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When news broke that former AEW World Champion MJF had been cast as one of Adam Sandler's sons in the much-anticipated Netflix movie Happy Gilmore 2, it turned eyes around the entertainment world.
Now sure, watching wrestlers go from in-ring action to the silver screen – or, in this case, the streaming screen – is nothing new, as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena have movies on Netflix right next to RAW, this marks AEW first big crossover hit, more so than even MJF's mentor, Cody Rhodes, who was given multiple opportunities on the greater Turner Networks to boost his star power. Factor in the sheer popularity of “The Sandman” and his films, and MJF has the potential to be part of an all-time class that a certain kind of comedy fan could be watching for decades to come.
But how did the pairing come together? Well, in an interview with Jimmy Traina on the SI Media podcast, MJF broke it down, noting that when he had Sander popping during his audition, he knew he had a pretty good shot of landing the film.
“It all starts by having ‘It,' which is something that I have that almost nobody else in the industry has today. A lot of people try to manufacture ‘It' with neat music or pyro or an interesting taunt or catchphrase. I was born with ‘It,'” MJF explained via Fightful.
“I got the audition because I am very talented and I have a very good representatives. I am repped by both Activists and CAA. I got the best team, easily. They got me the audition. This is a true story. I'm not fabricating anything or being hyperbolic. Adam Sandler himself saw my audition and he was apparently laughing like a hyena and then he said, ‘I want this guy to not audition for the other role I auditioned for originally, but I'd like him to audition for this role.' I auditioned for that role, and I got that role, which is a big role in the movie. I'm very excited for the movie to come out.”
And the rest, as they say, is history: MJF not just in the movie but featured pretty prominently in the trailer for it too and will be walking red carpets for the film later this year following his big fight with “Hangman” Adam Page at Revolution. Will this make MJF into a massive star bigger than professional wrestling? Only time will tell, but considering he's signed to a long-term AEW contract, the promotion will reap the benefits of his success, too.
