The Smark Avengers - Vol 4, Ep 25: WWE Meets the MCU & DCU – Wrestlers Turned Superheroes!

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

WWE Meets the MCU & DCU – Wrestlers Turned Superheroes! From the squared circle to the silver screen! In this episode of our comic book podcast, Corey, Dylan, and Jon break down every time a professional wrestler made the jump into superhero movies and TV shows — and whether it actually worked. 💥🤼‍♂️🎬 We’re talking: Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy The Rock as Black Adam in the DCEU John Cena as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad and his Max series Cody Rhodes as Derek Sampson in Arrow Edge and Goldberg in The Flash Eve Torres in Supergirl …and a few appearances you probably completely forgot about! Whether you’re a die-hard wrestling fan, a comic book collector, or just love pop culture crossovers, this episode is packed with nostalgia, analysis, and some laughs along the way. 👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and ring the bell for more deep dives into superhero media, comics, and the weirdest corners of pop culture! Click the link for Dylan's radio show!: http://www.bouncedigitalradio.co.uk Click the link for Dylan's Twitch stream: http://Twitch.tv/spookylaroux Click the link for Jon's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/bigjonbowski/ #WWE #MCU #DCU #WrestlingInMovies #ComicBookPodcast #TheRock #JohnCena #DaveBautista #BlackAdam #Drax #Peacemaker #CodyRhodes #SuperheroMovies #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy #Arrowverse #ComicBooks

And then we start talking about how I keep confusing the Can-Am connection and strike force and whatever other team that was together. And then we were full circle. That was last week. It was a whole week ago that that happened. It was. So. Yeah. I wouldn't keep up.

Hi, everybody welcome to Starg Avengers. His name is Corey. And with me is Dylan and John. How's it going, guys? Good. Good. It's all good. So, guys, this is totally, it's a brand new week.

It's a new day, yes, it is. And we're going to talk about the wrestling, the men who grab at one another and do the slams and the jams. And how are you going to relate that to copybooks, Dylan? Not going to. Oh, okay. Yeah, we're just going to talk. It's going to be like our annual WrestleMania episode. That's like three and a half hours long.

It takes 20 hours to upload. We're just going to talk about how much Goldberg sucks. We are. It's a lot. It's a good bit. It's 30-some years of sucking. But anyway... Magnificent.

We'll talk a little bit about the man, the myth, the legend. The man with the streak that got broken by Oscar. The bird. The bird. The iceberg. Oscar would totally kick his ass, right? We could all agree on this? I mean, he might inadvertently end her career.

he'll just cause himself and then she'll just like eat him that's true that's true so the world of professional wrestling is something that the three of us are fans of as well as the world of comedy books so in the age old you got my peanut butter

in your chocolate and you got your chocolate in my peanut butter we're going to talk about instances where our two worlds collided in the world of professional wrestling and met comic books but not in not wrestling comic books because for the most part, those usually suck. And so we're going to talk about actors who started out as professional wrestlers

or who are still currently wrestlers who decided to put on tights of a different variety. Does that sound exciting to you guys? Yes. Talking about tights. Yes. Hell yeah. So one thing we can talk to talk about. It's tights.

That's what you can't see us from the waist down or John at all, because John is actually just fully in a cook. wall-to-wall tight he's just a spandex suit it's all tights all the time damn right completely unnecessary no need for that he's hanging from the ceiling me so um you know obviously there when we talk about uh wrestlers who have been in movies there are of course bigger ones uh Batista, Dwayne Johnson, the recently departed

Holkogen definitely was in some movies if you could call those movies. Secondly, they are films. Yeah, they are movies. Rowdy, Roddy Piper was in a couple, say the least. But we're going to talk about the ones that are exclusively in the realm of comic books, whether it be in television

shows or movies. So I will be honest with you, very rarely have I seen an announcement where a professional wrestler was going to be acting in something, and I went, oh, I bet they're going to be very good in that. It's, when it's good, it's a pleasant surprise. And when it's not good, I feel it's expected. Mm-hmm.

Do you have any thoughts on the acting abilities of those who wrestle in the professional environment? Not really. I feel like you kind of accurately summed it up where you're like, if they do well, it's a surprise. And if they don't do well, you're like, well, no shit. You know. Yeah. To be fair, I think some wrestlers do have a lot of natural acting ability. You see it in the segments on Raw and Smackdown and whatever.

Like, they have to have some charisma, you'd say, to kind of get ahead in the business. Yes, but what we've noticed is that the skills don't seem to be a one-to-one transferable. Like, you can see somebody that is an incredible, so much. charisma on a pro wrestling show it doesn't that that's different from like the long hours of a shoot for a film you know and vice versa a great actor doesn't always turn up and do a great segment on a live Monday Night Raw the two don't seem to be like instantly transferable different still sets yeah yeah I think as well because like you hear like the rock and John Cena talk about how it's like a different thing to go from basically acting in front

of a live audience and getting that immediate reaction compared to like acting on camera in a studio multiple takes uh yeah yeah like just cameras a different environment yeah it's the faith people that aren't reacting to you you know yeah i get that so i guess it shouldn't surprise you guys that i have once again made a powerpoint presentation we're going to call you powerpoint corey because we're really about it coming up with nicknames Okay, I'm fine with that. So this is our third PowerPoint, John. This will be your second one.

Unfortunately, you missed our Keith Giffin one. I know that tears you up inside. Boo earns. Who earns? All right. So as you guys... All right, so as you can see, this is wrestlers, an comic movie slash shows,

a smart Avengers presentation. I have gone through and done my best to find every instance in which a professional wrestler of some variety. has been in a superhero movie or TV show. I will tell you that there are some exemptions. I am not including Seth Rollins from Captain America, Brave New World, because his scene was cut.

