Teacher's Pets

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
Henry Adams 

Maybe it was your ninth grade English teacher who taught you to persevere. Or it was a college professor who encouraged you to do well outside of the classroom. All of the WWE Universe, young and old, can remember a teacher who has made an impact. The Superstars and Divas of WWE are no different. Scroll below to find out some of their favorite teachers, and the influence those educators had on their lives.

John Cena: Herm Deihl, seventh grade history teacher. He loved America, loved history and got me into history. At the same time, he was cool on a 13-year-old level. He was 65 years old, but just was himself and didn't try too hard and it sunk in, and made me a fanatic about history.

Eve: Mr. Gilberto, my fifth grade teacher. He was actually my math teacher, and that's when I discovered that math was not only my favorite subject, but I had alot of potential in that field. He was the first one to really push me - from then on I was focused and even skipped a grade in math. He was always positive and light-hearted.   
Brie Bella:My favorite teacher was my junior year English teacher in high school. Not only was he cute, wearing his hair back in a ponytail, he had so much passion. He would be these characters and raise his voice or have different facial expressions. He made learning really fun.

Evan Bourne: My high school Spanish teacher - Senora Kaiser. I am not a typical learner - I learn best by doing things. She always took time with me to help me, and now I have Spanish ingrained in the back of my head. Now, when we tour, I have a little bit of an extra step ahead of the other Superstars because I can speak some Spanish.

Kelly Kelly: Ms. Harris. She did our TV production class. Every morning I was the anchorwoman for our news so she wrote the show and really helped us out. She was very hands-on. She was really helpful to me because she knew it was something I was very interested in and wanted to go to college for. She went above and beyond.

The Miz: My high school spanish teacher - Senora Richeld. My name in her class was Paco. She was trying to teach Spanish, and I would get kicked out every day. But I got straight A's in the class and she loved me. Now, when we go to Mexico, I can get on the mic in the middle of the ring and speak Spanish and everyone knows what I'm saying. So thank you on behalf of everyone in Mexico, Senora, because they can understand what I'm saying!

Jerry "The King" Lawler: My favorite teacher may have actually saved my life. Her name was Helen Hall in Memphis, and she was my high school art teacher. She was one of the greatest artists I had ever known. She was a motivational teacher. When I graduated, the Vietnam War was right at its height, and guys were getting drafted right out of high school. She had put together a portfolio of my work and sent it off to the University of Memphis where I received a full commercial art scholarship.

John Morrison: Mr. Howard, eighth grade science. Sometimes it's not about what they taught, but how they taught it. He would always start class with a long story about monsters or himself back in the day - and class was right after lunch. It was a good way to start, because that's usually nap time for me. 

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Kelly Kelly: Loud and clear

"She’s just a pretty face." "She doesn’t have what it takes." "She’s just a model. She’ll never make it in WWE."

As Kelly Kelly hoisted the Divas Championship – her first title ever in WWE - on Raw: Power to the People, a slight sense of vindication ran through her veins. On that Monday night in Baltimore, it wasn’t just the blonde beauty who wanted to bear gold – it was the WWE Universe who wanted to see her get that opportunity.

“The biggest compliment for me was the fans voting for me on Raw, “ Kelly Kelly told WWE.com. “I feel like the fans have really connected with me for five years. I think some might see me as the underdog – always working hard, but just never getting a chance.”

When Kelly got her chance, she capitalized on it – and the Twitter world went wild with excitement and happiness for the fan favorite.

“I must’ve received over 10,000 Tweets of ‘This is a long time coming,’ ‘We’re so proud of you,’ ‘I’m so happy for you’ ... It was awesome,” Kelly explained. “I was told after I won that I had ‘trended’ several times that night.”

The fans weren’t the only ones lined up to congratulate the new champion, however – the respect for Kelly extended to the Divas locker room as she headed up the entrance ramp from Baltimore's 1st Mariner Arena.

“The Divas were standing there by the locker room, waiting and clapping for me,” Kelly revealed. “I’ve never been injured. I’ve worked the live events five years straight with no real off weeks. I’ve worked so hard for this, and I think the other Divas recognized that.”

