5 WWE Superstars who have done voice acting
It has been said that Vince McMahon does not consider himself to be in the pro wrestling business. Going as far as to re-brand WWE as “sports entertainment”, Mr. McMahon has made several attempts to branch out from wrestling since those years. When the WWE Network was launched in 2014, fans were promised that in addition to live PPVs and WWE’s extensive back catalog, there would also be a lot of original content from outside the ring.
Reactions were mixed, to say the least, as WWE’s track record of producing non-wrestling-related content has been spotty at best. However, subscribers were pleasantly surprised as WWE managed to produce enjoyable content such as Legend’s House and Table for Three. The recent docuseries, Undertaker: The Last Ride, was well-received as well.
One show that garnered a lot of interested eyes upon its reveal was an adult aimed cartoon co-produced by Seth Green’s "Stoopid Buddy Stoodios" as well as Film Roman, a Watermen Entertainment company. The show in question was Camp WWE. While many of the characters were voiced by professional voice actors, some wrestlers provided their voices, including Vince McMahon himself.
While the show appeared to be a novel concept at the time, that is not to say that WWE stars have not branched out into non-wrestling work prior to the launch of the WWE Network. For as long as wrestling has existed, stars have cross-promoted themselves in other forms of entertainment such as El Santo in comics & movies, Hulk Hogan in Hollywood, and modern stars such as Edge who has appeared in hit TV shows such as Vikings on the History Channel.
In fact, Camp WWE was not even the first time wrestlers had lent their voice to the world of animation as several recognizable stars have voiced characters in various TV shows and movies over the years. With this in mind, here are five times WWE Superstars voiced animated characters.
#5: Bret Hart as himself - The Simpsons
With Disney+ recently fixing the frame ratio controversy surrounding their upload of classic episodes of long-running cultural sensation The Simpsons, now is the perfect time to relive the glorious moment when WWE legend Bret Hart appeared on the hit 90s show. The then 5-time WWE world champion made a cameo, looking to purchase the mansion belonging to Springfield's resident rich menace Mr. Burns who had fallen into financial hardship.
The episode in question was the twenty-first episode of season 8 premiering in 1997. It aired at a time when WWE, “The Hitman” and The Simpsons were at the peak of their respective tenures in the pop culture lexicon. Bret Hart was coming off his legendary submissions match against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 one month prior. The Simpsons meanwhile were drawing their highest viewing figures in three years averaging 9.1 million viewers for the season.
The episode itself drew 8.1 million viewers according to Nielsen ratings and would go on to receive the 1997 Environmental Media award in the category of “Episodic TV Comedy”.