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Ready to Rumble is one of those movies that I don’t really think is good or bad. It just exists, and depending on what you’re looking for, you might have some fun with it.
The story is ridiculous. Two hardcore wrestling fans, Gordie and Sean, basically make WCW their entire lives. When their favorite wrestler, Jimmy King, gets screwed over, they decide they’re somehow going to help him get his career back. That’s pretty much the movie. Don’t go into this expecting anything remotely realistic.
David Arquette and Scott Caan are completely over the top, and sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they’re just annoying. Oliver Platt as Jimmy King is probably the most memorable part of the movie because he actually commits to playing this washed-up wrestling star who has completely fallen apart.
If you’re a wrestling fan, though, that’s where the movie becomes more interesting. There’s something cool about seeing WCW during that specific period preserved in a Hollywood movie. You get Diamond Dallas Page, Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, Billy Kidman, Bam Bam Bigelow and a bunch of other WCW personalities popping up. Looking back now, that stuff is probably more entertaining than the actual plot.
The wrestling itself is obviously exaggerated because it’s a comedy, but considering WCW was already pretty insane around 2000, some of it almost doesn’t feel that far removed from what you could’ve actually seen on Nitro.
The humor is very early-2000s. There’s gross-out comedy, stupid jokes, sexual humor and a lot of yelling. Some of it hasn’t aged particularly well, but I wouldn’t exactly expect Ready to Rumble to be sophisticated comedy either.
The weirdest thing about watching it today is knowing what was happening with WCW around the same time. The company was struggling, and then David Arquette actually became WCW World Heavyweight Champion as part of the promotion for the movie. That decision has probably become more famous among wrestling fans than the movie itself.
I don’t hate Ready to Rumble, but I’m not going to pretend it’s some misunderstood classic either. It’s dumb, loud and completely ridiculous. As an actual movie, it’s pretty forgettable. As a weird snapshot of late-era WCW, though, I think it’s worth watching at least once.
If you grew up watching WCW, you’ll probably get more enjoyment out of recognizing everybody and remembering that era than you will from the actual story.
It’s basically 107 minutes of WCW, stupid comedy and late-’90s/early-2000s wrestling culture smashed together.
Take that for what it’s worth.
Bleeth Score: 2.5 / 5