So I, he wasn't in it. He wasn't in it. It got removed. Doesn't count. Doesn't count. If these are like independent wrestlers that were in stuff, I don't know if they were wrestlers who were playing extras. I don't know. This is just named act, named a professional wrestler playing a named character.

Sometimes, by the way, there will be a couple instances on this list where the character they're playing was created solely for the TV show or the movie and there's no comic book equivalent. We will call those out as such. But we'll talk about each one to varying degrees, I'm sure. So when I think about professional wrestlers who played a professional wrestler, the first one I always go to is macho man, Randy Savage as Bonesaw McGraw in Sam Ramey's Spider-Man in 2002. Now, obviously, well, maybe not obviously, Bone Saw McGraw was not the character who Peter Parker initially faced as his first appearance as Spider-Man.

Do you know who that was? Crusher Hogan. Crusher Hogan. Now, I don't know why they decided not to go with the name Crusher Hogan. instead of Bonesaw McGraw, which is a new name for the character. I do know that Randy Savage notoriously had a very long-running grudge with Hulk Hogan, and maybe that had something to do with it, that he didn't want to play a character with the last name Hogan.

That would make sense. He is that type that would do that, yes. Well, not if you listen to Hulk Hogan. He said they were best friends right up until his death. Yeah. Or didn't Hoke Hogan also say that, The ghost of, no, it was the ghost of Roddy Piper came and visited him. So you left him a voicemail.

Left him a voicemail, that's right, yeah. Okay. That's true. That's true. But we'll, we will, we'll move on. You really should do it. I know it's not comic book related. Maybe we'll have to bring back wrestling doesn't make sense to do an episode where we just

talk about all the bullshit stuff, Polko. The mini lies of Polkogen. Yeah, I would be, I join you on that. I join you on that. So going back to macho man Randy Savage as Bonesaw McGraw, we all saw Sam Ramy Spider-Man. I will tell you, this scene doesn't age terribly well because Peter Parker makes a gay joke at that macho man. But what were your thoughts on Bonesaw-Magra? It's Ronnie Savage.

It basically is, yeah. There's not much difference between Bonesaw-Magra and Randy. Savage. He's got you for three minutes of playtime. He wouldn't want three minutes of playtime around he salvage. Oh, boy. By the way, I'm looking at that. That steel cage is an interesting

contract. I didn't notice that before. That's Rebar. Yeah, it comes down really weird as well. Like, it kind of, the walls lowered down from the ceiling. Weird. Yeah. All right. Well, any comments that you would like to make about macho man, Randy Savage's bones, Saw McGraw, aside from just that he was macho man.

If so, we could just move on. When it Savage died, 2004? Yeah, shortly after. Right, because if you look at that picture right there, I know it's a picture. It's a freeze frame that doesn't, you know, a lot of weight. He looks really sick. You're talking about them veins bursting out, brother? Look at his sad eyes.

He's not having a good thing. He's just like, help, please, please. Let's not make fun of Machu Man Randy Savage on the day that Hulk Hogan died. I feel like it's what he would not want. Today, Corey, isn't the day that Hulk Hogan died. This is a month later. Please. All right.

Well, let's move forward for Machu Man, Andy Savage. Next on the list. Dave Batista as Drax the Destroyer from the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Avengers Infinity War, in-game, Thor, Love and Thunder. They had like a Christmas special as well. So this is our first instance of a named character that was unique, that was not unique for the movie. That was actually a, you know, given.

So we talked about James Gunn and how he handles characters in the Superman episode we just did. We could go. What were your thoughts on Dave Patista as Drax the Destroyer? This one, so when I went into Guardians, first of all, like I've said before, I didn't know about the Guardians, so I didn't have like huge hopes for it. So I was pleasantly surprised whenever it turns that I fucking loved that film. But much to that point and to the point we made earlier, when I heard Batista was in it, I thought, okay, I don't have high hopes for this because I've seen Bates. Beastie's is a great raster, a lot of charisma. I don't know how that's going to translate it to Draxie Destroyer

other than just being a big guy that beats people up. And he, much like the whole film, he really surprised me with how good he was. Because he played a character. He's acting. This is what surprised me. I didn't think he had the reins to play. It sounds weird to say.

I didn't think yet the reins. to play a barely, you know, really straightforward, literal idiot who's got loads of muscles, you know, but like it really did surprise me. Like he was, a lot of people, when that film came out, I remember a lot of people going, and he was the highlight. His character was the highlight, and he played it so well. That was, that was a real surprise to me. I really enjoyed the first time.

I as the series went on I liked it less because I think that the character of Dax in the first film is not the same as the character of Dax in the third film for me I'm sure we'll do an episode

about this at some point but regardless I thought everybody said in a great great job as tracks yeah I think the surprising thing as well was how funny he was in the role yeah you know Drax is sort of taking things too literally and the

misunderstandings that it would cause and stuff like that like especially in the the first Guardians movie that's where it really kind of worked the best and like you say like I don't think he was ever bad in the role like the role kind of It wasn't entertaining, but there was a slight sense of diminishing returns as it went on, and like, we kind of, you know, became familiar with the joke and everything. Not just that, I think, that, like, if you look at the first film, the way he plays, it's so deadpan, the literal, everything is so literal that it's really funny. But, like, by the third film, the joke is just that idiot. he's not being literal anymore he's just a fucking idiot

well that's not to see him joke that's not to see him kind of you know like why is he get dumber after like whatever he was so literal and like intelligent because of how literal he was

you know but that's that's being nitpicking I think so uh so Drax the Destroyer in the gun movies was sort of an amalgamation of the present day Drax of the Destroyer and the classic one from the 70s and 80s, who was kind of an idiot in the 780s mixed with the more of the

look and fighting style of the modern day one. Modern day Drax was obviously much more intelligent, much more brutal, much more violent. That's the knife thing. The whole knife thing came about because the character from the 70s 80s had like, you could shoot like cosmic beams and shit. Of course, they kind of did away with that during the Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, era of Marvel Cosmic. But anyway, fun fact about here,

this panel down here at the bottom is from a Drax to Destroyer mini-series that was written by fellow professional wrestler CM Punk. So we got a little wrestling into wrestling into comics there. Have you read it? No, I heard it was god-awful, though.

