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FROM SUPPLEMENTS TO MOVIES: WRESTLERS AND THEIR NON-WRESTLING PROJECTS

Professional wrestling has long had a history of athletes who have crossed over successfully into other genres.

For instance, many wrestlers have enjoyed fruitful forays onto television, while others have flourished with their outside business interests.

Dwayne Johnson – aka The Rock – is famously a member of the ‘Five-Timers Club’ – a select group of celebrities who have hosted Saturday Night Live on five occasions.

His efforts didn’t go unnoticed by Hollywood, and he has since gone on to forge a hugely successful career in the acting business.

Read on as we take a look at some of the areas where wrestlers have embarked on hugely successful non-wrestling projects over the past few years.

Fitness

With wrestlers required to maintain high levels of fitness in the modern era, it is little wonder that many of them cross over into the health and wellbeing industry.

One of the most recent examples was Robert Stone, who opened a new fitness facility earlier this year with his wife in Baldwin Park, Florida. 

However, Diamond Dallas Page is perhaps the most famous wrestler to embark on a successful venture in the fitness industry.

When he ruptured spinal discs during the height of his professional wrestling career, he was persuaded to try yoga as part of his recovery plan.

This saved his career and led to the development of DDP Yoga (DDPY) - a revolutionary approach to fitness that has repeatedly been proven to work.

DDPY has a strong celebrity following, with the likes of Chris Jericho, AJ Styles and Gabriel Iglesias extolling its virtues. Page says the program’s adaptability is its biggest attraction.

“Finding the motivation to start doing DDPY is often the major hurdle for people, as it may entail trying things that were not originally part of their lifestyle,” he said.

“In addition to steadily completing the workouts, followers of DDPY are encouraged to reconsider their diets and overall attitude. When following all of these concepts, results are nearly guaranteed. 

“Just ask military veteran Arthur Boorman, who previously walked with crutches and leg braces, or Jared Mollenkopf, who lost around 300 pounds in a little over a year.”

Supplements

Supplements are one of the most important ingredients in a wrestler’s diet given their work schedule, and this an area that some wrestlers have leveraged to significant effect.

Kenny Omega and Tyson Kidd have both dipped their toe in the supplements industry, but their efforts have been dwarfed by another former WWE superstar.

‘The Big Guy’ branched into the sector in November 2016 with his Feed Me More nutrition brand, which has since gone on to become extremely popular.

The company’s products are based on formulations created by Ryback which he says work synergistically well together to boost performance. 

The science around supplementation has improved greatly in the last couple of decades with research on the best and safest ingredients for pre-workouts, best quality protein sources for post-workouts and most effective supplementation for mobility and overall health. 

This has led to a significantly higher quality of supplementation available on the market for the end user, and that is something Ryback tapped into when creating his own brand.

“There are some very good companies out there, but one thing the majority of them have not evolved on is eliminating the use of artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose,” he said.

“The goal of a nutritional supplement is to not only make you look and feel better, but to also be good for you internally as well.

“Any company using aspartame and sucralose - as these are dirt cheap sweeteners - either don’t have health of the consumer in mind, or don’t care.

“Feed Me More Nutrition uses Stevia - a plant-based sweetener that, while more expensive, is truly superior to aspartame and sucralose.?”

Movies

Wrestlers have long had an affinity for the movie business, with their global appeal proving attractive to producers and film fans alike.

Steve Austin, Roddy Piper, Jesse Ventura and The Big Show have starred in successful movies, but their efforts have been overshadowed by one man – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

The Scorpion King, The Game Plan, Gridiron Gang and Get Smart are amongst his movie credits, while a recurring role in The Fast and the Furious series has kept his bank balance ticking over.

Having accomplished everything he could in the WWE, the 48-year-old says he is proud to have embarked on a long-lasting career in the movie industry.

“I wanted to become a real box office presence,” he said. “I wanted to have a real box office cache and I wanted to be the number one man in the world of Hollywood in terms of box office draw.

“That was my goal at 29-years-old, and I was prepared to work my ass off, but I also knew I gave myself a 10-12 year plan, but life is so unpredictable.

“I was really nervous because I also knew historically it didn’t matter. Whoever was successful in another arena, just because you were a successful professional wrestler did not mean, in any uncertain terms, that you were going to become a box office draw or a legitimate movie star. There were no guarantees.”

Politics

The aforementioned Jesse Ventura famously branched out into politics, serving as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003.

He was elected governor as the Reform Party nominee and is the party's only candidate ever to win a major government office.

Glenn Jacobs – the WWE’s Kane - is the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, becoming the second professional wrestling star to occupy a public office in the US in 2018.

While the 53-year-old’s in-ring character is someone not to be messed with, Jacobs’ political views appear to be rather less fiery.  

“My reason for getting in politics was because I wanted to have a positive impact on my community,” he said. “And I felt the best way to do that was through the office of mayor.

“As mayor, you have the ability to get things done, whereas say in Congress it's difficult because you're one of many, many voices.

“But as mayor, you have a lot of influence in your community, even though it's I guess it's really intense, but not concentrated in a smaller area, whereas at the federal level, it's diffused over a larger area.

“But that's what attracted me to the mayor’s position, is I felt that I could really have a good influence, a positive influence on my community.”

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