We're living in a sort of golden age of professional wrestlers turned actors. While audiences have seen many different figures make the jump from wrestling to acting over the years, it's been to varying levels of success. Today, we have three of the most successful wrestlers turned actors working at the same time, in Dwayne Johnson, Dave Bautista, and John Cena. They were once all stars of WWE and they're now playing roles in major Hollywood blockbusters, but otherwise, they are very different people. And Dave Bautista would really like everybody to know that after being mistaken for The Rock.
This is because somebody apparently got their wires crossed the other day when the new Dune trailer was released and, while they called out Dave Bautista by name as being a highlight in the trailer, the picture that went along with it was...not Dave Bautista. Somebody confused The Animal with The Rock.
Dave Bautista was clearly a little frustrated when he saw the tweet. At first he suggested that perhaps the "confusion" was done intentionally, specifically to make the tweet go viral. That is certainly a possibility, and it might be the most kind reading of the situation, because as Bautista points out, the alternative is even more upsetting.
I mean, as Dave Bautista points out here, there are a handful of similarities between himself and Dwayne Johnson-- not to the point that anybody should ever actually confuse them, of course. The whole thing was probably just a silly mistake, somebody who just didn't look too closely and uploaded the wrong image. Still, fans had their share of fun with the whole situation. If we're going to confuse Dave Bautista with other wrestlers, why stop with The Rock?
While there is certainly some fun to be had here, It's clear Dave Bautista doesn't find the situation entirely funny. In a response to a fan, who thought that if nothing else Dave Bautista was better looking than Dwayne Johnson, the Dune star made it clear that he feels he's done enough to differentiate himself from those that may have had similar backgrounds. And not getting that recognition doesn't feel good. Bautista explained...
I definitely wouldn’t say that. And obviously it’s not a bad thing being mistaken for the biggest movie star in the world. I’ve just worked pretty hard to carve out my own little piece of the pie and Dune is a huge part of that. So being mistaken for ANYONE is a bit dismissive.
And it's difficult to not agree with Dave Bautista here. While he may have come from the same place as Dwayne Johnson, Bautista has been walking a different path. Dwayne Johnson is, as Bautista says here, the biggest movie star in the world. He makes massive action blockbusters, and while Bautista certainly has been part of those movies, he's also done a lot more. It would be difficult to imagine Johnson being part of a Denis Villeneuve movie like Dune or Blade Runner 2049.
