How Wrestling Translates to Movies and Russell Madness (2015)

Since November, Covid-19 has been consuming the world. It wreaked havoc on China, Italy, and the Princess Diamond before spreading around the rest of the globe. Now North America is directly feeling the effects as the virus infects people at increasing daily rates. Pubic spaces have been closed down. Even movies and television have felt the effects, with many productions being put on hold for the unforeseeable future. One of the few things that hasn’t been greatly affected by it is the WWE.

Vince McMahon has kept his wrestling shows afloat during a time when most other people are practicing social distancing. The audience is gone, but the show must go on. Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Smackdown on FOX continue to produce new episodes while most other shows have shut down until the pandemic passes. The most likely reason is the amount of money that can be made by pushing on. The other could be the inherent entertainment that comes from watching wrestling stars.

People have tuned in week after week, for decades, to watch wrestlers duke it out in the ring. They’ve seen things like Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III, the Montreal Screwjob, the first Tables Ladders and Chairs match, the Finger Poke of Doom, and the growth of women’s wrestling to the point that there have now been three women’s Royal Rumbles and a women’s main event at Wrestlemania 35. That’s not nearly everything, and that’s only covering the WWF/WCW/WWE television wrestling.

Wrestlers have also branched out into acting in films and scripted television shows. Their faces have been plastered all over posters and home video packaging. And with their presence in movies comes some influence that wrestling will have over the storytelling. That influence doesn’t only come in the form of WWE Studios producing movies like The Marine, 12 Rounds, and The Call. There are many ways that the wrestling background of the performers will influence what happens in the movies.

One of the most common influences that a wrestling star can have over a story is for wrestling to be involved. Sometimes the wrestler will be brought in to fill out a wrestler role in a wrestling story. Other times there will be some wrestling thrown in, simply because a wrestler was available to be in the movie. Whatever the case, there are an abundance of movies featuring wrestlers that also feature people getting into the ring to battle it out and see who is superior.

No Holds Barred, which featured Hulk Hogan in a leading role, was a movie about TV companies competing for wrestling ratings superiority. Fighting with My Family was a biopic about Paige and what it took for her to find WWE success. It featured Dwayne Johnson playing himself. Ready to Rumble was based around the WCW and featured much of their roster. The television show GLOW was about a women’s wrestling show from the late 1980s and featured appearances by many wrestlers from WWE, TNA, and Impact Wrestling. One of those wrestlers was John Morrison, who played a wrestling trainer in season one. He would also appear in this week’s movie.

Russell Madness was a 2015 release that featured a talking Jack Russell Terrier named Russell (Sean Giambrone). He was up for adoption in a pet store for too long, so they were going to send him to the pound. Russell ran away to avoid the terror of pound life. He managed to find the Ferraros, a family that recently inherited the old family business: a classic wrestling arena. The family watched as Russell, trained by a monkey named Hunk (Will Sasso), stumbled into wrestling stardom. He even had a rival, the human wrestler nicknamed “The Hammer” (John Morrison), and discovered that the strongest tag team was family.

Movies filled with wrestling aren’t the only times when wrestling becomes a part of the storytelling. There are times when the story is something other than wrestling, and some sort of wrestling match makes its way in there. Look no further than The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power to find that. The whole franchise had been seeped in wrestling, with Dwayne Johnson in the first film and Dave Bautista in the third. It was the fourth film, however, that brought the wrestling ring into things. While trying to obtain a map, the female protagonist was forced to win it through a wrestling match against an opponent played by Eve Torres, a former WWE wrestler. It came out of nowhere, was only relevant for that one scene, and exited the movie just as quickly. It was as though they had a wrestler and needed to force a wrestling scene in there.

Moving on from the literal in-the-ring wrestling, the many action movies featuring wrestlers have infused their action with wrestling moves. Most of the time, it’s basic wrestling-style grappling. A few throws here, a grab and throw there, an interlocked tumble in the end. The choreography of the fights look more like wrestling than fights in other movies. In The Marine 5: Battleground, most of the fights happened between wrestlers. This allowed for more wrestling moves to be utilized as Mike Mizanin fought the likes of Naomi, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel, and Heath Slater. And, for the most part, that action worked because the wrestlers knew what they were doing and the fights were choreographed to accentuate their wrestling skills.

The fisticuffs can get even more specific when the moves specific to those wrestlers get thrown into the choreography. Dwayne Johnson has repeatedly executed The Rock Bottom in action movies in which he has been featured. Going back to Russell Madness, John Morrison basically performed his Starship Pain finisher, minus the butt bounce on the top rope, on Russell to finish their first match. John Cena gave Fred his finisher, The Attitude Adjustment, in Fred: The Movie. Goldberg performed a Spear during Santa’s Slay. The list could go on and on. The fact that a wrestler is in a movie usually leads to those wrestlers performing the moves that they were known for in and around the ring.

The final big influence that the casting of wrestlers has over the way a story is told comes in the form of character types. There are three basic character types for wrestlers. This doesn’t mean that all wrestlers in movies fall under these three groupings. Most of them do, though. One is that the wrestlers play wrestlers. That was kind of covered in that first little bit about wrestling being a part of the story when wrestlers are involved in the acting. The second grouping is the charismatic person. It could be an action star spouting off one-liners, or a comedic role where they crack jokes. The final grouping is the tough terror, where the wrestler plays a big menacing type of person. There are a few performances that don’t fall in those three categories, but most fit right in there.

