The Wrestler

Robin Ramzinski (Mickey Rourke), stage named Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is a professional wrestler who became a celebrity in the 1980s. Twenty years later, he is now past his prime. Randy wrestles on weekends for independent promotions in the Elizabeth, New Jersey area. A regular at a strip club, he befriends a stripper, Cassidy (Marisa Tomei). Though still beautiful, like Randy, she is getting old for her job. After winning a local match, Randy agrees to a proposed 20th anniversary rematch in Wilmington with his most notable opponent, "The Ayatollah" (Ernest Miller). Randy intensifies his training, including steroid injections.

At his next show, he wrestles in a hardcore match. His opponent, Necro Butcher, attacks him with a staple gun and a fork as part of the act. Later, backstage, Randy suffers a heart attack. After he receives coronary artery bypass surgery his doctor tells him that his heart cannot take the stress of wrestling. He retires and begins working a 9–5 shift behind the deli counter at the supermarket with a demeaning manager, Wayne (Todd Barry).

At Cassidy's suggestion, Randy visits his estranged daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), whom he abandoned when she was a child. Now an adult, she rebuffs him. When Cassidy helps Randy buy a gift for Stephanie, she reveals she has a son. Randy makes romantic advances on her, which she rejects on the grounds of her job. Randy gives the gifts to his daughter and apologizes. The two bond over a visit to a beachfront boardwalk, and they agree to meet for dinner on the coming Saturday.

Randy goes to Cassidy's strip club to thank her, but she once more rejects him, resulting in an angry exchange. Upset, Randy goes to see a wrestling match and finds solace with his wrestling friends. At a bar with them, he gets drunk, snorts cocaine and has sex with a woman. He sleeps the entire next day and misses his dinner with Stephanie. He goes to her house to apologize, but she angrily cries and says that she never wants to see him again.

At the deli counter, a patron recognizes him as "The Ram", though Randy denies being the wrestler. Agitated, Randy cuts his hand on the deli slicer machine and goes on a rampage in the store, before quitting. With nothing else left, he decides to return to wrestling. He reschedules the 20th anniversary rematch with The Ayatollah and reconciles with Cassidy, who warns him of his heart condition. However he explains to her that he belongs in the ring with fans, who truly love him unlike the rest of the world.

As he wrestles, Randy begins to feel chest pain and becomes unsteady. The Ayatollah urges him to initiate the pin. However Randy begins his signature finishing move, a diving head butt called "The Ram Jam". He climbs the top rope and stands up. In tears, he salutes the crowd and leaps as the screen abruptly cuts to black.