Queen of the Ring
Written and Directed by Ash Avildsen
Starring Emily Bett Rickards, Josh Lucas, Kelli Berglund, Walton Goggins
Runtime 133 minutes
Premiered at Newport Beach Film Festival

by Carmen Paddock, staff writer 

Professional wrestling has been having somewhat of a popular culture resurgence over the past few years. In cinema and television, it has manifested in works from last year’s magnificent biopic The Iron Claw to the recent release of documentary series Mr. McMahon on Netflix, but these stories are often about wrestling’s greatest male stars. Queen of the Ring, written and directed by Ash Avildsen, seeks to rectify this by telling the true story of Mildred Burke, the world’s first million-dollar female athlete and women’s wrestling’s longest-reigning world champion. Hers is a story that has largely been ignored by the wider wrestling world as female champions in the television era have taken precedence; a quick scan through Goodreads reviews of Jeff Lean’s book on which the film is based reveals a host of wrestling fans filling historical blind spots.

Burke (Emily Bett Rickards), born Mildred Bliss, saw her destiny in the ring before the men of the industry acknowledged the viability of women’s wrestling–let alone her undeniable talent. After pinning a man in front of coach Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas), she leaves her dead-end, small-town life to embark on a career as the premier female wrestler from the 1930s to the 1950s (remarkably, a time when women’s wrestling was illegal across much of the United States). She marries Billy, who promises to take care of her and her young son–but soon their marriage falls apart as he romances every woman he takes under his wing as manager and coach. Burke must forge her own career and fight for a seat at the male-dominated table as her life and career fill with triumphs and tragedies: the first “shoot match”–a real fight with no predetermined script–in women’s wrestling, mentoring a new generation of female wrestlers, bringing women of color into the sport, and headlining decades of matches with both male and female challengers. In her career, she reportedly only ever lost to a man once. 

While the entire cast embraces period accents and mannerisms, fully immersing Queen of the Ring in nostalgic Americana without sugar-coating its shortcomings, Emily Bett Rickards’ performance as Burke is the film’s mercurial beating heart. In her hands, Burke’s fearless pursuit of her dream balances alongside her vulnerabilities and flaws, making her a woman of her age rather than an aspirational heroine. Rickards is particularly adept at observation, letting Burke absorb the many worlds in which she moves and calibrate her responses – in character and out – to her needs and her audiences’ and promoters’ expectations. 

Queen of the Ring will delight fans of Netflix’s GLOW, cancelled too soon after three vibrant and varied seasons exploring women’s wrestling on television in the 1980s. While covering earlier decades, its attention to period detail is no less painstaking and its celebration of boundary-breaking women equally joyous. That said, Queen of the Ring goes gnarlier with the toll the ring takes on bodies: the outcomes might often be scripted, but the falls are very real.

There is nothing in Queen of the Ring that breaks the biopic formula: there are flashbacks, a Campbellian hero’s arc, and references to other historical movements that give perhaps undue credit for influencing turns of events. However, Mildred Burke’s life is too little known, so this somewhat formulaic approach is a great introduction to her world without ever over-explaining her times and industry. Likewise, as a wrestler whose life melded seamlessly with kayfabe, this almost-mythic framing of a very human story does not feel out of place. 

The grit, glamour, and endless grafting required to succeed in pro wrestling makes for an endlessly captivating story, all the more so for how much unfolds behind the scenes and storylines fans love to follow. Queen of the Ring gives Burke full credit as a force who changed women’s wrestling forever and is well worth seeking out for wrestling fans and newcomers alike.