No Holds Barred

By today’s standards, No Holds Barred is just one of the wrestling story arches turned into a movie.
Thinking about this this way somehow helps with preventing this movie from being outdated.
At the peak of Hulkamania, No Hold Barred came out certifying Hulk Hogan’s super stardom. Don’t know if the film did well when it came out, but it did start the Hulkster’s movie career.
I hated Hulk’s movie career. It’s understandable that it kept getting more childish contradicting me getting older.
He did do some stuff on TV that aged with me like Thunder In Paradise.
Hulk was not the 1st wrestler to star in a movie. Roddy Piper was the lead in They Live. No Holds Barred is a milestone however, of how mainstream wrestling had gotten, all thanks to the megastar that leads the movie.

And you know Hogan could not let Piper upstage him at the box office.

The movie introduced the world to Tommy “Tiny “Zesus” Lister. He moved from the world of wrestling to become a staple in black cinema. R.I.P Tommy.
Interesting plot handling that a major network creates a wrestling show that’s catered for hillbilly’s and redneck viewership called the Battle of the Though Guys Challenge only for the best in the ring to be a brother.
I remember Tommy did wrestler for a minute, as a follow up to the movie.
I wonder is Kurt fuller was in anyway mimicking vice McMahon in the flick.

Either way its an ok flick. I can’t say I remember it fondly only that it starred and important icon of my early days.