Before Dwayne Johnson was a massive movie star he was wrestling in WWE as The Rock. Now, The Rock is going to the movies. Dwayne Johnson will play himself in the new film Fighting with My Family and the first trailer for the film has him dusting off all his greatest catchphrases. He's still got it. Check it out.
The trailer follows a young brother-sister combo who have aspirations of becoming superstars in the WWE. It shows a great deal of the story already, as we see that Paige will make it, while her brother won't, but the most entertaining parts of the trailer are the appearances by The Rock. Fans of Dwayne Johnson's WWE days will recognize a couple of his greatest lines appearing here, as he cuts a promo on the two main characters that starts with "It doesn't matter" and even gives us his best "If you smell what the Rock is cookin'."
Fighting with my Family follows the story of Saraya-Jade Bevis, the woman who would become WWE superstar Paige. She grew up in a family of wrestlers and her story was part of the documentary film, The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, which has now been turned into a big screen comedy. Dwayne Johnson's primary role in the production is actually that of producer, he likely won't be in much more of the movie beyond the scenes that we see in the trailer, but the folks in charge of marketing realize that putting Dwayne Johnson in your trailer is a good move when promoting your movie.
I have to say, Fighting with My Family looks pretty entertaining based on this trailer. Nick Frost as the patriarch of the family looks to be a pretty inspired choice and young Florence Pugh looks great as Paige.
Clearly, the movie will focus on the realities of professional wrestling, rather than trying to make it look "real" as many early films that dealt with it tried to do. Obviously, that's the right call. Even the WWE doesn't pretend that wrestling is real except during the hours the actual show is on. The movie is also produced by WWE's film division, which is great because it will allow the movie to use all the names of the shows, and often, as with The Rock, the real people, making the true story feel that much more like you're watching Paige's career actually unfold.
It will be interesting to see just how many people who don't follow the entertainment form will be interested in such a film, but in the end, it's an "underdog makes good" story and there's always an audience for that when it's done well.
Paige's actual story is bittersweet. In April of this year, she officially retired from the ring due to an impact injury to her neck. She still appears weekly on WWE TV but is unlikely to wrestle again. Still, she lived the dream, and we'll all get to follow along when Fighting with My Family hits theaters in February.
