NOW ON TUBI. Post 9-11, Professional Wrestling – or “wrasslin’” as my father would call it – was more or less absorbed into McMahon’s WWE. Those wrestling shows were predominantly controlled by a script and turned into melodrama. For the past 25 years, since the supremacy of the WWE, professional wrestling has been the soap opera of the trailer park. It wasn’t always that way.
Regional wrestling groups and independent low-cost wrestling rings have always existed on the periphery of the business. Wrestling Then and Now exists for Evan Ginsburg to explore the independent, low-key professional wrestling shows. These performances are rarely staged for profit and demonstrate a true love for the art form that is professional wrestling.
Wrestling Then and Now is powered by informal interviews with a bunch of then up-and-comers in independent wrestling. We meet Mambo King, Louie Ramos – Low Life Louie, Homicide (Nelson Erazo), Ratty the Rat Girl, Kasie Kavanaugh, and Brimstone. All these nascent wrestlers share a deep passion for the sturm and drang they are meant to portray through the deeply physical choreography of professional wrestling shows. Professional wrestling, when viewed through the eyes of the independent performers, is really quite a delightfully trashy spectacle.
“…shooting interviews with wrestlers, fans, managers, and promoters on the independent wrestling circuit that exists in the 5 boroughs of New York.”
Evan Ginsburg wisely steers Wrestling Then and Now in the direction of an oral history. While we will see clips from various wrestling shows, Wrestling Then and Now is more concerned with relating the tales of what was. When in the glory days of the 20th century, you could have Walter ‘Killer’ Kowalski tangle with Don ‘Dr. Death’ Arnold. Tales of Nikolai ‘The Mad Russian’, and his association with the infamous Iron Sheikh. When the regional WWF would showcase random indie acts like the Bushwhackers, a pair of twin brothers who allegedly were from New Zealand. There is an aura of spiritual wonder when the young wrestlers discuss these matches and events.
Wrestling Then and Now is an early-generation digital video production. It’s Evan Ginsburg and director Dwayne Walker, shooting interviews with wrestlers, fans, managers, and promoters on the independent wrestling circuit that exists in the 5 boroughs of New York. This is professional wrestling at its most stripped down. I see why Evan Ginsburg would go on to work with Darren Aronofsky to tell the tale of The Wrestler. That film encapsulates and celebrates the homespun, low-cost aesthetic on display in this first professional wrestling documentary.
Wrestling Then and Now, much like the Zine it shares a name with, is attempting to showcase the promise of independent wrestling, where the men and women of the East Coast venture seek to entertain and thrill their audience with 4 hours of actual, choreographed matches that do not rely on a script or storyline. Instead, you watch a show that, in its essence, is a form of summer stock theater. Wherein aspiring professional wrestlers showcase their personas and choreography.
Ultimately, Wrestling Then and Now revels in the low-brow culture of professional wrestling. A delightful and heart-felt documentary, Wrestling Then and Now is a suplexing great time, brother. A meditation on where independent professional wrestling is going. See it on TUBI.
"…a suplexing great time, brother..."
