The Wrestler Vs The WWE Wrestlemania
written by Souranath Banerjee
In early 2008 an American sports drama called The wrestler was released starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood in the leads.
Directed by talented Darren Aronofsky, the film was about an aging professional wrestler of fading glory, who finds it tough to deal with his life outside the wresting ring.
The film trailer for a quick recap.
Now, though The wrestler received universal critical acclaim and won many prestigious awards including the Golden Lion in the 2008 Venice Film Festival, but still there was always that debate on how authentically did the film portray the inner labyrinth of the complex realms of the Professional Wrestling?
Or more importantly, did Mickey Rourke did justice to his role playing the fictitious wrestling star Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson?
Well, according to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Famer, multi-time world champion Bret “The Hitman” Hart ‘Although the film speaks superbly to the speed bumps all pro wrestlers navigate, I’m happy to report most of us don’t swerve off the road quite so severely’.
And then on the famous TV show Larry King Live, professional wrestler Chris Jericho openly challenged Rourke to fight him in a wrestling match and also accused him of being a movie star trying too hard to imitate some real time wrestler.
This was ofcourse all a part of a storyline since Jericho was a top heel at that time.
Finally, Rourke was invited to the 2009 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony where Jericho defeated prominent wrestlers like Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, and Jimmy Snuka in a handicap match.
After his victory, Jericho went on humiliating Ric Flair (who did support Rourke from the start) and openly provoked Rourke for a fight in front of the crowd.
And this time Rourke accepted the challenge and the rest is history.
By the way, this was all a part of WWE helping to promote The Wrestler and it worked really well for the film.
Mickey Rourke undoubtedly was awesome as an actor showcasing the struggles of a one-time-famous wrestler and he received a BAFTA award, a Golden Globe award, an Independent Spirit Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor as recognition.
According to director Aronofsky – WWE chairman ‘Vince McMahon saw the film and he called both me and Mickey (Rourke) and he was really, really touched by it.’
Aronofsky also mentioned that “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the late Hall of Famer became emotional after watching the film – ‘He loved it. He broke down and cried in Mickey’s arms, so he was psyched that this story was finally told.’
Even the Hardcore Legend and former WWF champion Mick Foley praised Rourke’s performance – ‘Within five [minutes], I had completely forgotten I was looking at Mickey Rourke. That guy on the screen simply was Randy ‘the Ram’ Robinson.’
More comments from professional wrestlers regarding the film on Fox Searchlight Pictures’s ‘Wrestler Round Table’
So passionate was Mickey Rourke about his role in the film that he actually ‘blade’ himself, he did cut his own forehead with a razor blade as many wrestlers often do during a fight to entertain the audience!
It was revealed that the character Randy “The Ram” Robinson shares characteristics of the two biggest wrestling icons of the 1980s: Hulk Hogan and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage (Randy Savage)!
And lastly one of the most chilled out and informal interview of Mickey Rourke with Darren Aronofsky – this is as frank and honest as the movie stars can get behind of the camera!
Poster courtesy: www.impawards.com, www.freecodesource.com, www.rowdyroddypiper.com, www.dailystar.co.uk/, http://hulkhogan.com/
The film is based on this once-famous actor Riggan (
Another special mention is the music of Birdman, the drum score by