Alright, fellow tapeheads, let’s rewind to the cusp of the new millennium, a weird and wonderful time when wrestling was everywhere, nu-metal was blasting, and Hollywood decided to bodyslam its way into the squared circle. Pop that tape in – yeah, maybe the tracking’s a bit fuzzy, but the energy’s undeniable. Tonight, we’re talking about Ready to Rumble (2000), a movie that practically smells like a stale bucket of popcorn and Monday Nitro excitement.
Released just as the DVD revolution was taking hold but definitely feeling like a hangover from the late 90s, this film landed like a Swanton Bomb from the top rope… maybe missing the mark slightly for critics, but finding a bizarrely affectionate spot in the hearts of wrestling fans and connoisseurs of cinematic cheese. It wasn't your typical action flick, but man, did it try to capture the spectacle of pro wrestling.
From Septic Tanks to Center Stage
Our heroes, Gordie Boggs (David Arquette) and Sean Dawkins (Scott Caan), are two Wyoming sanitation workers whose lives revolve entirely around World Championship Wrestling (WCW). They don't just watch it; they live and breathe it, especially their idol, the flamboyant champion Jimmy "The King" King (Oliver Platt). The setup is pure, unadulterated silliness: after witnessing their hero get screwed out of his title and career by the nefarious promoter Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano) and rival Diamond Dallas Page (playing himself, basically), Gordie and Sean embark on a cross-country road trip in their gloriously named septic truck, "The Poo Poo Platter," to restore The King to his throne.
Arquette throws himself into the role of Gordie with the kind of manic energy he became known for, a naive superfan whose optimism borders on delusional. Caan, son of the legendary James Caan, plays the slightly more grounded (emphasis on slightly) Sean. But the real standout here is Oliver Platt. Buried under garish costumes and saddled with some truly groan-worthy dialogue, Platt somehow finds a pathetic charm in Jimmy King, a washed-up wrestler whose ego far outweighs his current circumstances. Remember his training montage fueled by milk and donuts? Classic.
WCW: The Co-Star
What makes Ready to Rumble such a fascinating time capsule is its deep integration with the actual WCW, filmed just before its dramatic collapse and sale to WWE in 2001. Directed by Brian Robbins, who gave us the high school football drama Varsity Blues (1999) the year prior, this felt like a deliberate attempt to tap into WCW’s massive, albeit fading, popularity. Forget CGI armies; the film’s big set pieces were filmed during actual WCW Monday Nitro tapings. Seeing real crowds reacting, the authentic arenas, the actual broadcast equipment – it gave the movie a strange layer of reality amidst the absurdity.
Seeing wrestlers like Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, Randy Savage, and Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) playing exaggerated versions of themselves was part of the goofy fun. DDP, in particular, leans into his heel role opposite King. The in-ring action, while choreographed for comedy, still featured real wrestlers taking bumps. It wasn’t John Woo, but for a slapstick comedy, the physicality felt tangible – a reminder of the real athletic toll wrestling takes, even when presented this broadly. It captured that late-90s wrestling boom feeling, that slightly dangerous, unpredictable energy that defined WCW before things went south.
Retro Fun Fact Alert: The production's deep ties to WCW led to one of the most infamous promotional stunts in wrestling history. To generate buzz for the film, WCW scriptwriters actually booked David Arquette, an actor with no wrestling background, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in April 2000. It remains a moment universally derided by wrestling purists but undeniably linked this silly movie to wrestling history forever. Arquette himself reportedly hated the idea but was talked into it.
A Time Capsule of Questionable Taste
Let's be honest, Ready to Rumble isn't high art. Written by Steven Brill (who penned The Mighty Ducks) and Mort Nathan, the humor is often low-brow, relying heavily on slapstick, toilet humor (literally, given the protagonists' jobs), and wrestling in-jokes. The plot is thinner than announcer Tony Schiavone's patience by late 2000. Critics at the time absolutely savaged it – it barely scraped back half of its reported $24 million budget at the box office.
But watching it now, through the warm, fuzzy filter of nostalgia? There's an undeniable, almost innocent charm to its chaos. It's a movie made with a baffling level of sincerity about something inherently ridiculous. The commitment from the cast, the snapshot of WCW in its dying days, the sheer audacity of its premise – it all combines into something strangely watchable, even endearing. It's like finding that worn-out wrestling action figure in the back of the closet; you know it's cheap plastic, but the memories attached give it value.
VHS Heaven Rating: 5/10
Why the Score? Look, it’s objectively not a great film. The script is weak, and the humor is hit-or-miss (often miss). But for wrestling fans of a certain age, or lovers of early 2000s ephemera, it holds significant nostalgic value. Oliver Platt is genuinely funny, the WCW integration is fascinatingly weird, and the sheer earnestness is hard to truly hate. It bombed financially and critically, but its connection to the bonkers David Arquette title reign gives it a bizarre footnote in pop culture history. It earns points for being a unique artifact of its time, even if that time involved septic trucks and bodyslams.
Final Thought: Ready to Rumble is the cinematic equivalent of a late-era WCW pay-per-view – messy, chaotic, full of questionable decisions, but somehow, undeniably, a spectacle you can’t quite look away from, especially if you were there for the boom period. Fire it up if you want a goofy trip back to when wrestling, for better or worse, felt larger than life.