After her success in the Dancing With the Stars ballroom and on the rugby pitch, Ilona Maher is contemplating an offer to get into the WWE ring.
After playing for the U.S. at the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the 29-year-old Olympian told BBC Sport she has been “approached before” by the WWE, joking that her ring name would be “Maher-vellous.”
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“I don’t know if I would [go into wrestling],” continued Maher. “I should think about it, there is great money in it.”
If she did enter the wrestling world, the athlete explained that it would be with the aim of moving into the acting space. “I would love to get into the acting space and the scripted space. I think a Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, John Cena progression — I would love to do that,” she explained, adding, “It would be exciting to see my body type on the screen. I’ll start off small – probably like a hot assassin or something, let’s not get too crazy! I’m not going to be in a rom-com just yet.”
Maher, who was named 2025’s Best Breakthrough Athlete at ESPN’s ESPYs, continued, “We’ll see. The world is open, but I do see myself coming back to rugby.”
Maher became a breakout star of the 2024 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal with the Women’s Rugby Sevens Team and racked up about 9 million social media followers. After making it to the Dancing With the Stars 33 finale with partner Alan Bersten in 2024, Maher went on to join the Bristol Bears on a three-month contract in January.
“So many times people forget, but I am a rugby player first,” Maher explained. “I do the social media because I have to because it is not sustainable to be a women’s rugby player — I am not going to make money doing it.”
“It does irk me at times when people forget that,” she continued. “One comment once was: ‘Are you going to watch the Instagrammer play?’ I was like, ‘No, I have won a bronze medal, I’ve been to two Olympics, I am a good rugby player who loves the sport.’”
Maher emphasized, “I am proud to do both, but I do want to be known as a rugby player.”
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