home/movie/2014/daniel bryan journey to wrestlemania 30
Daniel Bryan: Journey to WrestleMania 30
Not Rated
Documentary
8.4/10(5 ratings)
A WWE Network documentary chronicling Daniel Bryan's journey to WrestleMania XXX.
04-09-2014
1h 0m
THIS
HELLA
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Production:
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), WWE Home Video
Key Crew
Executive Producer:
Will Staeger
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Saraya-Jade Bevis
Saraya-Jade Bevis is an English professional wrestler. She is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), under her real name Saraya. She is best known for her work with WWE under the ring name Paige. She was a two-time (and the youngest) WWE Divas Champion and the inaugural NXT Women's Champion. She is the only woman to ever hold both Divas and NXT Women's Championships simultaneously.
In 2005, at the age of 13, Bevis made her debut under the ring name Britani Knight for her family's World Association of Wrestling promotion. She went on to hold several championships on the European independent circuit. After talent scouting in England, WWE signed Bevis in 2011, and she began wrestling in its developmental systems, debuting on Florida Championship Wrestling in 2012 and later going on a winning streak in NXT. In her 2014 debut match on the main roster, she won the Divas Championship at the age of 21, becoming the youngest Divas Champion in history.
In 2015 and 2016, Paige went on hiatus due to injury, undergoing neck surgery in October 2016. In December 2017, she suffered an impact injury to the neck at a match, preventing her from competing further. Paige formally retired from in-ring competition in 2018 due to injury, at age 25. She is a contributor to WWE-related programs and has fulfilled managing roles. Paige ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Female 50 and was named Diva of the Year by Rolling Stone in 2014. In 2018, she received the WWE Year-End Award for General Manager of the Year. In 2012, Channel 4 produced a documentary about Paige and her family, The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, which was adapted into the 2019 feature film Fighting with My Family.
Stephanie Nicole Chigvintsev (née Garcia-Colace; born November 21, 1983), known professionally as Nikki Garcia, is an American television personality and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE from 2007–2023, in which she performed under the ring name Nikki Bella alongside her twin sister, Brie, as The Bella Twins. She is currently the host of the game show, Barmageddon.
In 2007, Garcia signed with WWE and was assigned to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling alongside her twin sister Brie, forming the duo The Bella Twins. She made her debut for the SmackDown brand in 2008. She is a two-time WWE Divas Champion with her second reign of 301 days being the longest reign for the now defunct title. She and Brie were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 as The Bella Twins. Also during her time in WWE, she starred in the reality TV series, Total Divas, and she and Brie got their own spin-off, Total Bellas. In her last few years in WWE, she only made sporadic appearances, but acted as an ambassador for the company. After her contract with WWE expired in 2023, she and Brie announced that they would be retiring the "Bella" surname and would be returning to their legal maiden name of "Garcia" professionally, and reintroduced themselves as The Garcia Twins.
Garcia ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Female 50 in November 2015, and was named Diva of the Year by Rolling Stone in December 2015. She also won the award for Choice Female Athlete alongside her sister at the Teen Choice Awards in 2016.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Nikki Bella, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied with Ric Flair for the most world championship reigns in professional wrestling history.
Born and raised in West Newbury, Massachusetts, Cena moved to California in 1998 to pursue a career as a bodybuilder. He transitioned to professional wrestling in 1999 when he debuted for Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW). He signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 2001, where he was initially assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He gained fame in the WWE after adopting the persona of a trash-talking rapper. He won his first singles title, the United States Championship, in 2004. The next year, he won the WWE Championship for the first time, and his character subsequently transitioned into a clean-cut "Superman-like" hero. He then led the company as its franchise player, and public face for the next decade.
A joint-record 16-time world champion, Cena has won the WWE Championship thirteen times, a record for the title. He is also a five-time United States Champion, a four-time world tag team champion, a two-time Royal Rumble match winner, a one-time Money in the Bank match winner, and has headlined several major WWE pay-per-view events, including their flagship event, WrestleMania, five times. His professional wrestling career has been met with mixed critical and audience reception, with praise for his character work and promotional skills, but criticism for his supposed over-representation and on-screen placement relative to other wrestlers.
