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 |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Sport Parade | 1932 | Drama | Pro wrestling | Former college football hero Joel McCrea becomes a pro wrestler. |
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-Drama | Pro wrestling | The female wrestling world, based on Rosalyn Drexler's novel To Smithereens |
...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: Sports Films
Famous quotes containing the word wrestling:
“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)
“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)