We can checkmark comic book writer from the career opportunities for Mr. Punk. Because it was just, it was like the premise was like intergalactic professional wrestling because it's all he knows apparently. So are you guys ready to move on to our next name? Yes. All right.

So a lot of people would say that Dave Batista was one of the better professional wrestlers turned actors because he's been in other films and other various degrees of, you know, seriousness or not. I think he's probably made the cleanest transition in an actor, not just falling into playing the same character. multiple things like another person that's on the list. But up next, Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, is Black Adam. A movie that did so

poorly, it caused the DC Cinematic Universe to completely reboot. John, have you seen it? Yes, I think John has. I have. I really want to see it because everybody talks about how shit it is. I'm like, I really want to see. I just how shit it is. It is.

It is absolute dog shit. But is it? funny thing is go ahead is it dog shit enough where like it's so bad it's good or is it dog shit

where you're like I've just wasted three hours of my life I think it's going in the latter it's definitely the latter yeah the funny thing about it

is like the rock was circling the role of Black Adam for years and the movie was in development for years

like a decade and the way he he hyped it up so much is like oh this is going to change everything. This is going to be the best comic movie ever.

And like after all that hype, then it just completely shits the bed. Well, I can tell you. That's got a bruised rock ego. Well, I mean, it definitely, it hurt him so bad. He went back to professional wrestling. If Black Adam hadn't fell apart.

Yeah, if Black Adam hadn't shat the bed so severely, I don't think we would have gotten the rock at WrestleMania in the Royal Rumble, you know, for the bloodline, Cody Rhodes storyline, which maybe would have made it a smoother storyline in general. So I don't know. But regardless, the problem that the Rock had with Black Adam is I think he saw a look and he saw a name and he was like, that's the character I'm going to play.

I'm not going to play any other character. Oh yeah, but let me tell you who this character is. I don't want to hear any details about it. We're just going to make a movie. because Black Adam is a guy who is like a pharaoh and ruled an entire nation like a dictator. Like there's nothing about this character that you would go, this is the main character of a story. This is who audiences are going to get behind. And they definitely tried to play with the idea that he was an anti-hero.

But yeah, it just, it doesn't, it doesn't work. I mean, Black Adam is a villain for Shazam. You know, it's not like Lex Luthor or Joker or a major hero villain. It's Shazam's main enemy. And that wasn't, and like the Rock's demands about the movie also got weirder. Like, he didn't want the character to have any interaction with the Zachary Quinto. It wasn't Zachary Quinto. Regardless, he didn't want anything to do with the Shazam movies at all,

even though, like, that's where his character came from. from and yeah he just basically tried to strongarm the whole thing and it fell apart after 10 years of development and it probably irreparably damaged the rock's acting career for sure i think so it's an ugly mark yeah i think that's why uh he's got coming up like some more serious movies now where he's not quite leaning into the rock persona and playing basically a slight variation on himself, which he's basically been doing for the last 10 years or so. So, yeah, I don't know, maybe it's going to turn out the better for his career

that it flopped as bad as it did, and if he can, like, you know, show the world that he can act. But then again, maybe he can't show. the world he can act maybe maybe that that was it yeah maybe he's just the modern day version of like a Stephen Seagall or John Claude van dam he's just going to be the same movie over and over again

and we just have to be fine with it you know you know I'm gonna disagree with that fellas he was great in the tooth hurry all right well have we have we talked enough shit about the rock and black Adam hmm I guess but probably not really but we should move on at them Okay. All right. Up next.

John Sina as the peacemaker in the suicide squad, his cameo and Superman and the HBO Mac series, Peacemaker, which is going to be having a second season as well. So this was a, I won't lie, this was a, this was a choice in so many different ways. Peacemaker before John Sina was a character that was more well known for being the inspiration for the comedian and watchman than he was as a character on his own. It has definitely seen a lot of

use recently because of the success of John Cena and the role. But, yeah, we have John Cena's peacemaker. Go with it. I haven't seen that. I really liked it. I think it's not a character

that I'm super familiar with or even familiar with at all, really, beyond the movie. the TV series but I think he's been really entertaining in the role

and it's like a really distinct role as well like the kind of you know like hardcore mercenary who's kind of oblivious but you know

he's got no problem going around murdering people and stuff to at the whatever he needs to achieve. So, yeah, and, like, I guess there's the irony as well, like, in the name Peacemaker when he's going around killing people. Yep. John Thina has been great in it.

