Bodyslam, 1987

STARRING: Dirk Benedict (Harry Simlac)

Star of television classics Battlestar Gallactica and The A-Team. In 2007 Benedict appeared on the popular UK reality series Celebrity Big Brother 5.

Tanya Roberts (Candace)

Roberts starred in the final season of Charlie’s Angels as replacement Angel, Julie Rogers. In 1982 she landed a role in the sword and sorcery themed movie The Beastmaster which was a minor hit, she went on to star in the jungle based flop Sheena in 1984. The revealing role was enough to get her noticed and cast in the James Bond movie View To A Kill. Since then Roberts has mainly been in b-movies and done TV work. In the late 90’s she landed a role on That 70’s show and can be seen in almost 70 episodes right up until the 2006 finale.

‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper (Quick Rick Roberts)

Piper enjoyed a great deal of success as a WWF wrestlerin the mid-80’s. He decided to leave to spend time with his new family in 1986, but soon after got the acting bug and made this movie. He went on to better starring roles in Hell Comes To Frogtown and most famously They Live. He has re-appeared at various WWF events and continued to make b-movies ever since. He recently had a book written about him.

and Lou Albano (Captain Lou)

Apart from being a famous wrestler and manager, Albano will be remembered by pop music fans for making appearances in Cyndi Lauper videos in the 80’s, most famously playing her dad in the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun music video. Lauper was also his WWF manager!

PLOT: A sleazy music manager (Benedict) combines rock music and wrestling and creates a new kind of entertainment to solve his various financial problems. Unfortunately his ideas are not taken too kindly by the other managers in the business.

No sex, some violence, no bad language.

THOUGHTS: Ouch! This movie is terrible! Having a brother who has liked wrestling since birth I am used to the amateurish approach to acting in the world of wrestling. Dirk Benedict does his best in this and to be fair to him I can’t see even a multi-Oscar winner doing any better and Roddy Piper is very toned down in his first movie role. The other wrestlers in this ham it up no end, but unfortunately to little effect other than to make you cringe for 90 mins. Poor Tanya Roberts is completely wasted in a very lame role, worlds away from her memorable roles in Sheena and The Beastmaster.

For a movie that claims to be distributed (in the UK at least) by CBS Records the soundtrack simply reeks! The title track which we hear late on in the movie sounds like its being sung by Stacey Q on a downer. Low budget tat for people who can’t get enough 80’s wrestling nostalgia.

CAN I BUY IT? Used on VHS only.