Review of Ready to Rumble (2000) by Ryan — 25 Dec 2008

It could be argued that it was not the AOL merger, nor Vince Russo, nor Hulk Hogan, who killed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) back in the day- it was David Arquette. And this movie. You see, the geniuses on the booking team of WCW @ the time thought it would be a great idea (and bring lots of needed publicity) to put their championship belt on... David Arquette. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there was a time when the reigning heavyweight champion of a wrestling organization was NOT HHH, NOT Hogan, Sting, Flair, or Scott Steiner- but David Arquette (not to be outdone, the head booker, a writer with no wrestling experience, later put the belt on himself for two weeks). To achieve their goal of promoting this crapfest, the promoters actually killed their own organization.

As for the movie itself: well, it's not really lame enough to be considered "so bad it's good;" on the other hand, it's obviously not the greatest film ever committed to celluloid. I'd say it's just a bit too mediocre and middle-of-the-road to be considered in either class. That being said, I enjoyed it. Randy Savage and Goldberg are in a few scenes, and Martin Landau plays a character loosely based on Stu Hart. Interesting for fans of the Monday Night Wars and the "extremes" it took the respective wrestling organizations.