Movies in Minutes – Episode 4: Grunt: The Wrestling Movie (1985)

In this episode of Movies in Minutes, Gene Jackson dives headfirst into one of the strangest, most confusing wrestling films ever made: Grunt: The Wrestling Movie (1985). Released by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, Grunt isn’t a comedy, a drama, or even a proper mockumentary but somehow manages to be all three at once, often accidentally.Framed as a pseudo-documentary, Grunt centers on the infamous in-ring “accidental decapitation” of world champion Skull Crusher Johnson and the mysterious disappearance of Mad Dog Joe DeCurso… followed years later by the arrival of a masked wrestler known only as “The Mask.” Is he Mad Dog? Everyone has an opinion and none of them agree or necessarily make sense.Gene breaks down the film’s bizarre tonal shifts, its surprisingly authentic portrayal of territory era wrestling, and why Grunt works far better as a historical time capsule than it ever did as a movie. Featuring real wrestlers like Dick Murdoch, Dick Beyer aka the Destroyer (unmasked), Adrian Street, John Tolos, Danny Spivey, and more, the wrestling itself feels ripped straight from a Saturday night TV studio in the mid-’80s, even when the script completely loses the plot.Is Grunt a good movie? Absolutely not. Is it an important wrestling movie? Shockingly… maybe.If you love oddball wrestling history, low-budget cinematic curiosities, and movies that somehow understand wrestling while also laughing at it, this episode is for you.This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retrowrestlingarchive.substack.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★