PG-13 | 2h 10m | Sports, Biopic | 2025
“Queen of the Ring” is the true story of Mildred Burke, women’s wrestling’s longest-reigning world champion and the world’s first million-dollar female athlete.
Early Years
Born Mildred Bliss in Coffeyville, Kansas, Burke (Canadian actress Emily Bett Rickards) recognized her wrestling destiny early. She was drawn to the ring long before the industry’s men acknowledged the concept of women’s wrestling, not to mention Burke’s undeniable talent.At age 15 she dropped out of school. While waitressing on the Zuni Indian Reservation in Gallup, New Mexico, she wrestles a few men at a carnival, pinning them with ease, whereupon Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas) a wrestler himself and an early industry empresario, sees opportunity knocking.
Scoundrel Husband
Burke marries Wolfe, who promises her (and her young son) the moon–but their marriage quickly deteriorates as Wolfe can’t keep his hands off the ever-growing stable of female wrestling recruits that he coaches. If Burke is going to keep her self-respect intact, she has no choice but to forge her own career and fight for a seat at the exclusively male wrestling table.
Her career oversees a string of firsts in women’s wrestling: mentoring a new generation of female wrestlers, the first “shoot match” (a real match with no predetermined script), bringing women of diverse ethnic backgrounds into the sport, headlining decades worth of matches, and taking on both male and female challengers. Apparently, she only ever lost to a man once in her entire career.
A League of Her Own
“Queen of the Ring” gets off to a feeble start, with emotionally forced acting reminiscent of a high school production—something that’s almost always the director’s fault. Despite this, the film slowly gathers steam in terms of believability. The cast try their hands at period accents and mannerisms in an attempt to ground “Queen of the Ring” in the nostalgic Americana so successfully achieved in “A League of Their Own.” But it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Similar historical story, though.
“Queen of the Ring” utilizes the standard biopic formula: a Campbellian hero’s journey told with flashbacks and historical references that establish context. The film gives Burke full credit as the force of nature who changed women’s wrestling forever. It should delight fans of Netflix’s “GLOW,” about women’s wrestling on television in the 1980s.
That said, while “Queen of the Ring,” does show the toll the ring takes on bodies, it’s nowhere near as brutal as 2008’s “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke. There’s none of the modern male pro-wrestling extravaganza, what with steroidal behemoths doing body-wrecking swan-dives off 30-foot cages and body-slamming into folding chairs. Stapling opponents with staple guns. And so on. Thank goodness.
The only drawback is that, while it’s rated PG-13, if “Queen of the Ring” had been shot in the 1970s, it might almost qualify as soft porn. America has slowly acclimatized from Dallas Cowboy cheerleader costumes to a nonstop barrage of Brazilian thong-bikini images, the barely-there female Olympic running shorts, to the latest, seriously-not-there female volleyball outfits.
Emily Bett Rickards as Burke, looking at times like a Canadian Kate Beckinsale, is the film’s beating heart. Expect to see a lot more of her. No pun intended.
