Podcast: Ready to Rumble (2000)

Your Stupid Minds returns to its roots with a very special "wrestler" themed podcast as we review the 2000 buddy/road movie/wrestling commercial Ready to Rumble. David Arquette and Scott Caan play two... sanitation workers(?) that love wrestling, and when evil promoter Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano) performs a classic "screwjob" to take the belt from their hero, Jimmy King (Oliver Platt), the two help to train King for his big re-match with the evil Diamond Dallas Page.


Some Notes:

• As part of the marketing campaign for the movie, David Arquette, the actor, was made WCW Champion very briefly in 2000. He lost the title back in a "triple cage" match similar to the movie's finale.
• Ready to Rumble's soundtrack could be used as a time capsule for the late 90s/early 2000s, featuring:
• TWO Kid Rock songs ("Cowboy" and "Bawitdaba")
• "My Own Worst Enemy," Lit (played twice)
• "Freestyle," P.O.D.
• "Jump Around," Everlast/House of Pain
• "How Deep is Your Love," The Bee Gees (wait, how did that get in there?)
• The story of Jimmy King being "screwed" by Titus Sinclair has several similarities to a real life issue between WCW promoter Eric Bischoff and aging star Ric Flair. Flair, a noted alcoholic, was fired for allegedly missing a show in the spring of 1998 and filed a lawsuit (in real life) against the company he had helped to build. By late 1998 he was back in WCW.
• Randy Savage and Perry Saturn (aka the bald home invasion wrestler) no longer worked for WCW by the time this movie was released. Additionally, DDP was a top babyface (good guy) when the movie came out. As of 2013, only Randy Savage (heart attack while driving) and Bam Bam Bigelow (drug overdose) have died.
• Brian Robbins, the director, has made plenty of other movies from this era that are generally reviled, including:
• The Perfect Score
• The Shaggy Dog
• Norbit
• Meet Dave
• Diamond Dallas Page seems like a really cool guy in real life, as he developed a yoga/weight loss program and has offered free assistance to troubled wrestlers like Jake the Snake Roberts and Scott Hall. His YouTube channel is here.
• Ahmet Zappa plays a rude convenience store clerk and Dweezil Zappa produced and performed DDP's entrance music.