I have been absolutely dying to see The Wrestler in theatres. There has been so much buzz about the movie since the movie was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and it finally will be hitting theatres in wide release January 23. The closest it had been playing to where I live was Mississauga, which even though I was really bumped to see it, I wasn’t a 40 minute drive away pumped. I’ve been a huge wrestling geek since I was a kid, so wanting to check this movie out is pretty much a no brainer.

The movie stars Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a washed up wrestler who used to be a big name in the 1980′s. The movie draws a lot of inspiration from the lives of real life wrestlers who don’t know when to move on. I’ve heard that the concept at the heart of the movie parallels the life of Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who was featured in the 1999 documentary Beyond The Mat. It showed him at a point in his career, well past his prime, where he’s gone from performing at Madison Square Garden with the likes of Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant in the WWF, to performing to half filled small town community centres and arenas to make a few bucks.

I have to say Mickey Rourke looks amazing for a 52 year old guy to get into that kind of shape he was in for this movie. With his long locks and physique he kinda reminds me of former ECW wrestler Jerry Lynn minus the goatee. He also has that face that looks as worn as an old catchers mitt. As a longtime watcher of wrestling I’ve seen this story play out so many times, where an old wrestler doesn’t know when to give it up because they always think they’ve got one more big run in their tank. Vince McMahon tends to like to bring the old guys back for one last run quite often, so many of the old timers do tend to slug it out into their 40′s and 50′s thinking they can get that one last shot.

In honour of The Wrestler and 80′s wrestling I decided to get out my old rubber wrestlers and make like it was Wrestlemania 3 on my messy desk.