As a long time wrestling fan, I've always heard about The Wrestler, but I'd never seen it before today. I saw it in a discount store for $5 and figured what the hell, take a chance. It's not a bad film considering the era it was made in and who the stars are, but to anyone who follows wrestling or knows the behind the scenes info, it's quite amusing.
The character of Verne Gagne as almost-over-the-hill champ Mike Ballard is an ironic figure when you consider that while he was still in good shape as the movie showed, the real Verne Gagne was indeed in the same boat as Mike Ballard. The irony comes in when one considers that Verne was not only the World Champ of the AWA, he was also the promoter. His unwillingness to put over (lose to) an up and coming challenger left his AWA title somewhat of a joke as no one really got a chance until Verne retired in 1981. By then it was too late to salvage the damage done by having a balding, aging, old timer as champ in a era dominated by youth as the AWA was basically dead in the water in 1988 before offically closing shop in 1990.
As far as the movie goes, it's actually not as bad as you would think a film with nearly an entire cast of wrestlers would be. Luckily for the viewer Verne chose guys like Billy Robinson, Dusty Rhodes, and Lord James Blears to have the main roles since they have enough personality to distract the audience from the fact that its a movie full of mainly non actors.
All in all its a great movie for wrestling fans, and even if you aren't a fan it's still not a terrible flick.
Just try to not laugh too hard when you watch the movie and you consider that Verne Gagne is the guy who let Hulk Hogan sign with the WWF since he didn't think he had a future in the wrestling biz.
The character of Verne Gagne as almost-over-the-hill champ Mike Ballard is an ironic figure when you consider that while he was still in good shape as the movie showed, the real Verne Gagne was indeed in the same boat as Mike Ballard. The irony comes in when one considers that Verne was not only the World Champ of the AWA, he was also the promoter. His unwillingness to put over (lose to) an up and coming challenger left his AWA title somewhat of a joke as no one really got a chance until Verne retired in 1981. By then it was too late to salvage the damage done by having a balding, aging, old timer as champ in a era dominated by youth as the AWA was basically dead in the water in 1988 before offically closing shop in 1990.
As far as the movie goes, it's actually not as bad as you would think a film with nearly an entire cast of wrestlers would be. Luckily for the viewer Verne chose guys like Billy Robinson, Dusty Rhodes, and Lord James Blears to have the main roles since they have enough personality to distract the audience from the fact that its a movie full of mainly non actors.
All in all its a great movie for wrestling fans, and even if you aren't a fan it's still not a terrible flick.
Just try to not laugh too hard when you watch the movie and you consider that Verne Gagne is the guy who let Hulk Hogan sign with the WWF since he didn't think he had a future in the wrestling biz.