All things considered, The Iron Claw is receiving strong reviews — including here at Awful Announcing.
But when it comes to pro wrestling fans who have seen the film, one common criticism seems to standout: the movie’s portrayal of the legendary Ric Flair.
Without spoiling anything, Flair is only a minor character in the film. But as anyone who is even vaguely familiar with 1980s pro wrestling knows, he’s an integral part of the story as one of the primary rivals to the Von Erich family.
Flair — who is played by Aaron Dean Eisenberg — only has a couple of scenes in the movie. But he does get a big monologue in the form of one of Flair’s signature promos leading up to a match against Zac Efron’s Kevin Von Erich.
While Eisenberg looks enough like Flair (at least while wearing sunglasses) to make the appearance part of the performance passable, the promo itself missed the mark for many. Following the film’s release last week, the promo made its way to social media, with many wrestling fans weighing in on what they see as The Iron Claw‘s biggest flaw.
Warning: the scene, which contains some spoilers to The Iron Claw, is below.
There are two ways to look at Eisenberg’s portrayal of Flair.
On the one hand, he had the enviably task of playing arguably the most famous personality in pro wrestling history. Any performance imitating Flair was likely going to pale in comparison to Flair, himself, and thus, Eisenberg already had the odds stacked against him.
On the other, “The Nature Boy” was such a larger than life character in the 1980s that his promos have been the inspiration for impressions for more than four decades now. Especially considering the number of real-life pro wrestlers who have patterned their acts after Flair, it’s hard to imagine that this was the best that The Iron Claw could come up with when casting its most famous role.
In lieu of making a different casting choice, it’s hard to imagine that the movie wouldn’t have been better off leaving the Flair promo on the cutting room floor or going with archival footage. Then again, this only seems to be a minor criticism of the film among the most hardcore of wrestling fans, as The Iron Claw currently lays claim to an 88 percent score among critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 percent audience score.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.