Reigns, Rhodes Show Off Street Fighter Moves In New TV Spot

A new television spot for the upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie is putting Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes front and center, showing off the video-game-accurate moves their characters pull off on screen. The spot lines up footage of the film directly against the classic game animations that inspired it, giving fans a side-by-side look at just how faithfully the WWE stars are recreating their characters’ signature attacks.

Reigns plays Akuma, the brooding, fireball-throwing martial artist long considered one of Street Fighter’s most dangerous and mysterious figures, while Rhodes takes on Guile, the flat-topped American military man known for his Sonic Boom and Flash Kick. Both characters are franchise mainstays with decades of recognition among gamers, which makes the comparison format a smart marketing play — it reassures longtime fans that the movie isn’t just borrowing character names, but is putting real effort into translating the source material’s choreography to live action.

For Reigns and Rhodes, the timing lines up with a period when WWE has been increasingly comfortable letting its top stars branch into film and television without pulling them off television for long stretches. Both men have spent years building larger-than-life personas inside the ring, and casting them as iconic fighting-game characters plays directly into that established star power rather than asking audiences to see them as blank slates. Rhodes, in particular, has leaned into legacy and larger-than-life storytelling as a centerpiece of his WWE run, and stepping into Guile — a character with his own deep mythology — fits that pattern. Reigns, for his part, has cultivated an aura of controlled menace during his time as a top villain and top face, which maps naturally onto Akuma’s quiet intensity.

Street Fighter adaptations have a mixed history with fans, and previous attempts to bring the franchise to the big screen have often struggled to satisfy longtime players. That makes footage like this — direct, move-for-move comparisons — a deliberate attempt to win over skeptics before the film’s release by proving the production respects the games rather than simply using them as a backdrop.

It’s also another data point in the growing overlap between pro wrestling and video-game culture, an intersection WWE has leaned into for years through crossover events, in-ring gimmicks, and now Hollywood casting. Seeing two of the company’s most prominent recent world champions inhabit two of gaming’s most enduring characters is the kind of crossover moment built to generate buzz well outside the usual wrestling audience.

No new plot details or release-specific information beyond the character showcase were included in the spot, but expect more promotional material to roll out as the film’s release approaches, likely featuring additional cast members and characters getting the same side-by-side treatment. For now, the clearest takeaway is that both Reigns and Rhodes appear to be taking the physical demands of their roles seriously, translating recognizable in-game moves into tangible on-screen action.

Whether the finished film lands with critics or hardcore fans remains to be seen, but the early marketing push suggests a production banking heavily on nostalgia — and on the drawing power of two WWE stars stepping into some of gaming’s most beloved shoes.