10 Times Real Sports Stars Gatecrashed WWE

When real athletes met sports entertainers.

By Elliott Binks /

Sport is something of a taboo word in the world of professional wrestling. Scripted segments and predetermined results make the use of the word sport largely inaccurate, despite the incredible athleticism and conditioning of many a professional wrestler. This incongruence of course led to Vince McMahon coining the phrase Sports Entertainment, though that€™s a phrase that has arguably garnered just as much debate from both fans and critics alike. But no matter where you stand on the sports-entertainment spectrum, it must be said that the world of sports has had a rich association with the world of professional wrestling. Whether through guest appearances, publicity stunts, new-fangled Twitter wars or even full-blown wrestling bouts; for many a decade, sports stars have maintained a close involvement with their less-competitive in-ring counterparts. And while many cameos from non-wrestling personnel often yield cringes amongst fans (Jeremy Piven and Ken Jeong, I€™m looking at you guys in particular), sports stars seem to have the greatest track records€”no pun intended€”when it comes to entertaining in the ring. So rather than ignore these sporting crossovers, this article remembers some of the best, taking a look at ten sports stars that got involved with the WWE.