Porn to Wrestle: The Crossover Between Adult and Sports Entertainment

Brian Damage

The world of professional wrestling can be a down and dirty business. Of course, the same can be said about the adult entertainment industry as well…quite literally. With that said, it should not come as a shock that there are many similarities and connections between the two forms of entertainment. Whether it is simply the actors and wrestlers being fans of one another’s work, or the actors and wrestlers getting personally involved in the others business. As you will soon learn, the two industries can and have gone hand in hand….or a lot more than that.

Both pro wrestling and pornography date back to the 1800’s, where one was considered at a time to be legitimate sport and the other considered lewd, scandalous and in many circles illegal. I’ll let you decide which was which. Both forms of entertainment changed throughout the years with both facing their fair share of criticism and adversity. Both have seen their respective industries go through scandals and dark moments and both witnesses huge financial growth over time.

Of course, we have covered wrestlers posing nude in the pages of Playboy magazine and have also talked about a few wrestlers that have actually gone further and participated in movies. The first wrestler turned pornographic actress that I can recall is Tiffany Million who once wrestled for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) as ‘Tiffany Mellon.’ As Tiffany Million, she starred, directed and produced well over 100 films.

We all are aware that the former ‘9th Wonder of the World’ Chyna aka Joanie Laurer delved into the adult entertainment business after she had stopped wrestling appearing in a handful of movies. The same can be said about Tammy Sytch fka Sunny in the WWF, who co founded a mature website called Wrestling Vixxxens with Missy Hyatt and also performed in a stand alone X-rated video called ‘Sunny Side Up: In Through the Backdoor.’ She also had very explicit sexual content with her boyfriend on her OnlyFans site.

Former WCW valet Major Gunns aka Tylene buck got involved with X-rated content. Gangrel aka David Heath directed several X-rated features after signing a deal with a company called called The New Porn Order.

Of course, former wrestlers turning to working in adult movies after their pro wrestling careers slow down or end have occurred….there is also those men and women who have entered pro wrestling after their porn careers fizzled out or simply left the adult business to follow a dream of becoming a pro wrestler. There was former WWE wrestler Lars Sullivan who appeared in gay porn before becoming a wrestler. The same happened with former ECW and WCW valet Chastity who appeared in a movie called ‘Live Bait’ before her career in pro wrestling.

Beulah McGillicutty did some X-rated solo stuff before her career as a valet in ECW, as did WCW valet Stephanie ‘Gorgeous George‘ Bellars, former WWE Diva Candice Michelle did some foot fetish porn and Mickie James also participated in various adult content before her wrestling career took off.

Some higher profile adult stars have also been involved in pro wrestling before, during and after their careers including Evan Stone who has starred in several hundred adult movies. A long time wrestling fan, Stone was actually initially trained to become a pro wrestler by the late ‘Gentleman’ Chris Adams. After failing to become a pro wrestler, Stone turned to adult films and in 2007, began training once again for the squared circle with the purpose of wrestling for a Florida based independent group called Coastal Championship Wrestling. His pro wrestling career, never really took off.

Alexis Fawx is a big wrestling fan who began training with AEW wrestler Jay Lethal to potentially wrestle one day. She has done some “wrestling” on Onlyfans against Jake Hager’s wife and former wrestler herself Catalina White (Who did a porn movie herself, but allegedly was released without her knowledge.

Jasmine St Claire was another longtime wrestling fan, who retired from the adult industry to get herself involved in the wrestling business. She appeared in ECW, TNA and XPW before fading away from the squared circle. She was also dating the Blue Meanie for a period of time and together opened their own independent wrestling promotion called 3PW.

British porn star Michelle Thorne became a wrestler/valet and married a British wrestler named Dean Powell. Vanessa Harding, Olivia O’lovely and Crystal Clark became wrestlers on the independent scene. Kendra Jade tried out for WWE’s Tough Enough. Adult performer Trina Michaels became a wrestler/valet and appeared in XPW and other indie groups. Trina is also very good friends with Mick Foley and made Foley the Godfather to Trina’s child.

Tom Byron was an adult star starting in 1982 and lasted into the 1990’s. He made thousands of films as both a performer, producer and director. Byron was good friends with the late Big Dick Dudley and XPW owner and former porn producer Rob Black. He has worked behind the scenes at XPW events.

Speaking of Rob Black, he was a former porn company owner who started up a wrestling group based in Southern California known as Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW). He also had porn stars appear for the company in various roles including Lizzy Borden, Jessica Darlin, Veronica Caine and Kristi Myst. A Canadian adult performer, Carol Cox owned a wrestling promotion called International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Porn megastar Jenna Jameson was also involved in pro wrestling appearing in ECW with the Dudleys and Joel Gertner and having a real life sexual relationship with Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman. Jameson also made a cameo appearance in a WWF vignette for the debuting Val Venis, who incidentally portrayed a wrestling porn star.

