While The Rock has successfully taken control of his post-wrestling movie career, and Steve Austin is doing whatever he does when Redneck Island isn’t filming, some wrestlers and former wrestlers aren’t the marquee names they once were. And when a career is closer to dying than living, it makes sense to go up against something that is already dead, right?
And so that’s why you’re even able to watch the above trailer for writer/director Cody Knotts’ Kickstarter-funded film Pro Wresters vs. Zombies. Well that, and because Knotts obviously has everyone’s best interests at heart. I mean, there are wrestlers fighting zombies up there! To punk music! And Penthouse Pet Tara Parker inexplicably shows up! Although there isn’t much of a storyline to follow in this trailer, which mostly features everything the title dutifully implies, Knotts – who has two horror movies under his belt already, Lucifier’s Unholy Desire and Breeding Farm – described the intent behind the film in the Kickstarter description.
“Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies is a labor of love and our effort to bring to the fans what they really want: Good Old American Violence. This is an idea that fans instantly understand but big Hollywood executives don't. We know because we are fans ourselves. If you are tired of boring films trying to teach rather than entertain you, then this film is for you. We will bring you big powerful men and hot women slaughtering waves of zombies! WHO DOESN'T LOVE THAT?”
Indeed. The film stars such famed fighters as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Matt Hardy, “The Franchise” Shane Douglas, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Kurt Angle. And there will apparently be appearances by the legends Terry Funk and Larry Zbyszco, as well as Scott “Raven” Levy.
In case anyone got into this thinking I would verbally body slam the obvious ridiculousness that is Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies, it should already be obvious I’m not. I was a wrestling fan for much of my youth, I love horror movies of all sorts, and I love cheaply made flicks that have no intentions of taking themselves seriously. There are a ton of expensive self-aware films out there already. And none of them feature Kurt Angle ankle-locking someone’s foot right the fuck off. That, my friends, is what cinema is sometimes about.
After all, let us not forget that Roddy Piper uttered one of the most iconic lines in action film history with his They Live line: “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”
