Really great stuff! A must-see for all wrestlers, trainees and fans alike.

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2009)

Let's just one thing straight; I'm not writing this because of Mickey Rourke. I'm not judgmental, but if I can't say anything bad about him, I'm also going to refrain from saying anything nice about him. If you read this in hopes for appraisal or criticism on Rourke, you're reading the wrong comment.
The Wrestler is, I believe, the closest thing you can get to a fictitious documentary from this environment. Sure, I do admit that not every old wrestling legend from the 80's is living in a trailer park, work as loading boys at the local K-Mart and limps into high school gyms to work 20 dollar matches every Saturday night, but you got to let some of the Hollywood magic have some running ground too. Some of the high points in the movie has been exaggerated, making the story sometimes a bit too far off, but then again, at some point, one or several former wrestlers have most likely experienced one or several of these things to a more or lesser degree, so by exaggerating them, the audience gets to see just how far out these things can be or go. These things could very well happen, I just find it a bit hard to believe that they would all happen to the same guy. I'm a huge wrestling fan, and I got very surprised when I got to see how many wrestlers, well-known wrestlers that is, were in the movie. There was Ron Killings, Austin Aries, Necro Butcher and Ernest "The Cat" Miller just to name a few. And they used real, official brand logos from the real wrestling promotions CZW WXW and ROH. It was great to see how deep into the wrestling society the film makers have gone to make this movie authentic and realistic. You get hints of how locker room discussions go, what preparations are put into a wrestling promotion or let alone a show, and how these wrestlers improvise and think creatively to make their acts look better. One of my favorite scenes was when Randy and another wrestler goes to a hardware store to find things they can use as weapons in a upcoming hardcore match.
To a certain respect, one could say that this is almost the life story of former WWF (WWE) star Jake Roberts, but I have not personally been able to clarify that. But for those who are familiar with Jake The Snake and his life and career will find a lot of similarities.
Now, since I have personally never been in a wrestlers' locker room, I can't verify just how authentic this movie is, but since it appears as raw and right-in-your-face as it does, I can't see any reason to say that this is as close as you will get to a study into a wrestling legend's life after his downfall and demise and re-rise to status as icon. That said, remember that this is after all a film, and not a real life documentary.
The Wrestler is no what I wanted, but just the way I expected it to be: it's dirty, grimy, raw and brutal. It's not date movie, it's wrestling. Oh! and for "CERTAIN" people in the WWE who shall remain nameless, I would encourage you to watch this movie and re-find the REAL purpose and the REAL meaning of wrestling!
Funniest thing I saw in the movie: Randy has a NES, Nintendo 8-bit, game console. He plays a game called WrestleJam III (where he's featured himself) with a kid who tells him about this new game that just came out called "Call of Duty 4". That scene just cracked me up. Worth a watch. Actually, worth several watches!