The Iron Claw (2023), BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, writer and director Sean Durkin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002w9wy/the-iron-claw

I chanced on this film. Supposedly based on the Von Erich brothers. Wrestlers handed a poisoned chalice by the domineering dad Fritz on their Texas ranch. Fritz’s signature move while wrestling was The Iron Claw. Hence the movie’s title. But Fritz never got to be the heavy-weight world champion. His boys would be and he wasn’t going to let them forget it. Their lives were to be shaped by his singular ambition. Which had to become their singular ambition.  Durkin’s film follows the four wrestling brothers — Kevin, David, Kerry, and Mike — as they rise through the ranks of World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) and win, win, win, win.

My knowledge of wrestling comes from ITV’s World of Sport. Big Daddy (Shirley Crabtree) in a Union Jack nappy before Baby Spice made it more popular. Big Daddy didn’t really wrestle. He just stuck his fat bell out and banged about the ring. His great rival was Giant Haystacks (Martin Ruane).  A 600-pound, Robbie Coltraine look-a-like in trench-coat and boots. He crushed his opponents. Nobody could beat him until Big Daddy dunted him a few times with his belly. Which knocked him on his arse and out of the ring. I’m not sure if it was fixed or not. But Big Daddy always won.

The Von Erichs always won. But here you see real athletes at work. The cuts with razor was real blood. The slamming against boards. Broken bones. Swelling limbs. Painkillers. Up again. Go again. An attritional war in which they win contests and world championships. Greater glory. Never enough. But can’t keep body and soul together. A long suicide note makes damned good viewing.