When failed wrestler Billy Blaze agrees to help filmmaker Michael Heagle with his documentary on professional wrestling, he finds himself taking one last shot at the big time: a dark match for Vince McMahon's WWE. Billy's training for the big show takes on many forms, as he teams with a former bodybuilder, gets advice from a Sheik and a Baron, and must battle his former roommate Lenny Lane for the last slot on the big show.
Starring Bill Borea and Lenny Lane, with appearances by Nick Bockwinkel, Eddie Sharkey, Baron Von Rashke, Erik "the Viking" Fromm, Sheik Adnan Alkaissy, Rock and Roll Buck Zumhoff, Kenny "The Sodbuster" Jay, and many more. This is the definitive movie about the Minnesota wrestling scene, the state that gave birth to the AWA and a huge percentage of the greatest pro wrestlers in the history of the sport. Now in Production from Style Commando Entertainment: watch this site for updates on screenings and release dates. Coming in 2009!
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ABOUT THE FILM
In the vein of Darren Aronofsky's film THE WRESTLER (opening December 17 in select theaters), filmmakers William Borea and Michael Heagle tackle the subject of professional wrestling from the point of view of the aging former grappler. But where Aronofsky sees a classical tragedy, Borea sees comic gold. Thus was born "Jobbers," a film about the most thankless job in the pro-wrestling circuit: the man whose job it is to lose to another wrestler.
As a former wrestler in Minnesota, a state that has given birth to the likes of Verne Gagne, Baron Von Rashke, etc., Borea has experienced firsthand the trials of working on the independent professional wrestling circuit. Where some of his gym mates went on to careers in the industry (including the film's co-star, Lenny Lane, who wrestled for the WCW), Borea stayed put and eventually put wrestling behind him to focus on a filmmaking career that included acting and writing. When Michael Heagle, one of his former directors, suggested that his experiences and locker room tales would make a compelling film, Borea was quick to comply, allowing the team access to a host of wrestling competitors both famous and infamous.
Jobbers walks the line between straight documentary and feature film comedy, just as the pro-wrestling industry can be simultaneously seen as "fake" or "real." Though the story chronicles Borea's return to the ring in an attempt to secure a "dark match" with the WWE, the story is peppered with real-life recollections of Minnesota's finest. Featured in the film as both actors and interview subjects are many of the men who made Minnesota the go-to state for much of the industry's key talent. Eddie Sharkey, trainer of such wrestling heavyweights as Jesse "The Body" Ventura and the Road Warriors appears in the film as Borea's real-life mentor. Many of the surviving wrestlers from Minnesota's AWA wrestling promotion in the 1960's and 70's are interviewed as well, including Nick Bockwinkel, Kenny "Sodbuster" Jay, "Rock and Roll" Buck Zumhoffe and Baron Von Rashke. Each has a fascinating story to tell, and illustrates wrestling's rise and fall from the carnival circuit to the big time and back again .
Also featured in the film are rising local talent like Dakota Darsow, son of local wrestling great Barry Darsow, who in the opening of the film is a kid stepping into the ring professionally for his first-ever matches and by the end of the film actually was signed to Vince McMahon's WWE.
NEW! Joel Barkley's Frazetta-inpsired poster for the film!
WEB VIDEO EXCLUSIVES
Watch this space for clips and interviews that we just won't be able to fit in this massive mega movie. As filmmakers Bill Borea and Michael Heagle log hours of interviews with such history-making personalities as Adnan Alkaissy and Baron Von Rashke, they simply must find a place for the gems that have fallen to the cutting room floor. And this is it!
WEB EXCLUSIVE 002: Extended Interview with THE BARON!
(Posted 12/13/08) Jim Rashke, aka the Baron Fritz Von Rashke, talks in character and out of character about the rise and fall of the AWA, his first meeting with Mad Dog Vachon, and his take on the current state of professional wrestling.
WEB EXCLUSIVE 001: Nick Bockwinkel Extended Interview
(Posted 11/02/08) There's more here than we can get in the movie, it's a shorty but a goody as former title holder Bockwinkel discusses the source of his acerbic wit and the decline of the AWA.
FOUND ON THE TUBE 001: AWA T-Shirt Promo
(Posted 12/13/08) A great promotional spot dating from 1984, and featuring some of the guys who appear in the film "JOBBERS." Watch out for Rock and Roll Buck Zumhoff and the Baron! What I wouldn't give for one of these shirts!
FOUND ON THE TUBE 002: Baron Von Rashke Promo
(Posted 12/13/08) A great interview with the Baron from the Georgia Championship territory.
Adnan Alkaissy Archive Interview: Fox News 11/22/06
Adnan talks about Saddam Hussein. With some great archival tape as Sheik battles the Baron...
