Friday 6 January 2017

Wrestling School (2016)



I supported this half-hour documentary on Kickstarter back in September, and my copy of the film arrived just in time for the new year, which was nice.  I sat down to watch it today and found it an entertaining thirty minutes.  It is clearly aimed more or at the casual fan or curious outsider than anyone who's really familiar with the 'behind the scenes' fabric of the industry, but that's a perfectly acceptable market to pitch to and this does a sound job.

The documentary is about the staff and students of the Santino Brothers Wrestling Academy in Los Angeles.  We're introduced to the people who run the place first, with them explaining first how they got into the professional wrestling industry at all, and then how they gravitated into running a training school.  We then get to meet the trainers and students, who talk about how their interest in pro wrestling began, why they've chosen to go from mere fan to participant, and what the actual experience of being in the ring is like (spoiler: it hurts).

Wrestling School offers up some engaging characters.  I'm particularly fond of the two guys who form a tag team known as the "Study Buddies".  Anyone who portrays a Nerdrific "Technical Wrassler" is okay by me.  There are also some just plain fun stories here, and the film does a good job of conveying the passion of these people for what they do.

If you fit into the target market, Wrestling School is worth a watch.  You can find the film's Facebook page, which will hopefully soon have details of where folks who weren't kickstarter supporters can get it, here.

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