Fighting With My Family: Movie Review

Imagine growing up with an entire family full of professional wrestlers. This was the case for WWE Superstar, Paige. Fighting With My Family follows the true story of how she came from wrestling in the family business to becoming the youngest champion in WWE history. It's an hilarious take on a feel-good story that's written and directed by Stephen Merchant and features Vince Vaughn and "The Great One" himself, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The story begins in Norwhich, England at the WAW (World Association of Wrestling), a small wrestling promotion ran entirely by Paige's family. After years of hard work, she and her brother, "Zodiac Zak," receive a call from the WWE, the pinnacle of their profession. After tryouts, however, only Paige was chosen to move forward. She then travels to Florida to train at WWE's developmental show, NXT. After almost giving it up entirely, Paige overcomes her adversity and finally reaches her dream of making the official WWE roster. Not only that, but she wins the WWE Women's Championship in her debut match, all at the age of 18.

This movie is from a very unique perspective, but manages to be highly relatable and moves you emotionally throughout. One minute, you're laughing uncontrollably and the next you're fighting back tears. The aspirations of Paige's family entirely rested upon her shoulders, which is an immense amount of pressure to handle at such a young age. The fear of letting others down can be an even greater motivator than the fear of letting yourself down.

Although the movie primarily centers around Paige, I found myself relating to her older brother Zak the most throughout the film. His dream as a professional wrestler started at a much younger age, so the world as he knew it must've stopped after not being chosen by the WWE. His emotions must've exacerbated after hearing his sister was about to give up her opportunity of a lifetime. Imagine having one dream all your life and your younger sibling ends up reaching that dream instead of you, just to throw it all away. After a bit of a downward spiral, he learns to cope and rediscover his joy in life. Even though nothing seemed to go as he planned, Zak manages to create a positive outlook with the life he has, which is something we all could take to heart.

Fighting With My Family is a truly remarkable movie and the best film I've seen in recent memory. Being a huge WWE fan, I enjoyed this film on many levels and now have a deeper respect for Paige and her life's story. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, wrestling fan or not. Fighting With My Family hits theaters nationwide Friday, February 22nd, go and see it!