The entertainment industry is consistently looking for new talent to capture the audience's attention. For years, legends from the wrestling world have been making their way to Hollywood in the hope of cinematic success. More recent talents like Sasha Banks have made the leap, with huge shows like The Mandalorian.
While it's always obvious when a wrestler has made the leap to live-action, there are plenty of animated and video game roles that these famous fighters have voiced, that people might not realize. Sure there's a number of WWE Studio movies that feature the voices or acting ability of these superstars, but there's also a whole range of other projects which star these athletes.
Ensemble - Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014)
Featuring an ensemble of WWE talent, the Scooby-Doo franchise boasted quite the bizarre crossover, when Scooby and the mystery gang actually took part in an adventure starring WWE superstars. The direct to DVD film was certainly a hit amongst younger audiences.
With the iconic WWE World Heavyweight Title being stolen, the mission is on to solve the riddle as to who the thief really is. With the backdrop of this movie being WrestleMania itself, stars like Kane, John Cena, and AL Lee all voiced themselves for the project.
The Rock - Moana (2016)
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has had the most success when it comes to making the move from wrestling to acting. While there are a few other contenders including Dave Bautista and John Cena, The Rock does have an animated classic in his filmography.
The award-winning Disney movie, Moana, sees Johnson voice the egotistical demi-god Maui. Not only does he show off his wide range of voice acting abilities, but he also gets to perform his own iconic song: "You're Welcome!" Fans are eager to see him return for the Disney+ TV show.
Samoa Joe - Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (2022)
The upcoming Suicide Squad game may be grabbing headlines thanks to its brave move to have players kill the Justice League, but the voice cast behind these loveable rogues shouldn't be ignored. Just as King Shark will be making his big-screen debut, he will also feature on the video game roster.
The rich tones of this villain are provided by Samoa Joe in a perfect piece of casting. Players will be able to take on the role of the former TNA World Champion's King Shark, as they try to be one of the few members of this dangerous squad that will actually survive the ordeal.
John Cena - Ferdinand (2017)
John Cena has been making his own mark on Hollywood after a string of successes including Bumblebee and Blockers. Cena has one of the most recognizable voices in the industry, but before he made it big in live-action he had a starring role in an animated feature.
Those who saw it know that Ferdinand is one of the most underrated animated movies of the last decade. Despite rave reviews and a positive audience reaction, the movie was overlooked by many after its release and hasn't been revisited much since. Regardless, Cena puts in a good performance as the film's lead character.
Sheamus - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows (2016)
There's plenty of debate surrounding which is the superior version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the original live-action feature or Michael Bay's rebooted attempt. One thing that Bay did do for the sequel film is bring Bebop and Rocksteady into the mix.
In an interesting casting choice, Out Of The Shadows put the Celtic Warrior Sheamus into the role of the rhino Rocksteady. Seen on screen briefly before his transformation, Sheamus did mostly voice over work for this CGI beast.
Ensemble - Surf's Up Two: WaveMania (2016)
Surfs Up is another forgotten animated hit from the late 2000s. Its sequel, WaveMania garnered even less recognition thanks to the strange decision to pair the penguin surfers with wrestlers from the World Wrestling Entertainment landscape.
Once again, this team-up meant that a variety of WWE stars came into the studio to voice animal takes on their iconic characters. Greats like the Undertaker alongside newer talent such as Paige contributed to this straight to DVD production.
The New Day - Gears 5 DLC (2020) & Lazor Wulf (2019-)
The New Day are some of the current stars that have transcended the world of wrestling into popular culture. Aside from Xavier Woods' YouTube channel UpUpDwnDwn, the trio of champions has also been featured as DLC in Gears 5.
As some of the quirkiest designs in the game, players are having a lot of fun taking on the role of the New Day in this sci-fi world. Big E, the muscle of the group, also voices Canon Wulf in the underrated Adult Swim show, Lazor Wulf. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are set to appear in the next season.
Ensemble - The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! (2015)
One of the other major WWE crossovers in the company's history, its famous stars made the move into animation once more for a team-up with the iconic prehistoric family, The Flintstones. Once more, talent from across the wrestling world came together to voice themselves in this kids' comedy.
Interestingly enough, wrestlers like CM Punk got to practice their acting work, ahead of larger live-action careers down the line. Other stars including the Bella Twins and Daniel Bryan also lent their voices to this bizarre mixture of brands.
Matt Hardy - The 99 (2011-2012)
The 99 is a little known kids animated show from the early 2010s, which never officially aired in the United States thanks to controversy surrounding the project. However, it was aired in the UK and Canada.
Based on Naif Al-Mutawa's comic book of the same name, the character of Awang / Ben Hargreaves was voiced by WWE, TNA, and AEW veteran Matt Hardy. It's currently the last TV acting role in his filmography.
Bret Hart - The Simpsons (1989-)
Fox's The Simpsons has had some pretty strange cameo appearances from celebrities over the years. It's difficult to find a major name in showbiz that hasn't made at least one appearance in the longest-running animated and US scripted TV show of all time.
Bret 'The Hitman' Hart is one of the biggest legends in the wrestling business. It's not that surprising therefore that The Simpsons capitalized on his WWF and WCW popularity by having him star in season 8's "The Old Man And Lisa."