It doesn’t happen often, but the completely different worlds of football and professional wrestling met this week as Manchester City striker Erling Haaland teamed up with wrestler and actor John Cena for a humorous sketch to promote the Premier League club’s forthcoming preseason trip.

Fresh from an extremely revealing comic cameo at the Oscars, Cena was again at his jovial best as he video-called Haaland from Florida, posing as the Norwegian’s secret super fan while wearing a City replica shirt and scarf, a long blonde wig and sipping from a glass of milk (which just so happens to be one of Haaland’s favourite drinks.)

The duo launched off with a customary joke about not being able to see one another (a reference to Cena’s wrestling gimmick) before releasing information about City’s summer 2024–25 tour of the United States, which will stop in New York and Orlando, among other destinations.

While there hasn’t been much connection between the world of professional football and wrestling in the past, there are undoubtedly a few significant examples, with the likes of Jose Mourinho and Wayne Rooney making special guest appearances on broadcasts in recent (ish) years.

Rooney did a convincing job of keeping his ground and then slapping British wrestler Wade Barrett across the face during a live concert in Manchester in 2015.

Mourinho was mocked as he sat in the crowd for an event in 2007 when Shane McMahon saw the then-Chelsea boss in the audience and began to humiliate the Portuguese coach as a shower of boos rang across the arena.

Back in 2019, Mexico striker Raúl Jiménez was on hand to personally welcome fellow countryman and wrestler Sin Cara to the Wolves training field after previously celebrating a goal by donning the lucha libre star’s distinctive mask.

How could we not mention former Werder Bremen and Germany goalkeeper Tim Weise, who retired from sport in 2016 in order to retrain as a professional wrestler, making his WWE debut shortly thereafter?

And who could forget in 2020 when WWE legend and West Ham United supporter Triple H urged Declan Rice to stay at the club in order to “build a legacy and become a hero?” That obviously didn’t work out.