Cena first starred in The Marine (2006), and gained praise for his performances in Trainwreck (2015), Ferdinand (2017), Blockers, and Bumblebee (both 2018). He starred in F9 and portrayed Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad (both 2021) and in the eponymous television series. His debut studio album, You Can't See Me (2005), was certified platinum. Outside his work in entertainment, Cena is known for his involvement in numerous charitable causes, namely with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where he has granted the most wishes, at over 650.
Brianna Monique Danielson (née Garcia-Colace; born November 21, 1983), known professionally as Brie Garcia, is an American television personality and retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her time in WWE from 2007-2023 in which she performed under the ring name Brie Bella alongside her twin sister, Nikki, as The Bella Twins.
In 2007, Garcia signed with WWE and was assigned to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling alongside her twin sister Nikki, forming the duo The Bella Twins. She made her debut for the SmackDown brand in 2008. She is a one-time WWE Divas Champion, and she and Nikki were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 as The Bella Twins. Also during her time in WWE, she starred in the reality TV series, Total Divas, and she and Nikki got their own spin-off, Total Bellas. In her last few years in WWE, she only made sporadic appearances, but acted as an ambassador for the company. After her contract with WWE expired in 2023, she and Nikki announced that they would be retiring the "Bella" surname and would be returning to their legal maiden name of "Garcia" professionally, and reintroduced themselves as The Garcia Twins.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Brie Bella, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Bryan Lloyd Danielson is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the William Regal led stable Blackpool Combat Club, alongside Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta. He is also known for his time in WWE where he worked from 2009 to 2021 under the ring name Daniel Bryan. Danielson began his professional wrestling career in 1999 on the independent circuit, and signed an 18-month contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), in 2000; he later went on to make uncontracted appearances in WWE until 2003. He joined the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion in 2002, wrestling in the main event of the promotion's first event, The Era of Honor Begins. Considered a mainstay of ROH, he stayed with the company until 2009 and, during his career, won the ROH World Championship and ROH Pure Championship once each, unifying them at one point, and was the inaugural winner of the annual Survival of the Fittest tournament. Due to his contributions to ROH, he was part of the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame in 2022. Danielson also wrestled extensively in Japan, winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling Noah and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (with Curry Man) in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Danielson also won numerous titles on the independent circuit, including two PWG World Championships and the FIP Heavyweight Championship and the wXw World Heavyweight Championship once each. In 2009, Danielson again signed with WWE, but was fired for three months in 2010. Upon his return, he went onto win the WWE Championship four times,[Note 1] the World Heavyweight Championship once, and the United States and Intercontinental Championships once each. Danielson also won the WWE Tag Team Championship as part of Team Hell No (with Kane) and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (with Erick Rowan), thereby becoming WWE's 26th Triple Crown Champion and 15th Grand Slam Champion. He also won the Money in the Bank ladder match in 2011, won Superstar of the Year at the 2013 Slammy Awards, and headlined several major WWE pay-per-view events, including their flagship event, WrestleMania, in 2014 and 2021. Danielson retired from wrestling in 2016 due to injuries arising from multiple concussions, which led to seizures and a brain lesion. He then took on a non-wrestling role for WWE as the on-screen general manager of SmackDown. He remained in the role until 2018, when he was unexpectedly cleared by doctors to return to in-ring competition. After his WWE contract expired in May 2021, Danielson signed with AEW, debuting in September that year.
