WrestleMania weekend has come and gone, and frankly, I don’t know how you weren’t leaping out of your seat to watch a former punter who already appears on every sports related TV show overshadow the WWE championship match between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton – a pair of men who’s history dates back two decades. WWE, everybody! Just when you think they can’t mess up the easiest of layups, they turn around and launch a full-court shot into the other net. I fully expected Jason Kelce and/or Bert Kreischer to get involved in the match somehow as Terry Funk turned over in his grave.
Bad booking aside, let’s have fun and combine the worlds of professional wrestling and the NFL – because they aren’t very different at the end of the day. Sure, the squared circle and the gridiron lack similarities, but what helps make the NFL our pastime? The drama.
What do we love more than anything at this time of year? The storylines off the field. Who wants to be on a new team? Who is angry at their team owner? What players are beefing with one another? It’s the same as pro wrestling. Even in season, drama drives the NFL. We spent all of 2025 wondering if A.J. Brown would get traded and monitoring his social media to see what he said next. At the end of the season, Todd Bowles cut a scathing promo on his own team. Sam Darnold completed the ultimate underdog storyline of cast-off to world champion – everything is professional wrestling.
So, with that in mind, ahead of the biggest weekend on the wrestling calendar (unless All In 2026 tops it, which it very well could), today we’re comparing quarterbacks to wrestlers. Ring the bell.
When Mahomes became the Kansas City Chiefs’ starter in 2018, he immediately revolutionized the position with 50 touchdown passes in an MVP season. much like Omega took the pro wrestling scene by storm in the mid 2010s in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and eventually helped start All Elite Wrestling. Five Super Bowl appearances and three championships later, he is unquestionably one of the five best quarterbacks the game has ever seen. And coming off the back of yet another superb pay-per-view main event match against MJF at AEW Dynasty, Omega continues to cement his own legacy as one of the best to ever step foot in a squared circle.
You couldn’t find anyone who would say a bad word about Sami Zayn for the first decade that he was in WWE. His NXT run was tremendous, and his inclusion in the Bloodline saga earned universal praise. That said, over the last 18 months, Zayn’s “underdog” character has grown incredibly stale and some of us (points at self) have never been huge Sami Zayn guys. Herbert came out of the gates with unmatched speed, throwing 69 touchdowns in his first two seasons and topping 5,000 yards in Year Two. That said, he is 0-3 in the postseason and has yet to perform well in a playoff game, causing many to wonder if all the praise is really warranted.
The real life Nic Nemeth was far more outspoken and flashy than Cousins during his WWE run, but this focuses more on career arc. Ziggler was never seen as a WrestleMania main venter, but he was an incredibly steady hand in the mid-card that could win the United States or Intercontinental Championship on any given night.
Haas was one half of the world’s greatest tag team with Shelton Benjamin, who formed an alliance with Kurt Angle. Of the three, he’s the one who is least remembered. If the Broncos are Team Angle, the defense is Kurt Angle, Courtland Sutton and Jaylen Waddle are Benjamin, and Nix is Haas.
Cranky guy in his 40’s who has had multiple teased returns over the years? Now, Punk is straightedge and Rodgers notably does whatever hallucinogen lets him talk to banana trees, but go back and watch Punk’s press conference after All Out in 2022. “I’m hurt, I’m old, I’m f—king tired, and I work with f—king children.” He and Rodgers are two pissed off peas in a pod – which may be why I enjoy both of them so much.
It’s fitting that RVD’s theme music starts out with a voice shouting, “One of a kind.” His combination of high-flying moves and martial arts is still a combination that has been unmatched and is impossible to replicate. We haven’t seen another RVD, and we likely won’t see another Lamar Jackson in terms of his ability to run the ball while also tossing 40 touchdowns in a season.
