'Street Fighter' Will Test Whether W.W.E. Can Still Mint Hollywood Stars

Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns are the next World Wrestling Entertainment performers aiming to cross from the ring into film, and the forthcoming adaptation of "Street Fighter" is the test case. That is the claim on the table. The comparison hanging over both men is the one drawn in a New York Times headline: "Can W.W.E. Still Mint Hollywood Stars? 'Street Fighter' Is the Test."

The premise is simple. The Rock and John Cena made the leap from wrestling to Hollywood stardom. Rhodes and Reigns, two of the company's biggest current names, want to repeat it. Whether that path still exists is the question — and the source raises a pointed caveat.

What has changed since the Rock and Cena?

Both industries have shifted since the Rock and John Cena rose, the source notes. That single observation carries most of the story's weight. It does not specify which changes matter most, and that gap is worth flagging.

What it does say is that the environment for a wrestler-turned-actor is not the one that produced the previous generation of crossover stars:

• Professional wrestling's own landscape has changed since the Rock and Cena built their careers.
• Hollywood has changed in parallel.
• Both men, Rhodes and Reigns, face the combined effect of those shifts.

The skeptic's question follows directly: what worked twice is not automatically a formula. Two success stories make a weak precedent.

Who are the wrestlers carrying the bet?

Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns are the names attached to the attempt. Rhodes is a headline W.W.E. performer; Reigns is another of the company's marquee figures. The source frames them together as hopefuls following a trail blazed earlier.

Their vehicle, "Street Fighter," is positioned in the source's framing as the specific test of whether the old pipeline still functions. The film is the evidence point — if the crossover works, it works here.

What does this change for wrestling — and for Hollywood?

The practical question for readers of both industries: does W.W.E. still function as a farm system for movie stardom? The honest answer, on the evidence available, is that nobody yet knows. The Rock and Cena proved the route once. Rhodes and Reigns are the current attempt to prove it again, under conditions the earlier pair never faced.

The source offers no verdict on the film's prospects, no release details, and no comment from the wrestlers, the studio, or W.W.E. itself. That silence is itself information: the bet is being placed before anyone can say whether the odds have moved.

If "Street Fighter" succeeds with Rhodes and Reigns aboard, the pipeline holds. If it fails, the Rock-and-Cena era starts to look less like a repeatable model and more like a closed window.