Wrestlers Whose Acting Careers Bombed

[aholeisahole]

http://whatculture.com/wwe/wwe-10-pro-wrestlers-whose-acting-careers-bombed.php

I've seen this list floating around on a few boards. I never knew so many wrestlers failed so terribly at acting. It's no wonder WWE is trying to latch on to Batista's popularity if Guardians of the Galaxy ends up a hit, because really they haven't had many successful actors.

When even the biggest star John Cena can't sell more than one movie, it ain't happening!

I disagree with #1 though. He should of made Triple H #1. You'd understand if you'd ever seen The Chaperone

 

[Randy Orton's Head Blood]

Any current WWE Wrestler that's tried acting is pretty much a huge bomb. The Rock isn't, obviously.
But Cena, Orton, Miz & the rest, all of their attempted acting careers were awful. To hear that The Miz is going back to play the Marine again, just sucks. Why the WWE think their movies are any good is beyond me.
Batista can't act either to be honest, so how he's managing to get roles in films like GoTG & Riddick is unbelievable.

 

[Dirk]

Any current WWE Wrestler that's tried acting is pretty much a huge bomb. The Rock isn't, obviously.
But Cena, Orton, Miz & the rest, all of their attempted acting careers were awful. To hear that The Miz is going back to play the Marine again, just sucks. Why the WWE think their movies are any good is beyond me.
Batista can't act either to be honest, so how he's managing to get roles in films like GoTG & Riddick is unbelievable.

I want to hear your take on this:

A pro wrestler spends years with the same gimmick and if it works, he keeps it for the rest of his career. Therefore, any wrestler will have a lot of trouble adapting to a new role every second or third year. Actors don't discard a role after a month of it "not getting over", they have to be able to mine emotionally deeper and more often. Stone Cold is a great example of this - his only gimmick which he made his own was the Texas Rattlesnake and he admitted it was "himself with the volume turned up to a hundred".

Also, since pro wrestling is a physical sport/attraction, the acting only has to be semi-believable for it to work, with the only real changes being a switch from heel to face or vice versa.

Now, on the flipside, one could argue that action stars like Vin Diesel or Van Damme aren't famous because of their marvellous acting ability, but because of their physical attributes and abilities and also that their movies have little to do with acting and more with special effects and stunts (much like wrestling).

 

[Gibby]

Was always surprised that Roddy Piper couldn't make a go of it because They Live is excellent and he is very good in it too.

 

[nightmare]

Was always surprised that Roddy Piper couldn't make a go of it because They Live is excellent and he is very good in it too.

He actually has been in a few films. Some not so great, but hey. They Live was badass & he has been great in Always Sunny. Not to mention Body Slam was a good one back in the day. By no means Oscar caliber but not too bad. He has been in more movies\shows\games than most realize.

 

[TheHitMark-SirJoseOle]

When thinking of wrestlers whose acting careers have bombed, I was almost going to say Hulk Hogan, but while he didn't set the acting world on fire and Hogan himself even jokingly says from time to time "I body slammed Hollywood (with all those B movies)". I guess you could say he's had marginal success in the movie world.

After all, even back in the late 80s direct to home video films were in existence so despite how we laugh at stuff like No Holds Barred, Mr. Nanny and Suburban Commando these days, which don't get me wrong are far from being Oscar winning films. Hogan's cross over into movies lasted for a couple of years and those three alone were theatrical releases.

With that said, I feel his career acting wise didn't meet expectations and by far is the complete opposite of The Rock where for obvious reasons, The Rock has only continued to work in legitimate Hollywood productions and only continues to thrive, whilst Hogan had to come back to wrestling to remain relevant. No offense to that guy, in fact being in a bit part in a movie with Rocky III helped launch his wrestling career to a new level, but Hogan's true calling was the squared circle, no denying that.

Still, I hate using the cliche but I maintain that Hulk Hogan never should have quit his day job, the time he took for side projects like Blunder In Paradise and the movies I mentioned earlier kept him from being in wrestling which as a kid, disappointed me greatly.

