David Otunga Admits WWE Background Hurt His Acting Career

Former WWE Superstar David Otunga is opening up about his acting journey — and how being a wrestler once held him back in Hollywood.

In a January 14, 2026 appearance on Inside the Ring, Otunga offered a revealing look at the challenges he faced transitioning from WWE to mainstream acting. While fans may remember his 2022 appearance in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Otunga now says that landing that role was harder than most people realize — because of his wrestling background.

“I had to step away from wrestling and reinvent myself,” Otunga said. “At the time, WWE wrestlers were not getting respect in Hollywood, and it hurt me because they didn’t consider me a serious actor.”

He explained that being a pro wrestler came with a stigma in casting rooms, which meant he had to intentionally separate himself from his wrestling identity when pursuing auditions. Otunga then revealed something fans may not have known about his She-Hulk casting: Marvel Studios had no idea he was the former WWE Superstar.

“So I had to step away from that completely—not mention wrestling at all, not even have it in my reel. To the point where, when I got She-Hulk, I booked that straight up as an actor in the audition. They didn’t know I was David Otunga from WWE.”

While many wrestling fans celebrated his brief cameo and assumed Marvel intentionally cast “WWE’s David Otunga,” that wasn’t the case. He was hired to play a character named Derek, and the production team only found out about his wrestling past after headlines started making the rounds online. That revelation ultimately caught the attention of Marvel itself.

“I was reading wrestling sites saying, ‘David Otunga has a cameo in She-Hulk.’ No, he does not. I wasn’t playing David Otunga. I was playing Derek. They had no idea I was David Otunga. But when those articles started coming up, one of the producers messaged me and said, ‘Hey… were you a wrestler?’”

Otunga’s story shows the ongoing challenge that many wrestlers face when trying to cross over into acting — a path that’s still evolving despite breakout names like The Rock, John Cena, and Dave Bautista paving the way.

Do you think WWE stars still face a Hollywood stigma, or has the perception finally changed? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

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