Wrestlers in movies and movies about wrestling have been around almost as long as the film business itself. SLAM! Wrestling's Movie Database is a celebration of these tie-ins. As wrestling fans, we know what great performers wrestlers are; sharing them with the general public can be both painful (come back to wrestling Rock!) and purging (Tiny Lister, we hardly knew ya!).
SLAM! Wrestling's Movie Database is also a Stone Cold salute to the prejudices that followed wrestling into Hollywood. Take, for example, Ronald Bergan (please!) who wrote Sports In The Movies. "No need for stand-ins in wrestling scenes. Any actor can be taught to wrestle; after all every wrestler is taught to act."
We disagree with that, and proudly present the SLAM! Wrestling's Movie Database.
There are two sections to the Database:
- Movies about pro wrestling (Alias the Champ, Ready To Rumble), or with pro wrestling an important part of the story (Man on the Moon, Micki & Maude).
- The Wrestler Actor Database, where big and little cameos are acknowledged.
The SLAM! Wrestling Movie Database Rating System
With all due respect to
Batista and Roger Ebert, the "Thumbs Up/Down" method of rating a wrestling movie just doesn't seem to cut it. You may be interested to know if a film is any good, and you just might want to know if a wrestler avoids embarrassing himself as an actor. What you
really want to know, though, is if it's worth seeking out for the sole sake of seeing the wrestler in the movie, and perhaps most important of all -- how good are the fighting/wrestling scenes?
A film that scores 4/4 Turnbuckles, therefore, boasts:
- Quality of wrestler's performance
- Significance of wrestler's role
- Quality of film
- Quality of fighting/wrestling scenes
- Dave Hillhouse, SLAM! Wrestling's Movie Database Director and Greg Oliver, SLAM! Wrestling Producer
The SLAM! Wrestling Movie Database is maintained by Dave Hillhouse. It is totally a work in progress, so check back often and feel free to email corrections, suggestions and tips on upcoming productions to Dave at facegrabber@hotmail.com.
