Pro-Wrestling Documentary ‘Nine Legends’ Is Magic, For the Children
Just because professional wrestling is staged, that doesn't make it any less real. This is the paradoxical koan at the heart of Nine Legends, an officially WWE-sanctioned documentary chronicling the life and times of the sport’s greatest icons. Heavy hitters including Chris Jericho, Dynamite Kid, and none other than everyone’s favorite ear-biter Mike Tyson make appearances in the newly unveiled trailer embedded above to discuss what the sport means to them, in all its theatrical, over-the-top glory. As Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle explained on his recent wrestling-themed LP Beat the Champ, the lure of wrestling lies in the outsized characters, the heels and heroes. It could not matter less that the matches are scripted, or that these men secretly don’t hate each other. Performance is performance, and wrestling is just ballet on ‘roids and speed.
The new trailer exposes a decidedly more bizarre dimension of the film’s core concept as well. Though the documentary has just now been made available to stream in full for five measly dollars over at the official site, it also apparently includes a fictionalized frame story taking place in 2050 wherein a young boy listens to his grandfather relay fantastic tales of interviewing professional fighters back in the day. (Because this wouldn’t be professional wrestling without a healthy mixture of reality and fakery.) What’s more, apparently that frame story sends the young boy back to 2013, meaning that this film is both three years behind and thirty-four years ahead of schedule. An online-only release, Nine Legends won’t break any box-office records, but for fans of wrestling — an extremely fun, goofy thing to be a fan of — it’s a must.