The crowd is enthusiastic, white and Black people, children, teenagers, and adults, all wearing their Sunday clothes, some holding elusive banners, and cheering as if they could interact with the ongoing spectacle. The hand of Mildred Burke is held high while the title belt rests upon her left shoulder; the beaten former ladies’ wrestling champion leaves the squared circle with a face covered in anger, fear, and shame, to screams hailing the victorious penetrating her ears and being.
The biopic ‘Queen of the Ring’ (2024) tells the story of Mildred Burke (1915 – 1989), a three-time women’s world champion of pro-wrestling who had her heyday from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. Burke started when this amalgam of sports and entertainment was illegal for women in the US, and she trailblazed her way to the top while being a single mother in a masculine environment to become the first million-dollar woman athlete in history.
‘Queen of the Ring’ has the competent direction of Ash Avildsen, who has also secured his territory as a music and comic books impresario. The period piece is enhanced by the reliable work done by the research and art department that recreated a long-gone Americana to the point that helps to understand the central character development. The cinematography has a sense of immersion that makes the viewer detach from the world outside and sense how it was to live with the technology and values of those years, the well-curated soundtrack also plays its role in the experience; these resources cause nostalgia even in those who never lived there. The film is based on Jeff Leen’s book The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend (2009).
The great asset of ‘Queen of the Ring’ is its protagonist, Emily Bett Rickards (Arrow). The Canadian actress underwent an arduous body transformation to build muscle while prioritizing muscular definition. In addition, the performer went through pro wrestling training. The scenes where Rickards is training or wrestling have her as a ferocious predator eager to take any comers. All the preparation she went through makes it believable which is more valued by Rickards’ Golden Age star appeal.
It is a strong showcase of acting as Rickards feels like a countryside girl with fears and doubts who grows into a mature woman who has to accept her leadership role in a male-dominated world that is always were men and even other women try to ensure she knows her role. Rickards displays a lengthy range while traversing from hope, eagerness, fear, love, anger, and self-respect, and all that with a believable accent.
‘Queen of the Ring’ announces that Emily Bett Rickards is prepared for the upper echelons of leading ladies, be it in dramas, thrillers, action, or horror pictures. All the effort combined with her acting skills should set her up for bigger productions or at least get the attention of casting directors and producers. The supporting cast helps further this emotional story, which gains muscles with the professionalism of Walton Goggins (The White Lotus season 3), Cara Buono (Stranger Things), Francesca Eastwood (Juror #2), Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf), Martin Kove (Cobra Kai), Damaris Lewis (The BlacKkKlansman), Deborah Ann Woll (Daredevil), Gavin Casalegno (The Summer I Turned Pretty), and Adam Demos (Rescue Special Ops).
Demos gives life to the legendary and flamboyant pro-wrestler Gorgeous George, one of the first celebrities with the advent of television and significant influence in the public personas of Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, and Ric Flair. Although a supporting character, Demos’ George feels like an ever-shining diamond whenever he appears. Ann Woll’s Gladys Gillem starts as a naïve girl, then surrenders to resignation and ends as a stark reminder on how rough this scripted entertainment can be.
Alongside this respectable cast of supporting players is Josh Lucas (American Psycho), who gives one of his best performances as the problematic women-wrestling manager Billy Wolfe, a man who deserves his credit for helping usher the acceptance of women in the ring, as they were forbidden to wrestle among themselves.
Still, Wolfe is a philanderer and abuser prone to beating up women and those he deems weaker than him but acts as if he didn’t mean to wreak havoc. Once the damage is done, and as happens with abusive people, Wolfe reverts to a cycle of being nice again, which leads to further aggression.
Lucas cleverly portrays Wolfe as a good person who shows genuine interest in investing in others. However, this genuine feeling mutates into neglect or taking advantage of those in his inner circle, and once they are broken, he dismisses them, as he does with George, or uses full strength to destroy them.
The picture is improved by having world-class pro-wrestlers. Toni Rossall (Toni Storm) and Kailey Farmer (Kamille) portray wrestlers Clara Mortensen and June Byers, respectively. Both bring a different type of antagonist to Burke, being good scene partners for Rickards and complementing her narrative. Rossall and Farmer are world champions in real life. Their acting revolves around their physicality, not just the way they move in the ring but how they portray the personalities and motifs of their characters through their body language, making Mortensen and Byers very different from each other and from Burke.
The movie has so many rich characters that it could also be a limited series, but still, it wouldn’t have the same impact as ‘Queen of the Ring’ does, so showcasing them opens the doors for them to have their stories told, much like Mildred did for others.
‘Queen of the Ring’ comes after pro-wrestling biopics’ Iron Claw’ (2023) and ‘Cassandro’ (2023) and years after Darren Aronofsky ‘The Wrestler’ (2009), starred by Mickey Rourke, and the mainstream moment pro-wrestling is enjoying. ‘Queen of the Ring’ finds an identity of its own, which is straightforward, sometimes feeling like an endearing matinee piece from a bygone era, but it has moments of darkness as when it portrays husband-on-wife violence and how it was dealt with in those days, which packs a strong message and is another moment that Rickards’ chops flourish.
Avildsen’s movie gains by not being preachy, but it has messages of acceptance of women, Blacks, and queer people in society, and pro-wrestling owns a lot to these groups. The film shows the battles that Burke and her peers had to go through to have their artistic and entertaining craft respected, laid the road open for talents like Toni Storm, Kamille, Chyna, Mercedes Moné, Charlotte Flair, and others to be on the marquee of wrestling events and even headline the coveted Wrestlemania events which saw in its 35th edition Becky Lynch grappling with Ronda Rousey.
‘Queen of the Ring’ talks about the days we live in as women, queer people, and other minorities are having their rights threatened, if not terminated, in America and other parts of the globe. Nevertheless, it doesn’t forget that its focus is to tell Mildred’s story with skill, and it can entertain the whole family, but primarily girls at an age where they seek role models, much like those little girls on the ringside who projected themselves on Mildred Burke.
(4 / 5)