Fashionable faces of the franchise. Neither afraid to speak their minds and be honest when they clearly don’t think things are working (go watch any podcast Rhodes has done in the last week where he clearly hates the McAfee stuff). Both were also big underdogs. Burrow left Ohio State and bet on himself at LSU, which is what Rhodes did when he left WWE in 2016 and went on an incredible run on the Indies, which lead to him being one of the founding fathers of AEW. Now, both are at the very top of their respective professions.
His dad was Mr. Perfect, and he… well, he wasn’t good. Need I say more? I’m sure there will be plenty of “against all odds” compilations this year, though.
Much like Mrs. Foley’s baby boy, Josh Allen takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. Both guys are incredibly easy to root for and will die trying to win. It took Foley a long time to win his first world championship, and the crowd was in a state of pure euphoria when he defeated The Rock in January, 1999. When Allen finally does win a Super Bowl for the city of Buffalo, it will be instantly emotional and a massive weight off the back of one of the game’s top stars, as well as the city he represents.
Think Evolution era Randy Orton, who was the youngest wrestler to ever win the World Heavyweight Championship at age 24. It was evident right away that Orton was talented and going to be great for a long time, which is how he has carved out a 24-year career that sees him challenging to win his 15th world title this weekend. Maye is only entering his third season, and was an MVP finalist and took his team to the Super Bowl in just his second season – the best is yet to come. It is also perfect that Orton lost in the main event of Night One like Maye lost in the Super Bowl.
Lashley was once thought to be the next big thing in WWE. He won the WWECW Championship early on in his first run with the company, but never turned into that main event star. An MMA run accompanied by a terrific run in TNA, though, brought him back to WWE where he won multiple world championships. Smith resurrected his career in Seattle, but now is hoping to do so again with the Jets. If he has anything close to a run like Lashley is back to having with The Hurt Syndicate, that would be a big win for him and New York. *Obligatory “WE HURT PEOPLE” chant here.
Kofi Kingston was a good mid-card wrestler in the early portion of his career. He won the Intercontinental Championship, Tag Team Championships, and United States Championship to solidify himself as a mainstay on Raw and Smackdown, but was never a world championship threat. Right now, that’s where Malik Willis is hovering, and the Dolphins haven’t exactly set him up for success after trading Jaylen Waddle to the Broncos.
Luger was WWF’s hopeful next Hulk Hogan, which was a label that was insurmountable, much like the lofty expectations placed on Lawrence before he played an NFL snap. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been good, though. He led the Jaguars to a playoff win in 2021 after surviving the Urban Meyer debacle. And in 2025 in his first season under Liam Coen, Lawrence put up over 4,000 passing yards and 29 touchdowns, leading the Jaguars to 13 wins and a playoff berth. Should he continue to stack seasons like that, Jacksonville can become one of the marquee teams in the AFC.
There is clearly something there with Cam Ward. Some of the throws he made in 2025 despite having the worst offense in football around him was astounding. With Trick Williams, there is star potential. He is good in the ring, has a great look, and an even better entrance that gets the crowd exited to see him. He defeated Sami Zayn for the United States championship to a massive pop. He has a bright future in WWE, as does Ward with the Titans.
Guevara started his AEW career with a bang, appearing in the first match in AEW Dynamite history against Cody Rhodes and was part of the top heel group in the company alongside Chris Jericho. However, despite multiple TNT title wins, fans soured on the high-flyer hard during his heel run alongside real-life wife Tay Melo. He has largely been relegated to Ring of Honor over the last two years. For Stroud, he needs to recapture that magic he found as a rookie if the Texans want to make it past the divisional round, and if he wants to be considered the long-term answer in Houston.
The real-life Tom Pestock seems like a lovely guy – the WWE character Baron Corbin was a steaming bowl of feces. Yet, WWE constantly shoved him down the throats of fans. That may sound mean to Daniel Jones, but he’s somehow been a starter in the NFL every year since 2019 while posting a record of 32-49-1. He had a good first half of 2025, but that’s not enough to say he’s now all of a sudden a good quarterback. And yet, the Colts still gave him the GDP of the city of Indianapolis.