Randal Keith Orton is an American professional wrestler and actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time he is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand and is one half of the current Raw Tag Team Champions with Riddle in their second reign. Orton is a third generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, father Bob Orton Jr., and uncle Barry Orton were all wrestlers. Before being signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he trained in and wrestled for the Mid-Missouri Wrestling Association and Southern Illinois Conference Wrestling. He was then signed by the WWF and was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he held the OVW Hardcore Championship twice. He became a member of the stable Evolution shortly after his WWE debut, which quickly led to an Intercontinental Championship reign, his first championship with the company. He also acquired the moniker "The Legend Killer" during a storyline where he began disrespecting and then physically attacking WWE Hall of Famers and wrestling veterans. At the age of 24, Orton became the youngest world champion in WWE history after he won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. With this win, he departed from Evolution and a feud with his former stablemates began. In 2006, Orton joined forces with Edge in a tag team known as Rated-RKO. Together, they held the World Tag Team Championship. After Rated-RKO disbanded in mid-2007, Orton gained two WWE Championship reigns in one night, becoming the second youngest two-time WWE Champion at the age of 27. He formed the group The Legacy with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. in 2008. They disbanded in 2010, and Orton returned to singles competition. From 2013 to 2015, he was aligned with The Authority, who named him the "face of the WWE". In 2016, he joined The Wyatt Family, winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championship with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper before turning on them in 2017. He won his first United States Championship in 2018, becoming the 18th overall Grand Slam Champion after already having been the 17th Triple Crown Champion. Orton has held the WWE Championship 10 times and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship four times. He was the final holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, which he unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in 2013. Orton is recognized by WWE as having the third-most world championship victories in history at 14, behind John Cena and Ric Flair (both 16) and tied with Triple H (also at 14). All totaled, Orton has won 20 championships in WWE. He is also the winner of the 2013 Money in the Bank ladder match, as well as a two time Royal Rumble match winner (2009 and 2017) and has headlined multiple WWE pay-per-view events, including WrestleMania 25 and WrestleMania XXX. Following his match at the 2021 Survivor Series, he broke Kane's record for wrestling the most PPV matches in WWE history.
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler, and is often referred to as the archetypal wrestling magnate. McMahon currently serves as the Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the professional wrestling promotion WWE and is the majority shareholder of the company, holding approximately 88% of the total voting power and 59% of the outstanding shares within WWE. Upon acquiring World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), McMahon's WWE became the sole remaining major American professional wrestling promotion until the national expansion of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and Ring of Honor.
As an on-camera character, he can appear on all WWE brands (though the majority of the time, he appears on Raw). McMahon plays a character known by the ring name Mr. McMahon, based on himself. In the world of WWE, he is a two-time world champion, having won the WWF Championship and ECW World Championship. He was also the winner of the 1999 Royal Rumble. Vince is the husband of Linda McMahon, with whom he ran WWE from its establishment in 1980 until she resigned as CEO in September 2009.
April Jeanette Mendez (or better known by her ring name: AJ Lee) is an American professional wrestler. She works for WWEunder the ring name AJ Lee, where she is the current WWE Divas Champion. Before signing with WWE, Mendez performed for several Northeast-based independent promotions as Miss April, including Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU), where she held the WSU Tag Team Championship once. After signing with the WWE in 2009, AJ was part of the third season of NXT in 2010, placing third in the competition. In 2012, after being involved in several relationships with wrestlers feuding over the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship (CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena and Kane) while also becoming Raw General Manager for almost three months, AJ was named WWE's "Diva of the Year". At the Payback pay-per-view in June 2013, Lee won her first WWE Divas Championship by defeating her former best friend Kaitlyn. A self-professed "nerd" and a "tomboy". WWE adapted Mendez's comics and video game fandom to her on-screen character, endorsing her as different from the typical women in the WWE and promoting her as the "Geek Goddess".
Michael Sean Coulthard, better known by his stage name, Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator, wrestling show host, seldom wrestler, and former news journalist. He is signed to WWE where he served as commentator for SmackDown starting in 1999, before being shifted to the company's flagship program, Raw, where he's been since 2008 to the present. In gimmick, as a catty, antagonistic commentator, Cole is prone to insinuations, harassment, and especially giving guest commentators a hard time. In addition, he's noted for his locutions, such as "Vintage," references to his fans as "Cole Miners," and while speaking on behalf of the anonymous RAW general manager, "Can I have your attention please. And I quote..." When he first started out as a regular WWE commentor in 1999, he was a face. In 2010, however, he transformed into a heel for the first time. By September 2012, he became a face once more. Beyond doing commentary for Raw, Cole performs in several other positions for the WWE: As of October 2012, he has done commentary for WWE Main Event; since December 7, 2012, Cole and former wrestler JBL, both notorious for their mouthy and aggressively opinionated gimmicks, have hosted their very own WWE YouTubeweb series, The JBL and Cole Show.
