10 Wrestlers Who Went Back To WWE After Failing To Become An Actor

7. €œRowdy€ Roddy Piper

Prominent works: They Live €œI have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum." Having spent the best part of 15 years wrestling full time since 1973, in the late 80s Piper turned his hand to acting, featuring in a couple of unknowns before acclaimed horror director John Carpenter (The Thing, Halloween) decided to cast Piper as the lead role in his latest action-horror film, They Live in 1988. The film, like most directed by Carpenter has become a cult-classic over the years and Piper's performance as Nada has been well-received for the cool and quirky way he brought the plethora of one-liners- the most famous of which I've quoted above- to life. However, unlike André, Piper decided to push off of the back of his success and would go on to divide his time in the early '90s between the ring and his acting career, featuring as the lead role in a bunch of terrible films. Piper took a 2 year hiatus from WWE in 1992 and would appear to semi-retire from pro-wrestling until he switched to WCW in 1996. To this date, including TV movies, Piper has starred in 43 different films. His latest release came in October of last year and he has another 4 films in the works this year alone. Whilst his pro-wrestling career is hall of fame material, if you remove They Live from the equation, the other 42 of his films (and counting!) leave a lot to be desired. Piper was wise to never fully cut ties with pro-wrestling in the 90s.