He's the, yeah, very charismatic. And, like, especially in the Peacemaker TV show, he's got a good cast around him as well, kind of bounce off of. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Peacemaker is. kind of the DC version of Punisher, or was the Charlton Comics version of Punisher, before they were acquired in the 80s by DC, but still. It also gave people an opportunity to see a very different side of John Sina,

because for years the John Sina character was associated with, you know, smiling good guy, make a wish, you know, just all around, polite, good-natured human being, and he's playing a foul-mouthed character who is incredibly violent and toxic and all sorts of fun stuff. So like you said, obviously a home run for John Cena. Definitely, and it's a character he obviously loves to play. I remember the promotional stuff for the Suicide Squad movie, and he turned up on one of the late night shows in costume

while everybody else in the movie were not. So, ready to jump on to our next person? Yeah, yeah. Kevin Nash has the Super Shredder from Team. Teenage Mutanty Turtles, too, the Secret of the U's. Classic character. So, a lot of people aren't aware of this for the most part, unless you're kind of more into comics than not.

Teen Teen Teen Teen Ninja Turtles did start off as a comic, therefore, this counts. Mm-hmm. The role, Kevin was not originally cast for this role. The original actor wasn't able to do it for whatever reason. And then he kind of just got brought in because of, you know, being a big, a big giant muscular man. Yeah. Because this was during his era as Master Blaster in WCW.

So if you ever see pictures of him without the Super Shredder helmet on, you'll see his weird mohawk. Just F way, is Kevin Ash could be on this test twice? Yes, he is. Cool. Just double-checking. yeah um yeah i i agree with that and that if you didn't know if you weren't in the rest of bubble knew that that was kevin nash when you watch the film you wouldn't you'd have no idea there's i mean they're really sorry it didn't really stretch his acting ability as well

like he didn't have any lines or anything he was just sort of roaring and smashing up uh like, appear, columns and stuff. Yeah, that's the one. And yeah, so, you know.

It ends up killing himself? I think that was, that was in his wheelhouse, I guess. Yeah. Well, not the killing himself, but the rest of it,

sure. Yeah. I was really disappointed there as a kid because I had the super shredder action figure and it was smaller than the regular

fredder action figure. Yeah, was that, no, did it work the same? way for in your country where you had to like send labels off with like shipping to get it mailed to you don't think so we definitely didn't do that yeah yeah in in america you had to like mail in proof of purchases for like chef boy r d and like shipping and then like if they would mail it to they

would mail it to you for a period of time it's the only way you could like have the super shredder figure why is this specifically super shredder or like yeah just super shredder no i I'd be really funny if that's how commerce worked in America. You had to prove that you ate enough Chef Boyardee to buy anything. I really need a new TV. Well, did you eat enough ravioli? No. How much is enough?

I'm sure that's happened over here before with other stuff, but I remember it happening with something as high profile as like a teenage Mid-Nitia Turtle action figure. You know? I think they know enough, but they're like, if we sell this in shops, people will buy this. It's the turtles. It's the 90s.

I think we'll be okay. Maybe they were just, maybe they're like, yeah, but we really need people to buy Shepwayr. Well, yeah, because that's the audience they need. We got to get the kids, man. Adults are buying pasta, no problem. But kids just don't seem to dig it. What could we do? I know.

Kevin Nash. All right. Well, next up. Kevin Nash. This is him as the Russian from 2004's, the Punisher. So, obviously. It's a better chance to show off his acting shops. Yes, and also famous for...

I think John and I were about to make the same point. Go for it, John. He doesn't really speak in the movie, does he? I don't think he does. Does it need to? The character is supposed to be a simpleton. Yeah. So the point I was going to make is he doesn't get to act. He gets to react to real because, very famously, the prop guy,

on the set, forgot to replace the real knife with a fake one. And he legit got stabbed in the chest by Thomas Jane. Yes, that's my favorite piece of trivia in the world, is that whenever they shot that scene, they actually really, because if you watch it, it's incredible, because they really stab Kevin Nash, like, quite close to, like, pretty important. Yeah, major significant parts of his body. And he just fucking doesn't react at all,

but beats the shit of the Punisher. And I'm like, wow. Now that's acting. That guy committed to the bit. I couldn't believe it. It's stunning to watch. And then afterwards, they're like, maybe she goes to the hospital. You know?

It is, it's, it's very strange. Because they had the two knives on set. They had the prop knife and they had the real knife. And they just misplaced one of them over the other one. Mm-hmm. You should be a bit more on the ball with that kind of thing, you know. It's a great story. Fortunately, that thing doesn't happen anymore these days.

Yeah, right. I was going to say Kevin Nash is also a very, uh, gives a very fun storyteller. So if you ever get an opportunity to listen to him talk about things like this, it is a, it's always enjoyable. Um,

I agree. Also very famously, the reason he, right before this movie, he had that, the, the lovely long locks, but obviously he has short hair here.

Uh, and I remember they worked that into an angle on raw where he lost a hair versus hair match against, uh, Chris Jericho. So, smart. See that?

Yeah, rather than getting shaved bald, though, he just gave him a flash, fashionable little, like, flat top. But it looks good, though. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm a big fan of Kevin Nash, so I dig it. Yeah. See, this, he can play... Look at his reins, right? He can play Super Shriar and the Punisher, like, oh, not the Punisher, the Russian, like two completely different characters. Look at that.

Indeed. All right. Moving on. Give him the Oscar. Yeah, let him face Oscar. Oh, my God. Can you imagine Aska is the Russia? The Russian, the short Japanese woman with multicolored hair.

All right, up next. Triple H as Jarko Grimwood from Blade Trinity. I was really, really hoping it would be Kevin Ash and like some third thing I hadn't heard of him in. I mean, it's a fellow member of the clique, so it's close enough, I suppose. This is the first example of we did not. there was not a comic book equivalent to this character. Jarko Grimwood was an invention for Blade Trinity, so sadly there's nothing we can compare him to.

I remember when I was a younger man, and I watched this. I really liked the Blade Trinity. And then I watched it like not that long ago, maybe like a couple of months ago, or like the end of last year as an adult with a good close to 20 years, difference. And then it turns out what I liked about Blade Trinity is Ryan Reynolds.

