step into the ring with Nick Gage unless they truly loved wrestling?
7 Mr. T
An icon of 1980s pop culture, Mr. T may have seemed like a wrestler thanks to his muscles and unique look but was strictly considered an outsider when he entered the ring alongside Hulk Hogan in the main event of the very first WrestleMania. It could have been a disaster, but Mr. T acquitted himself well and came back for another match the following year.
While his later work in WCW was a mess and involved a match against Kevin Sullivan for some reason, his efforts in 1980s WWE -- while far from technical masterpieces -- were fun for what they were.
6 Maria Menounos
Primarily a TV host and interviewer, Maria Menounos may seem ill-fit for the squared circle, but she ended up becoming involved with WWE during the “Divas Era” when most female wrestlers in the company were recruited from other disciplines.
While you might think she was one of those celebrity wrestlers who had one match and headed for the hills, Menounos -- an avid wrestling fan -- had several matches for the company, doing fairly well in tag bouts, including one at WrestleMania XXVIII.
5 Steve “Mongo” McMichael
Steve “Mongo” McMichael’s football career is better remembered than his pro wrestling career -- for some reason, the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship just isn’t as important as a Super Bowl ring.
While many fans (somewhat rightfully) slam McMichael’s in-ring abilities, Mongo had enthusiasm and charisma when it came to the sport, and could put on some fun performances every now and again. Even when he messed up, he messed up in entertaining ways.
4 Andy Kaufman
Looking back, it’s no surprise that Andy Kaufman was a natural fit for pro wrestling. Kaufman spent his career as a guy whose antics blurred the lines between reality and fiction -- just look at his early SNL appearances, or the incident on the sketch show Fridays. Even these days, people watch clips of Adam Cole going off on Pat McAfee’s podcast and wonder if it’s real.
While it might at first glance have been written off as a fancy, Andy Kaufman spent a couple of years performing for the Continental Wrestling Association, where he feuded with Jerry Lawler and mocked the denizens of Memphis, Tennessee. The result was some seriously classic wrestling moments.
3 Dennis Rodman
In the 1990s, Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman was basically a heel in the NBA thanks to his bad boy attitude and outrageous sense of style. By 1997, he took that act to the wrestling ring, wrestling several pay-per-view events including tagging with Hollywood Hogan against Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone at Bash at the Beach ‘98.
Surprisingly, Rodman proved pretty well suited to the ring and even wrestled one match post-WCW for a random Australian promotion in 2000.
2 Snooki
It’s tough to imagine a weirder WrestleMania match than the three-on-three tag where Dolph Ziggler and LayCool took on the team of John Morrison, Trish Stratus, and Snooki from Jersey Shore. Given that it was a tag match and only lasted three minutes and some change, it seemed set up to reduce all potential damage of Snooki entering the ring.
Astoundingly, when she did, she impressed, doing a bunch of handsprings and instantly winning over the hostile WrestleMania XXVII crowd. After all, who would have expected a reality show star to do so well in the ring?
1 The Miz
While The Miz was introduced to wrestling fans via the WWE competition show Tough Enough, he actually became famous years prior as a cast member on the 10th season of the MTV reality series The Real World. As a reality show star, it was easy to write off and underestimate him, but it took The Miz a few years to find his niche as a smarmy bad guy, ultimately becoming one of the great heels of 2010s WWE.
It’s wild to imagine that “Mike from The Real World” would one day be in the conversation for being one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time.