Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.nytimes.com
Cody Rhodes, one of the current faces of World Wrestling Entertainment, wore a dark pinstripe suit as he neatly ate chicken Parmesan at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills, a hot spot for the Hollywood directors and executives he wants to be around.
On a previous visit, Rhodes recalled, a waiter who recognized him delivered a cappuccino with his logo — an American-flag-themed skull with wings — printed onto the foam. But on this Tuesday afternoon, the image was of the wrestler and his Siberian husky.
Rhodes would like more people to recognize him and Roman Reigns, his W.W.E. rival, the way they recognize Dwayne Johnson and John Cena. The hopes of Rhodes and Reigns rest on their roles in “Street Fighter,” a nostalgic film adaptation of the 1991 action video game.
The movie, out on Oct. 16, is also an industry test. Can the current iteration of the W.W.E. still launch top wrestlers into Hollywood stardom given the fractured media landscape, or is it just a richer company whose athletes will continue to chase the lofty benchmarks of the old guard?
“I don’t want to talk about those guys ever,” Rhodes, 41, said at the Polo Lounge. “They’re amazing, I love them and I got to work with several of them, but we’ve got to be better than they were.”
For the past four years, Reigns, 41, a longtime headliner, and Rhodes, who returned to W.W.E. after several years away, were the faces on the company’s promotional posters and digital thumbnails. They perform live — leaping from the top rope, dripping sweat and makeup — in front of thousands in sold-out stadiums. Millions more watch on television.
But their nicknames — the Tribal Chief and the American Nightmare — do not yet travel as far as Johnson’s; the Rock has anchored a billion-dollar Disney franchise in “Moana” and has hosted “Saturday Night Live” five times. Nor have the wrestlers walked naked across the stage of the Academy Awards, as Cena did in 2024 for a skit.
Unlike W.W.E., “Street Fighter” does not use Rhodes and Reigns as leading men. They are part of a crowded cast with Jason Momoa, 50 Cent and Noah Centineo. The wrestlers are still treating the film as a proving ground.
“The movies have a different ring to it; the top actors still have a level of fame that seems unattainable,” said Reigns, whose real name is Joe Anoa’i. He spoke on a virtual call the morning after he wrestled in Mexico City in W.W.E.’s weekly flagship vehicle, “Raw.”
“It’s on us to show that we can continue to hold that standard,” he added, “and take the sharpened tools that we’ve learned in wrestling and pull those over to the big screen.”
While filming for about a month in Australia, both men adjusted to life on set. Rhodes had never been strapped to wires for high-flying stunts. Reigns had never seen so many blue screens. He read the script about nine times.
Legendary Entertainment, the production company that also developed “Dune,” early on targeted Reigns for Akuma, an imposing, demonlike antagonist. Rhodes was cast later as Guile, an intense but comedic military operative with a blond flattop, after he impressed them in a meeting.
Cale Boyter, executive vice president for creative affairs at Legendary, said the portrayals resembled their W.W.E. personas — Reigns as the villain; Rhodes the flag-wearing hero.
“They don’t fully escape into a role, you see aspects of how you know them in the ring,” Boyter said. “I think a lot of people are going to be really surprised in terms of how they lose themselves in the specifics of these characters.”
Unlike independent actors, Reigns and Rhodes are under contracts with W.W.E., and needed permission to miss required appearances to shoot the movie. Rhodes said he mentally prepared to be told no. Boyter also had concerns.
But the man in charge did not. Nick Khan, the W.W.E. president, said he fully supported the venture. In the W.W.E. script, their absences were explained away as injuries.
“If past is prologue, the bigger that these guys can become outside of the W.W.E., the bigger they become inside W.W.E. — that’s good for everybody,” Khan said. “Both have earned the right to do outside projects with W.W.E.’s buy-in and support.”
Khan said the company would review film and television opportunities with other wrestlers on a case-by-case basis.
The standard for W.W.E.’s cultural reach is still the Attitude Era, the late-1990s run that Vince McMahon built as chief executive (it was then called the World Wrestling Federation). “Raw” was appointment viewing, with crude story lines that helped make household names of Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin and others. People smelled what the Rock was cooking. “Austin 3:16” shirts dotted storefronts.
Johnson’s first lead role in a movie came in 2002 with “The Scorpion King.” He chased silver-screen success for a decade — which included a hiatus from W.W.E. — until his breakthrough in the “Fast & Furious” universe. He is now a sporadic presence in wrestling.
Cena, who arrived at W.W.E. in 2002, later crossed into movies and television shows — the HBO comic book series “Peacemaker” among them — and gradually phased out of the ring, retiring last year.
Their void lifted Reigns and Rhodes to top billing inside the company with measured visibility outside it: voice-over work, small film and TV roles and talk-show appearances.
But the country no longer gathers around one cable channel for wrestling. W.W.E. now lives on Netflix, ESPN and the USA Network. Its content is tamer and more advertiser-friendly.
“Look at the ring,” Reigns said with a chuckle, referring to sponsorship logos emblazoned on the canvas. “It’s very apparent what they are doing with our business structure.”
W.W.E. is now a more lucrative, sophisticated company with a smaller cultural footprint, said Dave Meltzer, a journalist and author who has covered professional wrestling since the 1980s. He likened its popularity during the Attitude Era to that of a buzzy television drama series. Its current following is still devoted but more contained, he said.
“It’s not like Cody or Roman can walk in and be big-time box-office stars,” he said, “but they are doing this movie, so that is a feather in their cap.”
Khan, the W.W.E. president, said the company’s current trajectory made it more accessible to more demographics. “We believe we have the right formula for our fan base that we are always looking to grow,” Khan said.
In 2023, a deal made W.W.E. part of a new company, TKO Group Holdings, led by the Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel. After a high-profile match in Philadelphia in 2024, Rhodes signed with WME, the talent agency Emanuel helped found, which also represents Johnson and Cena.
Rhodes said Emanuel did not know who the wrestler was before that night, but WME set up the meeting at Legendary and Rhodes was cast in “Street Fighter.” Rhodes said he wanted to “do right” by Emanuel and Khan, a former television agent at Creative Artists Agency, a rival of WME.
“They’ve told the town, ‘You’re a serious person,’ and that’s really helpful,” Rhodes said.
A TKO spokeswoman declined to make Emanuel available for comment.
Reigns and Rhodes both said they counted Johnson and Cena as instrumental in helping their transition. Reigns appeared briefly with Johnson in a 2019 “Fast & Furious” spinoff, a job he took so he could observe how Johnson operated on a set. Rhodes said Cena texted him that he was proud after seeing the AMC Theaters popcorn bucket shaped as Guile’s flattop.
But wrestling is still their day job. Rhodes recently signed a five-year contract extension with W.W.E., and Reigns wrestled at an event in New Orleans two days before the “Street Fighter” premiere in Los Angeles.
“It’s important that we’re able to cross over, but if the goods aren’t good, nobody’s going to care about wrestling,” Reigns said. “This is a ‘What have you done for me lately’ world, and you have to constantly audition for next week.”