That's what I liked. And at the time I was like, wow, Triple H is not film? I like Triple H. And with hindsight, you go back and watch it now and you go, maybe not Triple H's best forte. And part of that, I think might be like script stuff. Like, I don't know what the fuck his character was supposed to be. I'm not going to lay all of the blame on Triple H and say he's a terrible actor. He wasn't great, but also I think his character was ill-defined, you know. Yeah, he had like the little vampire dog, which is kind of a weird choice. And you can see in the picture day, he's got like, sort of metal fangs as well. Yeah, it's metal teeth. So how does that work? Yeah. Well, so some trivia, some trivia about him.

Apparently, the director was so impressed with his performance as Jericho Graham Wood. The role was going to be much smaller, but they kept adding stuff to the script to give Triple H more stuff to do because he just liked him so much. I bet that was all the director had nothing to do with Triple H. Rep.H. Rep.H. That with the director's wife and then, you know. Grinding on the boasts daughter. And then he took over Hollywood.

Yeah, he took over. All right, we're ready to move on from Jarko Grimwood. Are we done talking about that already? What else is there to say? He had metal teeth and there was a vampire dog. He did some wrestling mares. There you go. He did do some wrestling.

He did play with the pedigree. Yeah. Well, come on. You surprised? No. Triple E. All right. We got next.

Back to the World Teenage Mutters and Turtles. We have Seamus as Rock Steady from Teenage Reuters of Turtles out of the shadow. I really like this. No, you're just saying that because it's a fellow countryman. Well, yes, but I said that about Kevin Nash as well, so he's not... Very famously Irish Kevin Nash. Yes, that's what they used to call him. Irish Kevin Nash, yes.

That's what they call him. I was surprised at this, too. I didn't think Chimis would do that well, but I thought it was really fun. Yeah, no, it was fun. Yeah, he was. Bebop and Rock Steady are just. just fun characters in general. I mean, they're just two big doofuses, you know.

Yeah. You can tell he had fun doing it, so, yeah. It felt like it, yeah. He fit Rocksteady pretty well, but like the guy who played bebop, Gary Anthony Williams, was like, he felt like a really weird choice because he was a good, like, 20 years older than,

Seamus. And famous. I 100% agree. This is what I felt like when I watched that because Shamis is like a wrestler he's a big tough guy you can totally believe he's playing a big

rhino guy. Then the guy playing people off be like a comedian Yeah, and old I don't know what he mean But like An old fat comedian Yeah

Not in shape to be like Like he didn't I was like that's such a weird pick She almost like I can understand That's a big tough heavy This guy Just I felt really out of place

Well I always thought Well see I thought he was going to play, when they first, I saw that at the time, this was when Seamus was walking around with the Mohawk and he had a septum pierced. I thought he was going to be Bebop because Bebob had a mohawk with a nose piercing. So I was really, I was really surprised. No, no, no, no, he's going to be the rhino instead. I went, oh, my God.

Yeah, so who the fuck's going to play the other guy? Some dude. And somebody who is definitely not I cast properly, I would say. All right. Well, any, there's some odd wrestling connections with this. Teenage Ninja Turtles movie as well. Stephen Amel, who was Casey Jones in that,

very famously wrestled for the WBE in a match before a SummerSlam, I believe, and also wrestled at the first All-In. So there's your wrestling connection there. And somebody else was involved in the world of superhero. I think the guy who was Leonardo was Aquaman in Smallville,

and was also, I think, in the running, or it was rumored to be James Gunn's Batman. Ah. Yeah, so you go. All right, we were ready to move past Seamus's Rocksteady. I think so. Yeah. Tyler Main is Sabretooth.

This is, I can comfortably tell you, we have X-Men and, of course, Deadpool and Wolverine, a good 20 years apart. I can comfortably tell you, I have never seen Tyler Main as a professional wrestler. I have no idea where he worked. I don't know. know what his gimmick was. I have no idea if he was any good in the ring. But he is a wrestler

who played Sabretooth, and therefore he is on the list. I have never, part of him was a wrestler. I think it wasn't he in WCW in the 90s? I mean, maybe not. I don't know. I mean, they were putting anybody on Saturday night back in the day, so, geez, you mean Shark Boy, AJ Styles. Uh, professional wrestling career. He wrestled in South Africa. He was in New Japan as Gully Gaspar. There you go. Wow, that's one of the worst wrestling names I've ever heard.

In 1993, he was in WCW under the name Big Sky and teamed with Vinnie Vegas, aka Kevin Nash. There's your connection. There you go. 193, hot damn. Yep, he wrestled. He tagged team with Vinny Vegas and his career ended. with Herb Abrams Universal Wrestling Federation.

So there go, you're retired in 96. Oof. Well, you get a good run. Yep. Yeah. There you go. So, Sabretooth was such a non-character in both of these movies. It's kind of shameful, considering how important Sabretooth is to Wolverine in general.

Yeah. They definitely did more with a character in the Wolverine Origins movie, which is unfortunate because that's also, like, the worst of the Wolverine movies. yeah different actors wow yeah leave schreiber you're just a shame it's just a shame hopefully with the whole mc u thing sabertooth gets his day because it is a i would like he's truly a terrifying character and i would love to see it but is i mean that's the thing right if you look at both of those pictures you look at the the drawing on the right that guy this fucking scary as hell right big fucking god then you look at the guy in the left

You're like, that's a pro wrestler. Look at his, look at his, look at his long eye on him. You know what you mean? Do a scurry face. You know, like that's the guy that's like, you could, you could tell why that guy didn't get that far in pro wrestling. Do you what you mean? And that's not a knock on that guy, but I'm like, he's, he's one of those guys that didn't pick it up as quick as some other people did. He is lacking an aura for sure.