The WWE Universe might also recognize that Kelly Kelly has had one of the best months ever. She was named to the Maxim 100 list of hottest women, got to “Come on down” as a presenter on The Price is Right and now she’s accomplished a dream she's had since first joining WWE.

“My life, everything is just falling into place,” the Jacksonville, Fla., native happily stated. “I feel like it’s a long time coming. I was young when I started and now I’m 24 – I really have grown up in front of everybody.”

As Kelly traveled back home, excited to show her mom and grandmother the butterfly-emblazoned title, she said there are some things she’ll have to get used to. One of them? Taking the title through airport security.

“Oh, we have a champion here!” a TSA agent said as he inspected her bag.

Yes, yes we do. And Kelly Kelly couldn’t be happier.

Text Voting Inaccurate in Raw's Power to the People

WWE would like to apologize for technical difficulties that occurred during the “Power to the People” edition of Raw on Monday night.

The interactive event aimed to give the WWE Universe the ability to choose what they wanted to see on their television screens. Unfortunately, uncontrollable difficulties created by an influx of heavy voting traffic resulted in not every one of the more-than 697,000 recorded votes to be properly counted.

During Monday’s Raw broadcast, WWE fans were given the option to text A, B or C to 46993 (GOWWE) in order to decide what they wanted to happen on the show. Things went perfectly at first when text votes selected Kelly Kelly (option B) to take on Brie Bella for the Divas Championship. However, our vote tabulating provider’s system became overwhelmed, causing these votes to definitively affect the following contest, in which Mason Ryan (also option B) was voted into a match against Evan Bourne — even though, as it was later discovered, Sin Cara had received 90 percent of the total votes in WWE.com's Live Chat poll, and should have been Bourne's opponent.

Votes for the third poll’s bout — Kane vs. Mark Henry in an Arm Wrestling Contest — were counted correctly. However, problems began to occur again during the next poll determining a match stipulation between United States Champion Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston. At this point, so many text votes were received that the system overloaded, crashed and had to be restarted.

With little information to work from, WWE management selected to follow the system’s earliest projections, which determined that the 2-out-of-3 Falls Match had been the people’s choice. It was not until later that it was discovered that “Vickie Guerrero Banned from Ringside” was actually the top vote getter.

Restarting the tabulating system allowed for things to run smoothly with the voting for the Triple Threat Match to determine a No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship going off without a hitch.

Regrettably, technical difficulties occurred once more leading up to the night’s Six-Man Tag Team Match main event, when it became apparent to WWE management that text votes were again not being tabulated properly. At this time, a decision was made to turn to WWE.com’s Live Chat Poll for the official judgment. With the power still in the hands of the people, the WWE Universe selected the Elimination Match (option C) by an overwhelming 87 percent, leading to this stipulation being enacted.

In light of these unfortunate technical problems, WWE apologizes to our fans, Superstars and Divas affected by this situation. Furthermore, to make it up to you, the WWE Universe, high-flyers Evan Bourne and Sin Cara will meet in the ring, live next Monday night on Raw!

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Randy Orton Discusses His Legacy, Randy Savage's Death and More

World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton spoke with Roanoke.com this weekend to promote Tuesday's WWE SmackDown tapings in the city. The interviewer noted that before the session, WWE's handler stressed that Orton is a sports entertainer, not a wrestler.
Here are some highlights:
Q: From your perspective, what's the best and worst part of being a WWE superstar?
A: I'd say the best part of being a WWE superstar is traveling the world, meeting new and different people of all walks of life. I love what I do for a living. One of the things people don't think about -- the travel is good, but at the same time it's very tiring, and you don't have an off season like your regular professional football team. I got buddies of mine out swimming with their families in the pool right now. Yesterday they were barbecuing. I was in La Crosse, Wis., you know? I have a wife and a daughter, and I don't get to see them much.
Q: Your act for the past few years has been being a heel (villain). Do you ever want to be a babyface (hero)?
A: I don't think I'm a true babyface. I've made some slight changes, and the more time that goes by the more changes I'll make. But technically, I guess, you can call me a babyface because I'm facing other heels most of the time, of course, except for Christian right now. As a heel, I acted a certain way. I did certain things and I wasn't afraid of getting dirty. But as a babyface, I don't really want to change too much. Last time I turned in '04, I tried to change 180 degrees and it failed miserably. So this time, I'm trying to take what I thought people were into about my character as a heel and really just slowly fine tune things instead of making any drastic changes.
Q: What was your reaction to "Macho Man" Randy Savage's death recently?
A: It was awful. I would hope everyone's reaction would be somewhere along those lines. Awful, in disbelief, saddened, mortified.
Q: What legacy do you hope to leave behind in WWE?
A: I've won every title there is to win, just about, and I think right now my main goal is in the longevity of my career. I've been around 10 years, but that's not really nothing compared to some guys in our business who have been able to stay on top for a long amount of time -- like Triple H, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair. I want to be one of those handful of guys who are household names, that when people think WWE, or sports entertainment -- whatever the hell they're calling it now -- I want to be at the top of that list. I want to be known worldwide for how good I'm able to perform in that ring.

