Wrestlers Who Faced Backlash After Movie Roles

Wrestling and movies have a lot in common. Both can be works of art when it comes to storylines, featuring interesting characters that you either look at with sympathy or hate to the core. However, just like a bad wrestling match or questionable angle, a movie, when it's terrible, can be absolutely awful to the point of cringeworthy. 

Sometimes, the wrestling world and the bright lights of Hollywood mix together, with sports entertainers making the leap from the squared circle to more traditional acting. Performers like Dwayne Johnson, Dave Bautista, and John Cena have found success in both worlds, with many of their films earning positive reviews and performing well at the box office. However, there are also uncomfortable moments in movies with former wrestlers, or movies with insanely popular wrestlers as their main character that fall flat or completely bomb at the box office. 

It's not usually the wrestler's fault that something bad happens within a film that leads to them being criticized. However, these wrestlers often face backlash when things in the movie world go south. With that in mind, let's look at wrestlers who faced backlash for the movies in which they starred. 

Nathan Jones is arguably best-known for his movie roles, but he was also a WWE talent. He debuted on WWE TV in April 2003 as a Hannibal Lecter-esque character. When that character was nixed, he was paired up with The Undertaker as "The Dead Man's" protégé. He fought alongside Brock Lesnar on his Survivor Series team that fall, before quitting the company at the end of the year due to the rigor of WWE's travel schedule.

Jones had been in a few films before working for WWE, but his Hollywood career really took off once he left. The big man has starred in a variety of flicks, including 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Road," 2019's "Hobbs & Shaw," and 2021's "Mortal Kombat," but it was a particular scene in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" that had Jones defending himself against movie fans online. In the film, Jones plays a character named Rictus Erectus, who shows a perverse interest in a young Furiosa (Alyla Browne). The scene sees Erectus approach the young girl in the villains' compound, suggestively touching her hair before Furiosa is able to escape. It made fans uncomfortable, and the online backlash was enough to make Jones feel as though he needed to remind them that movies aren't real life. 

"This is a very sensitive subject, and I want to emphasize that it involves a fictional character," Jones wrote on Facebook. "The details can be uncomfortable, and as an actor, my job is to portray a character based on the direction and script provided to me. I appreciate your understanding and support in recognizing the distinction between fiction and reality." Sadly, "Furiosa" bombed at the box office, but it did receive positive reviews, for the most part.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin is one of the most popular wrestlers of all time, but one of his first Hollywood ventures turned out to be a pretty big flop for the "Texas Rattlesnake." Austin retired from the ring and had more time for movie projects following his loss to The Rock at WrestleMania 19. One of his first gigs in Hollywood was "The Condemned," released in 2007. The action movie sees "Stone Cold's" character battle against other convicts to survive in a deadly game broadcast live to the world, almost like a grown-up version of "The Hunger Games." The winner (and sole survivor of the sick and twisted "game") earns their freedom.

Though the concept may sound interesting to some, "The Condemned" was slammed by critics. Out of the other popular WWE Films movies at the time, including "The Marine" starring John Cena, it's rated as one of the worst, with a 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

The wrestling veteran didn't approach his role much differently than he did his in-ring character, with Complex writing, "Austin essentially played the same character that he did in the WWE: a merciless badass who doesn't take lip from anyone. That may work inside of a cage or while beating your opponent with a ladder, but a movie requires more than that." Austin would later go on to films that critics weren't so hard on, such as "The Expendables" in 2010, and "The Longest Yard" in 2005.

WWE Film's first major film was a slasher flick called "See No Evil," which fittingly starred Kane as its main boogeyman, Jacob Goodnight. It was released in May 2006 by Lionsgate, and earned $18.8 million against an $8 million budget. It tells the story of a reclusive killer who torments a group of criminals after their community service forces them to clean up an old hotel that's reportedly home to the slash-happy villain. You can probably tell what happens next.

While the movie wasn't a flop in terms of the box office, it was destroyed by critics and movie fans. "See No Evil" has a 10% score on its Tomatometer, out of 58 critic reviews. The film did well enough to warrant a sequel, "See No Evil 2," released in 2014, which didn't fare any better among critics. In the sequel, Kane's character interrupts an undertaker's birthday surprise at the city morgue by rising from the dead, and starts to terrorize the birthday girl and her friends.

Kurt Angle is one of the most impressive technical wrestlers in history, but a venture into the Hollywood limelight in 2009 didn't exactly go well for him. The WWE Hall of Famer starred in a movie called "End Game," playing a vicious criminal who delights in tormenting people. A police officer is trying to stop Angle's character, but the officer is romantically involved with the woman who is planned to be his next victim. 

The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sits at just 17%, but the reviews on the movie's IMDB page truly explain how Angle's acting failed to wow audiences, even if he was an extremely popular wrestler. "Whoever said Kurt Angle could act needs to be shot out of a cannon into deep space. His acting ability sucks so much that light can't escape it," one reviewer wrote, rating the movie 1/10. "Yuck...one of the worst movies you will ever see.. I stopped watching this halfway through... Horrible acting... Kurt Angle is the worst! He does have a really funny sex scene although I don't think it is supposed to be funny," wrote another, who also gave it one star out of 10.

Angle's most recent movie role in 2024 was in a film called "The Epidemic," where he played a military general. The B-list horror movie is about a zombie apocalypse following a meteor crashing in to earth, leaving destruction in its wake.

Before Paul "Triple H" Levesque was running the show in WWE, he was another mega-popular company star trying to make it in the world of Hollywood. His first role under the bright lights of Hollywood was a vampire in "Blade: Trinity," the third and last installment in the beloved New Line Cinema franchise starring Wesley Snipes. While Triple H made just a few appearances in "Blade: Trinity," it was "The Chaperone" that was supposed to make him a bona fide Tinsel Town star. 

"The Chaperone" sees Levesque play a criminal who tries to hide from his past by taking a group of kids on a field trip. Of course, it's only a matter of time until those he wronged hunt him down and the trouble starts all over again.

The movie was pushed hard on WWE TV with trailers on "Raw" and "SmackDown," but it still bombed at the box office, making a meager $14,000 off a $3 million budget. The movie had WWE Studios under water for a long time, and it became a laughing stock in the industry. Levesque even admitted to not reading the script before signing on to the role. That wouldn't be Triple H's only failed movie-making venture, either. He also starred in a flick called "Inside Out," which boasts a 4.5/10 rating on IMDB — even worse than "The Chaperone."