10 Greatest Wrestling Documentaries
Icons, Punks, Gorgeous Ladies and Redemption.
Before the late '90s, wrestling documentaries were virtually unheard of. Despite the business being incredibly popular throughout various periods in its history, honest, in-depth films just weren't made about it.
This is largely due to the industry shrouding itself in a veil of secrecy for decades. Promoters didn't want the "marks" to know how the inner workings of the business played out. They weren't going to willingly let some brash filmmaker enter their world and expose their myriad set of tricks. Because of that, viewers were left in the dark as to how the wrestling world was conducted behind-the-scenes.
Those days are long gone. Now, there's an overflow of documentaries available to watch: Steve Austin, The Big Show, Edge, Randy Orton, Dusty Rhodes, Brian Pillman and countless others have had their life story told as a feature. Throw in retrospectives on WWE, WCW, WCCW, AWA and ECW to name a few, and there are a ton of features to pick from.
However, much of what has been produced has been politically motivated, poorly produced, or has simply skimmed through notable aspects of a person's life because it comes off as bad for business. WWE, in particular, is often guilty of rewriting their own history, which leaves some of their offerings as completely forgettable affairs.
Still, when the right story comes along with the right director at the helm, a wrestling documentary can be just as fascinating as any other non-fiction film out there. Here are the 10 best released so far.