2011 WWE Draft Recap

The 2011 WWE Draft will forever be remembered as the time John Cena was sent to SmackDown — and then back to Raw in the same night. It may have been fleeting, but the sight of the Monday night mainstay clad in a blue SmackDown T-shirt was unexpected, startling and unforgettable — exactly what the WWE Universe has come to expect of the yearly shakeup.

Cena's ping-pong between brands was only one of many surprises during the two-day event. It would be hard to argue that there was a bigger Draft pick than Randy Orton this year. Returning to SmackDown for the first time since 2006, The Viper will quickly assert himself in his new surroundings. Just like the Apex Predator he is, Orton will look for the toughest guy on the brand and strike him down. (Full Draft results)

Raw may have lost a huge Superstar in Orton, but they gained one in Rey Mysterio. One of the cornerstones of SmackDown for the better part of a decade, The Master of the 619 should be a top contender to the WWE Championship — a title he has never held before. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait for the dream match between Mysterio and Sin Cara. During the Draft, the rookie high-flyer was sent to SmackDown, where he should continue to wow the WWE Universe.

Days before he faces Christian for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship in a Ladder Match at Extreme Rules, Alberto Del Rio was drafted to Raw. It’s an interesting situation, to say the least. If The Mexican Aristocrat wins the bout on Sunday, he’ll bring the title with him to Raw, meaning both the World Heavyweight and WWE Championships will be on the red brand. SmackDown is experiencing a similar state of affairs right now. With Sheamus being sent to Friday nights, the United States Championship and Wade Barrett's Intercontinental Title will both be defended on that show.

Then again, should Christian walk away with the World Heavyweight Title at Extreme Rules, there will be no shortage of new challenges for him on SmackDown. This week, heavy hitters like The Great Khali and William Regal became a part of the blue brand. Still, the most imposing force headed to Friday nights may be Mark Henry. In the main event of Monday’s Raw, The World’s Strongest Man demonstrated an unexpectedly brutal side of himself when he pummeled teammate John Cena during a Six-Man Tag Team Match. Henry's rage could be a bad sign for the SmackDown crew. When a man of his size is focused, he's nearly unstoppable.

The Texas powerhouse wasn't the only Superstar looking driven this week. Former Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston proved he was ready for Raw when he won both a Battle Royal and a bout against Sheamus on Monday night. Big Show looked just as dominant this week, and he will be a force to be reckoned with — as always — when he returns to the Raw brand.

For ring warriors like Daniel Bryan, Beth Phoenix and even a former World Heavyweight Champion like Jack Swagger, the WWE Draft presents the perfect opportunity for these talented competitors to establish themselves on a new night. For an example of how significant this can be to a career, just look at The Miz. After moving to Raw in the 2009 WWE Draft, The Awesome One went from playing second banana to John Morrison to winning the WWE Championship and performing in the main event of WrestleMania. Clearly, a single move can make a huge impact.

How will the drafted Superstars and Divas fare on their new brands? Stay tuned to WWE in the coming weeks to find out.

Kelly Kelly Reveals Her Dream Goal In WWE, Talks Main Eventing SmackDown

Kelly Kelly commented on main eventing a recent episode ofWWE SmackDown, where she teamed with Edge to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Dolph Ziggler and Lay-Cool.

