Like any sport, pro wrestling has its share of celebrity athletes. And like any celebrity athlete, pro wrestling stars can’t resist a lucrative endorsement deal. One of the most famous examples is Macho Man Randy Savage’s representing Slim Jims in the 1990s, a partnership that proved to be iconic and memorable for Savage’s delivery of the tagline, “Snap into a Slim Jim!”
But not every product endorsement can be as iconic as Macho’s relationship with beef jerky sticks. There have been a number of surprising wrestler endorsements over the years. Not all of these were bad -- and fans might even remember some of them -- but they’re pretty weird.
10 Brock Lesnar - Jimmy John’s
Outside of pro wrestling, slapping a logo on a racing car or legitimate fighter isn’t all that uncommon. But when wrestler turned MMA fighter Brock Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, fans were quick to notice that Brock’s shorts were sporting a recognizable double-J logo -- not for Jeff Jarrett, but rather for sandwich chain Jimmy John’s.
Because everything in wrestling -- especially in WWE -- is so deliberately engineered to elicit a certain response from fans, seeing a monster heel like Lesnar repping for sandwiches is incredibly funny.
9 Hulk Hogan - Microwaveable Burgers
Fans may already know about Hulk Hogan’s various product endorsement ventures like Pastamania, an energy drink, or even the several kitchen appliances bearing his name thanks to the Hulkster infamously turning down the George Foreman Grill deal. Less famous, however, were his line of microwaveable hamburgers. Available exclusively at Wal-Mart, adventurous eaters had a handful of options when it came to the Hulkster Burger, including a cheeseburger and a chicken sandwich. If online food reviews are to be believed, they were not well received.
8 John Cena - Fruity Pebbles
During his 2011-2012 feud with John Cena, The Rock took shots at Cena’s history of colorful T-shirts, saying that the face of modern WWE was like a box of Fruity Pebbles. It was a pretty weak, juvenile joke, but ended up becoming a real thing, as John Cena found himself emblazoned on cereal boxes next to Fred Flintstone and Bamm Bamm.
It’s very surprising that WWE leaned into the insult, but you can’t fault them when there’s money to be made. It’s a shame that Rocky couldn’t make lighting strike twice when he called CM Punk “cookiepuss.”
7 Bret Hart - Beer
As far as wrestler endorsements go, beer seems like an untapped (heh) market, considering the rising popularity of craft beer in the 21st century. Stone Cold Steve Austin notably has an IPA out from El Segundo, but it may surprise fans to know that his great rival Bret “The Hitman” Hart has his own beer as well.
Given everything fans know about Bret Hart, it should come as no surprise that the citrus hibiscus ale Hitman came straight out of Calgary’s Village Brewing.
6 Jeff Jarrett - Gold Investments
After leaving TNA in 2014, Jeff Jarrett tried to start a new promotion, Global Force Wrestling, which didn’t quite pan out -- even as he tried to merge it with his old company. But at the same time, Jarrett also rolled out Global Force Gold, which was basically a way to promote Karatbars, a German gold investment company accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Fans tend to slap Double J with the “carny” label quite often, and enticing fans to take part in a “cash for gold” scam in exchange for a signed 8x10 certainly doesn't help.
5 NJPW LA Dojo Young Lions - Gekiochi Cloth
Fans keeping up with New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s US-based show New Japan Strong have seen these silly ads pretty much every week. NJPW’s LA Dojo students -- Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin, and Karl Fredericks -- have shot a couple of ads selling Gekiochi Cloth, “a magic cloth that can clean without soap.”
While the company behind the cloth, LEC, has put Japanese NJPW stars on its domestic packaging, the company has enlisted NJPW’s up-and-coming Los Angeles trainees to sell the product to Western fans.
4 Mean Gene Okerlund - Mean Gene’s Burgers
One of the greatest backstage interviewers of all time, Mean Gene Okerlund also got into the product endorsement game. A family affair, Okerlund’s nephews started up a restaurant business, and the legendary Mean Gene was willing to offer up his name and likeness to create Mean Gene’s Burgers, which ended up becoming a chain.
The chain was successful, too, and ended up spawning related pizzerias called -- you guessed it -- Mean Gene’s Pizza.
3 KangaRoos - Sting
Established in 1979, KangaRoos is a American brand of footwear famous for having a small pocket on the side and having a kangaroo silhouette as their logo. Despite being a brief fad in the early to mid-1980s, the brand never totally went away and even got Sting to endorse them in 1990. It made perfect sense -- Sting’s a surfer guy, Australia has surfer vibes -- and made for a pretty fun, goofy commercial loaded with oddball 1990s nostalgia.
2 Toru Yano - Curry
It should come as no surprise to fans of New Japan that Toru Yano -- the CHAOS faction’s resident DVD shilling cheat -- actually has real-life product endorsements going on outside of the ring. In 2020, Yano and NJPW struck a deal with company Kitano Ace to put out a line of boil-in-a-bag curry with YTR’s face emblazoned on the package. The set-up is pretty much the same -- it’s a hamburger patty in sauce -- but the sauce flavors include mild tomato curry, Japanese curry, and demon killer black curry (!).
1 Steve Austin - 1-800-COLLECT
Television advertising in the late 1990s and early 2000s was awash with commercials for various collect call companies, with 1-800-COLLECT being the most famous. These ads featured all kinds of pop culture figures, so it should come as no surprise that at least one wrestler showed up in them.
In this case, it was Steve Austin, albeit with a bonus wrestler. After all, every wrestler needs an opponent, so Stone Cold’s dance partner for the ad was the underrated D-Lo Brown as the “Texas Rattlesnake” berated Brown mid-match for dialing zero to make a collect call instead of the number in question. The ad ended with Austin saying “Dial 1-800-Collect… or else.”