But, I mean, you know, he toured New Japan and all Japan. I haven't, so. Well, then I guess he's going to get a. job in AW next. Sure will. All right. Let's move on to Jeep Swinson as Bain in Batman and Robin 1997.

Are you guys familiar with Jeep Swinson as a professional wrestler? Nope. Again, I don't think I've seen any matches, but I'm pretty sure he is in WCW in the mid-90s. He was in WCCW. He was in world class.

I was going through a period of time is watching a lot of world-class championship wrestling and uh jeep swinson definitely spent some time there uh so i still man you look up his wikipedia page i really should have put it in the slideshow the photo they chose to put his wikipedia page is him and his wife and daughter and it looks so unnerving um yeah so yeah jeep swinson wrestled in world class championship wrestling managed by Gary Hart. Again, who wasn't? showed up in 1996 for uncensored.

He was, oh, dear God. He was a member of the Alliance to End Hulkomania in 1996. He was named the Final Solution. But following complaints from Jewish... But following complaints from Jewish organizations to Turner, his character was renamed the Ultimate Solution. WCW claim they were unaware that the finest solution was the name Adolf Hitler gave his plan to destroy the Jews and yeah There you go

There you go and that surprised me that somebody in America didn't know History from not that long ago Especially in Ted Turner's WCW Oh dear, but yeah, no we've we've just we touched on Bain when we talked about the 90s Batman movies this character was absolutely nothing like the comic portrayal he was just a big mute goon and not much more to say be fair though he does look like he fits that role better than the saber-tooth guy yeah yeah i mean jeep swenson was a big jack dude that's you can't take that from him no he did take about steroids you could take a lot of creepy pictures of him and his wife and daughter you really happy this picture up dude oh it's it's something you got to look it up

it is it's so unnerving it looks like a botanol waiting to happen I don't know if I want to look You might get put on a list All right, next up We're going to switch from movies to television In Superboy Season 3, Episode 10 in 1990 The Total Package, Lex Lugar, as an evil version of Superboy.

As you can tell, they paid, they spared no expense to make Lex Lugar look like Clark Kent, aka Superboy, in that they absolutely did nothing to detract from his giant gold mullet But this is WCW era Lex probably still horsemen before he definitely made the jump to the WBF and the World Bodybuilding Federation. But yeah, in this episode of Superboy, the titular character has a machine stuck to him that's causing him to have these nightmare visions. And in one of them, he is confronted by an evil version of himself that is played by Lex Lugar.

You guys have definitely listened to some like Lex Luger promos, right? Yes. Yeah. That is his acting range. As you can, I imagine you could hear him say such great lines as, it's time for a new superboy to take over. And it's just this image that you see on the left. What I like with that is, they're like, he's the evil superboy.

And the way that they portray evil is with a mullet. That's evil. Yep. They hired someone who looks absolutely nothing like him. But I think this is this era of WCW where they were getting on like the Turner like the Turner television shows because I think there was an episode of Matlock

that Dusty Rhodes was on as well. So anyway, there you go. There's your there's your 1990s WCW history. Are you guys ready to move on past Lex Lugarer's Superboy? I didn't even know there was a Superboy TV show. There was. Yeah, I can see the exact same thing.

Ran it ran I think like five, six seasons. It was on for a while. there you go no idea I know there was Superman no was it Clark and Lois uh Lewis Clark the adventures

yeah yeah that's the one that was after this ended we had we had that over here we didn't have Superboy it's um it's it's you know late 80s early 90s the low budget you can definitely tell it looks it looked

it's somewhere between Lois and Clark and the Roger Corman Fantastic Four that we just watch it's it's it's firmly somewhere in between that. Certainly looks like it. All right.

Up next. Kane as Titan from 2007 Smallville Season 6, episode 17. The character Titan was a member of Darkside's Apocalypse Army.

In Smallville, he was a criminal that was locked away in the phantom zone that escaped. And what kind of storyline do you guys write for, if you know that your guest actor for the week's episode is going to be a professional wrestler. Resty much. Yes.

This Kryptonian villain Titan got out of the Phantom Zone. And one of the first things he does is he goes to a underground fight ring tournament that is streamed on the internet. In 2007? In 2007, yes. Streaming was still kind of in its infancy. And we were still figuring out what you can do with it. Smallville said, hey, underground bumfights.

Let's go. And the world. They certainly did. So you guys have seen, like, you know, Kane's acting, which is about as good as his political views. But, yeah. I mean, he's essentially just playing the Kane character here. Yeah, with a picture like that on the left, we're like, I think I know the extent of

his acting. Yeah, I mean, he didn't even bother to take out his, like, cane contact lens for the character, you know? Like, he's just being Kane. Yeah, it seems like it. I was half convinced until I was like really in the weeds on this one that they just created this character for him.

And that was just, it's just going to be Kane. But no, no, it is that actually, there is actually a DC character named Titan. There you go. It just doesn't look or act at all like this. Yeah. The origin is completely different. But they share a name.

It looks like he's playing the exact same character as he did. in Ceno Evil. I had to check so many times to make sure it was not a screencap from Ceno Evil. But because he's an alien, he's got black blood. So that's how we know it's a different thing. That's fair enough. There you go. Yeah.

Good enough for me. All right. Well, up next. Cody Rhodes is Derek Sampson. From the television show Arrow. His appearances started in 2016. He was in two episodes. of season five and five episodes of season seven.