“I think the match we just had is one of the first main events the girls have been a part of, probably within the last 10 years,” Kelly told the Miami Herald.

“So it was really cool to do that and finally have a main event match and be at the beginning of the show with [acting WWE SmackDown GM] Vickie [Guerrero]. They put a lot of effort into me and my character lately. It has been great. I hope they continue to spotlight the divas more.”

The Jacksonville native says she has her sights set on winning the Divas Championship upon her return.

“I hope to win a championship because I have never had a title,” Kelly said. “That would be a dream of a lifetime.”

Kelly also discussed her early days with WWE. Though her stunning looks landed her a spot with the organization, her strong work ethic earned her the respect of her peers.

“When I started in ECW, I would have to say Tommy Dreamer and Andrew [Test Martin], who is not alive anymore, have helped me out,” Kelly said.

“On the diva side, I would say Michelle McCool has helped me out a lot as well. They took me under their wings.”

Kelly Kelly Says She’s All Natural

Cleveland.com features a new tongue-in-cheek interview with WWE Diva Kelly Kelly to promote the upcoming show there. The interviewer noted that she learned to refer to WWE as “sports entertainment” and not “wrestling”, and that their performers are “Divas” and “Superstars”, not wrestlers. Here are the highlights:

WWE officials keeping up on her appearance:
“Every week one of my bosses comes up to me and goes, “Lemme see your nails.” He gets so mad if they’re not done! Every week I have to be on it. If I break one, I have to get it fixed. But I keep ‘em short and I keep ‘em real natural, so usually they don’t break. It’s usually me biting ‘em off.”

People saying WWE is fake:
“I just wanna punch people in the face when they say something like that. . . . Luckily, I haven’t been severely injured, but I’ve . . . broken ribs and stuff. It’s not as glamorous as it looks. Still, I love comin’ to work every week.”

Being all natural:
“Oh, it is. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s all real. I love getting that question because I’m like, “Yes they are and I’m so proud.”"

The interviewer then asked Kelly Kelly if other Divas worry about their breast implants exploding in the ring. Kelly didn’t get to answer as the WWE handler who was overseeing the interview ended it abruptly.

Possible happenings for Randy Orton and Kelly Kelly this 2011

Happy New Year visitors!I am going to analyze the current storylines that they are in and what are the possible events that will happen to them this 2011.

Randy Orton:
He is currently feuding with The Miz for the title.He won a Triple Threat Steel cage match to be the No.1 Contender for the WWE Championship.His match with The Miz is now official and will happen at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.There's always the possibility of Randy winning the title but it seems that WWE will let Miz have a decent run.If that happens he can go feud with other stars and put them over.

Kelly Kelly:
She still has her room for improvement in the wrestling department.There's also the chance that she will be one of the possible contenders for the Divas championship.But the storyline that she is in is the thing with Drew McIntyre.Us fans know that they are with Justin Gabriel and Tiffany.Better read the latest spoilers for this week's Smackdown if you want to know what is Kelly up to.As the storyline progresses,it will continue and she might be Drew's valet sometime in the future.There's also the possibility that Big Show (Kelly's BFF onscreen and real life) will be involved once his feud with Cody ends.(i.e,Drew turns on Kelly).

So there you have it!What are your thoughts?  Make sure to sound it off in the chatbox or tweet me at the site's twitter account.

WWE's Kelly Kelly Spans Globe to Entertain Troops

Kelly Kelly’s profile is growing quickly in the wrestling fan community, but as she has discovered in the four years since she began wrestling at the age of 19, her popularity is now global.

Kelly has been overseas four times – three times to Iraq and once (just last week) to Afghanistan – and has experienced first-hand how effective the WWE’s efforts to entertain the men and women serving abroad in the military have been.

Her first trip was to Iraq while the country was still being stabilized so the experience left quite an impression on her.

“Being 19 when I started and seeing the troops in Iraq that are the same age as me and they’re doing this on a daily basis, it’s just crazy to think about it,” said Kelly, who will be part of the WWE's eighth annual Tribute to the Troops at Fort Hood, Texas. The program will be televised on Saturday, Dec. 18 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. “And I never thought that I’d have the opportunity to do this. It’s just been great. [The troops] found out [the wrestlers were visiting] a day or two before we got there and there were 2,000 troops there waiting when we arrived. They were freaking out. They just wanted to take pictures and talk about everything. And to hear their side of things, it was great.”

