We’ll see how Street Fighter fares at the box office this weekend, but heading into opening night there’s been a lot of interest in the WWE wrestlers among its cast, Roman Reigns as Akuma, and especially Cody Rhodes’ fully-committed performance as Guile. New Japan’s Hirooki Goto is also in the film as sumo master E. Honda.
Reigns and Rhodes aren’t the only current WWE stars trying to follow in the footsteps of John Cena, Dave Bautista, and Dwayne Johnson. Drew McIntyre’s been out most of the year
doing movie work, and says “Hollywood Drew” is his current priority. Seth Rollins has spent most of his post-SummerSlam break talking about the NFL on ESPN. CM Punk seems to have slipped some acting into his time off after WrestleMania. And there are many more.
So how does WWE deal with these time off requests from its main roster while trying to book 5-10 hours of programming a week? In a New York Times feature out today called, “Can W.W.E. Still Mint Hollywood Stars? ‘Street Fighter’ Is the Test.” (told ya there’s been a lot of interest), WWE president Nick Khan told Emmanuel Morgan that WWE reviews film and television roles offered to its wrestlers “on a case-by-case basis.”
As for Reigns and Rhodes? Cody says he was “mentally prepared to be told no”, but the company clearly got behind Street Fighter. Khan says WWE supports their Hollywood dreams (and has likely ensured Cody and Roman’s contracts keep them in business with the company even if they become Cena or Rock’s level of fame).
“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 (Roman Reigns & Cody Rhodes) have earned the right to do outside projects with W.W.E.’s buy-in and support.”
Who else do you think WWE and TKO would push in Hollywood? Who should they push in Hollywood?
