'Fighting with my family' movie...

Last night I got to watch 'Fighting with my family' a movie about the backstory to 'Paige' a WWE professional wrestler's debut into the professional world of wrestling. It tells the story about how her family ran a wrestling business that her parents owned and that her older brothers had been a part of but neither of her brothers had made it big and it became her wish to "fight for her family."

It was an interesting movie in light of the recent events in Christchurch in that this movie promotes the use of violence for entertainment purposes and also as a business. The interesting part about the movie was that her parents discussed how having a wrestling business kept her father out of a life of crime and it became their 'salvation' in being able to pay their bills and bring food to the table.

They were also able to assist other young people in their community by offering wrestling classes for those who were interested. In fact, a blind wrestler that they worked with became a professional wrestler as credited in the movie.

I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s, with my dad as a big wrestler fan having been a boxer in his younger days and we'd watch 'On the mat' which was one of NZ's first wrestling programmes with some early Samoan wrestlers like Peter Maivea (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's grandfather), Samoan Joe. Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka (Fijian) etc.

In fact, I remember my dad buying our family tickets so that we could go to the YMCA in town and watch some matches which had few people and nothing like the mass audiences and atmosphere now seen on TV all over the world but especially in USA where it's a mega multi-million dollar business.

My favourite wrestler of recent times although now turned actor has got to be 'The Rock' Dwayne Johnson being part Samoan, that was definitely a no-brainer for me and he also starred in the movie in recognising that he too came from a family of wrestlers.

So although it was an interesting movie that condones violence for entertainment purposes much like how World heavy weight boxing matches are a drawcard for sport fans and families with Samoans like David Tua and Joseph Parker getting into the mix. It's definitely a movie that got me thinking...