And to say that the stars of the WWE are well known and well liked at the bases would be an understatement that might be worthy of a smackdown.

“The funny thing is, they don’t get many [TV] shows over there, but they get wrestling and they recognize us over there,” Kelly said. “It makes you want to cry. It’s so great to get that reaction. I know everybody that gets to go appreciates it so much. They beg [WWE President] Vince [McMahon] to go. [The troops] just want to keep talking about everything and it’s great to give them a piece of home. And this time of year is the hardest.”

Accompanied by Big Show and Eve, Kelly’s most recent trip spanned five days in Afghanistan and included lots of pictures and autographs and some hairy moments.

“At one point we almost got hit with a rocket!” Kelly said. “But we were safe and the troops were so awesome. We were in a bunker when we heard an announcement of ‘Stay in your bunker’ so we kind of freaked out but they said to relax and we just heard a boom and that was about it. We were just fine.”

And forget any notion of “celebrity treatment.”

“We don’t stay in a hotel, we go and stay in cement houses and on steel beds and walk to the bathrooms with flashlights and we go what they go through to show them how much we appreciate them.”

Now, it’s the troops turn to show their appreciation for the wrestlers as they fill Sadowski Field at Fort Hood.

“It’s the first year we’ve stayed in the states [for WWE Tribute to the Troops] and the base is just huge. They’re expecting around 100,000 people to come. I can’t wait to perform for them. It’ll be like another WrestleMania. I said ‘How’re we going to fit everyone?’They said ‘We’ll squeeze ‘em in’ so it’ll be loud, for sure.”

Also appearing on the program will be comedian Cedric the Entertainer; recording artists Trace Adkins, P. Diddy’s Diddy Dirty Money and Ariel Winter and Miss USA Rima Fakih. -- By Christian Pelusi

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WWE celebrates 10 years of trading on the New York Stock Exchange

WWE takes stock, 10 years later

For any member of the WWE Universe who has ever wanted to own a piece of World Wrestling Entertainment, October 25, 2000 proved to be a banner day. That Wednesday in lower Manhattan, to great fanfare, the company went public on The New York Stock Exchange.

In the years following that successful public offering, WWE has grown into a truly global phenomenon. At the time, there were two branded WWE programs, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown. The roster of programs has now doubled with the addition of “WWE Superstars” and WWE NXT. The company’s pay-per-view events have also become more innovative. Since 2000, with the inclusion of Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber, WWE’s pay-per-views have generated an average of approximately $100 million in revenue and more than $5 million buys annually.

WWE also continues to expand their presence in untapped overseas markets. During the summer, the company undertook several international tours, including an unprecedented show in Shanghai, China. Moving forward, WWE looks forward to showcasing more of their product in that region as well as other uncharted territories.

The company extended their reach further into feature films with WWE Studios. Since 2000, the studio has generated seven movies, with several more scheduled for upcoming release. The latest effort to unspool on the silver screen is Knucklehead, starring WWE SuperstarBig Show.

And lastly, WWE remains a pioneer in digital media. In 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, “WWE” remained in the top three of the most popular Yahoo! Search terms. Many of those searches were directed to WWE.com, the company’s official website. In the first quarter of 2010, WWE.com averaged 13.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, generated 413.4 million page views and provided more than 30.3 million monthly video streams.

Although WWE has greatly expanded its footprint both domestically and abroad to offer ever more dynamic forms of entertainment over the past decade, the company continues to leverage other avenues of growth. With innovative new technologies and exciting new Superstars yet to be discovered, WWE is eager to provide stock holders with even more reasons to look forward to the decade ahead. 

Photos | Watch

Wrestlers tag-team from ring to film

The day after one of the biggest professional wrestling events of the year, Randy Orton, the heavily tattooed, frequently sneering, seven-time World Wrestling Entertainmentchampion, is standing in the bowels of the Staples Centerconfessing a lack of self-confidence. Not about his most recent performance in the ring, where he administered the requisite body slams, clotheslines and backbreakers to his rival, Irish wrestler Sheamus. This is about channeling his inner Humphrey Bogart more than his inner Hulk Hogan.