The character Derek Samson was created for Cody. He had become friends with Stephen Amel, who was the main actor in Arrow and was a big decision maker for the show. And basically, they created a character and put him in it. The character, Derek Samson, was a drug dealer who fell into a chemical vat full of his own supply of drug called Stardust. and it basically gave him superhuman strength and an inability to feel pain

and that's why he's so fucked up looking. I like if you were a drug dealer and you fell into a big vat of heroin I don't think you were like oh no I've got super speed but see he fell into a vat called Stardust right there's still a drug that gets fucked up right

different drug is it what does the drug do it makes you not feel pain you right why would you sell that on the fucking why weren't other people like that well i mean i think other people fell into a vat i think it was like very implied that his character should have died from the the accident it was very much they gave him the joker origin which is uh i'm going to tell you

it was par for the course for arrow i'm a big fan of green arrow and the show arrow has as much to do with Green Arrow as the show Superboy did with Green Arrow. Very little. Very, very little. So, yeah, basically Arrow was just Batman because Warner Brothers wouldn't let C.W. make a Batman television show. So they took Green Arrow and they kind of just molded some stuff. Anyway, Cody as Derek Samson, obviously was a character that they liked writing.

He was on several episodes of the show. was a big part of the first half of season seven. And yeah. The first season, season five, I think, was while he was in WWE, and season seven was in the beginning of AEW. I really don't remember him appearing that much in the show. Yeah. Like, I remember him popping up once, but then all the rest of these episodes.

That really speaks a lot about season seven is what this is considering he's in half of it. It's pretty embarrassing. Oh, there you go. You guys ready to move on? Because this is going to be pretty much just the C.W. from now on. The CW became kind of a hub for DC television and a lot of guest appearances by wrestlers on it. So up next, Edge as Adam Smasher from Season 2, episode 1 of the 4th.

flash in 2015. Oh, that's not a flattery picture of Edge. It is, it's, honestly, the other pictures he was either wearing a mask that completely removed the fact that it was Edge or, um, it was like he was shrouded in shadows. I will tell you though, when I first saw a picture. He certainly looks better here than he does current day. When I first saw the picture, I thought that that was Damien's hand out. I could see it.

Really look at him. I could definitely see it. What the fuck? So Adam Smasher in the comics is a legacy hero who has the ability to grow very big. And in the flash show, Adam Smasher was a criminal from another Earth who got stuck on the planet and was promised that if he could kill the flash, they would return him home. ultimately though he ended up dying from exposure to radiation that gave him his abilities uh john you watch the flash do you have any of your memories of adam the edge copeland as adam smasher uh no i don't really remember this um

i don't remember him having no neck as well I will tell you the special, keep in mind, this is a television show. So the effects of which they made him look really big are something. So if you have the time, Dylan, if you want to bring up another window, just look up Adam Smasher from the Flash show and you'll see some images that are fun looking. Good. All right. Well, if that's all we have for the rated our superstar.

We'll move on. Up next, Eve Torres as Maxima from season one. Episode 19 of Supergirl in 2016. The character Maxima was the queen of an alien planet that came to Earth for the sole purpose of trying to marry Superman so that they could have genetically superior babies. In the super, she ended up becoming a hero at some point and becoming a member of the Justice League. But on the Supergirl television show, after being rebuked by Superman, she decided to partner herself up with the Luther family to get revenge. John, did you watch Supergirl? I did, but again, I have no recollection of this whatsoever.

I will tell you, I have very little recollection of Eve Torres' time as a wrestler, so... She's from an era of wrestling I was not really paying attention in, I'm guessing. But, you know, she certainly looks the part. It does, to be fair. She really does. All right. Well, we'll move forward then. I don't know in deck about that character. Well, we mentioned him at the top.

We got Goldberg as Big Sur from season. That just really quickly. I don't want to be that guy. I just really, really want to quickly draw some attention to the picture on the right. And very clearly and concisely say, oh, what the fuck. And then I'm happy to just, I mean, if anybody can answer that question, feel free. But I really do want to double dart and say what the actual fuck is that. And then that'll probably be me for the rest of this bit, I would imagine.

All right. Well, John, so anyway, Goldberg played the character Big Sur in The Flash, season four, episodes 11 and 12. John, do you have any knowledge of Big Sur? no okay you don't remember that weird motherfucker I wish I did look at the fucking state of him look at his big old teeth all right well I

you do this a purpose like did you find that character that you realize it was played by Bill Goldberg and you're like I can make an episode about this still is gonna have a great time because I feel like every time we do a slideshow you find like the fucking freakiest weird as the ass person.

I'm like, is this the only reason you made this side show to get me to go, what the fuck is this? All right, well, okay, here's a couple of things. Where do you want me to start? Do you want me to start with the explanation of this? Or do you want me to talk about Bill Goldberg's take on the character?

Or how do you want me to approach this? What is it? All right. Well, Dylan, we actually talked about Big Sur two episodes ago in our episode about Keith Giffin. this is a big sir is a former member of justice leak and arctica or the injustice gay we did talking about that we certainly did big sir is a flash villain who um has enhanced

strength and power armor and is uh functionally mentally handicapped thus the state of him as you stated uh no yes does that make me look bad per se that or do I look like a genius for accurately predicting that without knowing anything about this character? Does that say a lot about the way that they drew that character? Where they're like, we need them to be mentally challenged. And the artist was like, no problem. So, watch this. So, um, so anyway, Big Sur was created in October of 1984 by Carrie Bates and Carmine Infantino. Um, he is a, like I said, a flashed. villain and

I guess I'll get right down to it. He was, his real name is Dufus P. Ratchet. So Goldberg canonically played a character whose name is Dufus. We'll just put that out there. Can I just real real quick, can I just say

if you had a kid and you find out that the kid was had mental difficulties called your kid doofus. Like, you're a bad parent, right? That's, that's not cool at all.

