1981 was shortly after Andy Kaufman gave lady's wrestling a slight boost and a few months after john Candy's famous mud wrestling scene in stripes. Lady's wrestling had taken on a bit of a sexy twist and Hollywood tried to capitalize on it a bit with this adventure. Clearly it wasn't intended to just be junk. Peter Falk was a respected actor and the choreography was very well done. The movie, however, isn't without it's flaws.Most people know that wrestling is scripted and these lady's in the "WWE" equivalent would certainly have fought scripted matches not real ones. But if we forgive that, and assume that there's genuine competition, then this movie did a fairly good job of presenting the "grind" of wrestling for a living. Not much reward and lots of bruises.The movie poster implied T&A, but the movie itself was more sport competition than playful fun. The entire film, for example, lacked the sex appeal of the 2 minute mud wrestling scene in stripes, so a person seeing this for the sexy aspect, left disappointed, but it also wasn't really a true "sports" movie either as the outcome was never really in doubt.The movie also failed to give the sense of an underdog rising to challenge a rival, the way Rocky, The Champ or even, made for TV movie Mad Bull or Sylvester Stallone's arm wrestling movie over the top did. The underdog wining in the end may be done to death, but it works. This movie offered pain, but no real tension for the viewer.A final thing it lacked was a personality. You didn't really get to know the ladies at all. They were just wrestlers, not people you were interested in. Peter Falk was OK, he's usually able to come across as a person, but even he was pretty shallow. There was no back story, no "how did he/they get here". Not to compare this to Rocky, cause that's not fair, but when Burgess Meredith talked about not getting his chance and his cheek, bloody, full of holes, you knew everything you needed to know about him and why he was managing. You cared about him. Peter Falk, who was the only character in this film with any personality at all, was still "just some guy".So this movie missed all the marks other than wrestling choreography, which it got down very well. No heart, no story, no personal history, no real underdog, not enough sex appeal, just some well choreographed wrestling scenes that left you saying "ouch" more than "wow".All that said. there are so few lady wrestling movies out there (so few good wrestling movies in general), that this is worth a watch if lady's wrestling is your thing and you want a movie that's basically a lie about how the WWE works, but is told like it isn't.

How can you not enjoy Peter Falk carting around two very feisty lady wrestlers? Robert Aldrich directed this witty cross between ROCKY & THE KANSAS CITY BOMBER. Falk is the not very good but extremely enthusiastic manager of sexy wrestlers Vicki Frederick & Laurene Landon (aka The California Dolls). The three travel from one dingy arena to another as the Dolls try for the big time in Reno. Falk is hilarious, basically acting like Peter Falk. Landon, and especially Frederick are not only sexy, they're smart, funny and tough as nails, both in and out of the ring. They're never made to look anything but smarter than the rowdy audiences who come to see them. They're in on the joke! This is a very funny, very affectionate road film with very likable characters. Burt Young is a mean-spirited & ruthlessly stingy wrestling promoter. Lenny Montana (Luca Brasi from THE GODFATHER & a one-time wrestler himself) gets a lot of laughs as Young's morally superior bodyguard. The script by Mel Frohman and others is full of priceless one-liners.

I have always been a Burt Young fan and to see this film was definitely a treat. I always knew wrestling was a show and not a real sport although the athletes themselves are really taking the bumps and it does take a lot of ability to pull off the moves. I was extremely annoyed when wrestling became a "sports entertainment", because it is more bullshitting than wrestling now a days. I for one applaud movies like the original Wrestler with Ed Asner and Body Slam as they kept the secret of wrestling well hidden. The tongue and cheek way I watched it growing up illustrated the fact that no one could really do that 360 days a year and survive. I especially enjoyed this film because of its plot. A tag team wrestles their way to the top and will do almost anything to get a shot at the title. Burt Young plays a great heal in the film and you genuinely despise him as the film goes on. Peter Falk is his usual charming fatherly type and this film didn't feel staged. I am not familiar with either actress that played the California Dolls so for the first film I have seen them in they did an astounding job. I felt it was more realistic then 1974's The Wrestler which was more of a B rated film. I think that any wrestling fan that longs for the old days of pro wrestling will really enjoy this film. For the new agers who like all the sex and story lines that ruined the old school programs there is enough eye candy to keep you entertained....

VHS long-since expired; bring-on Blu-Ray.Peter Falk, dishevelled here too, sleazy-manager of two seriously-hot 'girls' takes-on a series of very-nasty venue-owners to ensure his tag-team are Number-One.Love the parts where having won on-the-night though NOT paid he performs a 'stress-test' on venue-owners foreign-car & the consequences of using his 'special' dice.For the benefit of 'young-uns' Liberachi was a famous piano-player parodied by a now-defunct furniture-store, famous for it's LA Law style song 'See You All In Court'.