Is The Rock A Better Actor Or Wrestler?

From just $7 in his pocket to receiving a 15 minute-long standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival for his most recent project, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has one of the most unique careers in Hollywood history. While his journey from performing in a professional wrestling ring to being featured on the big screen has been told time and time again, with recent Oscar buzz for his new movie, there's an argument that Johnson may be the most successful star to leave WWE for Tinsel Town. 

The debate was sparked, in part, by Johnson's recent body transformation. His new, slimmed down appearance after years and years of bulky muscle mass put the social media spotlight on The Rock at The Venice Film Festival, where his new movie, "The Smashing Machine" was screened. In the film, Johnson plays MMA fighter Mark Kerr, but is almost recognizable due the extensive prosthetic makeup used to transform him into Kerr. The movie doesn't come out for the general public until the beginning of October, but there is already award buzz around Johnson's performance.

Rumblings of an Oscar are a far cry from The Rock's recent missteps in both Hollywood and WWE. While his animated film "Moana 2" was a hit, his name is still mud amongst DC fans, one of the strongest fan bases in pop culture. WWE fans are disillusioned by even the thought of The Rock, as many believe he ruined John Cena's heel run on his farewell tour after failing to appear at WrestleMania 41, and his subsequent explanation of missing the event didn't help his case.

Johnson has had both his blunders and successes in the ring and on the film screen throughout his almost 30-year long career. But, at this stage in the game, is he a better professional wrestler or an actor?

Johnson is part of one of the most famous wrestling families in history, the Anoa'i Family. His father was Rocky Johnson and his grandfather was High Chief Peter Maivia. It was almost inevitable he would end up in the professional wrestling industry, but first, he tried his hand at professional football. After he went undrafted in the 1995 NFL draft after playing at the University of Miami, he was signed to the CFL's Calgary Stampeders. Johnson was cut in his first season, and his father helped him get a contract with the then-WWF.

He didn't start off his wrestling career as The Rock, however. First, he struggled through his Rocky Maivia gimmick, complete with curly hair and tassels on his ring gear. Johnson was pushed as a babyface despite his inexperience in the ring, and WWF fans started to reject him as he racked up wins and various successes they didn't believe he deserved. The hatred for Johnson's character got so bad, fans would chant "Die, Rocky, die" at him. 

Johnson had to take some time off due to a knee injury suffered during a match and came back with the fresher, revitalized gimmick fans know and love today that helped WWF take off over WCW during the Monday Night Wars. When Johnson returned to WWF, he turned heel almost immediately and joined the Nation of Domination and began bad-mouthing the crowd. He wouldn't acknowledge his Rocky Maivia past, and referred to himself in third person as The Rock. 

With his new, trashy-talking, quick-witted gimmick that provided wrestling fans with plenty of new catchphrases, The Rock would rise to major heights in the Attitude Era. His star in the ring would rise so high, the bright lights of Hollywood came calling, and Johnson answered for the first time in 2001.

Johnson is one of Hollywood's highest paid actors of all time, but before that, he had to get his start somewhere, and did so with an already beloved fandom, "The Mummy." The Rock's first role in Hollywood was a success, despite him not having any experience outside of his in-ring character going in to filming.

He played the Scorpion King in Stephen Sommer's "The Mummy Returns," though he didn't have a massive amount of screen time or many lines. The film was so successful that he got his own spin-off movie, "The Scorpion King," that released the following year. Sommers didn't direct the film, but did write the screenplay. The film got mixed reviews from critics and "Mummy" fans alike, but was a financial success, grossing just over $178 million worldwide with a production budget of $60 million.

After the release of his "Mummy" franchise spin-off film, Johnson returned to the WWF and would wrap up his full-time in-ring career in 2004 with his Hollywood Rock gimmick, though he would still take time off here and there to film movies like 2003's "The Rundown and "Walking Tall," which would release in 2004.

Johnson would appear in various other films right after departing WWE, like 2005's "Be Cool" and "Doom" and 2006's "Gridiron Gang." He continued to rack up his acting credits with "Race to Witch Mountain" and "Tooth Fairy," before he would enter the "Fast & Furious" franchise with "Fast Five" as Luke Hobbs in 2011. The "Fast" movies are where Johnson really found his stride in Tinsel Town.

Johnson took time off from WWE to kickstart his acting career after he lost the WWE Undisputed Championship to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam in 2002. When he came back, he drastically changed his character once again as he slowly started to move into more of a part-time role. When he returned to the ring in January 2003, fans started to resent him for leaving and prioritizing the film industry. Taking that resentment and working with it, Johnson turned heel and reinvented himself as Hollywood Rock.

