Queen of the Ring (2025) [Movie review]
Queen of the Ring is about the rise of Millie Burke to female wrestling superstardom. Years before The Fabulous Moolah and the modern generation took the stage, Burke dared to challenge what was legal and what audiences would accept. While the amount of people out there that are deeply interest in mid 20th Century wrestling history are finite, your enjoyment of the film will go on for quite awhile. Why?
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By the time you read this, The Louisville Premiere will have happened
Queen of the Ring shot in Louisville and like every film that chooses to grab a tax credit here, I support it and the local jobs it brings. However, I don’t want to be a goon spotting locations and people I know in the film rather than paying attention to the story. That’s when the first weird bit of wrestling history hit me about 25 minutes into the movie.
As a nerd, when watching factually based stories, I immediately start putting together a reading list. That’s how the weird time jump from Burke’s time in Kansas to her wrestling career getting underway. Seriously, I think it’s something like 15 years of time get jumped rather fast before the first hour marker hits. It’s not as bad as Sissy Spacek playing a 13/14 year old in the opening act of Coal Miner’s Daughter. But, your brain is going to have a hard time following the narrative and placing the overall timeline.
Emily Bett Rickards leaves the Arrowverse behind
Emily Bett Rickards has been a fan favorite since her days playing Felicity Smoak in the Arrowverse. Now, as she comes into her own as a dramatic actress, she’s nailing those roles that used to make the 70s and 80s so rich. Character driven dramas where real people encounter real events with a touch of the fantastic. Plus, she highlights all of Millie Burke’s wins and losses in a way that makes you root for this poor Kansas waitress on her journey to become a wrestling superstar.
Josh Lucas supports her well as Burke’s first husband Billy Wolfe. The film tries to give them more of a love story than I felt was needed, but Wolfe was a central part of the fight to get female wrestling into the American mainstream. For those that aren’t aware and Queen of the Ring loosely taps on it, female wrestling was banned in most rural area of the country up until the Kennedy Era. Mainly because it was seen as indecent and a threat to women.
I buy the lady wrestlers
When watching a movie about athletes, my mind always goes to their technique. I don’t care that Shaq was one of the worst actors in a Friedkin movie ever. Hell, how many of you all knew that Rick Pitino and Shaq were in a William Friedkin movie? Where is our Blue Chips 4K UHD, Beahm? But, Queen of the Ring’s director comes from sports movie prestige. For those that don’t know, Ash Avildsen’s dad directed Rocky.
And you see a similar eye at play here in the fairground shots and mid-size auditoriums that made up the 40s-50s American wrestling experience. While boxing and major UFC style cinematic offerings get more brutal and crazy with modern trappings, there’s something beautiful to showing a bunch of goofballs putting on a show at any venue that will have them. It gets to the true spirit of American wrestling and what it made rise to the point that the McMahons and USA Network decided to take it nationwide.
Guest starring Walt Goggins
Walt Goggins can do no wrong. Actually he can, but we don’t talk about Ant-Man and The Wasp in this dojo. Goggins plays Jack Pfefer and Pfefer is probably more responsible for what wrestling is today than anyone else. Pfefer ran the New York territory after World War II up to the 1960s. What he mainly does in Queen of the Ring is serve as the leg up for Millie and the girls to get over big-time with a wider audience.
Pfefer also serves to change how Millie thinks of the shows she did with Billy in the beginning and into what it has to become for the future. Millie doesn’t have so many philosophical differences with what Pfefer and New York pitches her. But, the back half of the film shows the cost of fame for Millie. Her husband won’t stop screwing around and her teen son wants to join the life and pick up a life of Kayfabe. But, she knows it’s not meant to last.
The Corny Cinematic Universe
Jim Cornette is one of the pillars of modern wrestling. When fan tastes started building away from him, wrestling went from sport and started turning into that episode of South Park about pro wrestling. He has a bit role as an NWA Commissioner that comes in early to poo poo the idea of lady wrestlers. In many ways, he’s no different than any Sports commissioner trying to keep the territory system afloat.
That being said, more Corny at your Cineplex is never a bad thing.
Seriously what was up with the time jumps in Queen of the Ring?
When making a feature film, you have to deal with the economy of time. Many wrestling fans will walk away from Queen of the Ring wondering why it couldn’t be a mini-series. Honestly, I get that it wasn’t a mini-series because WWE seems focused on giving away the goods to a crumbling Netflix infrastructure and hoping for the occasional TV bow on FOX or wherever. Remind me again why I keep Peacock? As a casual fan, even I can’t keep up with where I can expect to see modern wrestling on a regular basis anymore.
If there’s any major detraction point for Queen of the Ring, it’s that it plays as a greatest hits of female pioneering wrestling figures. The first black lady, the biggest lady celebs and the whole fight to get equal recognition. That’s great and all, but that is a couple of decades you have to stuff into a crowded movie alongside a troubled marriage, kid problems and generally trying to keep the focus on Millie Burke.
Queen of the Ring is one of the better wrestling movies I’ve seen in ages
Sure, Queen of the Ring suffers from the same quibbles that bother most sports biopics. But, Emily Bett Rickards nails the life of Millie Burke with a level of grace that I didn’t see coming. Her Millie is exciting and you want to see her win. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked to see some young ladies get inspired to wrestle because of the movie. They might not end up down at OVW, but hell I can’t wait to see the inspiration hit them.
