The film was released in the United States on December 15, 2021 on Paramount+, and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
In a world where giant monsters and humans coexist, giant monsters compete in a popular professional wrestling global sport known as monster wrestling, with each city having its own monster wrestler. After the wrestler for the town of Stoker-Upon-Avon, the shark-like Tentacular, becomes the world champion, he announces he has decided to represent the town of Slitherpoole.
The townspeople are told if they do not find a new wrestler, they will lose the town's stadium and its revenue. Monster wrestling enthusiast, Winnie Coyle decides to search for a new monster representative for her town. Winnie heads to an underground fight and finds Rayburn Jr., the son of the late world champion Rayburn Sr., fighting under the name of "Steve the Stupendous". Winnie interferes in the match and causes Rayburn Jr. to win instead of taking a dive as the underground arena employer Lady Mayhem wanted.
Rayburn Jr. is confronted by Lady Mayhem and threatened unless he can get her back the money she lost. Winnie tells Rayburn Jr. she can help him get the money by training him to fight in official matches. Realizing he has no other way to make the money, Rayburn Jr. agrees to be trained. Rayburn Jr. is uninterested in learning how to fight properly and wins his first match by evading his opponent. He tells Winnie he left Stoker because he could not live up to his father’s name. Winnie learns Rayburn Jr. loves salsa dancing and decides to train him using dance moves.
As they progress up the league's rankings, Tentacular announces he and his agent have bought Stoker's stadium. Tentacular wants it to be demolished because he sees it as a reminder that he will always be compared to Rayburn Sr. no matter how many championships he wins. Even though Rayburn Jr. repays Lady Mayhem, he decides to help Winnie, publicly reveals his identity, and challenges Tentacular to a match for the stadium.
During the fight, Steve avoids most of the hits by Tentacular in the first round, but Tentacular counters his dance moves in the second round. After convincing Winnie not to give up, Rayburn Jr., in the third round, lands several hits with his dance moves. Winnie tells Rayburn Jr. to use Tentacular's suckers to stick him to one of the corner posts. When he goes in for the final move, the two collide and are both knocked out. Tentacular gets up first but is too rattled to end the match. The crowd gets Rayburn Jr. back up by clapping a salsa beat and he is able to defeat Tentacular, becoming the new world champion and saving the stadium.
Geraldine Viswanathan as Winnie Coyle, an aspiring monster wrestling trainer and Jimbo's daughter
Kaya McLean as young Winnie
Terry Crews as Tentacular, a giant shark-headed tentacled monster who is the reigning Monster Wrestling champion and is jealous of Rayburn Sr.'s legacy
On September 19, 2019, the film was scheduled to be released on July 31, 2020.[6] On November 12, 2019, the release date was pushed to January 29, 2021 as well as a planned 3D version.[7][8] On October 27, 2020, the release date was then moved to May 14, 2021,[9] and moved again on January 27, 2021 to February 18, 2022 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] On November 26, 2021, the film made one final move to December 15, 2021, as a Paramount+ exclusive, cancelling its theatrical release altogether.[1]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on reviews from 16 critics, with an average rating of 5.20/10.[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12]
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