To understand how this movie's run synergized with the ultimate demise of WCW you have to understand some things about WCW. WCW was the no. 2 wrestling company for years, until they signed Hulk Hogan and booked him as a heel and leader of the NWO (New World Order). This angle went on for more than two years and allowed WCW to overtake the WWE as the no. 1 company and their Monday night wrestling program, Nitro, consistently beat WWE Raw in the ratings. By 1999, things had changed with the emergence of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley and Triple H becoming WWE's biggest stars. During the Attitude Era, Steve Austin's feud with Vince McMahon carried the WWE back to the top brand and winning the weekly battle for Monday ratings. In 1999, pro wrestling had also enjoyed a mainstream popularity that it hadn't seen since the original Hulkamania and Rock and Wrestling days of the mid 1980's. WCW was trying to strike while the iron was hot and decided to make a film. While you can make a good story with a pro wrestling story, namely Mickey Rourke's 2006 comeback film The Wrestler, this movie was like a typical late 1990's teen road trip comedy. Two fans living in Wyoming, Gordie (Scream's David Arquette) and Sean (Entourage and Hawaii Five-O's Scott Caan) are the two biggest fans of WCW World Champion Jimmy King (Oliver Platt, who looked nothing like a pro wrestler even though he could pull off a couple spots). The night Gordie and Sean attend a live WCW Nitro in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on screen WCW President Titus Sincalir (Bad Boys and The Matrix's Joe Pantolaino in weird cowboy garb with a wig that featured pig tail braids and a Stetson) has a backstage falling out with King and plots with Diamond Dallas Paige (as himself) to create a swerve so DDP can become champ. During the match, a Sinclair gives DDP the nod and King loses the belt to Paige. As a secondary result, Sinclair forces him out of WCW. Gordie and Sean are devastated and take it upon themselves to find their hero and help become the champ again. After an extended road trip, where along they find out their hero is a broke, selfish and non-child supporting paying loser, they eventually locate King and convince to try and make a comeback. They sneak onto a Nitro broadcast, where King ambushes Paige but Sinclair interferes and books a rematch for PPV. Cue another montage of training along with Gordie and Sean helping to audition small town weirdos to help Jimmy King a form wrestling "posse" to watch his back leading to the rematch. The movie, while childishly stupid in its humor attempts and an overall inferior product, also takes a very dim view of pro wrestling fans in general, portraying Gordie and Sean as two idiots who were generally unaware of wrestling's scripted match finishes and kayfabe, basically wrestling fiction. This is besides the fact that WCW actually had David Arquette starting to participate in wrestling matches with DDP and Kris Kanyon as his partners. He even defended the title against UFC veteran David "Tank" Abbott. They used the WCW World Title as a promotional tool, having Arquette in a bizarre tag match where he pinned WCW President Eric Bischoff. In one of the worst heel turns and promos of all time, he reveals he was actually part of Hulk Hogan's group the whole time after helping Hogan win the title back. Needless to say, the movie flopped and WCW lost $62 million in 1999. Vince McMahon bought the company for song in early 2001 and the Monday Night Wars ended with a whimper.

When I first started watching this movie I was expecting it to be absolutely hilarious with some great wrestling thrown in. Well there was some good wrestling scenes and a few funny lines. But while watching it I found myself replying to messages checking Facebook and going off to get drinks and food with out even bothering to pause the film. It might sound like I'm just getting ready to absolutely slate this movie, but I'm not, don't get me wrong this film wasn't great but it wasn't a painful watch either. After the two best mates watch there lifelong favourite wrestler 'Jimmy King' get the crap beaten out of him during a wrestling match, they decide to go find this 'Jimmy King' and help him get the world championship belt back. This is the main story line and like I said a few good laughs are chucked in as well, but that was basically it. Something I will say though is that for some reason I couldn't bring myself to turn it off and also that I did enjoy it. This defiantly isn't a film I would recommend but not one I would say to stay clear off either, if its on TV at one point watch it but don't go and rent it and defiantly don't go out and buy it.

Ready to Rumble is one muddled, ridiculous, and insanely casted wrasslin' comedy. The humor is dismally formulaic and stupid yet somehow manages to induce the occasional chuckle. Most of it, however, is uninteresting mischief, especially the scenes with Arquette and McGowan, which are thankfully few. The bizarre miscasting of this film (Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, and Caroline Rhea???), combined with the WCW wrestlers, sadly turns the film into an exploitive freak show instead of the proper salute to sports entertainment that it should have been. The implementation of the wrestlers and personalities is poorly conceived and gratuitous. The wrestlers are mere muscled garnishes who mostly have no lines and no emotional involvement with the plot. They are either set pieces or extensions of the film's villain, Titus.The major problem with Ready to Rumble is its confusion with the gangster genre. Instead of portraying Titus (Pantoliano) as an oppressive promoter, the uninspired writers imitated the character model of the gangster kingpin only they avoided multiple dimensions or any semblance of interesting character. Titus' brutal tactics do not congeal with the film's tone, which is light-hearted slapstick. Admittedly, gripes of this sort are, in fact, inappropriate since Ready to Rumble is not a character piece. However, the reliance on the gangster genre reveals the distinct lack of a defined wrasslin' genre, which, I think, deserves definition.Excluding documentaries, I haven't seen good professional wrestling cinema to date, but, any film that has Martin Landau in a hot tub with girls is worth at least one look. :)5/10

Ready to Rumble is a breakthrough in dumbass comedys. It's not too bad, but seriously, it was like the last movie David Arquette was ever in that I know of (Eight Legged Freaks doesn't count). The sole person that saved this movie from the $5.99 bin at Wal-Mart was Oliver Platt. It truly shows he can be serious and stupid at the same time. Okay, on to the plot (oh right, there wasn't one). Alright, I like this movie,I own this movie, so I should stop being a jerk. The story is about Jimmy King, a professional wrestler for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) whose loses a match and is fired. This is where Arquette and Scott Cann come in. They're both huge King fans and are ticked off that he got screwed by the president of WCW, Donald St.Claire (Joe Pantoliano). So they find the King, fix him up with some connections, have him train, and win a cage match at a major pay-per-view. Sounds pretty simple, right? Other than some minor story flaws, and an ass shot of Scott Cann half-way through, it was okay. It's a good thing WCW doesn't exist anymore, because more than likely, there would've been a sequel (which is not good at all). Two out of five stars.