plums123 Review of The Wrestler

The Wrestler (1974)

Minneapolis is listed as the shooting location, which is true but.......

[5/10 · 5 March 2018]

My friend and I went to the St. Paul, Minnesota Auditorium where a lot of the AWA Wrestling matches were held. We had to sign a waiver of some sort and we were recruited by the movie makers to throw debris into the ring in response to a wrestler having died at the hands of one of the villain wrestlers. They also handed out cigars to the men who wanted them to fill the arena with hazy smoke to make it seem more authentic. In those days you could pretty much smoke anywhere and boxing and wrestling matches got pretty smoky. I remember seeing Ed Asner up close too. I remember it being a pretty big deal when Vern Gagne and Billy Robinson finally got into the ring as these two were considered the best "scientific wrestlers" of that time and they had not wrestled each other up to the time the movie was made. The crowd cheered loudly when they got going and it was fun to watch even though they cut the scene several time to get shots from different angles etc. The fans didn't care it wasn't a real bout they cheered like it was. We had a great time.