Is Dave Bautista the best wrestler turned actor of all time? I think it's surprisingly hard to argue against him. My power rankings:
Bautista
Andre
Rock
Cena
Piper
Edge
Mercedes
Ventura
(basically everybody else)
Hogan
Bautista
Andre
Rock
Cena
Piper
Edge
Mercedes
Ventura
(basically everybody else)
Hogan
Comments
Not even mentioning his Oscar winning role in Running Man
I think Rock and Cena play the same variant of one character in all their movies, zero depth
The rest are just meathead wanna be actors that really don’t do it for me
William 'Wee Willie' Davis and Tor Johnson in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950):
I think he is and I like how Andre had his ranking below Dave's, because Andre's performances were always fun and memorable. Hell, he was in an episode of The Bionic Man.
"I'm on the brute squad."
"You ARE the Brute Squad!"
And he was just so wonderful on set, from what everyone said about him.
Mandy, Andre, Robin, Cary, Chris, Christopher, Peter, Fred, Carol, Billy, even Wallace whose whole schtick is being hard to like.
Oh, Mandy also suffered an injury in his scenes with Billy Crystal on account of laughing so hard, he bruised a rib.
Not to mention it has the best opening of any show in the history of the world! p.s. Eaglely is also the best sidekick ever. 😀
Also, Cena has way more range than the rock.
Cena has range and the other dude is just 🪨 every movie
Cena has range.
The rock is, kind of a rock.
I would have Piper higher if his movie choices had been better.
Everyone else, meh...except for Jesse Ventura in Predator. Bad ass!
He was actually a damn good actor in his earlier stuff and showed lots of range.
He was also very good on Ballers.
https://www.rifftrax.com/abraxas-guardian-of-the-universe
Then I never saw him in anything again and I was very grateful that he learned his lesson
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001474/?ref_=ext_shr
I think Rock is good, he just doesn't choose different enough parts.
Dude couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.
And I don't follow wrestling.
I'm biased towards Piper and Copeland, though. Loved everything that Piper did, even if most of the roles basically seemed to amount to playing "himself". And Edge was great in Haven.
But I'd also probably put Robert Maillet high on my list. And...David Arquette.
Though have you seen Maillet in person? That's a big Canadian bias. 😆
Watch John Cena, when he does interviews, especially when he was promoting Peacemaker.
That has to be a tied line for me.
Piper always has THEY LIVE! as a crowning achievement, but he also has a lot of stinkers.
Edge was fantastic in Haven but it doesn’t have the cultural impact THEY LIVE! does.
Is it good? I’ve heard mixed reviews from people.
Cena might not always be a better actor than the rock, but it's no secret that the rock does most projects he does (especially lately - Black Adam and Moana 2) for the sake of his own ego before much else, and that puts him way down imo
For me, those two are the closest call in this.