#mae young

Like, I imagine Madam Bo (since she came up with Raiden and Lao's test scenario) telling Tomas, "...And then you throw me over the balcony" and Tomas is like "UM WHAT????"

Because I guess initially Bubba Ray didn't want to do it, but ended up being fired up for it and Mae Young was just such a fucking badass. (I've heard different versions regarding his change of heart. Don't quote me but the one that stuck with me is that she was basically like, "Man up and do it.")

Ash Avildsen's "Queen of The Ring" is a highly embellished re-telling of the life of Mildred Burke, also known as the first female Million Dollar champ. Avildsen focuses too much on priding single motherhood as well as gender and racial politics when the focus for this picture would have been more enjoyable if it would have been all about women's wrestling like 2019's "Fighting With My Family". The film deviates not only in topics but also introduces a myriad of wrestling legends. Some who have gotten their flowers (Mae Young, Gorgeous George, Fabolous Moolah portrayed by a scene stealing Mickie James) and some who haven't (such as Babs Wingo, Marva Scott, and Trinity Fatu gifting audiences a cameo as Ethel Johnson). Also modern wrestlers (Toni Storm as Clara Mortensen, Kamille as June Byers) make noteworthy appearances. There's nods to NWA as a flagship promotion, the McMahon family, Brutus Beefcake and a slew of jargon is dropped to get casual onlookers familiar with pro-wrestling culture but the melodrama diluted the film. It's too late to put out a cautionary film about the trainer/trainee relationships that often bloom into tragic romance all throughout the history of pro-wrestling. Even wrestlers as young as Mia Friday are finding romance in between the ropes. And as an FBA viewer I could only see Babs Wingo's side story as pure pandering. She dropped her opportunity for a title and passed up on higher earnings with another promotion just to stay loyal to an anglo woman who already had her time in the sun. That and that little sneak in of a Jackie Robinson nod just felt weird. Especially given the way that Robinson was instrumental in ruining the revenue the Negro Leagues was earning as a "black business", before that term was even politicized. The semi-incest/ stepmother storyline was also strange but not surprising in the business of pro-wrestling. The constant "single mother" line being thrown in the audiences face did not work to make Mildred look sympathetic, but it made her look silly and deserved of the bumps that she sustains throughout the film for being stupid enough to mix business with pleasure and think that every man is just going to be happy to play stepdaddy. I've seen better re-enactments of wrestling matches in "The Iron Claw", but I did like that the audio from the original matches were interwoven into the film. I like that Avildsen attempted to make a film about women's pro-wrestling but I dislike the fantastical factors in the film. It was easy to see that alot of the history in this film was heavily revised. Knowing about Sweet Georgia Brown's legacy, I just couldn't stomach the embellishment of the story of Babs Wingo, Marva Scott, and Ethel Johnson. Damaris Lewis basically made Babs coon from the grave. It would have been great if she never took that role. It would have been great if Avildsen didn't frame this film to champion single motherhood and marriage only to be used as a business agreement; essentially using this period piece to cop a squat all over the Western family structure.

"Iron Claw" and "Fighting With My Family" in contrast were just more wholesome while "Queen Of The Ring" is a one-sided handicap match for every self-respecting man that ever celebrated the beauty in the art of women's pro-wrestling.