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Wrestling is a show in which acting data is no less important than the ability to do grabs and sweeps. Let it be a fake sport with contractual fights, but the folk fun looks spectacular and bright. Wrestling has a downside: for all its staging, it is a rather traumatic craft that requires guys in tights to travel constantly and does not bring much money. Therefore, wrestlers, at the first opportunity, are happy to go to work in Hollywood, where salaries are completely different, and fake understudies stretch their ankles on complex tricks for you. Let’s remember the most successful representatives of the profession who safely jumped from the ring to the set.
In the ring, he was called "The Rock." Today, Dwayne Johnson prefers to use his real name, and, without a doubt, he can be called the most "cinematic" and charismatic wrestler in history. Starting with a small role of the Scorpion King in the second "Mummy", Johnson immediately earned a personal spin-off for his character and received a record fee for him by the standards of novice actors, after which Hollywood offers fell one after another: "DOOM", "Southland Tales", "Faster", "Snitch", "Pain & Gain", "Hercules". Today the wrestler has more than three dozen films behind him, and he has mastered the action genre perfectly. And since Dwayne joined the cast of "Fast and Furious", it finally became clear to everyone: “The rock” is a star, and this star is in its place.
In the 80s and 90s, Hulk Hogan was certainly the most famous movie wrestler on the planet - his powerful white mustache and red bandana were recognizable a mile away, and even silly cameos like the one he performed in “Gremlins 2” caused the audience a storm of delight. Today, the old Hulk has been pushed by younger competitors, and he appears more often on TV than on the big screen (and mostly in the role of himself), but does this change anything? Hogan also managed to do a lot: "Rocky III", "Mr. Nanny", "Suburban Commando", "Santa with Muscles", "Thunder in Paradise" and other comedies and series with his participation will forever remain a fact of Hollywood history. Today, the wrestling legend spends his free time relaxing on the terrace with luxury sofa sets, writing books, doing charity work, and playing cameo roles in movies.
In the ring he is Batista, and in ordinary life, he is David Michael Bautista Jr. You might not have noticed this round-headed guy in "The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption" released immediately on video, missed his cameo in the comedy "Strange Relatives", did not pay attention to his episodic flashing in the series. But after "The Man with the Iron Fists", "Riddick", "Guardians of the Galaxy", "Spectre" and "Marauders", where the broad-shouldered Batista very successfully diluted the acting teams, it is already impossible to dismiss him: the film career of the tattooed Greek-Filipino is actively developing, producers are throwing him tempting offers, and this is only the beginning.
Stephen James Anderson, aka "Stone Cold", aka Steve Austin, earned so many injuries in the ring that he would have forced Jackie Chan himself to grunt respectfully. In the 90s, worried about his health, he turned his gaze towards Hollywood. His screen career, however, developed neither shakily nor smoothly: until the mid-noughties, Steve could boast of nothing but the role of detective Jack Cage in the TV series Detective Nash Bridges and a couple of minor cameos. But then the thriller "The Condemned" happened the bright role of the villainous jock in "The Expendables", "Knockout" and other action films showed that Hollywood bruising is something that Austin does very well.
The bearer of Slovak-German roots and a powerful forked chin, James George Janos, better known as Jesse "The Body" Ventura, – the personality, is without exaggeration bright: former Marine, Vietnam veteran, a security guard of The Rolling Stones, mayor of Brooklyn Park, Governor of Minnesota, WWE Hall of Fame resident, author of many books, TV presenter... At the end of his wrestling career, which was crippled by steroid abuse, Ventura also broke into the cinema, where, even if he did not play the first fiddle, he acted alongside such superstars as Arnold Schwarzenegger ("Running Man", "Predator") and Sylvester Stallone ("Demolition Man"). Surprisingly, with his obvious charisma, he did not stay in the cinema longer, limiting himself to a dozen paintings and several TV shows. Although even the debut role of the brave warrior Blaine in "Predator", where Jesse mowed down the jungle with a monstrous six-barrel Gatling machine gun, was enough to make him forever remembered by fans of the movie action. Today Ventura no longer dreams of new roles, but the presidential chair, but still spoils old fans with occasional appearances in the cinema from time to time.
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