Adult star Minka made appearances on the independent scene, as well as an appearance in WCW in a confrontation with the Outsiders of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in 1999. Rachel Rocketts was briefly a member of the WWF faction ‘the Oddities’ in 1998.

Legendary adult film star from the 1970’s and 80’s…Seka was heavily rumored to be involved in a relationship at one time with John ‘Ace’ Laurinaitis. She denied those rumors and stated that she preferred rock stars over pro wrestlers, but was a very big fan of the business and had several friends who were pro wrestlers.

Over in Japan, there have also been wrestlers who transitioned into porn and vice versa such as FMW’s Chocoball Mukai and female freelance wrestler Chanyota. A Japanese porn distributing company called Bakki Visual Planning has been known to financially back pro wrestling organizations including All Japan and DDT Pro.

Aside from those adult stars that ventured into pro wrestling one way or the other…there are still plenty more who remain longtime fans and make no secret about it….

Ava Addams

She has stated on social media many times that she is a longtime fan of WWE and grew up watching the product.

Kendra Lust

Kendra Lust is a big fan of pro wrestling and has several friends in the business including Nic Nemeth, Ashley Sebera, Celeste Bonin, Bill Goldberg and Karl Anderson. She has stated that her all time favorite wrestler is ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. Several years ago, Lust was rumored to be having an affair with John Cena…which both denied. She ended up doing a wrestling porn parody and has reached out to former WWE wrestler Lacey Evans on doing a collaboration on Onlyfans.

Tanya Tate

Another very vocal adult star that often talks wrestling on various social media platforms and gives predictions on PLE’s and PPV’s.

Lisa Ann

Lisa Ann starred in a wrestling parody movie and had a sex scene with the late Joanie ‘Chyna’ Laurer. She has attended WWE events at Madison Square Garden and proclaimed her admiration for AEW star Toni Storm.

Sara Jay

Sara Jay said that she was a wrestling fan since she was eight years old and watched it religiously every Saturday morning growing up. She also stated she was has been to a few Wrestlemania’s and owns a ton of wrestling memorabilia. She loved Kevin Nash and nWo, but said her all time favorite wrestler is ‘The Rock.’

Brandi Love

Brandi Love has been a WWF/WWE fan for quite a number of years. In fact, she stated that on her 14th birthday, she attended Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Leigh Raven

Leigh Raven has a connection in professional wrestling with her aunt being a former WWE Diva. Her aunt is Joy Giovanni who was with the company back in 2004/2005. Leigh Raven also made it known that she would love to do a sex scene with the Rock.

Matt Riddle has been romantically linked to a couple of adult performers which include Jordan Maxx and Misha Montana. One of his ex girlfriends (not in porn) revealed text messages from Riddle where he said he wanted to get into the porn business himself…if his WWE career didn’t pan out. Riddle has since been released by WWE, but is still involved in the pro wrestling game.

Bubba Ray Dudley, New Jack, Tommy Dreamer and Ricardo Rodriguez all made cameos in different porn movies. New Jack, Dudley and Dreamer were spotted in the porn Whack Attack 5 starring Alana Evans and Alexandria Nice. As for Ricardo Rodriguez, before his wrestling career really started, he worked behind the scenes in the adult industry and said that helped him meet various promoters and wrestlers and got him wrestling gigs that way.

Adult performer Kiki Daire revealed nonchalantly in an interview that she almost slept with Eddie Guerrero before he passed away back in 2005. She did not reveal any other details about their encounter.

Joey Ryan taught porn stars Rachel Roxxx and Lea Lexis how to properly take bumps in a wrestling ring. Incidentally, Ryan had a wrestling maneuver called the penis plex that was sponsored by the porn website YouPorn. Ryan has since been blacklisted by the wrestling industry after several accusations of sexual harassment and assault.

In 1985, the World Wrestling Federation partnered with Evart Enterprises to form Coliseum Video. Together, they produced a number of home video VHS cassettes of WWF matches and events. Evart Enterprises were involved in the Adult video business producing such titles as “Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle”, “Shacking Up”, “Little Oral Annie Takes Manhattan” and “In the Pink.”

As you can see, professional wrestling and porn have a deep connection with one another and have so for many years. Will there ever be a breakout wrestling star to initially come from the world of adult entertainment like Sasha Grey and Traci Lords did in Hollywood? I wouldn’t be too surprised.