Many professional wrestlers have used wrestling, or WWE specifically, as a stepping stone onto acting roles and Hollywood stardom. While the Rock and John Cena have been the most successful at converting their wrestling popularity into a fully-fledged career on the silver screen, several other wrestlers have tried their hand at acting including Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, and Batista. Even wrestlers like Kevin Nash, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Macho Man Randy Savage were able to turn their popularity into a few movie credits.
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One of the many wrestlers to try their hand at acting was Triple H. However, the Game was undoubtedly better suited to a WWE ring than he was at acting, performing in several critically panned movies. Deciding that acting wasn't for him, Triple H was able to fall back into wrestling and is now regarded as one of the best bookers in the world, especially for his work with NXT. Now that he is running the WWE since the resignation of Vince McMahon, we're unlikely to see Triple H grace the silver screen ever again.
Triple H's most popular film was Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, in which Triple H voices himself alongside John Cena, AJ Lee, The Miz, Santino Marella, and other WWE Superstars as well as Scooby-Doo and the rest of the Mystery Inc team. In the movie, WWE has been haunted by a ghost bear that has been terrorizing the people of WWE City, a fictional city created for WWE events. When the ghost bear threatens to ruin WrestleMania, Mystery Inc set about discovering the identity of the bear and who is behind the attacks.
WrestleMania Mystery currently has a 6.1 out of 10 on IMDB with over 3.3 thousand votes, while it has an Audience score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In 2016, WWE studios teamed up with Hanna-Barbera to create Curse of the Speed Demon, a follow-up sequel to WrestleMania Mystery, which was released in 2014. While the original movie had a connection to wrestling and featured some wrestling, the Curse of the Speed Demon centered on wrestlers racing cars, with a mysterious phantom sabotaging other racers including The Undertaker and Dusty Rhodes.
Like the other wrestlers in the movie, Triple H voiced himself and appeared alongside Stephanie McMahon. In the end, it is revealed that Triple H and Stephanie were the Speed Demon that was sabotaging the other racers in revenge for Vince McMahon not letting Stephanie participate. The movie was slightly less successful than the original, and no further Scooby-Doo and WWE movies have been released since.
Blade: Trinity was the third movie in the Blade movie series starring Wesley Snipes as a vampire hunter named Blade, who is a half-human, half-vampire. Triple H would join the series in the third movie alongside Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel, and Ryan Reynolds. Triple H played Jarko Grimmwood, a vampire from the house of Talos who seeks to resurrect Dracula. Grimmwood is seen as a brutish character with a soft side when he cares for his Pomeranian named Pac-Man.
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Like the other movies on this list, both Triple H's performance and the movie itself were received poorly by fans and critics alike. The movie was the last in the Blade series and scored the lowest reviews of all three movies. On Rotten Tomatoes, Blade: Trinity scored only 24% despite performing slightly better with audience reviews at 58%, while the movie scored a 5.8 out of 10 on IMDB.
In 2006, Triple H and Batista had cameo roles in a comedy movie that starred Ron Livingston, Neve Campbell, Danny DeVito, and Kathy Bates. The movie centered around Richard Clayton, played by Ron Livingston, who seeks his biological parents after discovering that he was adopted as a child. His birth parents turn out to be "carnies" played by DeVito and Bates who follow Clayton home and cause chaos in his normal life.
The movie was poorly received by audiences, scoring 31% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.3 on IMDB. However, given the small nature of Triple H and Batista's roles, it would be harsh to blame them. The pair played a duo of wrestlers, meaning that the casting was a natural fit.
When fans reference Triple H's underwhelming movie career, the movie they tend to point to was his role as Ray Bradstone in WWE Studio's The Chaperone. Just like in Inside Out, Triple H plays a reformed criminal, this time a getaway driver. Despite wanting to become a law-abiding citizen, Bradstone agrees to one final job before backing out to chaperone his daughter's class field trip. The movie was poorly reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes but has a marginally better score on IMDB.
The movie was also referenced in Triple H's feud with CM Punk, with Adam Blampied calling it Triple H's greatest movie, but stated the compliment was akin to saying that he was the smartest Kardashian.
In 2017, a group of wrestlers was cast in a sequel to 2007's animated Surf's Up movie called Surf's Up 2: WaveMania. The original movie featured Shia LeBeouf voicing the main penguin Cody Maverick, with Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, and James Woods providing voices for additional characters. Many of the stars of the original characters were replaced, aside from Jon Heder, who reprised his role of Chicken Joe, and Diedrich Bader, who voiced Tank Evans in both films. Triple H was one of many wrestlers in the film who provided their voice to the project, voicing Hunter.
Unlike the first Surf's Up film, which was positively reviewed, the second film didn't score well on movie review websites. Surf's Up 2: WaveMania received only 39% from Audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, while it is rated 4.5 out of 10 on IMDB.
Not to be confused with the 2015 Disney film of the same name, Triple H appeared in the 2011 crime film Inside Out as ex-convict Arlo Jayne. On returning from 13 years in prison for manslaughter, Jayne comes home to realize his friend Jack Small, played by Michael Rappaport, has married his ex-girlfriend and is taking care of his daughter. Small is the son of crime boss Vic Small, which results in Jayne and Jack Small getting in trouble after a deal goes south.
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The movie was incredibly poorly reviewed, getting a 4.5 out of 10 on IMDB and the reviews were less favorable elsewhere. Rotten Tomatoes has the movie rated at 25% with critics and 22% with the audience. Triple H's performance in the movie was also poorly received with the former WWE champion's acting described as "inept" and akin to a "steroidal Steven Segal".