Simply Perfect

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This documentary is very controversial. It's one of those movies that will make you, love it or hate it, due to the nature, of seeing children portray violence acts on other children. There is hardly, any critics in the middle. Directed by Shawn Crossen, NWF Kids Pro Wrestling: The Untold Story tells the story of a youth based professional wrestling league that existed in the mid-1980s. The 84 minutes documentary covers its birth from a basement show of kids wrestling on a couple of mattresses, to its development as a local public access television show, filmed on a soundstage, where kids would wrestle on a bunch of wooden planks. Despite the attempts of a cable company employee to stop the show, it developed to the point where they wrestle in boxing rings at local Armories. Only to fall, due to betrayal of a trusted friend, money issues and the ever-changing political politics. It's been many years since the final bell rang at the last show of the NWF, but now the amazing story of this long, lost promotion has surfaced. After, watching it. I found the movie to be remarkable. The idea that a group of kids could accomplish so much with a simple dream was unique to watch. Still, there were some faults. I found the documentary was pretty awkwardly made. It has this one-sided approach to the issue of kids pro-wrestling. There are hardly any criticize, on the idea of having children fake fight for our entertainment. It's really hard to think, that all the parents in these Quad Cities, would be, alright to see their children, fake-fight on public TV. There is no interviews with their parents to know what they thought about it. It doesn't even, feature, an interview with the cable company employee or the insurance agant that try to stop the show. It doesn't even bother, addressing the many legal issues, the promotion had, when it comes to child labor laws. Most of the interviewers, are former child wrestlers who loves recalling their time in NWF, but the interviewers doesn't give us, much insight on how the events was even possible to made. The movie wants us to believe that the children made it, all happen, but it's really hard to believe. There has to be some adult guidance, somewhere, but the film fails to give, those people, some credit for the show. After all, there are plenty of things that children can't do, on their own, due to the state laws, such as dealing with the insurance & venue codes, ownership of earnings, logistics and transportation problems, media distributes, injuries or suspensions, and others. I really doubt, the kids, feature in the film, were hands on, with those issues. I also found the documentary to be a bit, too ego-driven. After all, the director of the film, also run the promotion when he was a kid. Not only was he the promoter, television producer, director, and writer, but he also serve as a 5-time world champion. This man really makes it, seem like, most of NWF's success, came from, his young entrepreneur's guidance. The movie fails to address, that Shawn Crossen isn't the one come up with the idea of having a children promotion. It also fails to mention that Shawn's parents are the ones that invest most of their time, and money to the promotion. It also fails to mention, how two clearly not adults, with able to pass off, as teenagers, and try to steal their company from them. There seem to be more to the picture, then the documentary is spitting out. The film includes footage from the original NWF productions. Most of the wrestling, feature here is pretty bowling shoe ugly. Watching a bunch of untrained children badly choreograph a fake-fight in a pretty hard watch. They never once, address the dangers of untrained children reacting wrestling moves. Look at what happen to Tokyo Terror AKA Peter Nguyen. His so-called short career as a wrestler was cut short due to a wrestling move gone wrong. Seeing children take dangerous stunts on a weak piece of plywood is a bit disturbing. Who knows, how many of those kids now, have back problems!? I hate the fact, the movie plays it off, as just rumbustious youth having fun. They never talk about the reckless risk, they were taking. Anyways, the wrestling, they were doing, is borderline backyard wrestling. Anybody that doesn't think it is, need to get their eyes, check. Yes, it's true, that the children barely used any hardcore weapons or having bloody matches, but they're still using professional-style wrestling moves untrained, for low-budget entertainment. The movie likes to say, that NWF came across very professional looking and organized, but it wasn't. The footage has really awful poor lighting, erratic camera angles far from stage and audio problems. It's really annoying to watch. The movie talks a lot about originality, but there is hardly anything original with their program. They got kid's acting like wrestlers characters, way too similar to WWF real life wrestlers. Names like Bunes Beefcake, Rattlesnake Jake, and the Iranian Sheik sounds way too similar to World Wrestling Federation's wrestlers, Brutus 'the Barber' Beefcake, Jake 'the Snake' Roberts, and the Iron Sheik. Overall: While this movie will never be, near my favorites wrestling documentaries list, any time, soon. It's not pure crap. Look, I get that some people would like this movie. Back in the late 1980s to early 1990s, NWF was look upon as good-natured fun. I admire the ingenuity of the young kids who try to make this project into a success, but this documentary was too-low-budget, and acts too ignorant for the pros of the cause, that it fails to tell, a well-driven story. You can't have a documentary with only pros, with no cons, and that's why this documentary fails.

I was very surprised at how these kids made a fairly decent wrestling show by the end of their run after developing the show from their basement on mattresses to live sellout shows, until they were burned by a Man who pretended to be 16 who was in fact 26. They have won a few awards for their documentary and should be commended on their efforts. From taking studio production classes to bring studio (small studio anyway) and then back to their own production facilities-- o'er stepping every obstacle in their way. The production of the documentary definitely show what they learned how to do in their classes along with editing a weekly show for years. The announcer sounds like he stepped out of documentary made in the eighties which lends another tone of authenticity to the footage which consists of their old promos and matches from the mid to late eighties. Good job gentlemen... inspiring.