Wrestling champion Jimmy King (OLIVER PLATT) is everything die-hard wrestling fans Gordie Boggs (DAVID ARQUETTE) and Sean Dawkins (SCOTT CAAN) would love to be. A dreamer, an athlete, a true champion — with his crown, cape and scepter, he is a giant in his profession. Other wrestlers can only tremble in fear of his deadly finishing move, "The Crown" — a two-handed flying slap.

Gordie and Sean live at home, have dead end jobs and no girlfriends, but none of that matters on Friday night when they at last get to see their idol live and in person at WCW Monday Nitro.

But as the lights swirl and the Nitro girls dance, something goes horribly wrong for the King. He is ambushed by a ring-full of hostile turn-coats. At the match’s shocking end, Jimmy King takes a mighty, career-ending fall. After his humiliating defeat, the King disappears into obscurity, a casualty to the high drama of the wrestling profession.

Heartbroken and in shock, Gordie and Sean nonetheless decide to embark on an odyssey of discovery to hunt down their fallen hero.

In space fourteen of the St. Francis Motor Court, they come face to face with a drunken, bitter Jimmy King — a phony with a made-up past whose inspirational phrases were all scripted. But Gordie and Sean will not be discouraged. Beneath the beer gut and grizzle, they still see glimpses of their hero and vow to do whatever it takes to restore their King to his throne, no matter how many rules — or bones — get broken in the process.

Warner Bros. Presents In Association with Bel-Air Entertainment An Outlaw Production In Association with Tollin/Robbins Productions, David Arquette, Oliver Platt and Scott Caan star in "Ready To Rumble," a comedy directed by Brian Robbins, who directed the breakout football hit "Varsity Blues." Based on WCW characters, the film stars DAVID ARQUETTE, OLIVER PLATT, SCOTT CAAN, BILL GOLDBERG, ROSE McGOWAN, DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE with JOE PANTOLIANO and MARTIN LANDAU.

"Ready To Rumble" also features numerous superstars of the wrestling world, including Sting, Bam Bam Bigelow, Saturn, Sid Vicious, Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Jr., Disco Inferno, Juventud Guerrero, Curt Hennig, Van Hammer and Konnan, among others. The film is written by STEVEN BRILL. STEVEN REUTHER and MIKE TOLLIN are the executive producers. The film is produced by BOBBY NEWMYER and JEFFREY SILVER.

"Ready To Rumble" was shot in numerous locations in and around Los Angeles including the historic Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.

"Ready To Rumble" is a comedy set against the spectacular, high-stakes world of professional wrestling. "When you watch wrestling on TV, you're watching it flat; they're doing a live show and we're doing a movie. They can't put the camera where we can put it when we make a movie," says "Ready To Rumble" director Brian Robbins, who faced the same challenge with wrestling as he had with football with his acclaimed 1999 breakout hit "Varsity Blues." "I wanted to show wrestling to wrestling fans like they've never seen it before. I wanted to put the camera in places where they can't go on WCW Monday Nitro and give the movie the same exciting, dynamic qualities as you get live in the arena."

WCW Monday Nitro, and professional wrestling in general, has become a huge national phenomenon, inspiring tie-ins everywhere from toy lines to breakfast cereals. "Most kids in America are not just fans, they are fanatics of professional wrestling," says producer Bobby Newmyer. "We wanted to show that passion, and show that this movie would hit a chord with kids everywhere."

Aware of the phenomenon, but realizing it was more Main Street than Madison Avenue, producers Newmyer and Jeffrey Silver went to radical lengths to bring the phenomenon to the studio's attention. "We took all the kids we knew, including our own kids and their friends, and put them in a little videotape," Silver remembers. "The tag line of the video — 'If you don't green light this movie you're an idiot' — won over the studio and our movie got the green light."

The result, says Robbins, is "fresh and funny. To me, it's not a movie about wrestling; it's a movie about two fans who love wrestling. But there's a hell of a lot of wrestling in it. It's a big beast of a movie with real-life professional wrestlers and all the action, physical comedy and pageantry that you see in the ring."

The film tells the story of Gordie Boggs (David Arquette) and Sean Dawkins (Scott Caan), two boys with a dream. "Sean and Gordie live in a town that doesn't have a whole lot going on," says Robbins. "They drive a septic truck for a living and their families are dysfunctional. They live for wrestling and they live for Jimmy King, who is the current WCW champ."

David Arquette, who has played Deputy Dewey Riley in the highly successful "Scream" trilogy, stars as Gordie Boggs, who dreams of becoming a professional wrestler and has modeled his whole life after his hero, Jimmy King, despite his father's insistence that he join the family business of law enforcement. "Gordie's dad really wants him to be a cop," says Arquette. "But Gordie wants to be a wrestler. So, he's really trying to meld his dreams and reality together."

