Sylvester Stallone, one of the greatest actors of all-time, is no stranger to sharing the Silver Screen with professional wrestlers. He wrestled Thunder Lips, portrayed by Hulk Hogan, in a charity wrestling match in Rocky III. The action star has also appeared on screen with Steve Austin (The Expendables), Terry Funk (Over The Top), John Cena (The Suicide Squad) and Jesse Ventura (Demolition Man). Stallone starred in Paradise Alley in 1978, a movie about a fictitious independent professional wrestler trying to make it in the ’40s. The film co-starred Joe Spinell, who played Gazzo in the first two Rocky movies. The film featured cameos from wrestlers such as Don Kernodle, Dick Murdoch, Dory Funk, Dennis Stamp and Ted DiBiase.
Stallone even appeared with WWE in 2005, inducting the aforementioned Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame. One could argue that the roles Hogan and Mr. T landed in Rocky III was the domino the set off the Rock’N’Wrestling Connection of the 1980s, transforming WWE into the global entity that it’s become today.
While speaking Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, the man behind John Rambo discussed how professional wrestling has influenced his life in Hollywood.
“I love wrestling. It’s all about getting swept up in the drama. There’s a passion for that world, big time. People like Bruno Sammartino, those are people that helped forge my personality and my outlook on life. Bruno, Gorgeous George, [bodybuilder/actor] Steve Reeves, [boxer] Rocky Marciano—especially Rocky Marciano. I love wrestling’s mythic qualities. I made my daughters watch wrestling—I wanted them to watch for the story.”
-Stallone to SI.
“I understand what goes into it,” Stallone continues. “I hear people say it’s not real. Really? Gravity is real. Jumping off the top rope or having 300 pounds landing on you, that’s real. I feel the same way about action films. They’ve been submerged in sort of a dismissive sort of genre. Like, ‘Oh, it’s an action film.’ All I know is I’ve had maybe 31 operations due to action films, so I consider it very real. Wrestling, it has nothing to do with who’s scoring a touchdown. It’s entertainment. It’s not meant to be ‘The score is now 14–3.’ It’s a morality play, all about the drama. That’s what it’s all about.”
Amazon is currently celebrating ‘Stallone Week,’ as Stallone’s new film Samaritan prepares to drop on Prime Video. The film, co-starring Javon Walton. The source material is a graphic novel of the same name published by Mythos Comics. The film premieres on August 26th.
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