Review: How Netflix’s GLOW is rewriting wrestling history
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Netflix just released GLOW, about a squad of women wrestlers performing in the eighties. And unlike the sport itself, the show goes into the complexities of women wrestlers in the height of their popularity.
Eighties culture has been popular for a long time. With its big hair, big music, and technological advances unlike any decade before it, it is easy to see how the eighties could have won over American culture. However, for many millennials, nothing describes the late eighties and early nineties better than professional wrestling. It encapsulated the style and theatricality that highlighted this decade of entertainment.
For the majority of pro-wrestling viewers, wrestling was all about the men. They secretly pushed gender boundaries with their flashy style, but they simultaneously embodied the most masculine traits that are possible within our society. Although they are discussed less than wrestlers like Macho Man Randy Savage or Hulk Hogan, the women of professional wrestling have always been essential to contrasting the stereotypes of the men of wrestling. This is where Netflix’s GLOW get’s an A+.
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GLOW starts out with a fiery monologue from the heroine of the story, Ruth Wilder. Interestingly, this monologue is for an acting tryout, but it embodies the spirit and performance value of professional wrestling. This scene segues into the crumbling life of an actress, and her desperate attempts to make a living with her acting. Mixed in amid the squalor is a steamy sex scene, in which Ruth sleeps with a married man.
Ruth goes to an audition for the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling with the idea that she is trying out for an acting spot, and comes to find out that she is actually auditioning for a wrestling position. The less-than-savory Sam Sylvia (played by Marc Maron) is at the lead of these auditions, and eventually ends up cutting Ruth from the tryouts. However, after Ruth’s best friend, Debbie Eagan, finds out that the man that Ruth slept with was her husband, an in-ring fight ensues that changes Sam Sylvia’s mind about Ruth.
Overall, if you enjoy drama, comedy, diversity and strong female leads, this show is worth the watch.
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