The best and worst movies and TV shows about pro wrestling

The actual GLOW, aka Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, was a silly women’s pro wrestling program in the 1980s, but it was pretty fun in its silliness. Netflix’s “GLOW” was a bit different as it was a dramedy loosely chronicling the creation and evolution of Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Alison Brie was the star, but Betty Gilpin popped in the cast in what may have been the first time a lot of people saw her. Not that a ton of people saw “GLOW,” as the show’s fourth and final season was axed by Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A good run while it lasted, though.

A searing family drama…about professional wrestling? Zac Efron got crazy swole to play Kevin Von Erich of the real Von Erich wrestling family. Their family story is quite tragic, and “The Iron Claw” is quite good. It wasn’t the Oscars play A24 may have hoped for but Efron was good in the movie and it was a hit by that studio’s standards.

Now here is a wrestling movie that worked as an Oscars play. “The Wrestler” isn’t as punishing as some Darren Aronofsky movies, but it’s not a laugh riot by any means. Mickey Rourke plays a down-on-his-luck pro wrestler in a role that earned him an Oscar nomination and resurrected his career. Then he made “Iron Man 2.” Marisa Tomei also got an Oscar nomination.

Yes, “Nacho Libre” is quite silly, but it’s a Jack Black comedy about professional wrestling so we imagine that is what people signed up for. “Nacho Libre” was directed by the guy who directed “Napoleon Dynamite,” which also further explains the tone. Black plays a Catholic friar who, naturally, moonlights as a luchador in Mexico to make money for an orphanage.

They made movies about pro wrestling before the new millennium. Based on a televised play that aired in 1956 (back when televised plays were a thing), the film version stars Anthony Quinn alongside Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney. Quinn plays Luis Rivera, a boxer who sees his career end and then turns to professional wrestling to try and make a buck. Notably, at the beginning of the movie a young boxer by the name of Cassius Clay makes an appearance.

Credit where it’s due: Whoever was casting “Fighting with My Family” (which surely included writer/director Stephen Merchant) had an eye for young talent. Based on the real-life story of Saraya Bevis, then known as Paige in WWE, “Slow Horses” star Jack Lowden was cast as Paige’s older brother. However, for the role of Saraya/Paige, Florence Pugh got the part. Clearly the industry was realizing what they had in Pugh. In 2016 she was also in “Midsommar” and “Little Women.”

Technically, Sylvester Stallone wrestles Hulk Hogan in “Rocky III.” Well, Rocky Balboa wrestles Thunderlips, we should say. Just after the huge success of “Rocky,” though, Stallone starred in “Paradise Alley,” which is a period piece fully about three Italian brothers getting into the world of pro wrestling. A lot of real wrestlers appear in the film, which Stallone both wrote and directed. We’re placing it here because the movie is taking us from the good movies to a run of bad ones. “Paradise Alley” falls a bit in between.

“Ready to Rumble” is bad. It’s a comedy that isn’t funny. It was made in collaboration with WCW and features several WCW wrestlers, but seems to have no idea how wrestling works. Worst of all, in 2000 the movie still operates under the conceit that two adult men who are fans of wrestling would believe it to be real and not staged. That’s an idea from a 1980s sitcom episode, not a movie made in the new millennium. Well, what should we have expected from a movie starring David Arquette?

Hulk Hogan is a bad actor, and he has done a bad job acting in several movies and TV shows. Normally, though, they don’t involve professional wrestling. They involve him as a guy who thinks he’s Santa or, get this, a musclebound nanny. “No Hold Barred” does show that Hogan can do a poor job acting even when playing a professional wrestler, though. Shout out to character actor Kurt Fuller, who is usually a delight. He had to shoulder the acting load in this disaster.

Without car chases or Burt Reynolds, director Hal Needham couldn’t make anything work on “Body Slam.” There’s a reason why “The A-Team” co-star Dirk Benedict didn’t star in a ton of movies. This is the kind of “comedy” that gives Charles Nelson Reilly and Billy Barty small roles. We don’t mean that as a joke on Barty, but if it were a joke, it’d fit right in with the humor level of “Body Slam.”

We’d like to tell you that this Carl Reiner-directed movie starring Henry Winkler is secretly a delight. It is not. Winkler plays an arrogant young man who begrudgingly becomes a pro wrestler and then becomes popular by, as real wrestlers often do, just ratcheting his own personality up a couple of notches. Alas, the comedy is inert, and Winkler was not well-suited for the role.

When a wrestling movie ends up on “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” you know it is lacking for quality. “Racket Girls” is one of the worst movies to ever appear on that show, which is saying something. Although, it’s only sort of about wrestling. “Racket Girls” is one of those movies that put a lot of polish on what is effectively softcore porn. To quote the “MST3K” riffing, this movie is refreshingly itself.

We fully consider “Celebrity Deathmatch” a wrestling show. Well, a version of wrestling where celebrities fight to the death, but still. The claymation MTV comedy could be a bit lazy at times, but it was pretty funny and the nastiness was entertaining more often than not. It certainly stands out in the wrestling genre. In fact, it just straight stands out as a TV show, as it has few contemporaries.

Real-life wrestling fan Stephen Amell co-starred in Starz’s wrestling drama Heels. He is also the titular heel. The show is about two brothers who run their late father’s small-time wrestling promotion while dreaming of bigger things. Amell’s Jack Spade is a top heel in the company, while Alexander Ludwig’s Ace Spade is a top face. The show lasted two seasons and did some good stuff before being canceled.

A biographical show about one of the most famous and successful wrestlers in history certainly needs to be mentioned. Fortunately, “Young Rock” was also pretty good. Now, the show didn’t focus on Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling career. It’s “Young Rock,” after all. Episodes would touch on three different eras of Johnson’s life: Elementary school, high school, and when he was playing football at Miami in college. However, since Johnson comes from a wrestling family, there’s plenty of pro wrestling in the show.

This new edition to the wrestling film oeuvre has gotten a lot of critical love and now you have a chance to come to your own conclusion. Though Mildred Burke is not a household name, she was a pioneer in women’s professional wrestling, even going back to the days when you could be a shoot wrestler in a carnival. The cast is impressive and the story is fresh. Certainly, it’s a better depiction of women’s wrestling than “Racket Girls.”