Queen of the Ring is now officially in theaters and the story of Mildred Burke is finally mainstream. At the end of the day, that reality was the goal for direc

Ash Avildsen adapts Jeff Leen's Pulitzer Prize-winning book following the life of the first million-dollar female athlete, Mildred Burke, in Queen of the

Rather randomly, Mildred stumbles upon a wrestling match in Kansas City and proclaims the sport her destiny. The story continues chronologically, tracking Mildred and her manager turned husband Billy Wolfe (Josh Lucas) as they graduate from circus sideshows to professional matches to national renown.

The same can’t be said about the big screen. With scattered exceptions – “ . . . All the Marbles” (1981), “Fighting with My Family” (2019), “Racket Girls” (1951), and “Below the Belt” (1980), which features an extended cameo by then-retired wrestler Mildred Burke as a trainer — there’s generally been a dearth of films featuring women wrestlers.

Josh Lucas, Francesca Eastwood and Deborah Ann Wohl co-star in an arch and inspiring film about athlete Mildred Burke.

Emily Bett Rickards knew very little about professional wrestling before signing on to play one of its most important female trailblazers, Mildred Burke, in the biopic Queen of the Ring. But after immersing herself in its history and transforming her body for the role, she came away from the project with a newfound appreciation for the sport.

GLOW,” a series from Netflix that ran for three seasons in the late 2010s — before, frustratingly, seeing its announced fourth season canceled during the pandemic — showed that women’s