Southern Discomfort: Wrestling on the Indie Circuit

I enjoyed this documentary immensely, it shows the life of wrestlers on the indie circuit, men (and women) who slog it out in small gyms and halls all across the south.



By following a few wrestlers it gives you a spectrum of who is out there wrestling, from the once big name wrestler to the guy who was always an indie but happy at that level to the restaurant manager who wrestles in his spare time. They discuss why they do it, what they get out of it (and don't) and what their life is like.

A side note... early on in the film you see a man putting up wrestling posters on poles and barn walls, he is later seen at a match, selling tickets and promoting. It isn't mentioned in the movie at all, but this man is known as a legendary classic exploitation film promoter, David F. Friedman. It was a pleasant surprise to see him in this film and to see that he is still on the road promoting, promoting, promoting!

Highly recommended, especially if you live in the South and/or have seen those cheap indie wrestling posters around and wondered what was behind all that. As a small mini-film festival, I'd recommend Henry Winkler's old movie "The One And Only" and the recent expose documentary that came out on the WWF.