Action/romcom The Killer’s Game – streaming on Prime Video from Jan 23 – will please a lot of viewers. More than that, it shows what really sets star Dave Bautista apart from other wrestler-turned-actors, reports Daniel Rutledge.
It’s far from an original opinion to declare Dave Bautista the greatest professional wrestler-turned-actor. At this point it’s very obvious he’s superior to the only two serious contenders—Dwayne Johnson and John Cena—on every meaningful metric aside from one: Money.
The Rock commands a much higher fee per film and boasts a significantly larger reported net worth, a category where Bautista also trails Cena. But it’s widely accepted Bautista is the more talented actor with the greatest range, and he’s starred in more genuinely great movies.
It’s only recently, however, I’ve noticed Bautista is the best in another way: he’s also the most enjoyable wrestler-turned-actor in genuinely average movies. More than The Rock or Cena, and more than Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Randy Savage or Roddy Piper, Bautista has the ability to elevate films that are less than amazing. For people who watch a lot of movies, this is a highly valuable quality. Trust me.
The Killer’s Game is an action/romcom that won’t make any ‘best of 2025’ movie lists nor be remembered fondly as a high point of Bautista’s career, but it’s a very passable direct-to-streaming flick that will please a lot of viewers.
In it Bautista plays a hitman who falls in love with an exotic dancer (Sofia Boutella), then has to waste a gang of comic book-esque fellow hired killers. The solid supporting cast includes the likes of Scott Adkins, Ben Kingsley, Marko Zaror, Pom Klementieff and Terry Crews, and there’s a hell of a lot of cartoonishly over-the-top CG blood.
But there’s also an important moment early on with Bautista and Boutella’s characters bonding, developing their affections for each other. It shows him lying in bed on his back, feet pushing her body up in the air like parents do with their children, the two of them holding hands and laughing together joyfully. It’s a quick little moment that most people will probably forget, but for me there was something really special about Bautista’s delightful face.
While they never faced off one-on-one in the ring, those few seconds in The Killer’s Game were The Rock metaphorically suffering a Batista Bomb and going out with a three-count.
The Rock reached an apex of his film career in the early 2010s with Fast Five and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Since then he’s sadly gotten lost in a slew of average and below-average movies which have grown less bearable over the years, despite the odd highlight like Moana.
Meanwhile, Bautista continues to appear in some forgettable films, but his growing body of work showcases an ever-increasing calibre with his work in the likes of Blade Runner 2049, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Knock at the Cabin and the Dune movies.
Rian Johnson agreed “100 percent” that he is the best wrestler-turned-actor in an interview with The Atlantic, saying: “As a person, Bautista is genuinely, immediately vulnerable when you meet him, and that’s what I was excited about. This is someone who has the physical trappings of someone who would play it big, but he actually brings sensitivity to the role.”
Chris Jericho publicly said Bautista is the “best actual actor” out of any pro-wrestler turned movie star, and fellow former WWE star Maven Huffman added Bautista is “a thousand times better than The Rock”.
Bautista also comes across as a more endearing dude in his often refreshingly candid real-life statements, too. We don’t hear of pathetic stipulations in his contracts like he can never lose a fight, nor does he lash out at critics after starring in a poorly-reviewed movie.
And he’s developing a more interesting film career that may make dipping back into his bad old movies more fascinating. Even his worst movies are more fun to sit through than much of The Rock’s punishing mediocrity; hell, I’d rewatch all of Wrong Side of Town before I subject myself to even a few minutes of Black Adam.
Most movies with a wrestler-turned-actor in the lead are not the sort of thing viewers expect or want Oscar-winning quality from. But that doesn’t mean we don’t expect them to be fun.
Bautista has shown he’s clearly capable of greater acting range and vulnerability than The Rock or any other former pro wrestler, and he’s starred in more actually great films than any other too. But what really sets Bautista apart from other wrestler-turned-actors is his ability to take any film, whether it’s good, average or awful, and make it a more enjoyable film simply by being in it.