"I can't say I'm confident in my abilities as an actor," Orton says tentatively, describing his experience as a dramatic performer in the 2011 movie "That's What I Am," a period coming-of-age story with Amy Madigan and Ed Harris in which Orton plays a father caught up in a school controversy. "I thought doing this for 10 years would give me an edge, but it hasn't."

Many a wrestler has attempted the leap from the ring to the silver screen. Mike Mazurki moved to midcentury noir pictures, Jesse Ventura and Rowdy Roddy Piper popped up inaction movies in the 1980s and '90s and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has starred in action movies such as "The Scorpion King" and broad comedies, including "The Tooth Fairy."


Orton's shift is different. It's part of a far larger transformation being orchestrated by WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon that may be either pure marketing genius or simple hubris. The wrestling impresario is taking the personalities from his weekly fight shows — where they can regularly be seen diving off ropes, drop-kicking mouthy opponents and goading a bloodthirsty crowd — and trying to mold them into subtle thespians.

Unlike the usual switch to big action vehicles or broad comedies, he's hoping the stars can pull off roles in gentle comedies, dramas and police procedurals. In other words, he's hoping they can act."When you create global superstars and part of their skill is their acting skills, this is a natural extension," McMahon said.

McMahon has created a film division of WWE, with a slate of more than half a dozen pictures distributed through Samuel Goldwyn Films, that doesn't go for a big concept built around star power. Instead, the movies tell smaller stories with experienced actors such as Harris, Madigan, Patricia Clarkson and Danny Glover, and slot the wrestlers in as part of an ensemble, hoping their acting can carry the day.


Arriving in theaters Friday is "Knucklehead," starring 400-pound Big Show as a gentle giant who has gotten to his mid-30s without having lived outside of a Catholic orphanage. Big Show (real name: Paul Wight) is not new to the big screen; the 38-year-old with a smooth scalp and dark, thick goatee has had bit parts in comedies such as "The Waterboy" and "MacGruber," where he essentially riffed on his in-ring persona.

But this is his first full-fledged role as someone entirely fictional, and as he sits on his private tour bus in the Staples parking lot the night before SummerSlam, he finds himself in a place of gooey introspection that might make Mark Ruffalo proud. "Playing a character outside the ring allowed me to free some things inside me," Show said, clasping his oven-mitt-size hands together nervously. "When you express that much emotional nakedness or vulnerability, it unlocks a lot of change in you."

"Knucklehead" follows September's "Legendary," in which John Cena, the clean-living face of the WWE who previously acted in the blow-'em-up "The Marine," took on his first dramatic role, as an estranged son of a woman played by Oscar nominee Clarkson. (With largely weak reviews and a minuscule $200,000 in box office, it was an unquestionable disappointment, although it's expected to recoup some of its investment on DVD.)

And the long-haired WWE villain Edge (real name: Adam Copeland; claim to fame: the Edgecator, a move in which legs and ankles are twisted and held in painful positions), has been drafted to play a laid-back cop in the comedy-drama "Bending the Rules," a role more in keeping with his real-life surfer-boy personality than his manic in-ring one.

"One of the misconceptions when people meet wrestlers is that they think it's all big hair and underwear and rah-rah. I don't think that anyone believes we might read a book every two days, which I try to do," said Edge, a thoughtful Canadian with a gentle manner. "They don't think that we might possibly be intelligent."

The job of wrangling persuasive performances from men accustomed to spending extensive amounts of time drop-kicking people in spandex falls to Mike Pavone, head of WWE Studios and director of "That's What I Am."

"I know that some people might be skeptical. They say, 'You wouldn't take Brad Pitt and drop him in the middle of a wrestling ring and expect him to do a good job,'" he said. "But I'm not starting at ground zero here. These are natural performers. I'm taking people who are a six or a seven and just trying to get them up a couple of numbers."

To do that, Pavone has leaned on film and television veterans. On "Knucklehead," the actor Mark Feuerstein (star of the NBC medical dramedy "Royal Pains") took Show under his wing.

