Dave Meltzer Assesses Accuracy Of The Smashing Machine, Starring WWE Legend The Rock

Veteran journalist Dave Meltzer has assessed The Rock's portrayal of Mark Kerr in "The Smashing Machine," and discussed whether the movie got things right about the MMA legend's career.

A majority of movies based on sports personalities usually have some add-ons for cinematic effect, but Meltzer believes that the movie about Kerr was historically accurate. He drew parallels between "The Smashing Machine" and the pro wrestling movie based on the life of the Von Erichs, "The Iron Claw."

"It reminded me a lot of the movie on the Von Erichs that I saw a couple of years ago. You know, I guess because they're both A24 movies, they're both sort of based on reality," said Meltzer on the "Cinema Sidetrack" podcast. "This one was more historically accurate than the Von Erich movie, though. That's the one thing I'll say is that this is a very — as far as sports movies that try to recreate something, this was way more historically accurate than most, because most of the ones that I watch, I'll look and I'll go like, well, this didn't happen here and this didn't happen here. And this is like made up. And this is for dramatic reasons, but this movie was pretty much, you know, how it went down."

Meltzer, while noting that he didn't know Kerr personally, said that what was showcased in the movie actually happened in Kerr's real life. He added that the film got everything right about his career, including events from the earliest parts of his life and career

"You know, they didn't make up matches. They didn't make up finishes. Right? They didn't make up opponents. I mean, this was his, you know, his more famous early career fights. The tournament went exactly how it was," he said.

The movie was a challenging one for The Rock, who recently claimed that he was scared to take on the role of Kerr and had doubts about whether he could pull it off.