So I'm going to read you the character bio real quick, because it's short. Ratchet was born with a malformed brain gland that caused him to grow to incredible proportions, but left him mentally handicapped. After the flash villains, the rogues, captured him and gave him high-tech armor created by the monitor, he becomes big sir and comes into conflict with the... the flash. After being defeated, he is brought to Gorilla City and has his mind repaired. Big Sur's mind later inexplicably returns to its previous state, and he joins the Injustice League led by major disaster. The league later briefly became the Justice League Antarctica

before their base is destroyed in a battle with flesh-eating penguins. Afterwards, he's fired by Maxwell Lord, but given financial compensation. Big Sur later joins the suicide squad and return for a pardon, along with most of his Injustice League friends. They're sent to battle a mad scientist during which Big Sur is killed by a genetically engineered creature resembling a child. He is later resurrected following the new 52 and the DC rebirth relaunches. So that's the character bio. And I will tell you that he could fly because attached to his arm is a big flail that he would just swing really hard and then throw into the air and let the weight of the flail carry him off into the distance. Fair enough.

Like Thor's Hammer. Like Thor's Hammer. But by a man with a mental handicap. So... He was, yeah, smart as to fly. So Big Sur in the Flash television show was not Dufus P. Ratchet. His name was Dave Ratchet. And in the show, he was a character that was potentially falsely imprisoned or had become a

reformed guy with no hope of parole in which Barry, feeling I guess, pangs because his own father was wrongfully imprisoned, decided to help him escape from jail and start his life over at a monastery. And that's the

that is the big sir character in the flash portrayed by my friend and your friend and our friend and our friend, Mr. William P. Goldberg. Do you think Goldberg was like, listen, man, I don't want to play a character called Dovas. He was complaining about everything.

Yeah. Can you make the face, Bill? No, I'm not going to make the face. Can you please just for the promotional? Is that because you don't want to be insensitive or because you can't make the face? You know? You can see they've like the off the arms on his, uh, prison jumpsuit as well.

I bet you've, like, demanded that. You have to show up the guns, oh, dude. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, um, so that's probably a Bill Goldberg bit, too. It's like, you can't see my arms. Rip the, the steves off. Oh, dear.

So, uh, so, yes, that was our list of actors who have, uh, been in a superhero movie or television show as a villain, as a hero, or just as a fellow wrestler or vampire. So, real quick, any surprises there, aside from, I didn't know this was a show that existed. Yeah, there's definitely something to surprise me on that list. Yeah. The fucking last guy. Yeah, I might have saved him for last for a reason. It wasn't just canonical.

But in addition to that, Has there been a professional wrestler that you would like to see play in a superhero movie or television show? Oh, that's interesting. Hmm. Many. Hmm. I'm sure Roman Reins is going to play somebody soon, right? I know he's been tied to the Street Fighter movie.

Yes, well, Cody Rose is in that, too. Yeah, he's been tied to that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Gile, which is bananas. Who is Roman going to be? Akuma. Oh, you was going to be Akuma. Yeah. That's interesting. Very, very interesting.

I don't have high hopes, considering those are two very important characters being played by two professional wrestlers. I mean, I could see that. The good thing about Cody Rose being Gile is that Gile is this very all-American, could be more patriotic kind of guy. Cody Roots is a fucking America flag tattooed in his neck So I can like I can see that I just gonna drag it down to his arm Yeah and like Gail has like the kind of like

Bushy up parody It wouldn't take too much to put down the top of Cody And he wouldn't look like that He wouldn't look too out of place yeah No that I can see Asakuma is a bit more Right there I think But I'd like to see how they play it

You know But like to see how they play it you know but like you can see roman rannes is like like a like a superhero or super villain at some point yeah i think john any uh any dream casting that you have i don't know off the top of my head this is the kind of thing i think i need to think about yeah fair enough i don't know maybe maybe that's a follow-up like yeah yeah we'll have a follow-up episode we'll we'll we'll talk about like casting wrestlers in in movies and uh such i think we should do yeah we should do that i think we could we could do some good work with that nice all right well um speaking of uh saga

dream castes or dream casting uh dylan are you still streaming yes um i stream whenever i don't have a set i stream so i do my radio show on monday nights night's nine o'clock to 11 o'clock. You can listen to it on Bynastigilradio.com. The link is in the description. I also, whenever I get a chance, I'm not working, there's no set schedule, but I will stream stuff on Twitch at Spooky LaRue.

That's my username. I don't do video games anymore. They can't be bothered. I just do a lot of art streams and animations. So you want to see me draw pictures of mice and other stuff. You have to tune in to the show to find out there's other stuff. You should go and watch that if you like that kind of thing.

And I would understand if you didn't, because evidently people don't seem to like that kind of thing. But it's just something I do on the side. All right, John, I think we got... I don't know if you had any updates to your movie count, but where can people find your opinions on movies? Um, there's definitely not been any update on the movie count, but... Wake John, what are you doing?

Uh, you know, I've been busy. I know. Doing stuff. Uh, you can find my movie reviews, though, on Letterbox at Big John Bowsky, all one word. All right. And I have my other show, Largill Cup. It's spoken word, stream of consciousness. We just go for a little under 30 minutes.

and see what happens. But finding out, you know, speaking of things that we're going to see what happens, we're going to see what happens next week where we talk about something entirely different. So, until then, we'll see you guys later. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. It's ghost.

Spooky.