Best Wrestling documentaries

[Eagle26 427]

I was watching some basketball documentary when the thought occurred to me that there actually are wrestling documentaries I could be watching on Flo (or maybe some other sites as well)! So I figured this might be a useful topic while everyone is in lockdown. What are your favorite Flofilms or other wrestling documentaries? If you have watched multiple how would you rank them? I have watched the one on Brands and the one on Kolat a long time ago. I remember liking them both, but it’s been too long I’m not sure I could pick a favorite anymore... I may just have to rewatch them :-)

[jross 279]

Flo.  Honestly 'all of them.'  I listened to them on my way to and from work before we decided to stay safe at home.  I liked learning more about Kolat, Brands, and Mocco.  I liked references to FoxCatcher in various videos where the youth learned from and taught the seniors.

Edited April 22, 2020 by jross

[stonerd7 53]

Takedowns and Falls...followed Central Dauphin HS (PA) for a season in the middle of their run at the top..

[Cary by the Lake 50]

**** Veritas: Jon Trenge Story.

[jackwebster 102]

On 4/25/2020 at 8:48 AM, Cary by the Lake said:

**** Veritas: Jon Trenge Story.

Howie Miller is an interesting guy. At times, he seemed convinced that he was the next Tarantino.

On a personal note, he helped build my confidence as I tansitioned into college. He saw something in me that I didn't, and I have always been appreciative of that.

Re flo docs: BAD CUT was disappointing. It was disjointed because of its scope. It tried to cover too much stuff. We get a speculative history of how changing weight classes in the UFC has impacted its bottom line, an advertisement for one weight cut expert, and an unanswered question about how to move forward . As such, it was a missed opportunity to address the fifth column of our sport.

For example, Coleman Scott's description of his naive approach to making weight captures the way I thought about cutting weight: a pound is a pound -- put it on / sweat it off. I wish Bader would have spent more time examining why some many of us approach cuts in this way. It has to have some advantages or we wouldn't do it. He could then have spent some time giving concrete reasons why you ought to think about it differently. To demostrate an alternative, he could have tracked parallel cuts:  new school vs old school. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by jackwebster

[MadMardigain 1,241]

I had a decent list going here 

 

And some prior posts point out a few other movies to check out. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by MadMardigain

[Idaho 752]

Takedown starring Ed Hermann, Maureen Mckormick and Loenzo Lamas. Best documentary out there. I was intrigued by the technique to reverse a wrestler from your back to his by the simple use of a boom box. 

[Eagle26 427]

On 4/23/2020 at 10:28 PM, stonerd7 said:

Takedowns and Falls...followed Central Dauphin HS (PA) for a season in the middle of their run at the top..

Found this for free on Vudu. I can’t believe I never watched it before, especially since I’m from PA! I highly recommend it!

[fadzaev2 317]

This thread has been on here 5 days now, and I can't believe it, but no one has mentioned "Dan Gable/Competitor Supreme".  After I finish eating, I'm going to go up in my office and look for others.  Maybe this isn't considered a documentary, but it is to me.  Fadz

[fadzaev2 317]

OK....just came down from my office....grabbed a couple more documentary/videos....Another video just titled "Gable" was done by Direct Cinema Limited (1999),   Then ESPN2 did a Dan Gable special in their Sports Century series (2001).  Iowa Public Television did Cael Sanderson/Profile of a Champion (March 2002).  Of course there are also 3 movies/documentaries that are more recent, documenting the life and death of Dave Schultz....the movie "Foxcatcher",  the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary...."Prince of Pennsylvania" and the documentary "Team Foxcatcher" (only on Netflix, and my favorite of the 3).   Fadz

[BobDole 967]

On 4/26/2020 at 9:43 AM, jackwebster said:

Howie Miller is an interesting guy. At times, he seemed convinced that he was the next Tarantino.

On a personal note, he helped build my confidence as I tansitioned into college. He saw something in me that I didn't, and I have always been appreciative of that.

Re flo docs: BAD CUT was disappointing. It was disjointed because of its scope. It tried to cover too much stuff. We get a speculative history of how changing weight classes in the UFC has impacted its bottom line, an advertisement for one weight cut expert, and an unanswered question about how to move forward . As such, it was a missed opportunity to address the fifth column of our sport.

For example, Coleman Scott's description of his naive approach to making weight captures the way I thought about cutting weight: a pound is a pound -- put it on / sweat it off. I wish Bader would have spent more time examining why some many of us approach cuts in this way. It has to have some advantages or we wouldn't do it. He could then have spent some time giving concrete reasons why you ought to think about it differently. To demostrate an alternative, he could have tracked parallel cuts:  new school vs old school. 

Bad cut barely touched the tip of the iceberg. It would be good to have solutions to weight cutting and more in depth analysis of what it does to someone.

[SamStall365247 140]

In my opinion the best are Takedown and Falls, The Streak, and Iowa: A Season On The Mat. Wish ESPN would release the Iowa doc on dvd. 

[TobusRex 1,826]

On 4/22/2020 at 10:08 PM, Eagle26 said:

I was watching some basketball documentary when the thought occurred to me that there actually are wrestling documentaries I could be watching on Flo (or maybe some other sites as well)! So I figured this might be a useful topic while everyone is in lockdown. What are your favorite Flofilms or other wrestling documentaries? If you have watched multiple how would you rank them? I have watched the one on Brands and the one on Kolat a long time ago. I remember liking them both, but it’s been too long I’m not sure I could pick a favorite anymore... I may just have to rewatch them :-)

There is a pretty good documentary/bio on Leroy Kemp on Amazon Prime. Also found a bio about the Iron Shiek, who believe it or not was a REAL wrestler before taking up rasslin'. Plus there is the "Man who beat Gable" on youtube, which everybody here has probably seen a million times.