For some, the sport of pro wrestling might bring to mind big — often muscular, usually athletic — men. But for close to a century, a contingent of women — generally smaller and athletic, sometimes muscular — have also been climbing through the ropes and taking part in “mat wars.” These days, female grapplers are as popular as their male counterparts. Turn on your TV almost any night, and you can see the likes of Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Kamille, and Toni Storm showing off their acting chops and physical prowess.
The same can’t be said about the big screen. With scattered exceptions – “ . . . All the Marbles” (1981), “Fighting with My Family” (2019), “Racket Girls” (1951), and “Below the Belt” (1980), which features an extended cameo by then-retired wrestler Mildred Burke as a trainer — there’s generally been a dearth of films featuring women wrestlers.
Now comes “Queen of the Ring,” in theaters March 7. Directed by Ash Avildsen, the biopic stars Emily Bett Rickards as Burke who, at 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds, mixed innate acting talent with natural physical ability and showmanship, and pioneered contemporary women’s wrestling during a championship title reign that ran from 1936-1955. She paved the way for countless other women and, never forget, was a practitioner of the dreaded finishing move: the crooked head scissors.
Avildsen (“American Satan”), 43, has been a wrestling fan since he was 8, when he and his brother watched it on TV. In recent years, while toying with making a fictional film about the sport, he called his friend, the veteran wrestling commentator Jim Ross, requesting some input.
“He asked me if I ever heard of Mildred Burke,” said Avildsen, by phone from his home in Nashville, Tenn. “I said no and asked who she was. He said, ‘I want you to read this book — “Queen of the Ring” — I think it should be a movie.’ I read it in three days, then called him back and said, ‘Forget about the fictional thing. This is the story we have to do.’”
The 2009 book by Jeff Leen chronicles how Burke (née Mildred Bliss) was discovered by itinerant wrestling promoter Billy Wolfe, who plucked the young, single mother from a Kansas City waitressing job, trained her to wrestle, and eventually managed and married her. The dramatic content focuses on her tumultuous relationship with Wolfe, who was a rampant philanderer with a short temper that often erupted into violence.
Avildsen was fascinated by her story.
“She wanted to be tough and athletic and have muscles, but she was also feminine and liked glamour and beauty,” he said. “In some ways she was the first real muscle mommy. And she had to do a deal with the devil, in regards to Billy Wolfe. She’s kind of like the Tina Turner of pro wrestling. Their relationship was very similar to Tina and Ike Turner.”
After completing a script, Avildsen sent it to Canadian actress Emily Bett Rickards, 33, who had an eight-year run as Felicity on the TV series “Arrow.”
“It was intriguing to me, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t know who she was,” said Rickards, from her home in Vancouver. “So, I got on the phone with Ash, and we had a really good chat. By that time, I was already three-quarters of the way through the book. I was just devouring her life.”
Rickards added that, “Lucky for me, I didn’t know anything about wrestling, either, which also meant I had no judgments about it. I like physicality and athletic roles. I also liked the idea of transforming my body into her — the way she walked and the way she went out in the world with muscle around her spine was also part of her personality. So, building that muscle was finding her.”
Of course, this wasn’t just a straight-ahead acting job for Rickards. Despite already being in good shape, she had to up her game to take on the demanding part.
“There was a very strict diet,” she said. “I was eating a lot more food than I normally would have been, and my protein intake was a lot higher. I was eating stronger, smarter, healthier. With the weight training, I wasn’t necessarily doing what felt good for Emily all the time. I like to run, but there was no cardio, so that was out. And there were different sets of muscle-building techniques, including heavy weights. It was a week-by-week process, six days a week.”
Another big hurdle was the fact that — even with assistance from a stunt double for difficult maneuvers — Rickards still had to get in the ring and convincingly wrestle. She did just that in a climactic fight with the menacing character June Byers (played by AEW wrestler Kailey Farmer, one of many real-life wrestlers in the cast).
“Working with real professional wrestlers was a delight,” said Rickards. “They take the reins. You can’t see it, but when we were shooting, Kailey was whispering in my ear, telling me what to do. She was helping me along the whole time, really leading the charge.”
Meanwhile, it was up to Avildsen to ensure that the film would attract mainstream audiences as well as wrestling fans.
“I tried to make sure that even if you don’t care about pro wrestling, you can fall in love with the lead [character] and feel that you’re on the journey with her,” said Avildsen. “It was humanizing her, and making her relatable to the audience. I looked at Mildred through the lens of her trying to become a superstar athlete and entertainer, but she’s told by society — because she’s a woman and a mom (her son, Joe, traveled on the road with her from the time he was a young boy) — that she’s got no business trying to lift weights and wrestle.”
Rickards — also taking into consideration Burke’s calamitous marriage to Wolfe, on whom she depended for bookings on wrestling cards — remains in awe of her.
“I feel like all those things made her who she was, which is why she was such a force, why she’s such an iconic, timeless woman,” the actress said, noting that in Burke’s unpublished autobiography, she talks about how “she was able to stand up in the face of violence and adversity. She had her own back, and she believed it.
“She’s a hero of mine, for sure,” said Rickards. “She taught me a lot, and continues to teach me a lot. I’m so grateful I got to know her.”