Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Two movie themed questions in a row? What’s happening?! It just seems to be one of those weeks, because while yesterday focused on Superman, today is going to focus on the trailer for the upcoming film Queen of the Ring, heading to theaters in March 2025.
For those unaware, this is based on a book and revolves around the life story of Mildred Burke, diving into the early days of women’s professional wrestling:
In a time when pro wrestling for women was illegal all over the country, a small town single mother embraces the danger to change culture as she dominates America’s most masculine sport to become the first million dollar female athlete in history.
The film stars some fairly notable names (Emily Bett Rickards, Josh Lucas, Walton Goggins, Deborah Ann Woll, Josh Lucas, Martin Kove, Cara Buono, etc) and features guest appearances from wrestlers you of course know well, such as Jim Cornette, Britt Baker, Kamille, Naomi, Toni Storm, and Mickie James.
My question for you today is “What do you think of this trailer, and do you plan on watching this film?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
Admittedly, the trailer itself doesn’t do too much for me in the sense that if I wasn’t already a pro wrestling fan, it wouldn’t stand out as something I’d go out of my way to watch. Effectively, if you told the exact same tale of a period piece historical narrative “based on a true story” of someone’s quest to become respected in a sport that they aren’t considered a part of…well, I’ve seen that story a thousand times already. They’re mostly all produced with the same narrative structures, and I don’t get much out of any kind of period piece wow factor from any time frame of any story (even the 80s/90s of my youth). I’m weird like that, I’ll admit that I’m an outlier and not at all the target audience on that front.
But since I am a pro wrestling fan, this already inherently had a major boost to it. If this were about soccer, adios. Wrestling? You’ve got my attention.
Seeing the amount of name talent associated with the movie also gives me some motivation to see it. If this were a direct-to-VOD film starring a bunch of washed up nobodies, I could write it off. But even someone like Kelli Berglund was pretty great in Heels, and I’m curious to see how she fares in another wrestling project.
I’m also very curious how the wrestlers we watch all the time in WWE and AEW are going to perform. “Timeless” Toni Storm doesn’t quite do it for me, but it seems Toni Storm has a rather sizable enough role in this that I hope she pulls that off.
For context of the movie, I honestly have no attachment to Mildred Burke or anyone from that era, even in the men’s division. It’s not my style. I fully expect them to dramatize the action in a way that makes it more thrilling than if I watched the actual matches that Mae Young, June Byers, and so on had. But the same could have been applied to the style The Von Erichs wrestled, and I enjoyed The Iron Claw a lot.
I’ll be going into this movie cautious that I probably won’t enjoy it as much as that film, but I’ll be going into it regardless. This seems like a watch on my end. What about you?
