10 Wrestlers Who Appeared In Genre Fare

By Jay Anderson / June 27, 2015

The term "genre" gets thrown around a lot these days in conjunction with film and television properties. And while pretty much everything belongs to one genre or another, in terms of pop culture, "genre" is pretty much used to refer to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror productions at this point. The so-called "niche" genres if you will.

Now consider that the workers of the WWE, and pro wrestling in general, are in a sort of niche genre of their own - Sports Entertainment. With larger than life personalities and physiques, they're perfectly suited to genre fare, which is probably why so many gravitate towards it.

From headlining roles to supporting slots and cameos, pro wrestlers have made numerous appearances in genre films and TV shows over the years, with varying degrees of success. Some flew under the radar. Some were panned for terrible performances. And others surpassed expectations, and became the stuff of film legend.

So let's take a look at ten notable examples of pro wrestlers appearing in genre fare, in comic book movies, sci-fi TV shows, fantasy films and the like. Some of these will be very familiar, some you may have missed completely, but all of them are memorable once you actually view them - just not always for the right reasons...

10. Rob Van Dam - The X-Files

Rob Van Dam didn't exactly have a lot to do in The X-Files season seven episode Fight Club - but he was pretty active in the background of the episode, which centred on the idea that everyone in the world has a double, a doppelganger of sorts, and that when they come together, the results are... explosive, to say the least.

The backdrop for this concept was the world of professional wrestling, which is where Van Dam came in. Van Dam played the unnamed opponent of Tex Cobb's Burt, a down on his luck wrestler looking to score one last shot at the big time (if that sounds an awful lot like the plot of The Wrestler, which came far after this episode from 2000, you're right, but the similarities end there). 

Burt, of course, turned out to have a doppelganger, as did his sometimes girlfriend and good luck charm, Betty - both of whom Burt found himself involved with. Anytime they came together, sparks would fly, literally, leading to explosions and other calamities.

As the series goes, this episode was actually probably its low point, but that's not that fault of Van Dam, who at least gets to list one of the most iconic sci-fi/paranormal shows of all time on his resume.