Top 10 Wrestling Movies
Professional wrestling and cinema haven’t crossed over enough. An entire vocation devoted to sculpting bodies, costumes, and characters, and presenting them under bright lights with as much pomp and circumstance as possible, seems ripe for adaptation in any visual medium, and that’s not even considering the at-times bonkers true stories that occur behind the curtain.
All considered, there have only been a few dozen wrestling films of note, and even fewer that haven’t been made in collaboration with a professional wrestling company looking to control the narratives surrounding its history and those of its long-time athletes/performers.
In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we are peering inside this eccentric world of over-the-top characters and world-leading athletes, analysing the glory and the tragedy of the experience of being a wrestler, as well as the elation and frustration of being one of its millions of fans, and judging which movies have best captured the wrestling experience – whether in favour of the industry’s heavyweight, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), or not. These are the 10 Best Wrestling Movies.
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Honourable Mentions: GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling; No Holds Barred; Walk Like A Panther; Ready to Rumble (because no wrestling movie list is complete without former WCW World Champion David Arquette).
10. Nacho Libre (2006)
Starring Jack Black hot off the heels of his now iconic performance in School of Rock, and directed by Jared Hess who had recently shot to fame after writing and directing cult hit Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre is primarily a comedy; one that manages to cause many a laugh while simultaneously capturing the passion and infectious atmosphere of wrestling as a whole.
While the in-ring action isn’t particularly believable, and the creators couldn’t seem to decide whether wrestling is real or fake (read: pre-determined), this big-name little comedy still manages to capture the spectacle and mythos of Mexican luchadores as well as the excitement that comes with watching them.
So far as mainstream wrestling movies go, this one is right up there.
9. 30 for 30: Nature Boy (2017)
An ESPN made-for-tv documentary, ’30 for 30′ chronicles the life, success and tragedy of one of the wrestling industry’s most iconic figures in their documentary Nature Boy.
Discussing everything from the 16-time world champion’s childhood to his sleeping with over 1,000 women, right through to breaking his back in an airplane crash and having to come to terms with the death of his son, Nature Boy pulls no punches in presenting everything about the wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer in an honest and heartbreaking fashion.
This is one of those documentaries where, if you know the man or the character he portrayed on television for over thirty years, you can’t help but to be enthralled as his truth unravels in front of you.
