
Death Grip: Inside Pro Wrestling
Professional wrestlers die young, far more often than athletes in other sports, and CNN correspondent Drew Griffin sets out to ask why. He interviews WWE chairman Vince McMahon directly about the toll the business takes on its performers, then turns to the wrestlers themselves: Dynamite Kid, whose body gave out after decades of high-impact stunts, CM Punk, Chris Jericho, John Cena, and Chris Kanyon, who each describe what the road, the schedule, and the pressure to perform hurt actually do to a body and a mind. The film lays out the pattern plainly, tying early deaths to a mix of chronic pain, painkillers, steroids, and a work culture that treats injury as something to wrestle through rather than treat. McMahon gets to answer for WWE's practices on camera, and the wrestlers get to describe the wear from the inside, so the film sets the company's account against the performers' own experience rather than letting either stand alone. It closes without a tidy resolution, only a body count and an industry still running the same schedule.