Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Star Trek Cameo: Who He Played & Why You Forgot Him

Deep into the 21st century, Dwayne Johnson is a household name. He has appeared in numerous major films, from "Jumanji: The Next Level" to "Fast X," featured in multiple DC Comics-based projects, and has become an animated Disney favorite, to name a few of his Hollywood career highlights. While it seems likely that his video-on-demand era is about to begin (and it's all his fault), odds are he'll remain a big name in the entertainment world for years to come. At the very least, Johnson will likely continue to land substantial roles going forward, at least those bigger than his oft-forgotten "Star Trek" franchise cameo.

Yes, way back in 2000 when he was best known to the world as WWE (then-WWF) superstar The Rock, Johnson appeared in a single episode of "Star Trek: Voyager." The Season 6 installment, titled "Tsunkatse," briefly features him in an unnamed capacity as a Tsunkatse champion of the Pendari race. He battles Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan, who found the show unpleasant but came to love Seven thanks to "Star Trek: Picard") in a gladiatorial arena, handily defeating her and talking a bit of trash along the way. Overall, though, it's not a very big role and it didn't give the then-novice actor Johnson much to do. Thus, it's totally understandable if you don't remember his guest appearance at all.

As it turns out, The Rock isn't the only professional wrestler to make a surprise appearance in a "Star Trek" production.

Though The Rock's "Star Trek: Voyager" cameo may seem random and appear as little more than a relic of the past — one where WWF programming and "Voyager" were both on UPN — it set an interesting precedent. In the years that followed, other professional wrestlers took to the "Star Trek" franchise as well. One year after "Tsunkatse" reached the airwaves, the late Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr., who played Zeus in the Hulk Hogan film "No Holds Barred" and reprised the role on WWF programming in the late '80s, played the Klingon Klaang on "Star Trek: Enterprise." He only appears in the flesh in the series premiere, "Broken Bow."

Three years after that, yet another icon of the squared circle boldly went where few wrestlers had gone before. This time around, it was Paul "The Big Show" Wight who popped up on "Star Trek: Enterprise." The over 7-foot-tall WWE icon was painted green to play an Orion slave trader in Season 4's "Borderland." Both Lister and Wight also boast impressive filmographies away from the "Star Trek" franchise. Lister is known best for "No Holds Barred," "Friday," and the ultimate sci-fi cult classic, "The Fifth Element," while Wight has worked on projects like "Jingle All the Way," "The Waterboy," and "The Big Show Show."

With the "Star Trek" franchise in a state of rapid expansion, time will tell if more professional wrestlers will take to the stars via screens big and small in the future.