Beyond The Gates star Mike Manning stunned soap fans this weekend when he accepted a challenge issued to him on X and posted his response on Instagram.
The challenge read: “Hey @mike_manning_ I challenge you to take that 👕 off and pose like a professional wrestler 🤼 let’s see what you got! #poselikeyourfavoritewrestler.” The actor responded simply: “Ok… 😏”
Ok… 😏
— Mike Manning (@mike_manning_) May 2, 2025
A few days later the actor took to Instagram to post the jaw-dropping results. He captioned the photos, “Did I understand the assignment? 🤼 #WWE#wrestling#gym#workout#gains@wwe@wwe_on_netflix” as the Daytime Emmy winning actor posed like wrestler Randy Orton.
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Manning began his daytime soap opera career on Days of Our Lives in 2020 for the role of Charlie Dean. He is currently a series regular on Beyond the Gates as Bradley Smith.
In addition to those roles, Manning began his time on television on The Real World: D.C. in 2009. He appeared on 42 episodes of the webseries Youthful Daze as Collin Morris, as well as playing the role of Caleb McKinnon on The Bay.
Manning has also worked behind the scenes as well, as a producer on The Passion Project, executive producer on Youthful Daze and producer on The Bay.
Beyond The Gates is developed and produced by CBS Studios and the NAACP in partnership with P&G Studios a division of Procter and Gamble. The series is the groundbreaking first hour-long black soap opera to premiere in daytime. The creation is the brainchild of award-winning showrunner Michele Val Jean, in association with executive producer Sheila Ducksworth, and is the first new soap opera to premiere since NBC debuted Passions back in 1999.
The series is officially described as, “Beyond the Gates is set in a leafy Maryland suburb just outside of Washington, D.C., and in one the most affluent African American counties in the United States. Here you’ll find a posh gated community with winding tree-lined streets and luxurious mansions to call home. At the center of this community are the Duprees, a powerful and prestigious multi-generational family that is the very definition of Black royalty. But behind these pristine walls and lush, manicured gardens are juicy secrets and scandals waiting to be uncovered. And those who live outside these gates are watching closely. These are the places where our characters live, love, work and play. Those who have “made it” and those who haven’t are all trying to navigate life … and some with more grace than others.”
Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS at 2 pm ET, and streams weekdays on Paramount+.