With Stone Cold Steve Austin starring in The Condemned, and The Rock a perennial movie star, it appears the formula that casts wrestlers as leading men is an up-and-coming genre. A look back, however, reveals that body slammers have long found their way onto the big screen.
Hulk Hogan
First film role: Before the Hulkster made it big in the WWF, he made it onto the big screen opposite Sly Stallone in Rocky III. His character, Thunderlips, was introduced by the emcee as a "mountain of molten lust."
Follow-up moves: A series of starring roles beginning with No Holds Barred, for which he was cast to act like a wrestler. (Wait, isn't that what he was doing already?) What's next: He plays Zeus in Little Hercules in 3-D.
Andre the Giant
First film role: This seven-foot Frenchman showed his friendly side as Fezzik in The Princess Bride (1987). Much of his dialogue, rendered nearly inaudible by his sub-baritone voice, rhymed with the line just spoken, giving us such gems as "Anybody want a peanut?" when he was told: "No more rhymes now, I mean it!"
Follow-up moves: A circus giant in Trading Mom, a Sissy Spacek flop released one year after his death in 1993.
What's next: The dramatization of his life, Andre: Heart of the Giant, released late last year, and should come out on DVD soon.
Roddy Piper
First film role: This kilt-wearing heel (that's wrestling parlance for "bad guy") plays the only fertile man left on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the B-movie Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987). In it, he plays Sam Hell, on a mission to rescue the only fertile women left on the planet and - god help us all - breed the future of humanity.
Follow-up moves: A steady stream of leading roles in low-budget action movies, and John Carpenter's cult classic They Live (1988), in which he spoke the immortal line: "I have come to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."
What's next: Piper helps hunt down the devil incarnate in this year's Sin-Jin Smyth.
Jesse (The Body) Ventura
First film role: This wrestler-turned-governor had a small part alongside Arnold (the Governator) Schwarzenegger in Predator back in 1987.
Follow-up moves: Ventura has appeared in films with such respectable A-listers as Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Of course, those films were Demolition Man and Batman & Robin.
What's next: Nothing film-wise, but Ventura once said, "In 2008, we need a pro wrestler in the White House." Someone send a script to the man, fast!