While Stephen Amell may be known mainly for his acting work, he also has a solid following amongst pro wrestling fans. This is partly due to his work on the two-season Starz series Heels but also because of the high-profile wrestling matches he's participated in over the years. Amell recently shared a wild story about his match at WWE SummerSlam in 2015 and how Warner Bros. asked him to pay to promote Arrow at the event.
WWE superstar Cody Rhodes may be at the top of the wrestling food chain these days, but back in 2015, he was a mid-carder still putting in the work to establish himself as a standout talent apart from his legendary father, Dusty Rhodes, and equally famous half-brother, Goldust. He found a way to do so with a feud with then-CW star Stephen Amell, which eventually led to a guest-starring role on Arrow that Rhodes took pretty seriously.
With the two squared against each other in the ring at SummerSlam 2015, one would think The CW would do all it could to promote the appearance of the Arrow star. As Stephen Amell recently revealed during a virtual live signing event with HighSpots Superstore, they wanted him to pay for it:
I asked WB if we could use the Arrow theme song for my music, and they said yeah and they wanted to charge me $5,000, and I said, ‘Are you guys out of your mind?’ I said, ‘I will not pay you a single dollar. Do you understand that I’m doing promotion for the show?’ And they went, ‘Well, we didn’t set it up. So it’s gonna be $5,000,’ and I said — can we swear on this? I said, ‘Go fuck yourselves’ and then they called up and they said, ‘We’re happy to give it to you,’ and I said, ‘Uhn, uhn…’
It's wild to hear that Warner Bros. wanted Stephen Amell to pay to be able to walk out to the Arrow theme song, especially for a massive WWE event like SummerSlam. While his tag-team match with Neville against Stardust and King Barrett, currently available to watch with a Peacock Premium subscription, wasn't the headlining event, the fact it took place at one of the WWE's biggest events of the year was pretty noteworthy. Perhaps WB banked on the wrestling company paying the fee for Amell or just wanted someone to pay regardless.
As such, Stephen Amell did not get to use the Arrow theme for the big match; instead, it was music made by the team at WWE. The actor was fine with what was written but expressed regret that he wasn't able to use the iconic show theme for his big wrestling moment:
The WWE wrote me a nice — they wrote me something. They did it. It wasn’t as good as what Blake Neely put together for the Arrow score which would’ve been amazing… Oh man, people at studios don’t like when they don’t have their own ideas.
Stephen Amell won the match, but Cody Rhodes has moved on since then and isn't begging for a rematch. Instead, he's hoping to "finish the story" and beat undisputed champion Roman Reigns after falling short at WrestleMania 39. It's expected the two will have a rematch at WrestleMania 40, and little chance of Amell showing up to aid Reigns in taking out his old rival.
Though he hasn't fought with Cody Rhodes, Stephen Amell has stayed connected to the world of pro wrestling. In 2018, he appeared at AEW's All In to fight Christopher Daniels and also worked with recently-returned WWE superstar CM Punk on Heels. With Punk's growing feud with Rollins, could Amell be worked in to serve as a piece in helping Punk's quest for a major title at WrestleMania or another upcoming WWE event? I know that I would be up for seeing it happen, but the WWE might be more focused on the immense talent pool it already has.
