WWE Alum Chavo Guerrero Jr. On Why Wrestlers Make Great Actors - Exclusive

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. John Cena. Dave Bautista, each of these men were iconic in the world of wrestling, and have managed to leverage their success in combat sports into entirely new careers — as Hollywood actors. Of course, they're not the only ones: Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, Steve Austin, and others have all attempted to conquer Tinsel Town, with varying degrees of success. Johnson, Cena, and Bautista are the first to become genuine Hollywood superstars, and it's fair to say that all three have real talent in front of the camera. According to wrestling legend Chavo Guerrero Jr., it simply took Hollywood a long time to recognize that. 

"Wrestling for years in Hollywood, at least, had kind of a carny stigmatism to it," he tells Wrestling Inc. in our exclusive interview. "Hollywood didn't get it in a sense. Now all of a sudden you've got The Rock, the highest-paid, most popular actor in the world. Guys like Cena, Bautista, they're not just putting out these incredible performances and really good films that are entertaining. People were paying to go see them."

As a result, the movie industry has begun to take performers with a wrestling background more seriously, giving them better roles and projects. 

"Hollywood's really understanding like, wow, these wrestlers aren't just these one or two-dimensional actors or performers," says Guerrero. "They're much more than they actually were portrayed in the past."

Guerrero himself has been working as a wrestling choreographer on series like "GLOW" and "Young Rock," and now a major motion picture, "The Iron Claw," the story of the Von Erich family and their tragic history, starring Zac Efron. 

"Let those guys be on camera," he says about his own ambitions. "Now I'm trying to bring and show what we can do behind the camera as well."

"The Iron Claw" is out now in theaters.