"THE WRESTLER"...THE WAY IT WAS
By Dr. Abner Mality

"Kayfabe"...a Japanese term that most of the public doesn't have a clue about. But say this magic word to a serious fan of professional wrestling and watch the heads nod up and down, the lights go on in the eyes. Kayfabe has no strict English translation, but can basically be understood as "making the unreal real". It also has connotations of "code of silence", "keeping trade secrets" and, above all, BELIEVE!

For decades, professional wrestling was founded on the code of "kayfabe". Make the public believe wrestling was "real". NEVER reveal the inner workings of the business to "marks" (i.e., people not in the wrestling business). To break kayfabe was to risk being blackballed by promoters at best, to risk physical injury at the hands of another wrestler at worst. And the idea of kayfabe worked, it helped to make pro wrestling a perennially popular mainstay of American culture despite the scorn and ignorance of the mainstream press.

In the 21st century, though, Kayfabe is no longer practiced. All the inside secrets of wrestling have been revealed, all the magic has been dissipated. You can go on the internet and read detailed discussions of the pre-arranged finishes and "angles" of matches. The wrestlers, the promoters themselves, no longer take their business seriously. They see wrestling as "sports entertainment" where extreme stunts and soap opera storylines predominate.

The loss of the old school kayfabe wrestling has been a bitter blow to those who remember the excitement of the past. One man more than any other exemplified kayfabe and the promotion of wrestling as sport. He was Verne Gagne, the great champion of the long-defunct American Wrestling Association. Verne was a man who lived, breathed and embodied the spirit of oldschool "scientific" wrestling more than any other with the exception of the great Lou Thesz.

In 1973, Verne and his associates had the idea to jump into the movie business by making a film about professional wrestling. The movie was simply titled "The Wrestler" and it would take a strictly kayfabe approach to wrestlng. Thanks to my good friend Classic Camp, I have finally seen this obscure piece of Americana and I am moved to comment on the movie.

Looked at strictly from a movie standpoint, "The Wrestler" is not a great or even good movie by any standard. It has a bland, TV-movie type look to it, the direction is basically flat and the performances range from decent to awful. The story is thin and cliched as well. But looking at "The Wrestler" as a tribute to the glories of kayfabe grappling, we see a much more entertaining film, one that fills the old time wrestling fan with not only warm nostalgia but keen regret.

"The Wrestler" is really Gagne's own story. He is the central character of the movie...an aging but still dangerous champion known as Mike Bullard. In almost every way, Bullard's story mirrors Gagne's. A lot of people have accused Verne of arrogance in putting himself over in the movie. Perhaps that's true but he has certainly not been the only wrestler to toot his own horn. And some of Gagne's weaknesses show up in Mike Bullard as well.

The first scene in the movie is a traditional wrestling interview...also a thing of the past in this day when wrestlers have their own microphones so they can talk and talk and talk. "Pretty Boy" Larry Hennig calls Mike Bullard a"bald-headed, spindly legged pot bellied old man" and says he will easily take the world championship from him. But the next scene shows that old man taking Hennig out with a sleeper hold...the same maneuver Gagne himself used successfully so many times.

Bullard knows time is running out on his career, but before he reaches retirement age, he dreams of uniting all the world championships of wrestling. In this "Superbowl of Wrestling", Bullard would meet the other rival world champions of the NWA and the WWF. Archival footage is shown of the actual champions of the time the movie was made...Pedro Morales of the WWF and Dory Funk Jr. of the NWA. In 1973, rival territories respected each other's turf and didn't try to take over the business. By our own time of 2005, one greedy promoter (Vince McMahonJr) has monopolized the business and converted it to his idea of "sports entertainment".

The promoter of the league Bullard is the champion of is Frank Bass, played by well-known character actor Ed Asner. Asner really fits the part like a glove. He's one part gruff and hard-edged, one part world weary and sympathetic. Bass is in a bad spot. Bullard's wife is very worried about her husband's safety...a wrestler named Ray Gunkel has recently died in the ring. This is a true story...Gunkel died after a match with notorious Ox Baker. Mrs. Bullard would like to see Mike quit. Of course, Bullard is focused on the "Superbowl" and has no intention of quitting. Frank is also getting pressure from a slimy mob boss (played by former wrestler and announcer Sammy Menacker) who is trying to "fix" Bullard's matches. The "fixing" subplot shows Gagne's strict adherence to the code of kayfabe. In reality, all wrestling matches were "fixed". But in "The Wrestler", they are portrayed as strictly real confrontations.

Now, a new player enters the scene. He is a brilliant young British wrestler named Billy Taylor...a scientific master who is hungry to up-end Bullard. Taylor is played by Billy Robinson...and once again, Robinson basically plays himself. The story mirrors the real life clash between Gagne and Robinson at the time. Many feel Billy Robinson was a superior wrestler to Verne Gagne. I saw Billy wrestle many times in my youth and I can vouch that he was the greatest scientific counter-wrestler I ever saw. As Taylor, Robinson shows natural acting flair, and his wrestling scenes are exciting and breath-taking to watch.

There are numerous subplots unfolding in addition to the Bullard/Taylor confrontation. We see the dangers of the ring as the notorious Ray "The Crippler" Stevens actually kills his opponent during a match with his "bombs away" knee drop from the top rope. Once more, the movie follows a "real" wrestling event. Stevens paralyzed an opponent for real by using the "bombs away" maneuver and as a result, top rope moves were banned in the AWA for 15 years. The lines of truth, kayfabe and movie storyline become increasingly blurred in "The Wrestler".

