Professional wrestling and Hollywood have and will cross over frequently, as wrestlers are there to entertain, perform, and pretend. With the build up of a wrestling match comes the trash talk between brightly colored and memorable characters - the heroes and villains of their respective pieces - and, yes, the inevitable brawl. At its simplest, your standard WWE match follows the exact same basic storyline of any current Marvel studio picture (and if you're one Dave Bautista, doubly so).
Sports stars in movies are a strange take, full stop. Does their natural god-like talent in the ring, court, or field seamlessly transition to the film set? For wrestling's proven performers, it's neither from simple luck nor being at the "right place at the right time" that they have found themselves in the midst of the reels. With wrestling's own dedicated film company, WWE Films (formerly WWF Films), there has always been a direct effort from those in charge to make their stars even more cinematic and mainstream — with varying results.
Elsewhere in the movie multiverse, pro-wrestlers have found a certain niche of late in superhero pictures, as the subgenre recognizes that these awesome body shapes match up with the characters portrayed in their beloved panels. With the likes of Bautista in Guardians of the Galaxy, John Cena taking the headlines in his own spin-off show with DC Comics' Peacemaker, and Dwayne Johnson soon to star in Black Adam, these athletes-turned-actors slot well into the medium, and bring with them the trademark panache that made them so beloved in the ring. In this list, we unpack the greatest scenes featuring a wrestler.
7 The Rock's Army is Defeated - The Mummy Returns
While the godawful CGI manipulation of The Rock may be the main talking point when discussing his performance in The Mummy Returns, this opener kicks the story right off and really sets the tone for the romp ahead. Continuing on from The Mummy (1999), this Dwayne Johnson-led opener (when he was still dubbed "The Rock") makes it feel like we've never been away from the story.
In the opening sequence, a great army, led by the Scorpion King (Johnson), is defeated and banished to the sand. Before death, the dictator makes a pact with the god Anubis and is granted rule over his deadly warriors. Scenes of The Rock leading a whole army of vicious dog soldiers who conquer Egypt, with beheadings and total carnage, remind us of the biblical epics of the 1950s. As the debut film from Johnson, all bronzed muscles and a to-die-for smile, The Mummy Returns would launch off its own spin off series (beginning with Scorpion King followed by several direct-to-video movies), and was just an eyebrow-raising hint at what a career was to follow.
6 Dave Bautista Smashes K Through a Wall - Blade Runner 2049
Having hidden away from Blade Runners until now, Dave Bautista's android in Blade Runner 2049 (after the preceding short, Blade Runner 2048: Nowhere to Run) is faced with being put down by newer model, K (Ryan Gosling). Not taking kindly to it, and using his massive physicality on screen, Bautista's Sapper stabs K and bashes him repeatedly against the drywall until he smashes through it.
It's a testament that Bautista could prove himself as an actor so well in the Guardians of the Galaxy series that he would front this intro to one of the most sought-after sequels ever. Before their clash, this scene is melancholy and restrained. Both characters, having only just been introduced, come off as tired of the world. Do we think that Ryan Gosling could really beat Bautista in a fight? Nah.
5 Randy Savage Has 3 Minutes of Play Time - Spider-Man
The late Randy Savage's inclusion in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man only lasts a few minutes, and he is very much playing himself but, boy, is it a special. As Bonesaw, Macho Man is bulging and makes the "Human Spider" look all the smaller and entirely out of his depth. With his collective of groupies verbally assaulting Parker on his way to the ring, Bonesaw is charismatic and fights dirty, hitting Tobey Maguire repeatedly with a chair.
Before Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus... there was Bonesaw. As a direct storyline from the original Spider-Man comics, and as far as Chaos Theory (and Uncle Ben's following death goes), Bonesaw's inclusion is surprisingly important and valid to the world.
4 John Cena Kills Rick Flag - The Suicide Squad
John Cena's inclusion in The Suicide Squad is inspired, and something that writer/director James Gunn would remind us throughout his process of making the follow-up Peacemaker series. It's here that we realize that John Cena's Peacemaker (essentially a warped Captain America) reveals that he has his own mission, and the ensuing brawl between Peacemaker and Rick Flag results in Cena's character stabbing his commander in the chest. In a team of villainous egos, Flag's final words call out the irony of Peacemaker directly to his face: "What a joke."
3 Jesse Ventura Ain't Got Time To Bleed - Predator
As a "god*amned sexual tyrannosaurus," Jesse Ventura is the ideal meathead required in the group of commandos tasked with this mysterious mission on foreign ground. Ventura is so cocksure and ridiculous in Predator as Blain, that even while in a war zone and bleeding out he tells his comrade that he "ain't got time to bleed." When his character (quite possibly the physically largest of the lot) is dispatched by the Predator, his death is intentionally quick and underwhelming — showing that even this giant of a man is no match for a killer advanced in every way.
2 Hulk Hogan Threatens The Gremlins - Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2 is just wacky. Its whole existence is bizarre, and this scene in particular cements that. In a neat callback to the original's love for Snow White, the ongoing storyline of Gremlins 2 collapses before our eyes with the reel burning up and the Gremlins' hijinks halting the movie altogether, an edit cutting to the movie theater itself. Sitting in the cinema audience watching the movie, is a fully dressed-up Hulk Hogan, who threatens "the gremsters" into continuing with the movie for the good of the movie-going audience. Hogan then apologizes down the lens to us, and assures us it won't happen again. Genuinely Hogan's best acting committed to screen.
1 Roddy Piper's All Out of Bubblegum - They Live
Finally, with his eyes opened to the evil of the world in They Live, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper enters the bank only to see he is surrounded by monsters posing as human beings. Having dipped in there to avoid the cops, he understands the task at hand and calls the alien residents out with the iconic line, "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum." With mullet, shotgun, and sunglasses aplenty, it's all extremely over-the-top, fun, and cool and watching the aliens get blown away in black and white (from the POV of the shades) makes it all the better. This scene (alongside the ridiculously lengthy fight scene with Keith David) helps make They Live forever exciting and one of the most purely enjoyable John Carpenter movies.