Fighting with My Family

Fighting with My Family is a 2019 biographical sports comedy-drama film written and directed by Stephen Merchant. Based on the 2012 documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family by Max Fisher, it depicts the career of English professional wrestler Paige as she makes her way to WWE, while also following her brother Zak Zodiac, as he struggles with his failure to achieve similar success. Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden star as Paige and Zodiac respectively, alongside Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Vince Vaughn, and Dwayne Johnson, with the latter also acting as producer.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 28 January 2019 and was theatrically released in the United States on 14 February 2019. It received positive reviews from critics, particularly for Merchant's directing and the performances of Pugh and Vaughn. The film grossed $41.5 million worldwide.

Wrestlers Ricky and Julia Knight raise their children, Saraya and Zak, to follow in their footsteps; as young adults, the siblings apply to join the WWE, and are evaluated by veteran trainer Hutch Morgan, who agrees to let them try out before a SmackDown taping at The O2 Arena, where they meet WWE legend Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Shortly before her tryout, Saraya adopts the stage name "Paige", after her favorite character on the TV show Charmed.

Morgan chooses Paige to train for the WWE, but not Zak, despite Paige's protests. Morgan forces Zak to return home after making it clear he will never be signed to the WWE, leaving Paige with no one to stick up for her. Arriving at NXT in Florida, Paige has difficulty with the training, especially given that her fellow trainees are mostly models and cheerleaders who have no wrestling experience and thus make poor training partners. Paige also struggles with performing choreographed promos as they clash with her own natural instincts, and suffers from Morgan's constant belittlement of her mistakes.

During her WWE debut at an NXT live event, Paige is heckled by the crowd and freezes, leaving the ring in tears. She tries bleaching her dark hair and gets a spray tan in a desperate attempt to fit in with her peers. After failing an obstacle course, Paige lashes out at the other trainees for gossiping about her before realizing they weren't. A sympathetic Morgan then reveals to Paige the real reason he didn't let Zak sign up: the league would have forced him to work as a jobber, which would have ruined his health. Morgan implies that a similar experience forced him to give up on his own wrestling career.

Believing that professional wrestling isn't worth it and that she'd have a much happier life helping her parents train other wrestlers, Paige decides to quit the WWE and return to her hometown of Norwich. She travels home for the Christmas break to inform her family of her decision. Angry that she is giving up on the dream that he failed to achieve, Zak attacks Paige during a wrestling match and then gets in a drunken bar fight. Paige changes her mind after Zak berates her for giving up, and she returns to Florida to rejoin the WWE. She reasserts her individuality by re-adopting her original hair colour and skin tone, rapidly improves in training, and befriends and encourages many of her fellow trainees.

Morgan brings the trainees to WrestleMania XXX, where The Rock greets Paige and tells her she will make her Raw debut the following night against the WWE Divas Champion, AJ Lee. Paige makes her Raw debut, where she again freezes and takes a severe beating from Lee before finally turning the tables and beating the champion. Claiming Lee's title for herself, she proudly declares "this is MY house now!" as her family and friends cheer her victory back home.

Additionally, James Burrows portrays Roy Knight, who is Ricky's son, Julia's stepson, and Zak and Paige's older half-brother. Hannah Rae portrays Zak's girlfriend, Courtney. Director Stephen Merchant portrays Hugh, Courtney's father. Elroy Powell appears as Union Jack, and Jack Gouldbourne appears as Calum. WWE wrestlers Big Show, Sheamus and The Miz make appearances as themselves, while an uncredited actor played John Cena. Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and John "Bradshaw" Layfield provide commentary on the Paige vs. AJ Lee match, while Jim Ross provided commentary on The Rock's match. Several other WWE wrestlers (including Cena himself), as well as the real Knight family, appear in archival footage throughout the film, while Zak Zodiac himself appears in a cameo as a gang lieutenant.