The in-ring death leads to the most passionate scene of the movie. After the card where the fatality took place, Bass speaks to a line-up of cynical reporters. The scorn of the reporters for wrestlers is palpable, as one tells Frank flat-out "Nobody cares about these guys." That causes Frank to launch into a fiery diatribe defending the danger and brutality of pro wrestling. He names a half dozen real wrestlers who died while grappling in the ring. It's pretty clear that while Ed Asner is spouting the words, it was Verne Gagne who wrote them. He defended the honor and dignity of pro wrestling against all comers and Frank Bass' words here reflect Verne Gagne's own feelings.

A more amusing sidebar involves the tag team of Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch, the Texas Outlaws. In this case, there's no attempt to give them a phony name...they portray themselves, or rather, what the wrestling public thought they were. The two hellraising good old boys are in a San Francisco bar when they get a call from Frank, who begs them not to start any trouble. "I don't need to pay for another wrecked bar as well as bail," he pleads. Rhodes, using his patented Dusty-like double-talk, assures Frank that he and Murdoch will stay on the straight and narrow. But soon enough, a couple of Japanese tough guys enter the bar and egg the duo on with insults. The Outlaws hold themselves back, but when the bowler-hatted thick neck Japanese (played by Harold "Oddjob" Sakata) sneers "karate strong...wrestling weak!", the fight is on! Rhodes and Murdoch show the martial arts masters how to fight West Texas style and manage to wreck the entire bar in the process. The scene is a cliche (as well as horribly racist as far as the Japanese go) but it is good dirty fun to watch an all-out brawl in a movie that focuses more on scientific wrestling.

Gagne's respect for amateur wrestling is obvious during a scene at Mike Bullard's training camp. Knowledgeable wrestling fans will have a field day spotting the young trainees at the camp. You can see Olympic strongman Ken Patera, Khosrow Vaziri (later to be the Iron Sheik), Jim Brunzell, and Don "Magnificent" Muraco all before they achieved their fame. And see if you can notice the rather chunky, dark-haired young man with the prominent nose...he is one Richard Fliehr, who would one day become "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, whom many consider the greatest professional wrestler of all time.

The amateur roots of pro wrestling are demonstrated with several training matches,featuring the father and son combo of Eddie and Mike Graham in action. During one sequence, the legendary amateur star Dan Gable puts a few moves on Mike Graham. Bullard even talks about how the Greeks and Indians worshipped wrestling. This sort of reverence for the historical basis of the pro game would be impossible to find in today's carnival sideshow.

The wrestling sequences add spice to a movie that otherwise plods along stolidly. A fair amount of time is devoted to the relationship between Frank Bass and his cute, perky secretary Debbie (played by Elaine Giftos, who by strange coincidence looks like Asner's co-star Mary Tyler Moore). Their mutual admiration finally blossoms into an outright May-December romance, which may bore those looking for rock 'em, sock 'em action but which is strangely appealing in its own way.

Mike is playing coy as far as meeting Billy Taylor in the ring goes, but Frank tries to force his hand by going on TV and publicly saying Bullard must defend his title or it will be considered forfeit. This actually plays into Bullard's hands...he wanted to face Taylor all along, but didn't think the Brit had enough publicity to draw a crowd. Now he does.

Now that the big match between Bullard and Taylor is a reality, the mob intensifies its effort to get Frank to fix the fight. The mob boss and a couple of goons work Frank over in a locker room, but coming to his rescue are two of his best wrestlers, The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser. Crusher and Bruiser completely destroy the crooks, throwing them through doors and into lockers in the movie's most violent scene. The Crusher was a childhood hero of mine. This massively muscled tough guy from Milwaukee was a "people's champion" with his no-nonsense brawling and working man persona. As for the late Dick the Bruiser, billed as Crusher's cousin, he was considered the "world's most dangerous man". It's a great nostalgic thrill for me to see these two in action at the height of their popularity.

With mob interference out of the way, Taylor and Bullard lock up. Watch this match if you want to see the way wrestling used to be. Today there is no question that matches are "fake". But it's much harder to see that in confrontations like this. Again, Gagne and Robinson clashed for real during the same time period "The Wrestler" was filmed, so fiction follows reality. When the end of this movie comes, it comes with stunning abruptness. I won't spoil it, but if you know how the Gagne-Robinson matches turned out for "real", you'll know how the Bullard-Taylor match plays out.

Nobody in their right mind would claim "The Wrestler" is a great movie. Treating pro wrestling with realism and respect would put it in most critics' "snob zone" right away. By watching this movie, you can see how pro wrestling once tried to portray itself. A lot of names are dropped in the film. "Sam Muchnick is on the phone," Debbie tells Frank at one point. Muchnick was the long-time promoter in St. Louis. "I've got to get in touch with Kiniski and Cowboy Watts," Frank mutters elsewhere. Watts and Kiniski were wrestlers turned promoters. When negotiations for the "Superbowl" are underway, we see a meeting of real promoters. One of them, ironically, is Vince McMahon Sr., father of Vince Jr., the man who would ultimately destroy Gagne's AWA as well as kayfabe.

Gagne goes out of his way to acknowledge the wrestlers of other territories. During the training sequence, he mentions guys like Fritz von Erich, Bruno Sammartino and Victor Rivera while still pictures of the grapplers are shown. Dramatically, it's amazingly hokey, but it does give the viewer a great look at the big wrestlers of the early 70's.

I miss kayfabe more with every passing year. This style of wrestling will never return. Greed and technology have killed it, the way they have killed many things I hold dear. "The Wrestler" is a flawed but fascinating look at this forgotten legacy of American sports. Check it out to see "the way it used to be".