Fighting with My Family (2019)

[Athena]

A biographical sports film based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, depicting the WWE career of professional wrestler Paige. It stars Florence Pugh as Paige, along with Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey and Vince Vaughn, and is written and directed by Stephen Merchant. Dwayne Johnson executive produces and also appears in the film.

[Browncoat]

I saw this tonight, and really enjoyed it!  I have zero interest in professional wrestling, and less than zero interest in women's professional wrestling, but the narrative was interesting and compelling.  I enjoyed the clips of the real family during the credits, too.

I'm sure they added drama here and there, as they usually do, but the bones of the story were good even without added drama.

[CherryMalotte]

Saw this a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it - thought the casting was great, Florence Pugh is a delight.  Some, okay most, of the WWE related or wrestling star movies are barely watchable but this is definitely one of the best.    

[rmontro]

Saw this on Epix and I was very surprised.  I just watched this because I know who Paige is, but I wasn't expecting it to be any good really.  But it was actually very engaging, emotional, and entertaining.  Who knew?  Probably helps that it was based on a documentary, I'd like to see that too.

[kiddo82]

Question for anyone who knows these things.  In the climax, it's made to look like Paige is given 24 hours notice of her appearance on Raw, just shows up and fights her opponent the next day unscripted, and then "wins" the fight.  I don't know anything about pro wrestling but that doesn't seem like how it works to me and took me out of it.  First of all, aren't the outcomes predetermined?  No shade, just an honest question.  So Paige up and winning the belt like that lost something for me.  And second, and more importantly, would they really have two people who never met each other and never worked together just stage fight for the first time on live TV like that?  I didn't buy that they never would have rehearsed together before.  If not, seems like a recipe for someone to get seriously injured.

[Perfect Xero]

6 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

Question for anyone who knows these things.  In the climax, it's made to look like Paige is given 24 hours notice of her appearance on Raw, just shows up and fights her opponent the next day unscripted, and then "wins" the fight.  I don't know anything about pro wrestling but that doesn't seem like how it works to me and took me out of it.  First of all, aren't the outcomes predetermined?  No shade, just an honest question.  So Paige up and winning the belt like that lost something for me.  And second, and more importantly, would they really have two people who never met each other and never worked together just stage fight for the first time on live TV like that?  I didn't buy that they never would have rehearsed together before.  If not, seems like a recipe for someone to get seriously injured.

Endings are predetermined.

Traditionally most wrestling matches are not rehearsed extensively in advance, they go over the ending, the general flow/story of the match, and a few big moments and then improvise the rest of the match in the ring based on what is and isn't working and the crowd reaction.

If two wrestlers haven't worked together before they'd go over any particular/unusual moves they use and how to bump (protect yourself) for them. In WWE there's usually an agent (a former wrestler) who helps them communicate before the show and figure things out. For the most part once you know the basics of wrestling you can take most moves with just a few descriptors of the set up and the bump. Some more advanced sequences might require some sort of preshow walk through or rehearsal, but you don't have to have those in a match, particularly in a TV match, which tends to be shorter.

One wrestler has the "call", usually whoever is working as the heel (villain) but sometimes the wrestler with the most experience and tells the other what moves to do next while the match is going on. Rarely (if both wrestlers are inexperienced) the Ref might be the one to call the match.

Some wrestlers did prefer to more extensively plan out their matches beforehand, and sometimes even rehearse the entire match for the biggest show. Macho Man Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page were two of the bigger stars who liked to do this, but they were an exception.

In recent years it's gotten a bit more complicated, NXT (the training league) has a much lighter schedule and is known for more extensively planning out matches and sometimes rehearsing it or at least certain sequences in the match, with the help of one of  the agents/trainers. Then wrestlers would get to the main WWE roster and be expected to adjust to the traditional formula of a less planned out match, which would lead to issues.

WWE in recent years has indeed become known for sudden changes of direction, wrestlers being called up or shifted to another show with little notice and match results being decided or changed the day of the show.

IRL Paige says she was told she was being called up and was winning the day before the show. It wouldn't be unusual for her to have not told her family she was going to win, either to protect against it leaking or in case it was changed at the last minute.