Wrestling
Note: Lucha films are not included in this list. Although they feature luchadores (Mexican professional wrestlers) as the lead characters, the luchadores typically portray heroes (often superheroes) within non-wrestling stories (such as action, horror, or sci-fi).
Title | Year | Genre | Discipline | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Night and the City | 1950 | Crime | Pro wrestling | A hustler (Richard Widmark) tries to promote a match in England. |
Racket Girls | 1951 | Crime | Pro wrestling | A gangster ends up managing women wrestlers. |
Mr. Universe | 1951 | Romantic comedy | Pro Wrestling | |
Rikidōzan monogatari dotō no otoko | 1955 | Puroresu | ||
The Wrestler | 1974 | Action drama | Pro wrestling | Fictional story produced by and starring Verne Gagne. |
Paradise Alley | 1978 | Drama | Pro wrestling | Cosmo Carbone (Sylvester Stallone) and his brothers try the wrestling racket. |
The One and Only | 1978 | Comedy | Pro wrestling | Out-of-work actor (Henry Winkler) invents a Gorgeous George-style character. |
Take Down | 1979 | Comedy-drama | Scholastic wrestling | Lorenzo Lamas as a high school wrestler. |
Below the Belt | 1980 | Comedy | Pro wrestling | |
...All the Marbles | 1980 | Drama | Pro wrestling | Peter Falk manages a beautiful female tag team. |
Lurich | 1984 | Drama | Biographical film on the career of Georg Lurich. | |
Vision Quest | 1985 | Drama | Scholastic wrestling | Matthew Modine as a high school wrestler. |
Grunt! The Wrestling Movie | 1985 | Pro wrestling | ||
Over the Top | 1987 | Action drama | Arm wrestling | Truck driver Sylvester Stallone enters an arm-wrestling competition. |
Body Slam | 1987 | Comedy | Pro wrestling | A music promoter accidentally ends up in business with a wrestler (Roddy Piper). |
No Holds Barred | 1989 | Action | Pro wrestling | Hulk Hogan as "Rip," a mean dude only inside the ring. |
Spooner | 1989 | Drama | Scholastic wrestling | Made for TV, premiered on the Disney Channel, stars Robert Urich. |
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows | 1998 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | Direct-to-video. Follows Bret Hart in the final year of his 1980s–1990s World Wrestling Federation run, culminating in one of the most famous events in professional wrestling history, the Montreal Screwjob. |
Beyond the Mat | 1999 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | |
Ready to Rumble | 2000 | Comedy | Pro wrestling | David Arquette and Scott Caan as buddies of a WCW star. |
Reversal | 2001 | Romantic drama | Scholastic wrestling | Story of a Pennsylvania high school athlete. |
The Backyard | 2002 | Documentary | Backyard wrestling | |
Rikidōzan | 2004 | Drama | Puroresu | Biographical film on the seminal Japanese wrestler Rikidōzan. |
Sting: Moment of Truth | 2004 | Drama | Pro wrestling | Biographical film on the career of Sting. |
Going to the Mat | 2004 | Family Comedy | Scholastic wrestling | Made for TV, premiered on the Disney Channel, stars Andrew Lawrence. |
Lipstick and Dynamite, Piss and Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling | 2005 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | |
Nacho Libre | 2006 | Comedy | Lucha libre | Jack Black comedy loosely based on the career of luchador Fray Tormenta. |
The Absolute Truth About Pro Wrestling | 2006 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | |
Just Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy | 2007 | Romantic comedy | Pro wrestling | |
God's Tackle Box | 2007 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | |
Vampiro: Angel, Devil, Hero | 2008 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | Explores the career and outside-the-ring life of Canadian wrestler Vampiro. |
The Wrestler | 2008 | Drama | Pro wrestling | Mickey Rourke in an Oscar-nominated role as a physically ailing wrestler. |
From Parts Unknown | 2009 | Pro wrestling | ||
Bloodstained Memoirs | 2009 | Documentary | Pro wrestling | |
Legendary | 2010 | Drama | Scholastic wrestling | Oklahoma teen is coached by his older brother (John Cena). |
Win Win | 2011 | Comedy/Drama | Scholastic wrestling | Broke lawyer Paul Giamatti becomes a boy's coach and guardian. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Sports Films
Famous quotes containing the word wrestling:
“There are people who think that wrestling is an ignoble sport. Wrestling is not sport, it is a spectacle, and it is no more ignoble to attend a wrestled performance of suffering than a performance of the sorrows of Arnolphe or Andromaque.”
—Roland Barthes (19151980)
“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: I will the sun to rise; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: I will it to roll; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: I lie here, but I will that I lie here! And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, I will?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)