As a longtime WWE fan who watches Paige on Smackdown Live every Tuesday night, I’ve been looking forward to this trailer for Fighting With My Family. The WWE Studios effort is different from the other knuckle-headed flicks from the brand Vince McMahon built; it’s a biopic based on Paige’s life growing up as part of a wrestling family. It’s especially poignant the timing of it considering the recent injury that put Paige on the shelf and ended her career. Fortunately, the trailer looks like it will do her story the justice it deserves.
Paige is played by rising star Florence Pugh, who is joined by Nick Frost and Lena Headey as her parents, both professional wrestlers in their own right, and Jack Lowden as her brother Zack. When Paige and Zack are recruited to tryout for the WWE, it causes a rift when only she is seen as having the talent to make the cut. Of course they also get some big time help from other WWE superstars, and it doesn’t get much bigger than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Interestingly, the film is directed by actor Stephen Merchant, most recently seen in last week’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web and Logan. He also has at least a tiny role in the film, seen during the dinner table scene. I wasn’t sure how Pugh would be in the role but she definitely has Paige’s look down, and when she warns “How about I shove your head up your ass?” it sounds exactly like something she would say.
Also starring Vince Vaughn, Fighting With My Family opens February 14th 2019.
