In 2008, the wrestling industry didn’t just get the Hollywood treatment, it got the small-budget but grand scale awards movie treatment! Character actor Mickey Rourke returned to prominence playing a washed up wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, in Darren Aronofsky’s film, The Wrestler.
The film resonated with wrestling fans as well as critics alike due to its compelling story of a fame and fortune addicted former superstar who is trying desperately to hang onto his former glory. How do you make a small budget movie about a big time business? There are all kinds of behind the scenes stories about the making of the Academy Award winning film.
9 The Director Had To Quiet The Crowd Down
As many wrestling fans know, they can be an incredibly rowdy bunch. Fans lay their tickets to chant, cheer, and boo whoever they want and generally however they want. That even means when Darren Aronofsky is trying to film key scenes for the film’s climax. After a Ring Of Honor show, Aronofsky and crew were filming the climactic match between Randy and The Ayatollah. The fans in attendance were being as unruly as fans at an Indy show can be. Until the director got on the house mic and explained how important the scene was they were filming. The crowd apologized by chanting “we (expletive deleted) up,” and filming commenced without a hitch.
8 Axl Rose Donated “Sweet Child Of Mine”
During the movie, Randy and Cassidy bemoan guys like Kurt Cobain for killing Guns N Roses career. In real life, Mickey Rourke and Guns’ lead singer, Axl Rose are great friends.
Despite using Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head,” as his entrance music for the movie, for his final match, Randy sauntered to the ring using the GnR classic, “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” Axl actually donated the song to the movie to use.
7 Lanny Poffo Was Turned Away
You can’t make a movie called about wrestling without including some wrestlers in it. Throughout the film, plenty of Ring Of Honor superstars at that time made an appearance. But one old-time wrestler lobbied to get a part and was turned away.
According to The Genius, Leaping Lanny Poffo was told he was too good looking to snag a part in the film about the gritty underground portion of the wrestling world. Considering that he and his brother, The Macho Man, grew up with Angelo Poffo, who was largely known as a miser, Lanny definitely knows a little about grimy and gritty.
6 The Worked And The Shoot Of Nicolas Cage
According to Aronofsky and writer Robert Siegel, Mickey Rourke was always the first choice to play beaten down wrestler Randy The Ram. However, because Rourke was also considered a beaten down actor by Hollywood, the film wasn’t given any financing, so Nicolas Cage was cast instead.
Cage knew right from the start why he was cast. He did soldier on and played his part, so to speak. He was seen at Ring Of Honor shows doing his research. Once the film’s financing came through, Cage happily bowed out to allow Rourke to take his rightful place.
5 Who Trained Mickey Rourke?
Despite his reputation for being a renegade, Mickey Rourke is a fantastic actor, the type of actor that prepares deeply for any role he plays. For his role in The Wrestler, the method actor learned how to work matches from one of the greatest families and trainers in the history of the business.
Rourke went to Afa and The Wild Samoans' camp to learn. Just by family ties alone, every fan knows full well Rourke was in good hands. Aside from the Anoa’i family, Afa has also trained the likes of Billy Kidman and Batista.
4 Rourke Was Real
Along with training with the Wild Samoans and learning how to work matches, Rourke as previously stated is a big method actor who does his best to get into the headspace of every character he plays. Wrestlers of course, can get into the headspace of getting color during their biggest brawls. Rather than let makeup artists and CGI gurus do their work giving Randy The Ram a gusher, Rourke did it himself the wrestler’s way, with a blade taped up in his fingers.
3 The Magazine Montage
The film begins with the best possible way to explain how huge Randy The Ram was once upon a time - a big montage. Randy’s on the covers of all of the big wrestling magazines all over the world. But as good a shape as Rourke got into for the role, twenty years earlier, Randy was in much better shape and the magazine covers showed this. But instead of doctoring photos of Rourke to achieve this, the film wizards doctored pictures of The Total Package Lex Luger instead.
2 Based On A Charles Mingus Song
While there are plenty of stories like this told throughout the years, the story of The Wrestler is actually inspired a spoken word song. Acclaimed Jazz musician, Charles Mingus had recorded a song, “The Clown,” for the title track of his album.
The song tells the story of a clown who tried to please crowds from all over, much like Jazz musicians (and wrestlers) do. But his work wasn’t appreciated until he was dead. If that doesn’t sound exactly like the plot of the movie, than nothing does.
1 The Proposed WrestleMania Match
With the film garnering all sorts of critical acclaim, the WWE wanted to try and shoehorn their way into the success. They promoted the film on their TV on the road to WrestleMania XXV.
Behind the scenes, the stage was getting set for Chris Jericho to take on Mickey Rourke at the show of shows. But on the talk show circuit, Rourke inadvertently spilled the beans before he was supposed to. That set his Hollywood handlers off in a tizzy. Since he didn’t want to jeopardize future roles, plans had to change. Rourke got to simply deck Le Champion instead.