Paul Michael Lévesque is an American professional wrestler, actor and WWE executive, better known by his ring name Triple H, an abbreviation of his former ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. As well as wrestling on the Raw brand, Levesque is a Senior Advisor to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, and Head of WWE's talent development department.
Before joining WWE, Levesque began his wrestling career with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994, wrestling under the ring name Terra Ryzing and later as Jean-Paul Lévesque. Levesque joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1995 with the on-screen persona of wealthy sophisticate Hunter Hearst Helmsley. He later abbreviated his name to Triple H and adopted an alternative image in the stable D-Generation X (DX). After the dissolution of DX, Triple H was pushed as a main event wrestler, winning several singles championships. As part of a storyline, Triple H married Stephanie McMahon, who later became his real-life spouse. In 2003, Triple H formed another stable known as Evolution, and in 2006 and 2009, reformed DX with Shawn Michaels. Overall, Levesque has won 23 championships in WWF/E, including thirteen World Championships, having won the WWF/E Championship a record eight times (tied with John Cena), and the World Heavyweight Championship five times (Triple H is also recognized as the first World Heavyweight Champion under WWE's lineage). He has the highest number of world title reigns of all active WWE wrestlers. In addition, Levesque won the 1997 King of the Ring, the 2002 Royal Rumble, and was the second Grand Slam Championship winner. Outside wrestling, Levesque has made numerous guest appearances in film and on television
Michael "Mike" Gregory Mizanin is an American professional wrestler, reality television star, media personality, and actor better known by his nickname and ring name The Miz. He is currently signed to WWE where he is the reigning Intercontinental Champion. Mizanin first gained fame as a cast member on MTV's The Real World: Back to New York, which first aired in 2001, and its spinoff series, Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He later entered the fourth season of Tough Enough, a televised competition that would award the winner a WWE contract, and became the first runner-up. Mizanin has also made appearances on television shows including Battle of the Network Reality Stars, Fear Factor, Identity, Ghost Hunters, Dinner: Impossible, Psych and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. Mizanin trained and wrestled with Ultimate Pro Wrestling and Deep South Wrestling, where he became the first Deep South Heavyweight Champion. Mizanin was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), working in tag team matches and winning the tag team title, the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship, on one occasion. After signing with WWE, Mizanin became host of the annual WWE Diva Search competition in 2006. Following his hosting duties, Mizanin made his wrestling debut in September 2006, as a villain who went undefeated. In 2007, was drafted from SmackDown to the ECW brand, where he formed a partnership with John Morrison, in which the two held both the WWE Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship. He was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2009 WWE Draft, and won the WWE United States Championship on two occasions. He also won WWE Unified Tag Team Championship with The Big Show and the WWE Tag Team Championship with John Cena. In July 2010, he won a Money in the Bank ladder match at the first WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view, earning a contract for a WWE Championship match, which he used in November to win his only WWE Championship. In 2011, The Miz was ranked number one on Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual PWI 500 list.
Steven James Anderson, formerly Steven James Williams, better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American film and television actor and retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. Austin wrestled for several well-known wrestling promotions such as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and most famously, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which later became World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002. Billed as "The Most Popular Superstar in WWE History", he gained significant mainstream popularity in the WWF during the mid-to-late 1990s as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, a disrespectful, beer-drinking antihero who routinely defied his boss, Vince McMahon. This defiance was often shown by Austin flipping off McMahon and incapacitating him with the Stone Cold Stunner, his finishing move. McMahon inducted Austin into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. Austin held nineteen championships throughout his professional wrestling career, and is recognized by WWE as a six-time world champion, having held the WWF Championship on six occasions, and the fifth Triple Crown Champion. He was also the winner of the 1996 King of the Ring tournament, as well as the 1997, 1998 and 2001 Royal Rumbles. He was forced to retire from in ring competition in early 2003 due to a series of knee and neck injuries sustained throughout his career. Throughout the rest of 2003 and 2004, he was featured as the Co-General Manager and "Sheriff" of Raw. Since 2005, he has continued to make occasional appearances. In 2011, Steve Austin returned to WWE to host the reality series Tough Enough. On August 14, 2002, Austin was arrested and charged with domestic abuse. He pleaded no contest on November 25, 2002, and was given a year's probation, a $1,000 fine, and ordered to carry out 80 hours of community service.] Marshall told Fox News that Austin beat her three times and that the 2002 incident was the result of roid rage. She also stated that WWE knew of the abuse, working to conceal the bruises on her face, and kept her from revealing that Austin hit her, as it would cost the company millions of dollars.
