When it comes to the conversation of wrestlers who put their boots to the side in favor of the glitz and glamor of Hollywood, a number of big names come to mind. The Rock, Batista, John Cena, even going back to Hulk Hogan’s infamous run on the big screen, Randy Savage as Bonesaw in the first live-action “Spider-Man,” and Roddy Piper’s iconic performance in “They Live.” However, someone who might have actually had the most consistent acting career is none other than Kurrgan.
Robert “Kurrgan” Maillet was a Canadian wrestler who had made a name for himself for being a giant of a human being, standing at seven feet tall and weighing in at 350 pounds. Amongst the men who trained him in the late 1980s was WWE Hall of Famer and Canadian icon Bret Hart, and throughout the early and mid-1990s, Maillet went by many names around the world. Giant Goliath in the UK, Goliath El Gigante in both Mexico and Japan, and when he was eventually signed by WWE in 1997, The Interrogator.
The Interrogator was part of the short-lived Truth Commission stable that only the most loyal fans of the Attitude Era would remember, featuring a murder’s row of people you look at and go “wait, THEY were in The Truth Commission?” We’re talking Recon, who is better known to many fans as Bull Buchanan, and known by even more fans as the father of “WWE NXT’s” Brooks Jensen. We’re talking Tank, not the Tank that’s also in “NXT” right now, we’re talking the Tank who was played by the man who just a few years earlier was Mantaur, and we’re also talking The Jackyl, easily the most famous member of the group to fans today who know him better as AEW’s Don Callis.
The Truth Commission weren’t long for this world, and both Kurrgan and The Jackyl would go on to form The Oddities in 1998, a stable that was infinitely more memorable for how insane it was looking back on it. After a year-and-a-half of just being the comedic relief at the bottom of the card, Kurrgan would leave the company in the Spring of 1999.
For the next decade, Kurrgan would start transitioning out of wrestling in between tours of CMLL in Mexico and local shows in his home country of Canada. This was due to his pursuit of becoming a successful actor, and given his unique size and look, It’s no surprise that he landed roles in movies like “300,” “Pacific Rim,” and “Sherlock Holmes,” the latter of which being the movie that saw Robert Downey Jr. get punched in the face on set by who else but Kurrgan (he was very apologetic about it apparently). After fully retiring from wrestling in 2011, he has popped up in “Deadpool 2” as Sluggo, an episode of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” and while he hasn’t had a major role since before the COVID-19 pandemic, he still leads a remarkably busy life to this day.