Fighting With My Family Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

2. The Paige/AJ Match Is Poorly Recreated

Paige Main Roster Debut
WWE

The movie of course ends with Paige's 2014 Raw debut, where she interrupts AJ Lee (played here quite amusingly by WWE superstar Zelina Vega), but the dramatisation will prove pretty uninspired to anyone who remembers the match.

For starters, the film completely glosses over Paige's NXT Women's Title reign, either for pacing reasons or to heighten the drama of her Raw debut.

Moreover, Zelina Vega is dressed in a red PVC costume which is decidedly less modest than the clothing AJ actually wore during the match, while Pugh-as-Paige is conversely dressed far more modestly than she was in reality.

These might seem like nitpicks, but they're pretty basic immersion-breakers considering how easy it should be to get the costumes right.

Furthermore, the movie version of the segment has Paige freeze up nervously - something which didn't happen - and considering that the movie match was filmed after a real live show, the crowd looks mostly burned out and bored.

As a result, crowd reaction shots are spliced in to make it look more exciting, but the editing is sloppy and makes the whole thing look a bit awkward.

Also, though the real match lasted barely a minute - and, honestly, wasn't very good - it's elongated here for dramatic purposes. Not the worst thing in the world, but showing her mugging for the camera with her NXT pals post-victory is undeniably a bit jarring.

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Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.