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I just got finished watching the much hyped The Wrestler movie, and it’s understandable why WWE legend Roddy Piper broke down in tears after he saw it. Now I’m not whaling, but it has been a hell of a long time since a movie has tugged at my heart strings like this has. I feel proud, sad and happy all at the same time. Whether good or bad, it’s like a tip of the hat to all the pro wrestlers, writers and fans. It’s an acknowledgment that our demented sport really does exist. Finally a mainstream movie that gets it!

Mickey Rourke was trained by Manu’s father, Afa The Wild Samoan

There is no denying that this strange, wacky, half fake, half real, traveling pop culture juggernaut of a sporting stage show, we call wrestling, is one fucked up industry. To outsiders they don’t get it, to insiders they get it a bit too much, and for those in between it’s just down right confusing. This movie essentially takes Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a former 80’s star, a man that grew up in the wrestling bubble, chews him up and spits him out in to 2008. The wrestling world and the real world just don’t mix, and its this that creates the story of a former star trying to function in normal everyday society. As my title says “A wrestler shaped man, can’t fit in to a man shaped world.” Randy just doesn’t fit in to the real world.

Ram is a wrestler that has traveled the roads is whole life. At his peak he was wrestling in front of sold out crowds against the Ayatollah (based on the Iron Sheik gimmick wise) in Madison Square Garden, but now he’s a “broken down piece of meat,” barely able to walk, selling crappy Polaroids of himself at piss poor wrestling conventions, and wrestling weekends in high school gyms in front of maybe 200 people. Oh he partied, he rock and rolled, he was the man! But the system shat him out, and he has nothing to show for it but a trailer park home, an old action figure and his vintage 2D Nintendo wrestling game that a neighbor shuns for Call of Duty 4. If you don’t know what I mean, then look up any real life Indy card, wrestling convention or hospital for that matter! You’ll see them. Jake Roberts, The Iron Sheik and Lex Luger are prime examples, with Koko B. Ware, The Rock n Roll Express, Honky Tonk Man, and many more closely following. The guys that still need to wrestle in order to eat, but still have an ounce of fame left to feel special when the come through the curtain.

These guys don’t know how to do anything other than wrestle, but when you reach a certain age it begins to take its toll; And it’s taking its toll on Randy in the film. His daughter doesn’t want to know him, his doctors don’t want him to wrestle because he just had a heart attack after years of stress and drug abuse, and the outside world laugh and sneer at him. On his none wrestling days Ram has to supplement his income working in a meat factory. When he asks for more hours at the weekend, his boss replies “Isn’t that when you sit on other dude’s faces?” It truly is a sad existence. Not even his stripper friend understands until the last minute, and by then he’s pretty much given all of his life to the ring.

To me, one of the most telling scenes in the movie is when Ram is trying to work at a deli counter selling meat. Everything reaches boiling point and he ends up cutting his hand (maybe deliberately). All of a sudden he’s back in ring mode selling his injury and performing for the customers. He can’t function any other way. He is eating, sleeping and breathing wrestling, and that is not a cliche.

Despite heart issues and life issues, he ultimately goes back to doing what he knows best, wrestling, facing his old nemesis The Ayatollah (aka Ernest Miller) at ROH no less. Wrestling is the only time he feels normal, and if he could die in the ring…so what? At least the the fans and the boys backstage accept him.

This itself makes a great story for wrestlers and wrestling fans. The inclusion of real wrestlers in a lot of the scenes, and real wrestling moves being performed also make it entertaining for wrestling fans. But what really makes this movie worth all of its awards and nominations is that it’s more of a story about people and emotions, than it is about wrestling. You could take the story and mold it in to a hundred different professions and situations and the quality acting would bring the exact same emotion to the camera.

As good as Rourke is, the fact that the movie itself is not up for nomination at the Oscars is a travesty. Lets just hope the snobs don’t hold Rourke back from getting the award, or from attending Wrestlemania for that matter.

With a tear in my eye, I give this masterpiece 5/5, roll on the DVD! Heaven knows what awesome extras will be included.

Cool Facts About The Movie:

- WXW, CZW and ROH rings and wrestlers are all shown in the movie.

- If you look closely at the start of the movie, the still images are actually of Lex Luger with Rourke’s face photoshopped on them.

- Many wrestling stars are in the film including Necro Butcher, WWE’s R-Truth, Johnny Valiant, Romeo Roselli, Austin Aries, the recently deceased Paul E. Normous, Claudio Castagnoli, Doc Daniels, Bobby Dempsey, Nate Hatred, Kevin Matthews, Larry Sweeney among lots of others.

- The majority of fans were real wrestling fans at real shows, with filming being an added perk.

- The scene where a fan hands “The Ram” a prosthetic leg is based on an actual event from an ECW show where a fan repeatedly yelled “use my leg” and eventually tossed his prosthetic leg to Tommy Dreamer who in turn used it on his opponent.

- The shooting schedule was only 35 days.

- Reportedly, both Bruce Springsteen and Mickey Rourke were paid no money for their contributions towards the film.

- Robert D. Siegel The film’s writer makes an appearance at the start of the film as a fan getting an autograph from Randy “The Ram” Robinson.

- Due to the film’s modest budget, Axl Rose donated the use of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’Mine” free of charge for the final match.

- A lot of the scenes backstage were ab-libbed, and during the deli scenes real customers were being served, unawares that they were part of a movie.