 

[Allendawson]

Interesting.... Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is the most successful wrestler-turned-actor in pro wrestling history: even beyond that, he was named the highest grossing actor of 2013 by Forbes Magazine and as fellow wrestler Scott Steiner would say, the numbers don’t lie.

 

[Flair is Overrated]

I've worked in the film business for several years, and while I wouldn't say his career bombed, I think the most disappointing acting career belongs to Roddy Piper.

Before people get upset, let me explain…

There is one huge movie star in the history of wrestling, Dwayne Johnson (who is arguably one of the 10 biggest movie stars in the world considering the global appeal of his films).

Hulk Hogan's movies and tv shows may have been awful, but I think he was always viewed as an attraction rather than an actor. And he made a lot of money making a lot of B movies, so he really met expectations.

Andre the Giant could never be a movie star with his size…unfortunately, it always limited the available roles. But he has a hit with Conan, and gave arguably the best performance of any wrestler ever in The Princess Bride.

Steve Austin, like Hogan, has made a number of B movies (plus small parts in bigger Hollywood movies), and probably has done as well as he could expect.

It's too soon to judge guys like Cena and Batista, although I suspect they'll be limited to B movies.

And now to the Hot Rod…one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. And a hell of an entertaining action star in They Live. He was a pretty big dude, imposing enough to be a believable action star, without being too freakish like Hogan and Andre. He could be funny as well as intimidating. And he had a natural demeanor on camera. Hogan was super charismatic, but could not deliver natural dialogue. With all due respect to Dwayne Johnson, I think Roddy was the most talented actor in the history of wrestling. Unfortunately, I suspect timing killed his career. He tried to break into Hollywood at a time when the studios weren't willing to consider wrestlers for big films (unless they were playing wrestlers, and No Holds Barred was not that big of a film, at least budget wise).

Because he had the talent, but was unable to fulfill the promise of that talent, I rank Piper's acting career as the most disappointing (even though it was arguably as commercially successful as anyone other than the Rock). Piper was capable of being a huge star given the opportunity and right material. Things just didn't shake out that way.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I don't think I'd throw Hogan in that group, honestly. Yes, his movies stink, and weren't terribly successful, but you could argue that Rocky 3 helped boost his career to a new level and become instantly recognizable. He was also able to parlay all of this into multiple movies plus a couple of tv shows and special appearances. The guy made the most of the little talent that he had when it came to acting.

No, the guy who bombed the most isn't even on the list, and yet, he's all over it.

That's Vinnie Mac.

Most of the guys on the list were only in movies thanks to WWE Studios. For a guy who likes to claim he's in the entertainment business, he sure doesn't seem to do well at it unless it's part of his core wrestling business.

 

[shalliin]

Kevin Nash has had some surprisingly interesting movie roles, his biggest probably in Magic Mike. He's managed to carve out a niche for himself and does well with what he's given. Another couple of guys doing good jobs with their limited acting talents are Nathan Jones and Robert Maillet(Kurrgan) who thanks to their size have had some good action roles in movies like Hero(Jones vs Jet Li), Ong Bak (Jones vs Tony Jaa), 300 (Maillet vs Spartans) and others.
Hogan is a bad actor, but you can't deny that most of his films were pretty popular at the time though none of them have held up well over repeated viewings.
A few years back there was a thread that compared wrestlers to actors and which wrestler could handle roles played by various actors. Undertaker was often held up as a possibility for roles by Christopher Walken or Clint Eastwood and there was a whole list of most of the roster and who could have played various roles. Some were surprising as lower card wrestlers held up for high profile roles. Glen Jacobs could make an interesting twist to Michael Myers(Halloween series) or Jason Vorhees(Friday 13th)
In my view, wrestlers are often wrongly discredited for their acting talents. Wrestlers are live action stuntment who have to learn to act a role to fit their physical talents. And considering that the last 10 years has seen more of a focus on the skits and backstage stuff, then perhaps they should incorporate acting classes into their wrestling schools/training companies.