During his early years as a wrestler, Austin was a technical wrestler. However, after his neck injury against Owen Hart in 1997, he changed his style from technical to brawler. His most famous finishing move is the Stone Cold Stunner, or simply Stunner. During his time as The Ringmaster he used the Million Dollar Dream as finisher, since it was Ted DiBiase's finisher. During his time in WCW, Austin used the Stun Gun as finisher
One of Austin's taunts during the Attitude Era was to show the middle finger. In August 2001, Austin cut a promo, debuting his catchphrase "What?", which is used today by fans when they want to mock wrestlers during promos
Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoaʻi is an American professional wrestler and former professional gridiron football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Roman Reigns. He is the current and longest reigning WWE Universal Champion in his second reign. He is part of the Anoaʻi wrestling family, which also includes his father Sika Anoaʻi, brother Rosey, and cousins Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Rikishi, The Tonga Kid, and the late Yokozuna and Umaga. Highly regarded by industry veterans, his heel run has been regarded as one of the greatest character arcs of professional wrestling. After playing college football for Georgia Tech, Anoaʻi started his professional football career with brief off-season stints with the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) in 2007. He then played a full season for the Canadian Football League's (CFL) Edmonton Eskimos in 2008 before his release and retirement from football. He then pursued a career in professional wrestling and was signed by WWE in 2010, reporting to their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). Under the ring name Roman Reigns, he made his main roster debut in November 2012 alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins as The Shield. The trio teamed together until June 2014, after which Reigns entered singles competition. Reigns is a five-time world champion in WWE, having held the WWE World Heavyweight Championship three times and the WWE Universal Championship twice. In 2022, he became the longest reigning Universal Champion at 581+ days, which is recognized as the sixth-longest world championship reign in the promotion's history. He is also a one-time WWE United States Champion, a one-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion (with Rollins), the 2015 Royal Rumble winner, and the 2014 Superstar of the Year. He tied the WWE record for most eliminations in a Survivor Series match with four in the 2013 event and also previously held the record for most eliminations in a Royal Rumble match with 12 in the 2014 event. Upon winning the Intercontinental Championship, he became the twenty-eighth Triple Crown Champion and the seventeenth Grand Slam Champion. Reigns has headlined numerous pay-per-view events, including WWE's flagship event WrestleMania five times (31, 32, 33, 34, and 37). Additionally, Reigns was ranked number one in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual PWI 500 list of the top 500 singles wrestlers in 2016. From 2014 onwards, WWE attempted to establish Reigns as their next "face of the company", positioning him as a heroic character, which was met with intense disapproval by audiences and critics. However, following his return in August 2020, Reigns was repackaged as a new villainous character, "The Tribal Chief", which has generally been met with acclaim by fans and critics alike. His revamped persona was named Best Gimmick by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2021
Colby Daniel Lopez is an American professional wrestler, signed to WWE under the ring name Seth Rollins. He was one-third of the stable The Shield, former WWE Tag Team Champions with Shield member Roman Reigns, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and was the inaugural NXT Champion. Lopez previously performed under the ring name Tyler Black. Lopez also was a former FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion, FCW 15 Champion and FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with Richie Steamboat and is the first FCW Grand Slam Champion, the most decorated FCW star in its history. He first gained notoriety in Ring of Honor, where he is a former ROH World Champion. He has competed in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (where he is a former World Tag Team Champion), Scott County Wrestling, AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, the National Wrestling Alliance, and Wrestling Society X. In several promotions, Black was the tag team partner of Jimmy Jacobs, with the team known as Doin' It For Her. He was once a member of The Age of the Fall along with Jacobs, and several other wrestlers.
Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name, Shawn Michaels, is an American professional wrestling personality, television presenter and retired professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he has served as an ambassador for the company since December 2010. Michaels wrestled for WWE, from 1988 until his first retirement in 1998, owing to a severe back injury. He appeared in non-wrestling roles from 1998 to 2000 and resumed his wrestling career in 2002 until retiring ceremoniously in 2010. In the WWE, Michaels headlined major pay per view events in four decades from the 1980s to the 2010s, closing the company's premier annual event WrestleMania on five occasions
Michaels was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2011. Following Michaels' induction, WWE said of Michaels, "Ask any Superstar on the WWE roster who the most gifted sports-entertainer of all time is and nearly everyone will have the same answer Shawn Michaels." Michaels is a four time world champion: a three-time WWF Champion and a former World Heavyweight Champion. He was also the winner of the 1995 and 1996 Royal Rumbles and was the company's first Grand Slam Champion. He has also won the PWI Match of the Year Award a record eleven times. Michaels currently resides in San Antonio, Texas with his wife, Rebecca, and their two children.
Phillip Jack Brooks, better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, and retired mixed martial artist, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as a wrestler and to Cage Fury Fighting Championships (CFFC) as a commentator. In wrestling, he is best known for his time in WWE, where his 434-day reign as WWE Champion stands as the sixth-longest in title history.
Brooks began his professional wrestling career in 1999 on the independent circuit, mainly with Ring of Honor (ROH), winning the ROH World Championship once. He signed WWE in 2005, and won the WWE Championship twice, the World Heavyweight Championship three times, and the Intercontinental Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once each. Brooks also won the World Tag Team Championship, becoming WWE's 19th Triple Crown Champion; the fastest wrestler to achieve this feat, in 203 days. He is also the only back-to-back Money in the Bank winner, has headlined several WWE pay-per-view events, won Superstar of the Year at the 2011 Slammy Awards, and was voted Wrestler of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. After becoming disillusioned with WWE, Brooks acrimoniously departed the company and retired from professional wrestling in the wrestling 2014 year.
Brooks has used the CM Punk moniker for his entire professional wrestling career, and his character has been consistently portrayed as outspoken, confrontational, sharp-tongued, anti-establishment, straight edge, and iconoclastic, most of which are inspired by his real-life views and personality. Depending on his alignment as a hero or villain, Brooks has emphasized different aspects of the straight edge lifestyle to garner the desired audience reaction.
After retiring from professional wrestling, Brooks pursued a career as a mixed martial artist, and he signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A welterweight, he had his first professional fight at UFC 203 in 2016, losing via submission to Mickey Gall. He then lost his second fight to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision at UFC 225 in 2018 (later overturned to a no contest), and was subsequently released. Brooks then began appearing as a commentator with Cage Fury Fighting Championships (CFFC), and as an analyst on the Fox Sports 1 program WWE Backstage.
Brooks had his first leading acting role in the animated film The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! (2015), and has since starred in the horror films Girl on the Third Floor (2019) and Rabid (2019), and in the drama television series Heels (2021–present). As of January of 2024 CM Punk works for the World Wrestling Entertainment and WWE Network.
Paul Donald Wight II is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as an in-ring performer, and as a commentator for its web television show, AEW Dark: Elevation, under his real name of Paul Wight. He is best known for his tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1995 to 1999 as The Giant and with WWE from 1999 to 2021 under the ring name Big Show.
Wight began his career in 1994. In 1995 he signed with WCW, where, due to his very large frame, he was known by the ring name The Giant (and was initially introduced as "the son of André the Giant"). In early 1999, he left WCW to join WWE. Between WWE and WCW, he is a seven-time world champion, having held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice, the WWE Championship twice, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship twice and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once, making him the only wrestler who has won all four titles. He is also an 11-time world tag team champion, holding the World, WWE and WCW World Tag Team Championships multiple times with various partners. Having also won the Intercontinental, United States and Hardcore championships, he is the 24th Triple Crown and 12th Grand Slam winner in WWE history. He also won the 60-man battle royal at World War 3 and the 30-man André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31. He has headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WCW and WWF/WWE since 1995, including the 2000 edition of WWE's premier annual event, WrestleMania.
