The connection between WWE and football

For a few weeks now, there has been news circulating about Cristiano Ronaldo's presence at Crown Jewel, a WWE pay-per-view event scheduled to take place in Riyadh on November 4, 2023. The federation is working on finalizing the details to confirm the super-athlete's appearance as a special guest at what is set to become the tenth WWE event in the history of the company held in Saudi Arabia. It's a special occasion that WWE and the hosting country would like to honor with initiatives seasoned with a healthy dose of megalomania, such as the creation of a theme park, which, among its various attractions, would include a runway inspired by the famous entrance of The Undertaker. We can already imagine the plethora of memes that might arise following CR7's participation in Crown Jewel, yet we shouldn't be the least bit surprised that the worlds of soccer and wrestling collide. There are many stories that intertwine between these two realms, including those of professional soccer players themselves and their past lives as wrestlers

Wayne Rooney vs Wade Barrett

It was 2015 when Wayne Rooney, at the time the star player of Manchester United under the management of Louis van Gaal, found himself in a confrontation with the wrestler Wade Barrett at the Manchester Arena, where one of the SmackDown events was taking place. Wade Barrett was accompanying the Irish wrestler Sheamus in the ring. After receiving insults from Wade Barrett, Rooney invited him for a face-to-face encounter and slapped him across the face, a gesture that became iconic immediately and is still talked about today. This summer, Sheamus tweeted the video of the incident with an ironic caption: «Wade never wrestled again... What a low blow from Rooney.» The storyline from that distant 2015 continued with Wade Barrett visiting Old Trafford, and the rest, well, is history.

Tim Wiese: from Bundesliga to WWE

It's highly unlikely that those born around 1998 and earlier have forgotten Tim Wiese, a talented goalkeeper who played for teams like Werder Bremen, Hoffenheim, and the German National Team. At just 33 years old, he retired from professional football to embark on an entirely new life. After a brief stint as a bodybuilder, he ventured into the world of wrestling. Despite his first appearance in the ring dating all the way back to 2014 (the year of his football retirement), specifically during a WWE event in Frankfurt, what motivated the former footballer to take up wrestling was Triple H, who invited him to Florida to train at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. We remember Tim Wiese as a charismatic and gritty footballer - he had probably been hinting at his passion for the ring through those killer moves against Ivica Olić and Thomas Müller.

Drew McIntyre, Antonio Cesaro and Trish Stratus 

It's fair to give importance to those within the ranks of the WWE who have merely expressed their love for soccer. Among the most passionate is undoubtedly Drew McIntyre, a Scotsman who has repeatedly affirmed his passion in front of the microphones, explaining why he started supporting the Glasgow Rangers: «In my family, they support both Rangers and Celtic. When I was a child, they would lay both jerseys on the ground, and I had to crawl towards one of them. I think I crawled towards the Rangers' jersey.» He may not have taken the transfer of Ryan Kent well, but Drew's spirit has never waned. When the Rangers qualified for the Europa League final against Sevilla, the wrestler sent a message to WWE through his Twitter profile: «Hello, WWE, on May 18th, I'm taking a day off. See you in Seville.»

We can also briefly mention Trish Stratus: one of the most famous wrestlers who have passed through the Raw roster mentioned having a past in the York University soccer team. In hindsight, she made the right choice. Stratus deserves credit for elevating women's wrestling. And imagine if we had never been able to use her in WWE SMACKDOWN! Here Comes The Pain. Lastly, one of the most random considerations about soccer by a wrestler belongs to Antonio Cesaro. In an old episode of Sony Sports India, he was asked which soccer player he would like to see in the role of a WWE fighter. He named three players. There's no doubt about the pronunciation of the first two: Dejan Lovren and Giorgio Chiellini. However, there's some phonetic uncertainty about the third name. The name should be Domenico Berardi: no further comments are needed.