I suppose it’s somewhat difficult nowadays to really give a good inspiring sports story to an audience now. We’ve almost seen it all, but it’s always a valiant effort to bring the genre back to the silver screen. Director Ash Avildson brings the story of wrestler Mildred Burke to the forefront here in Queen of the Ring telling her rise in the wrestling world just as women’s wrestling is gaining popularity in the United States. Though, Avildsen falls into many trapping’s whenever men attempt to take on women’s stories; there’s just too much focus on the men in her life. 

 

Emily Bett Rickards played the queen, Mildred Burke herself and while the performance isn’t so impressive, it’s still a valiant performance that brings as much justice as possible to the wrestler’s name; there are other women wrestlers that the film introduces us to played by Francesca Eastwood, Debrah Ann Woll and Marie Avgeropoulos to name a few.

 

However, the biggest blemish of the film is how the film tackles Billy Wolfe played by Josh Lucas. Lucas himself is both the best and worst parts of this film. He’s really giving us a great performance about an abusive businessman in women’s dominated sport and his affairs in exploiting them; however, it just doesn’t seem like the film views Wolfe this way. His abuses and cheats his way constantly through the film, and yet, there is so much focus on this character and his relationship with these women who feel just massively underutilized. Not to mention how the film over credit’s Wolfe in helping women’s wrestling getting big besides the women in the film who were actually in the ring. It just feels grossly handled and irresponsible.

 

Avildsen’s directing is honestly subpar - though better than his previous effort American Satan. The coverage presented is super boring to look at, and the wrestling scenes themselves look pretty uninspiring themselves. Not to mention the pace of this film makes this an absolute slog to get through, and wrapping up, it’s clear this just had no idea what kind of movie this wanted to be.