Outside of professional wrestling, Wight has appeared in feature films and television series such as Jingle All the Way, The Waterboy, Star Trek: Enterprise, and two USA Network's comedy-dramas Royal Pains, Psych and the action-drama Burn Notice. He had lead roles in the WWE Studios comedy film Knucklehead and the Netflix sitcom The Big Show Show.
David Michael Bautista Jr. (born January 18, 1969) is an American actor of Filipino-Greek descent and retired professional wrestler. He had several stints in WWE between 2002 and 2019. In his acting career, he is most widely known for his portrayal of Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), up until leaving the franchise after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), and for his portrayal of Glossu Rabban Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve's Dune (2021) and its sequel, Dune: Part Two (2024).
Jonathan Good is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he appears under the name Jon Moxley. He was previously known for his work in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) under his former ring name Dean Ambrose, where he was one-third of the stable The Shield before signing with AEW and NJPW.
Jerry O'Neil Lawler, better known as Jerry "The King" Lawler, is an American color commentator and professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, although he has not performed as a full-time commentator since April 2020. Prior to joining WWE in 1992, he wrestled in numerous territories, winning many championships, including multiple World Heavyweight Championships, throughout his career. Lawler is a one-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion and a three-time WCWA World Heavyweight Champion, making him a four-time world champion in AWA and WCWA. He unified the titles by defeating Kerry Von Erich at AWA Super Clash III, forming the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship, a championship which he held 28 times. He is also known for his feud with comedian Andy Kaufman and he portrayed himself in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. Lawler has held more recognized championships than any professional wrestler in history, though he has never won any championships in WWE having wrestled sporadically whilst primarily providing color commentary, since joining the company. In 2007, Lawler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
James William "Jim" Ross is a professional wrestling commentator, referee, restaurateur, occasional wrestler, and former company executive of WWE, where he works as a commentator on NXT, interim commentator on Raw, and as a talent relations consultant. Ross was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest announcers in wrestling history. He is known affectionately by wrestling fans as "Good Ol' JR". Outside of professional wrestling, Ross has developed his own brand of barbecue sauces and cookbooks.
Stephanie McMahon Levesque is an American businesswoman and retired professional wrestler. She is the chief brand officer (CBO)of WWE and appears as an authority figure on the Raw, NXT and SmackDown brands. On May 19, 2022, She announced that she was taking "a leave of absence" from WWE.
She is a fourth-generation wrestling promoter as a member of the McMahon family, she has worked for WWE since she was a young girl (modeling T-shirts and other merchandise for various WWE catalogs) working her way up to receptionist, then in various front office jobs up to and including her current CBO position. She is the great-granddaughter of Roderick "Jess" McMahon, granddaughter of Vincent J. McMahon, daughter of WWE Chairman and CEO Vincent K. McMahon and retired WWE CEO and former Administrator of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon, the younger sister of WWE part-owner/wrestler Shane McMahon, and wife of WWE executive/wrestler Paul "Triple H" Levesque.
McMahon began appearing regularly on-air for WWE (then WWF as the World Wrestling Federation) in 1999 as a part of a storyline with The Undertaker. After a brief on-screen relationship with Test, she was engaged to Triple H — whom she married both on-screen and later in real life — which resulted in The McMahon-Helmsley Faction storyline. She has held the WWF Women's Championship once. In 2001, she was the on-screen owner of Extreme Championship Wrestling during The Invasion. The following year, she was the SmackDown General Manager, but stopped appearing regularly on television after an "I Quit" match with her father Vince McMahon.
After making only sporadic appearances for several years, McMahon began appearing regularly on Raw in 2008 as the Raw brand general manager before disappearing once again. By mid-2013, McMahon returned to regular on-air appearances in the WWE, this time under the gimmick of an unctuous, judgmental, bullying owner along with on-screen chief operating officer, her husband, Triple H. From 2013 to 2016, they acted as a power couple known as The Authority, making what were often shady decrees while claiming only to be concerned for "what's best for business," all the while romanticizing each other in the process with public displays of affection. The Authority later expanded into a stable, co-led by Triple H and herself.