WHILE many wrestlers have tried their hands at the acting business over the decades, few have had big budget success.
Yet joining The Rock among the handful who have struck Hollywood gold is the man once known as Kurrgan.
A star in the WWE in the late 1990s, the gigantic Robert Maillet is instead now making his name in box-office smashes including 300 and Sherlock Holmes.
And he took time out of promoting his latest release, The Big Bang, to look back on his previous life as a professional wrestler.
Speaking exclusively to SunSport, he told us: "I guess I've been wrestling for about 22 or 23 years now. I was always a big fan as a kid and loved watching Hulk Hogan, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage and all those other talented and colourful guys.
"My friends suggested I should give wrestling a go and with my size and enthusiasm for the industry I thought why not.
"So I talked a local trainer into letting me join his programme and in turn I began to tour the Canadian circuit. Due to my height and build I was pushed straight away and got to appear on the majority of the cards.
"Through my appearances across Canada I got the opportunity to travel and wrestled in Japan and Mexico. I had some great experiences there, learning as much about the business as possible.
"There's so much to learn and take in that it taught me to just take everything in and use it to my own benefit each time I got in the ring."
Maillet added: "My time in the WWE came about through a friend who knew Bret Hart. I was always a fan of the WWE and I was amazed to get an offer to join such an organisation.
"Bret had heard all about my career to date then. He liked what he saw and they flew me to Calgary.
"I was trained even further by Bret, he is a real legend and taught me well. The next thing I knew I was being signed up by the WWE and never looked back."
Robert's time with the WWE came at the height of the Attitude Era. Despite never expecting to appear on TV, he found fame as part of the Truth Commission stable and later the Oddities.
He told us: "Appearing on Raw was an honour. To then be added to live tours, PPV events and even have toys made of me was simply unbelievable. I loved every moment of it.
"Of course there were times I did sit and worry about things, especially before a taping or event.
"You'd arrive at the arena and have to wait to hear if you were being used and how that may be. So I'd never be sure where my character would be going or who he'd be fighting and that was unnerving.
"Life in the WWE was hard too, I was on the road and I had a young family, so I missed them a lot. I was lucky though, when you are on the road there are many risks and a lot of the guys end up 'damaged'. I was very fortunate indeed."
Kurrgan was released by the WWE in 1999, an initial blow that then led to a major acting career.
Maillet looks back on that time with a mixture of nostalgia and pride, but no regrets.
He admitted: "I was of course very upset when I got released by the WWE. I was heartbroken in fact, but you soon realise that it is simply business and that wrestling is a business and these decisions need to be made.
"They had given me many chances to prove myself, I feel I made my mark there and most importantly I got to live my dream of being a professional wrestler like I always hoped I could. I had my chance to shine in the WWE, they gave me that opportunity.
"I never feel in any way bad about my time there wrestling. Without wrestling I would not be where I am today.
"My wrestling background has certainly helped my acting career. I was used to learning scripts/dialogue and knew how to work in front of cameras. It's a different process, but that previous experience has certainly helped me. Acting is more defined and less over the top than wrestling needs to be.
"My WWE past has given me the chance to pursue acting as a career and so far I've been very lucky. I've been in movies like 300, Sherlock Holmes and many others, with each one my roles get bigger and I get to learn more.
"I have also got to work with some of the world's biggest A-list actors, I thank the WWE for helping me achieve that."
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Also interesting to note that Nash favours his knee when getting up..
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