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The Top 5 WWE Raw Stars That Should Be Action Stars

March 4, 2023 | Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz
WWE Royal Rumble 23 - Rhea Ripley Image Credit: BT Sport, WWE

When pro wrestlers turn to acting they typically do, or at least start out with, action movies. Yes, guys like The Rock and John Cena have managed to branch out into drama and comedy, but for the most part they seem to do action movies. And pro wrestlers doing action movies makes sense since pro wrestling is action oriented. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett), John Hennigan, and the Miz are some of the pro wrestlers who have managed to have decent enough careers in the action movie world over the last decade or so.

With this in mind, I started thinking about who among modern wrestlers should get to be/become action stars. And by that I mean wrestlers who, as far as I can tell, haven’t appeared in any significant way in action movies. So I took a look at the rosters of WWE Raw, Smackdown, and AEW and came up with the Top 5 wrestlers who should be action stars from each of those rosters (I did throw in a few honorable mentions for each list). So that’s what you’ll be seeing over the next little while, starting with Raw, then Smackdown, and then ending with AEW.

And so, without any further what have you, which five WWE Raw stars should be action stars?

Image Credit: WWE

The Top 5 Raw Stars That Should Be Action Stars

Honorable Mentions

Bobby Lashley: As an Army vet and MMA star on top of being a top notch pro wrestler it’s kind of shocking that Lashley hasn’t been in a few action movies by now, either as a full on star or a henchman of some sort. He can’t be the next Marine in The Marine franchise because of his Army service, but why the heck can’t WWE Films do an offshoot kind of deal: Soldier?

Asuka: If you’ve ever seen Asuka’s YouTube channel you know that she has a magnetic personality outside of the ring and a screen presence second to none. I think it would be a hoot to see her in some sort of action comedy where she can kick butt and get laughs. She’d probably never get the chance since English isn’t her main language (she can speak it but she’s obviously more comfortable speaking Japanese) but, man, I bet an Asuka movie would be awesome.

Bianca Belair: One of the best things about Bianca is her bubbly personality. I mean, she’s a great wrestler and can kick ass, but you can’t help but smile when she comes out to the ring swinging her hair and smiling. She’s charismatic as hell. So it would be awesome to see her in an action comedy of some sort.

Image Credit: WWE

5-Finn Balor: Finn Balor seems like the kind of pro wrestler that would make his movie acting debut as the villain in a sequel featuring an already established action star (like Scott Adkins or Michael Jai White). And then, after getting all sorts of notice for his acting performance and fighting abilities Balor would get his own starring vehicle where he’s a cop or ex-soldier who has to take down a group of terrorists or has to fight off a vicious biker gang or something. Balor could also do a sort of action horror movie with his “The Demon” character. Maybe that could be Balor’s second starring vehicle. Regardless, Balor should be an action star tomorrow.

Image Credit: WWE

4- Shelton Benjamin: Several years ago I said Shelton Benjamin should be considered to be the next star of the The Marine franchise after the events of The Marine 6: Close Quarters (check out that article here). And while Benjamin is older than he was back in 2020, he’s still a badass wrestler who can still go (and can probably still take on Brock Lesnar one on one). He can still leap, he can still grapple, and he can probably figure out how to do any and all martial arts he would be called on to do in an action movie. The WWE should still consider him to be the next The Marine, and anyone else out there thinking of making an action movie with a pro wrestler as the star should look into getting Shelton Benjamin on board. I know he would do a great job.

Image Credit: WWE

3- Damian Priest: Damian Priest is another pro wrestler who would probably do a great job as a villain/main villain in a movie featuring an already established star. Priest could easily go toe to toe with a Dolph Lundgren or Jean Claude Van Damme or even, hell, a Sylvester Stallone. I remember seeing him as Punishment Martinez in Ring of Honor and thinking “How is he not in WWE right now feuding with the Undertaker?” and wondering why he wasn’t the lead in one of those low budget horror flicks from Lionsgate that I saw on the shelves of the video store. Because Priest has that scary charisma that would work in an action horror type movie (Priest would also likely kick ass as The Kurgan in a remake of Highlander). But then Priest also has that innate coolness that would make it easy to make an action movie around him. Priest also has a martial arts background of some sort so that’s a big plus. I would also try to incorporate his “Infamy” song into the movie somehow. The theme just oozes action movie.

Image Credit: WWE

2- Rhea Ripley: Regular listeners of Jim Cornette’s podcasts have no doubt heard Cornette and his podcast partner The Great Brian Last say that Rhea Ripley looks like a big star and a big deal (and Cornette has said multiple times that Ripley should be in action movies). Ripley has a unique look that sets herself apart from just about everyone else and that’s something a potential action movie could exploit big time. Sure, like her Judgment Day comrades that also appear on this list you can easily see Ripley in a supporting role in her first movie, but I think that Ripley is just special enough that she could skip that supporting part and go straight to being the main star in a movie. Who wouldn’t want to see her go up against a Zoe Bell type in something? Ripley would rock.

Image Credit: WWE

1- AJ Styles: As we saw in the epic cinematic match Styles had against The Undertaker back at WrestleMania 36 AJ can act. Styles also showed during the Boneyard Match that he doesn’t look weird doing action movie. So it makes sense to have Styles star in some sort of action movie, either a fish out of water type thing where he has to take on terrorists (think Die Hard but starring Styles) or some sort of “southern” action movie, like a Road House or even Fire Down Below. Styles could easily pull off being a badass loner or a family man that needs to save his wife and kids from dangerous criminals or drug runners or something. And think about how the movie poster would definitely feature the phenomenal forearm because that would be in the movie. Styles would have to take out a bad guy with a flying forearm.

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