Scott Caan reunites with director Robbins, after having starred in "Varsity Blues," to star as Sean Dawkins, who shares Gordie's passion for wrestling and his dedication to Jimmy King. "They're just insane about wrestlers and King in particular," says Caan. "They base their whole lives on them and don't make decisions without checking with their wrestling god. They think about what Jimmy King would do in a situation and that's what they do."

Oliver Platt ("Bulworth," "Three To Tango") stars as Jimmy King, Gordie's and Sean's hero whom WCW head Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano) has set up for a shattering fall. "King has become a tremendously successful and popular public persona, whereas in his private life he's miserable and doesn't like himself very much," says Platt. "When Titus decides to take him out against his will, King suffers a terrible fall from grace. Everything in his life is just caving in on him."

Arriving late, Jimmy King expects just another night of scripted victory when he faces off against Diamond Dallas Page, but Sinclair has other plans. "He's a drunk and he's completely lost his edge," says award-winning actor Joe Pantoliano, who plays Sinclair. "He was nothing when Titus found him and he's going to be nothing when he destroys him. He forgot who runs the show. Titus gave Jimmy a lot of chances, but now his time has come."

International superstar of World Championship Wrestling Bill Goldberg, who stars in the film as Jimmy King's one-time partner, explains that Sinclair "is a tyrant. He's got a Napoleon complex and uses all his wrestlers as if they were pawns. He has no regard for their livelihood; he's just a firm believer that everyone can be replaced."

On Jimmy King's big night, everything that was supposed to go right goes horribly wrong and Jimmy barely gets out of the ring alive. "These two guys believe in their hearts that professional wrestling is real," says Bobby Newmyer, who produces the film with Jeffrey Silver. Adds Silver, "So, when they see on Nitro that the King has been done in by the nefarious Titus Sinclair, they're devastated."

On the ride home from the match, fate smacks Sean and Gordie down again. "Sean and Gordie end up crashing their 'pump it and dump it' truck and they say, 'This happened for a reason,'" says Caan. "They believe there is a connection between Jimmy King losing the title and their truck crashing."

Sean and Gordie take the crash as a sign that they were meant to seek out Jimmy King and restore him to his throne. "King is Michael Jordan to Gordie and Sean," says Robbins. "When he is taken down and banished from the sport, they find themselves with nothing to live for. That's when they decide to go on a quest to find him and resurrect him and ultimately bring him back his belt."

What they find is a drunk in a dress with a trail of broken lives in his wake. "Jimmy King's a mess," says Robbins. "On the outside, he's this wrestling icon, and the truth is he's just a wreck of a human being. He's a drinker; he's an abuser; he owes alimony, child support, back taxes, gambling debts."

"They thought he lived in a castle and that he had servants and everything," explains Caan. "But when they find him drunk in his trailer, they don't believe it's really him; they think it's all a conspiracy."

"He's lost his way," Arquette adds. "He's lost who the King is, and they have to remind him that the King doesn't give up, that the King is forever successful in his reign."

The only way they can get him motivated is to appeal to a very primitive revenge fantasy to get back at Diamond Dallas Page for sucker punching him in the ring. "But, eventually, one thing leads to another and Jimmy starts to really see that these kids believe in him," says Platt. "And they force him to commit a heroic act despite his own terror and lack of any real self-confidence."

Along the way, Gordie and Sean encounter the gamut of personalities from the wrestling world, including the voluptuous head Nitro girl, Sasha (Rose McGowan), who uses her seductive charm to tempt Gordie. "I fall for her," says Arquette, "but she plays with my heart like a toy."

The boys make an appeal to Goldberg to help King get his title back. "My character remembers when he had a match with Jimmy King," says Goldberg, "King was drunk, forgot most of what he was supposed to do in the match, and puked on my character. So, that has a little bit to do with him being ex-ed out as a future partner."

Gordie and Sean sacrifice everything to help King once again reign supreme. With their help, Jimmy King gets a rematch with Diamond Dallas Page. Only this time, it will be a pay-per-view event never before seen in the history of wrestling. To reclaim his throne, the King must fight Diamond Dallas Page to the death in a Triple Cage configuration in Vegas. "Jimmy is basically fighting for his life, so it becomes completely real," says Robbins. Diamond Dallas Page plays King's nemesis, whom King must battle one last time for the Championship belt. "Jimmy King is like Hulk Hogan," says Page. "He's had a hell of a run and it's just time for him to go out. So, I'm going to face him in a hardcore steel cage match where your only freedom from the cage is to grab the belt down."

To get Jimmy King into shape, the boys seek out the unlikely wrestling coach Sal Bandini, played by Oscar winner Martin Landau. "Sal Bandini was a great wrestler in his time," says Landau, "and wrestling is his religion. You know what Bandini is," adds Landau wryly. "You mix it with water and it makes flowers grow."

"Gordie and Sean believe in the character Jimmy King has created, even if he doesn't believe in it," Arquette concludes. "So, they see that it's up to them to be there for him because he's always been there for them through all their hard times. He showed them about dignity and self-respect, and he taught them to hold their heads high and be noble."