Wrestling Queen is less about Vivian Vachon, the titular rassling royalty, than it is about early 1970’s pro wrestling. This movie near-instantly puts a lie to the rewritten Vince McMahon Jr. history of wrestling that big crowds and families didn’t attend wrestling shows until the rock and wrestling connection of the early 80’s.
Vivian comes from the legendary Vachon family, which includes Paul the Butcher and Mad Dog Maurice, both of whom show up here. They’d eventually come into the WWF fold at the start of the USA Network era and Vachon daughter Luna would become a memorable part of the Attitude Era.
The most important reason to watch this movie is to see a behind the scenes and in-ring portrait of some of the most famous names of wrestling’s past, including Andre the Giant, Baron Von Raschke, Dory Funk Jr., Dick Murdoch, Bill Watts, Danny Hodge, Blackjack Mulligan, Killer Kowalski and more.
There are some interesting moments with fans, who compare it to other sports like baseball, while some opine that women are there to hook up and the son of a female wrestling explains why he still thinks that it’s real. It’s not the best documentary on wrestling that I’ve seen, but still a fascinating time capsule.
You can watch this on YouTube:
