1981 was shortly after Andy Kaufman gave lady's wrestling a slight boost and a few months after john Candy's famous mud wrestling scene in stripes. Lady's wrestling had taken on a bit of a sexy twist and Hollywood tried to capitalize on it a bit with this adventure. Clearly it wasn't intended to just be junk. Peter Falk was a respected actor and the choreography was very well done. The movie, however, isn't without it's flaws.
Most people know that wrestling is scripted and these lady's in the "WWE" equivalent would certainly have fought scripted matches not real ones. But if we forgive that, and assume that there's genuine competition, then this movie did a fairly good job of presenting the "grind" of wrestling for a living. Not much reward and lots of bruises.
The movie poster implied T&A, but the movie itself was more sport competition than playful fun. The entire film, for example, lacked the sex appeal of the 2 minute mud wrestling scene in stripes, so a person seeing this for the sexy aspect, left disappointed, but it also wasn't really a true "sports" movie either as the outcome was never really in doubt.
The movie also failed to give the sense of an underdog rising to challenge a rival, the way Rocky, The Champ or even, made for TV movie Mad Bull or Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie over the top did. The underdog wining in the end may be done to death, but it works. This movie offered pain, but no real tension for the viewer.
A final thing it lacked was a personality. You didn't really get to know the ladies at all. They were just wrestlers, not people you were interested in. Peter Falk was OK, he's usually able to come across as a person, but even he was pretty shallow. There was no back story, no "how did he/they get here". Not to compare this to Rocky, cause that's not fair, but when Burgess Meredith talked about not getting his chance and his cheek, bloody, full of holes, you knew everything you needed to know about him and why he was managing. You cared about him. Peter Falk, who was the only character in this film with any personality at all, was still "just some guy".
So this movie missed all the marks other than wrestling choreography, which it got down very well. No heart, no story, no personal history, no real underdog, not enough sex appeal, just some well choreographed wrestling scenes that left you saying "ouch" more than "wow".
All that said. there are so few lady wrestling movies out there (so few good wrestling movies in general), that this is worth a watch if lady's wrestling is your thing and you want a movie that's basically a lie about how the WWE works, but is told like it isn't.
Most people know that wrestling is scripted and these lady's in the "WWE" equivalent would certainly have fought scripted matches not real ones. But if we forgive that, and assume that there's genuine competition, then this movie did a fairly good job of presenting the "grind" of wrestling for a living. Not much reward and lots of bruises.
The movie poster implied T&A, but the movie itself was more sport competition than playful fun. The entire film, for example, lacked the sex appeal of the 2 minute mud wrestling scene in stripes, so a person seeing this for the sexy aspect, left disappointed, but it also wasn't really a true "sports" movie either as the outcome was never really in doubt.
The movie also failed to give the sense of an underdog rising to challenge a rival, the way Rocky, The Champ or even, made for TV movie Mad Bull or Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie over the top did. The underdog wining in the end may be done to death, but it works. This movie offered pain, but no real tension for the viewer.
A final thing it lacked was a personality. You didn't really get to know the ladies at all. They were just wrestlers, not people you were interested in. Peter Falk was OK, he's usually able to come across as a person, but even he was pretty shallow. There was no back story, no "how did he/they get here". Not to compare this to Rocky, cause that's not fair, but when Burgess Meredith talked about not getting his chance and his cheek, bloody, full of holes, you knew everything you needed to know about him and why he was managing. You cared about him. Peter Falk, who was the only character in this film with any personality at all, was still "just some guy".
So this movie missed all the marks other than wrestling choreography, which it got down very well. No heart, no story, no personal history, no real underdog, not enough sex appeal, just some well choreographed wrestling scenes that left you saying "ouch" more than "wow".
All that said. there are so few lady wrestling movies out there (so few good wrestling movies in general), that this is worth a watch if lady's wrestling is your thing and you want a movie that's basically a lie about how the WWE works, but is told like it isn't.