WRESTLING NEWS
Dwayne Johnson is Not the Only Pro Wrestler 'Running For President'
By PHIL HALL
Dwayne Johnson played himself as a candidate for the 2032 presidential election in the series "Young Rock," also musing about wanting to run in real life. However, The Rock isn't the only WWE superstar to play this role as John Cena is running for president in the 2022 political thriller "The Independent," now streaming on Peacock.
In "The Independent," Cena plays a former Olympic athlete who has launched a third-party campaign for president, but two journalists uncover a scandal in his past that could derail the White House bid. To promote the movie premiering on November 2, Cena tweeted a photo of his character with the caption, "An opportunity to make a 'run' for the Oval Office."
The initial reviews of "The Independent" have been mixed, with David Ehrlich of IndieWire dismissing it as a "toothless political thriller." However, he does praise Cena for continuing to "channel his WWE charm into distressingly uncertain hero types (as opposed to Dwayne Johnson, who forcibly muscles his flawed characters into heroes)."