Ilona Maher Says She’s Been Approached to Join WWE

After her turn on Dancing With the Stars last year, Ilona Maher doesn’t seem to be done with Hollywood just yet.

The rugby star and Olympic bronze medalist recently revealed to BBC Sport that she’s “been approached before by the WWE,” adding that if she joined the wrestling entertainment company, her ring name would be “Maher-vellous.”

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“I don’t know if I would [go into wrestling]. I should think about it, there is great money in it,” she Maher continued, noting she also has her eyes on the “acting space.”

“I think a Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, John Cena progression, I would love to do that,” she explained. “It would be exciting to see my body type on the screen. I’ll start off small, probably like a hot assassin or something, let’s not get too crazy. I’m not going to be in a rom-com just yet.”

Maher first rose to fame while competing for Team USA during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, using her social media platform to advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. She later competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, taking home a bronze medal, before competing on season 33 of Dancing With the Stars with her partner Alan Bersten. They came in second place.

“I’m always just trying to stress that you’re so much more than the stereotypes that sometimes people put you in,” she told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “I’ve always just found it as an athlete, as a female athlete, whatever sport I have played or whatnot… I was always told you gotta be this and this and this and I was like, well, I don’t feel that way or I’m not that way, but I still love this sport. I love who I am.”

A docuseries on the rugby sensation is also being developed by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, Ross Greenburg Productions and Range Sports.

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