Hollywood Rock lauded himself as a "global star" who was too big for professional wrestling. The gimmick is also where he started his "Rock Concert" segments where he would mock the live crowd, as well his opponents, with a song while stumming on the guitar in the middle of the ring. Through the new character, Johnson strengthened his acting chops even further while still in WWE. 

The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin had been feuding for years at this point, and they fought one final time, at WrestleMania 19 while Johnson was still portraying his arrogant movie star character. Rock won the match, but was taken out the next night by Goldberg and written off to film "Walking Tall." 

Johnson's final match of his full-time WWE career took place at WrestleMania 20 in a handicapped match alongside his Rock 'n' Sock Connection partner, Mick Foley, against Evolution. He would appear sporadically on WWE television until August 2004, when his contract ended and he left for Hollywood full time.

Johnson's Hollywood career and his wrestling career would come together in his "Once in a Lifetime" (turned twice) feud against John Cena, which began well before their WrestleMania 28 match was announced when Rock hosted 'Mania 27. Cena had been taking shots at Johnson for years after he left the wrestling business for Hollywood, seemingly trying to convince fans that Johnson had left them all behind. "The Leader of the Cenation" would do the same years later when he left for the film industry, but at the time, he was the biggest babyface in the company. Johnson threw shots of his own, including during his father's WWE Hall of Fame induction, where he made fun of Cena's acting in "The Marine."

At WrestleMania 27, Johnson interfered in Cena's main event match against The Miz, setting up the story for their "Once in a Lifetime" match the following year. The pair would get hostile in promos in the lead-up to their big WrestleMania match, with Cena even once calling out Johnson for having notes written for his promo on his arm. The pair verbally battled their way to April 2012 and The Rock came out on top in their main event match. 

WWE went back on their "Once in a Lifetime" slogan, upsetting and bewildering some fans, and the pair ran it back at WrestleMania 29. Cena got his win back for the WWE Championship. It would be the last time the pair would face-off physically in the ring. Following the match, The Rock would go back to Hollywood to make the sixth and seventh "Fast & Furious" films, "San Andreas" and his animated film "Moana" over the next few years. He would only make appearances in WWE sporadically between the years 2014 and 2024 when he returned to help the Bloodline.

With the meteoric rise of comic book films thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Avengers, Johnson wanted to try his hand at playing a super hero. In the end, he ended up playing Black Adam, portrayed as an anti-hero in the DC Universe film. "Black Adam" released in 2022 after Johnson had initially been cast in 2007. After 15 years of waiting, the film flopped at the box office, leading to the sequel being cancelled, something Johnson seemingly didn't want to accept. 

After years of trying to get his Black Adam character off the ground, Johnson attempted what many DC fans believed to be a takeover of the DC Universe following his movie's failure. It was rumored he wanted to change the hierarchy within DC and put his own Seven Bucks production company, which he founded in 2012, at the helm to handle projects in the Extended Universe of films. 

Reports indicated that Johnson and his ex-wife and long term business partner Dany Garcia met with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav about Seven Bucks running DC and replacing then-DC Studios president Walter Hamada. The hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-CEOs of DC Studios foiled Johnson's plan.

In December 2022, Johnson took to social media with a statement and revealed Black Adam wouldn't be in Gunn's first chapter of the new DC Universe. He said that DC and Seven Bucks agreed to continue exploring ways the character could be utilized in DC's multiverse chapters. With Johnson's pivot to more serious roles, like in "The Smashing Machine," a return to the DCEU doesn't seem likely, especially after fans voiced their displeasure with the attempted takeover.

Johnson debuted his "Final Boss" character in the lead-up to WrestleMania 40, where he teamed up alongside his cousin, then-Undisputed WWE Champion Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins. The match was The Rock's last, as of this writing, but he made his WWE return before Elimination Chamber in 2025 to boost ticket sales ahead of the event. He didn't just come back to increase attendance and make a now-inaccurate WrestleMania 42 announcement, however, he told Rhodes that he wanted him to be "his champion" and he "wanted Rhodes' soul."

Johnson said he'd be at Elimination Chamber to get Rhodes' answer, and when the champion told him to "f*** himself," following John Cena's Chamber match win, Cena shockingly turned heel for the first time in his career and seemingly aligned himself with The Rock, as well as rapper Travis Scott. Despite all the setup, the March premium live event was the last time Johnson would appear on WWE programming.

