Why is Johnny Knoxville wrestling at WrestleMania 38?

Wrestlemania is always a prime showcase spot for celebrities, as evidenced by last year’s show when international pop superstar Bad Bunny stepped in the ring to participate in the show. For Wrestlemania 38 this weekend, there will be plenty of celebrity involvement for the two-night show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

Night 2 of the event will feature none other than Jackass star Johnny Knoxville stepping into the ring for a showdown with Sami Zayn in an “anything goes” match. This has been one of the more entertaining programs on WWE television for the past few months so how did we get here?

Johnny Knoxville vs. Sami Zayn backstory

This began on New Year’s Day in an effort to promote Jackass Forever coming out in theaters. Johnny Knoxville went to Instagram and announced that he would be entering the 2022 Royal Rumble later that month. This drew the ire of Sami Zayn and he spent several weeks calling out the actor/stuntman on Smackdown. Knoxville would also appear on Smackdown segments with Zayn, hyping up their inevitable encounter at the ppv. The two did indeed encounter each other during the Royal Rumble match and Zayn ultimately eliminated the celebrity from the match.

The feud was far from over as they kept upping the ante on each other through social media. Zayn crashed the Jackass Forever red carpet premiere in early February and in response, Knoxville destroyed Sami Zayn merchandise with a wood chipper. Later on in the month on actual WWE television, Zayn won the Intercontinental Championship and with Knoxville present during his celebration ceremony the following week, he attacked him.

On the next week’s episode of Smackdown, the actor/stuntman got a little bit of revenge when he provided a distraction and helped Ricochet defeat Zayn for the Intercontinental title. Shortly afterwards, Knoxville took it a step further by having a plane fly a banner with Sami Zayn’s phone number over the city of Los Angeles. The wrestler’s phone has not stopped ringing since.

And so now these two are set to blow off what has been a hilarious storyline in Arlington, TX. This is an “anything goes” match, so expect to see all kinds of weapons and shenanigans happening during this match. Considering that Knoxville’s claim to fame is literally doing stunts, we’ll see what kind of crazy bump he’ll take at ‘Mania.