- [Zach] WWE wrestlers fight
all kinds of opponents,
and they've even had
battles with superheroes
from time to time.
This is why I can add reason #73
to my book "Why Wrestling is Great".
More specifically, WWE
stars have gotten physical
with actors who have
played superhero characters
for one reason or another.
Let's take a took at the times the worlds
of wrestling and comic books clashed.
What do Zack Ryder and
Wolverine have in common?
They've both got sweet looking hair
so having them team up is a no brainer
and that's what happened in 2011.
X-Men actor, Hugh Jackman,
was guest hosting Raw
when Dolph Ziggler and
Vickie Guerrero interrupted.
Ziggler mocked underdogs and
referred to them as losers
so Jackman decided to
find an underdog in WWE
to challenge the Show Off to a match.
He found the perfect
competitor in Zack Ryder
and the two headed for the ring.
While Jackman wasn't in the
match, he did get physical.
In typical villain fashion,
Vickie slapped Ryder while he was down.
To help even things up,
Jackman decked Ziggler across the face
allowing the Internet
Champion to get the win.
Even though they were enemies this time,
Dolph Ziggler and Hugh Jackman
would become allies in about 3 years.
Before the release of
X-Men: Days of Future Past,
Wolverine himself stopped by Raw.
He and Ziggler buried the hatchet
but Damien Sandow dressed as Magneto
came out to spoil the moment.
This gave Jackman another opportunity
to try his hand at wrestling
by performing a hip toss
on the Intellectual Savior of the Masses
before the Show Off hit the Zig Zag.
Some people liked it, some
people hated it, but I loved it.
Come on, it's Wolverine
in WWE, it's awesome!
While basketball is what
he's more well known for,
Shaquille O'Neal has dabbled
in the world of superheroes.
In 1997, Shaq played the
role of DC hero Steel
in the film of the same name.
Similar to Iron Man, Steel
doesn't have any powers
and relies on his armor and
weapons to get the job done.
In 2009, Shaq was the guest host of Raw
and after a run-in with Chris Jericho,
he set up a tag team match
between Cryme Tyme and Jeri-Show.
The former superhero also
gave himself the role
of Guest Enforcer and ended up having
to get his hands dirty.
The Big Show began going on
a rampage during the match,
resulting in his team being disqualified.
With everyone down,
the World's Largest Athlete provoked Shaq
until the former superhero
had to get into the ring.
The two giants stared each
other down until Big Show tried
to choke O'Neal out.
The Shaq Attack fought back
by throwing his own
hand around Show's neck
until Cryme Tyme jumped in to help out.
To end the confrontation,
Shaq knocked Big Show down with a shoulder
and sent him packing.
Roughly 7 years after
their first encounter,
the two stars clashed once
again at WrestleMania 32.
As a surprise final entry in
the Andre the Giant
Memorial Battle Royale,
Shaquille O'Neal came
running down towards the ring
and confronted Big Show.
Of course this time, the
two megastars weren't alone
and it was Kane that tried
to take both men down.
The Big Red Machine's plan
backfired when Big Show
and Shaq gave him a double chokeslam.
After the two giants cleared the ring,
they looked each other in the eyes
and tried to choke the other man out.
Their fight was interrupted
when the other participants teamed up
to eliminate both competitors.
Big Show would later challenge Shaq
to a match at WrestleMania 33
but WWE eventually canceled those plans.
It'd still be cool to
see these two face off,
but if they never do,
they still created some awesome moments.
Here's one of my favorites on the list,
in 2015 Stephen Amell who
plays the Green Arrow,
was attending a WWE event.
Stardust who had been obsessing
over the superhero for weeks
got in Amell's face and shoved him down.
Amell responded by jumping the barricade
and attacking the Prince of Dark Matter.
After some arguing with Triple H,
Amell and Neville got a tag
team match between them,
Stardust and King Barrett at SummerSlam.
When the two teams got to square off,
Neville was the one that started,
but once Stardust entered the match,
he demanded that the Green
Arrow be the one that he faced.
Amell took his fair share of abuse
and walked with a nasty bruise,
but the superhero showed that
he was more than just an actor
by landing several moves on his opponents.
The highlight came when Amell
got on the top turnbuckle
and hit both Stardust and
Barret with a crossbody.
This gave Neville the
opportunity to hit the Red Arrow
which got them the victory.
In 2010, Micky Rourke was taking
on Tony Stark in Iron Man 2
as the villain Whiplash.
Before that, Rourke got some experience
when he got in the ring
with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25.
After defeating Jimmy Snuka,
Roddy Piper and Ricky Steamboat,
Jericho challenged Rourke to a fight.
The actor took Y2J up on the offer
and got ready to square off.
Putting his boxing background to use,
Micky Rourke gave Jericho
a few demonstrations
before knocking him
down with a right hand.
Not wanting any more of that,
Chris Jericho left the ring
and Rourke celebrate with Ric Flair.
While he's probably best
known as The Terminator,
Arnold Schwarzenegger was the
first and so far only person
to play the Batman villain
Mr. Freeze on the big screen.
A couple of years after
playing the super villain,
Arnold made a special
appearance on SmackDown.
He met up with a lot of WWE stars
but his highlight came
during the main event.
Stone Cold Steve Austin
needed some assistance
and Schwarzenegger was happy to help out.
The former Mr. Freeze handed
Stone Cold a steel chair
to clobber Triple H with.
The Game, of course,
wasn't happy about this,
which meant that Arnold
needed to get his hands dirty.
Schwarzenegger ducked
a strike from Triple H
and countered with a backhand slap
and a few punches for good measure.
Ironically enough, Triple
H would induct Arnold
into the WWE Hall of Fame
about 16 years later.
I don't know about you
but I'd say the team-up
of Stone Cold and Mr.
Freeze was pretty cool.
Stephen Amell was my favorite,
but which superhero actor
on this list was yours?
Leave your answer in the
comments and keep the fun going
by watching Every Wrestler
Appearance in Marvel Movies.
I'm Zach from Tap Out
Corner and take it easy.