With the dramatic heel turn of Cena, fans assumed The Rock would show up on the Road to WrestleMania or at the event itself. However, Cena was left to portray his bad guy character all by himself, without help from Johnson. The Rock would also not appear at WrestleMania 41 when Cena faced off against Rhodes, though Scott would slowly saunter his way down to the ring to help Cena win the title.

To make matters worse to fans, in the days following WrestleMania, Johnson went on "The Pat McAfee Show" in an attempt to explain his decision to not show up. He explained he didn't want to be involved and wanted the spotlight to go to Cena and Rhodes. He told McAfee he told WWE, "Let's not make it about Cody's soul," contradicting what his own character did at Elimination Chamber.

Before John Cena and Dave Bautista left WWE to prioritize their film careers, Johnson was the best actor in wrestling. Many stars tried their hand in movies, including Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant, Triple H, and more, but it can be argued Johnson's almost instant success and consistent roles ranked him above even above Andre in "The Princess Bride" and Hogan as Thunderlips in "Rocky III." Many wrestlers prioritized their in-ring careers over movies, as well. Johnson was only a full-time wrestler for around eight years, but has been in Hollywood for over 20.

Many former wrestlers are now doing quite well for themselves in Hollywood. Cena is the DCU success that Johnson wanted to be with his role in James Gunn's "Peacemaker" series, with his character getting his own show following Cena's role in "The Suicide Squad." Outside of the superhero world, he's also had success with "Bumblebee" and even joined the "Fast" franchise, like Johnson, with "F9" and "FastX."

Bautista has also had numerous high profile roles with few misses, from "Spectre," to "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," and "Knock at the Cabin." He is currently best known for his role as Drax the Destroyer in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. While both Cena and Bautista have strong fandoms from the Marvel and DC universes, Johnson also has a younger audience with his voice acting work as Maui in the "Moana" movies as well as his work in "Jumanji" and "Disney's Jungle Cruise."

The "best actor in wrestling" debate can likely go on until the upcoming award season, as Oscar buzz is already surrounding Johnson's performance in "The Smashing Machine." He could be the first former WWE star to be nominated for an Oscar, which could settle the debate once and for all.

The question as to whether Johnson is a better actor or wrestler could be answered by the fact he has more than double the time in his career as an actor than he did as a full-time wrestler. While he's had his misses when it comes to movies ("Black Adam" being the most recent), his WWE blunder is far more recent and fresher in the minds of fans. For that reason, most wrestling fans would probably say Johnson is a better actor and WWE would be better off without him on-screen. 

He has also always seemed more committed to Hollywood throughout his career following his role as the Scorpion King, only making stops in WWE here and there throughout the years, and always around his busy filming schedule.

While he currently doesn't have an Oscar, Johnson has won Teen Choice Awards, Kid's Choice Awards, People's Choice Awards, MTV Movie & TV Awards, and more for his acting. He was even named People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 2016, and Muscle & Fitness' Man of the Century in 2015. In WWE, he held the WWE Championship eight times. He also held the WCW Championship and the Intercontinental Championship twice. He was the WWF Tag Tea Champion five times, with three of those reigns alongside Mick Foley's Mankind persona.

The nickname may be dropped from the official "Smashing Machine" poster, but Johnson still casually goes by The Rock in Hollywood. No matter how you compare his accomplishments in acting to his titles in WWE, his professional wrestling career will always follow him, no matter how serious the role may be.

Love him or hate him as an actor or a part of the professional wrestling world, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is here to stay. He may be off screen in WWE, but Johnson will remain involved in company business, as he's a member of the board of directors for WWE's parent company, TKO Group Holdings, and close friends with both WWE President Nick Khan and Ari Emanuel, CEO of TKO.

As of this writing, it doesn't seem likely, considering his new, slimmed down physique, that he's stepping in the ring to wrestle anytime soon. However, with the accouncement that WrestleMania 43 will be in Saudi Arabia, and the Crown Prince reportedly liking older-era talent, The Rock could be back in the storyline mix in the future. Even without a trip to Saudi Arabia, he could always return to pop, just like he did before Elimination Chamber, as well as to sell tickets to a struggling event. 

Early reports from the Venice Film Festival screening of "The Smashing Machine" have fans interested in Johnson's acting career once again. If his role as MMA fighter Mark Kerr is as good as early critics are saying, Johnson could very well be taking on more serious roles in Hollywood. And, if he's even just nominated for Best Actor for his work in "The Smashing Machine," he may very well put the debate of who is the best, or at least most successful, former WWE wrestler in Hollywood to rest.