Forget About Movies, WWE Stars Becoming Music Stars

The wrestling world has also taken to the movie world because, well, they are actors in the ring. They play larger than life characters (sometimes taking their real life and moving the notch up ten times louder) so it makes sense that they would try to make money on the side by getting into Hollywood. Before the Rock jumped to the silver screen, there were quite a few wrestlers who had jumped the gun before him.

Andre the Giant made his big screen debut in 1970s television series the Six Million Dollar Man. He had other roles, but most famously, is probably his role in the Princess Bride in 1987. Hulk Hogan was another name who crossed over. Rocky III, No Holds Barred, and Mr. Nanny comes to mind when I think of Hogan in films. One also cannot forget about Thunder in Paradise, which began as a movie turned TV show. And my personally favorite, Roddy Piper in the cult hit, They Live.

But it seems like movies aren't the only things wrestlers are good at. It seems like these sports entertainers are turning their attention to music. Captain Lou should be given this credit as he and Cyndi Lauper created the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. Without this, we may never have had the West Texas Rednecks in WCW that Curt Hennig was apart of and gave us the classic hit, "Rap is Crap." And one cannot forget about Macho Man's rap CD. What about the musical hit, Hulk Rules? For today's kids, don't we all have John Cena's rap cd?

Ok, besides the West Texas Rednecks, the rest didn't leave much of an impression to me ("Rap is Crap" was pretty catchy back in the day, if you ask me, and I could never hate anything my boy Curt did). But there are a few times where the cross over works. Jillian Hall had a decent hit with a Jingle with Jillian. It peaked at 76 in the UK charts and 120 in the Billboard US. It hit number 20 in the UK Holidays Top 100 and peaked in ITunes Top 50 Albums when released.

Cena's album actually did very well. It was certified gold, debuted 15 on Billboards and 3 on the rap charts. Not bad for a white wrestler rapping, if I don't say so myself.

Both those Cds were produced by WWE Records. I think, just like Vince taking a big chance with WWE Films, it's time to go big with WWE Records. Vince has always backed his wrestlers when it came to acting, as he knew the movie industry would give him a plug on the credits (I believe Vince got credit for the Mummy or the Rock's spinoff). But once Rock left on his own, Vince got smart. He saw that there was a chance another wrestler could get big in Hollywood and he wanted to stop that. He wanted full control over the movies, therefore, we got WWE Films.

As of this writing, two pretty big names in the WWE locker room are coming out with CDs. And no, I'm not including Chris Jericho because he's been doing his own thing for quite some time, did this without the help or promotion of any wrestling company, and could have easily been a rock star outside of wrestling (I'm not just saying that, the critics have said that with the recent release of Chasing the Grail).

No, the two wrestlers I'm talking about is WWE Divas Maria and Mickie James. Mickie has a country CD that is coming out this March with her first single, Are You With Me, coming out on the 16th of Feb. Maria is coming out with Seven Sins, a Pop CD (I believe) which hits ITunes on April 13th and her first single, Fantasy, coming out the 23rd of Feb.  In fact, you can get a 30 second clip of the song on her website right now:

http://maria-kanellis.org/

Personally, I'm not a fan of Maria's voice as her screaming of Fantasy kills it for me. I enjoy her singing low, but once she belts out the word Fantasy I want to cringe. She can't hit that high note.

My personal review aside, Vince is letting two beautiful ladies go off on their own without making a dime off their CD. If these CDs actually take off, I wouldn't be surprised to see Vince waking up and seeing that he can make a good penny off of ITunes with WWE Records. Vince McMahon is money hungry and any chance to make a dime, the man will jump all over it. So, depending on these two lovely ladies and how their music career takes off, I'd keep a real close eye on WWE Records and be on the lookout in a year or two before other wrestlers and Divas come out with some CD to help them crossover to the mainstream audience and help Vince out with his retirement fund.