NFL Quarterbacks and Their Pro Wrestling Counterparts: A Unique Comparison Ahead of WrestleMania

WrestleMania weekend has come and gone, and frankly, I don’t know how you weren’t leaping out of your seat to watch a former punter who already appears on every sports-related TV show overshadow the WWE championship match between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton—a pair of men whose history dates back two decades.

WWE, everybody! Just when you think they can’t mess up the easiest of layups, they turn around and launch a full-court shot into the other net. I fully expected Jason Kelce and/or Bert Kreischer to get involved in the match somehow as Terry Funk turned over in his grave. Bad booking aside, let’s have fun and combine the worlds of professional wrestling and the NFL—because they aren’t very different at the end of the day.

Sure, the squared circle and the gridiron lack similarities, but what helps make the NFL our pastime? The drama. What do we love more than anything at this time of year? The storylines off the field. Who wants to be on a new team? Who is angry at their team owner? What players are beefing with one another? It’s the same as pro wrestling. Even in season, drama drives the NFL. We spent all of 2025 wondering if A.J. Brown would get traded and monitoring his social media to see what he said next. At the end of the season, Todd Bowles cut a scathing promo on his own team. Sam Darnold completed the ultimate underdog storyline of cast-off to world champion—everything is professional wrestling.

So, with that in mind, ahead of the biggest weekend on the wrestling calendar (unless All In 2026 tops it, which it very well could), today we’re comparing quarterbacks to wrestlers. Ring the bell.

Patrick Mahomes: Kenny Omega

When Mahomes became the Kansas City Chiefs’ starter in 2018, he immediately revolutionized the position with 50 touchdown passes in an MVP season. Much like Omega took the pro wrestling scene by storm in the mid-2010s in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and eventually helped start All Elite Wrestling. Five Super Bowl appearances and three championships later, he is unquestionably one of the five best quarterbacks the game has ever seen. And coming off the back of yet another superb pay-per-view main event match against MJF at AEW Dynasty, Omega continues to cement his own legacy as one of the best to ever step foot in a squared circle.

Justin Herbert: Sami Zayn

You couldn’t find anyone who would say a bad word about Sami Zayn for the first decade that he was in WWE. His NXT run was tremendous, and his inclusion in the Bloodline saga earned universal praise. That said, over the last 18 months, Zayn’s “underdog” character has grown incredibly stale and some of us (points at self) have never been huge Sami Zayn guys. Herbert came out of the gates with unmatched speed, throwing 69 touchdowns in his first two seasons and topping 5,000 yards in Year Two.