"I remember coming back to the bus one day after shooting and just chilling, and then all of a sudden I start crying. And I'm not a man who cries easily," Show notes, saying the part of a large, misunderstood man reminded him of his own life. "I thought something was wrong. I called Mark and he came right over and told me that I'd had a breakthrough."

Orton, meanwhile, has flown to Los Angeles several times to take acting lessons with Steven Anderson, who runs the school Actorworks. Orton acknowledges that it's been a difficult education.

"The first few times I was on set I'd hear everyone in the crew saying, 'Shh, shh, quiet, quiet, quiet.' And I thought, 'Why do we have to be so quiet?' I thought it was the audio. Then I realized that the actors were getting into character," Orton adds.

Among the biggest challenges for wrestlers is scaling down their performance from the bombast of a stadium to the intimacy of a film camera. "In the ring you want every one of the 80,000 people in the building to know what you're feeling," Orton says. "On a movie set every expression you make is going to get picked up times 10. They kept having to dial me back."

Show, who tends to pepper his speech with colorful folkisms such as "as happy as a three-legged dog in a hubcap factory," describes the contrast a tad more poetically. "Wrestling is charging onto a battlefield and blowing things up," he said. "Acting is the delicate picking of a lock on a safe."




McMahon believes wrestling and film are logical complements. "I like to think we make a movie every Monday night and every Friday night," he says. "We have an entertaining story and a big finish — the elements of what make a good film."

Many of the wrestlers, however, say that they've been confounded by a number of aspects of moviedom and other rituals of film production. "One time I looked over in the corner and I saw Ed Harris making all these faces, and I didn't know what he was doing," Orton recalls of a time on set. Told that this may have been a preparation technique associated with Method acting, Orton says, "Oh, is that what it's called?"

Show — who calls himself a movie buff; "One of my favorite movies is 'Much to Do About Nothing' [sic] with Denzel Washington" — says he found himself laughing about all the assistants scurrying about. "You don't have to get someone to get me a diet pop," he says, letting loose one of his baritone laughs. "I can go get it myself."

Then again, there are some uncanny similarities between a movie set and the wrestling ring.

Six hours before SummerSlam is set to start, wrestlers gather on the floor of Staples, going over their routines for the coming night, just as actors might consult with a director before shooting a big scene. In the catering room, a communal feeling not unlike the spirit at a movie's craft services table takes hold. Wrestlers drift in and out, mingling with each other and the crew. Chris Jericho and Edge dissect the nuances of the guitarist Slash. The Miz paces nervously outside his dressing room, reciting lines to himself as he gets in character.

Edge sits down in front of a lunch plate carefully divided into carbs and proteins. In a few hours, he'll take the ring in a bout with Cena, Daniel Bryan and others against the well-organized Nexus alliance, the climactic fight of SummerSlam. The next morning, Edge will jet off to New Orleans to begin shooting "Bending the Rules."

It's a routine he will repeat for the next two months — shooting the film all week, then flying on the weekend to that week's WWE Raw location (the show airs 52 weeks a year, usually in different cities), then flying back to the set late Monday night. "It's kind of a 48-hour day from Sunday to Tuesday for the next few months. I'm bracing for it," he says.

Indeed, the Los Angeles-based WWE movie operation is run, probably more than any modern-day Hollywood backlot, like a classic midcentury studio. Wrestlers are slotted into whatever entertainment vehicle is available, and the more vehicles, the better. McMahon, after all, has a lot riding on the development of the WWE's stars and their diversification to other platforms, as competition from mixed-martial arts and other entertainment media intensifies.

Still, for all the work, the wrestlers say they are enthusiastic about their Brando-like turns. It may seem strange that people who are worshiped by millions of Americans for one form of performance are so eager to start over. But they say it's about more than their career. It's about — what else? — art.

"It's easy for people to take me as a big, funny guy. It's easy for people to take me as a big action guy," Show says. "But can someone take me seriously as a father that works hard at his job and has a kid with cancer and his wife has left him?" He pauses. "I want to be a good actor, not a wrestler-turned-actor. If I'm just a wrestler-turned-actor, I think that will be very sad."
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