Many wrestlers have played wrestlers. It could be a movie like Ready to Rumble where the World Championship Wrestling stars played themselves throughout the film. Diamond Dallas Page played a heel version of himself, while the remaining WCW Nitro roster appeared as themselves to fill out the rest of the wrestling matches in the film. Or a wrestler playing a wrestler could be like John Morrison in Russell Madness. He came in to play The Hammer, the rival wrestler to Russell, the Jack Russell terrier. It wasn’t John Morrison playing himself. He was playing another wrestler. But he used his wrestling background to play the character.

When they aren’t playing wrestlers, the wrestling stars get split into the other two camps of performances. Dwayne Johnson has played many a charismatic action hero in movies like The Rundown, the Fast and Furious franchise, Rampage, Jumanji, and San Andreas. Dave Bautista has done much the same with Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and his part in Hotel Artemis. Hulk Hogan did his charismatic protagonist stuff in No Holds Barred, Mr. Nanny, Santa with Muscles, and Suburban Commando. John Cena used his charisma to make Blockers and Bumblebee into audience favourites. Part of what makes the wrestlers’ charisma pop so well on screen is their background in microphone work and ridiculous comedy bits in their wrestling careers.

Then, on the flip side, there are the performances by wrestlers that rely much more on their physical presence than their personalities. Think of someone like The Big Show being used in Jingle All the Way. Sure, he got to give a tough guy line, but the only reason he was in the movie was to be a muscle-bound Santa bent on destroying Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or you could look at Dave Bautista and his use in The Man with the Iron Fists. He was an unstoppable muscle man who could turn to brass when he was hit. That’s all. He was there to be the muscle.

When wrestlers make their way into movies and television shows, things tend to get geared around their appearances. The stories become about wrestling if they weren’t already. Wrestling matches get thrown into the movie when they don’t necessarily fit. Fight choreography becomes infused with wrestling moves, especially those of the wrestlers in the movie. And the character types are tailored specifically to the assumed strengths of the wrestlers. They make their performances, and therefore their films, fit into what they can do.

There are numerous movies out there featuring performers who came from wrestling. If you wanted to, you could spend the entire pandemic at home, going through the hundreds upon hundreds of movies with wrestlers in them. Or you could watch wrestling on television. Wrestlemania 36 is coming up in a couple weeks and there doesn’t look to be an end to wrestling on television, even with more and more lockdowns being put in place. When the rest of television has ceased to have new episodes, wrestling will be the only new thing left. This is a weird, weird world.

Here are some less weird notes:

• The Scorpion King movies (week 380), Jingle All the Way (week 160), The Marine (week 30), The Marine 5: Battleground (week 237), Santa’s Slay (week 263), and Santa with Muscles (week 211) were mentioned in this post.
• Russell Madness was directed by Robert Vince, who directed the Buddies movies (week 270).
• Michael Teigen was in Russell Madness. He was previously in In the Name of the King: Two Worlds (week 220), Snow Buddies (week 270), Space Buddies (week 270), and Far Cry (week 364). Welcome to the Five Timers Club.
• Michael P. Northey made his third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance this week. He was in Alone in the Dark (week 152) and Catwoman (week 174).
• Fred Willard also made his third appearance in Russell Madness, after appearing in Date Movie (week 164) and Fifty Shades of Black (week 219).
• The last third appearance was by Nicholas Harrison, who was in Jingle All the Way 2 (week 160) and Snow Buddies (week 270).
• Two other actors from Jingle All the Way 2 (week 160) were in Russell Madness. They were Matty Finochio and David Milchard.
• Charles Robinson returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Russell Madness. His first appearance was in Santa, Jr. (week 107).
• Kaitlyn Maher made her second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance this week. She was previously heard in Free Birds (week 209).
• Will Sasso voiced Hunk in Russell Madness. He also had a role in Movie 43 (week 243).
• Milo Shandel was in Cop and a Half: New Recruit (week 340) and Russell Madness.
• Russell Madness marked the return of Chris Coppola to the Sunday “Bad” Movies, following his first appearance in Far Cry (week 364).
• Finally, Sean Giambrone made a fairly quick return by being in both The Emoji Movie (week 373) and Russell Madness.
• Have you seen Russell Madness? What did you think of it? What do you think of wrestling being portrayed in movies and TV? How do you feel about wrestlers transitioning into acting in movies and TV? You can tell me all about your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments.
• If you have any suggestions for things that I should be watching for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can find me in the comments or on Twitter and let me know about them. I’m always looking for movies I might not otherwise know. It brings some variety to the schedule.
• Sunday “Bad” Movies is on Instagram and is usually updating with pictures, video clips, and all around bad movie fun. Check it out.
• In next week’s post, I will be revisiting a franchise that I’ve seen something from before. Last year, I saw a movie called Hard Ticket to Hawaii (week 352). I soon learned that it was the second movie in a franchise from Andy Sidaris. I’ll be checking out the movie that came before it. Malibu Express is next up and you’ll read all about it next Sunday. See you then.