On a fateful evening in a Seattle dive bar, Josh Kuntz and a group of social outcasts put on a faux wrestling show to a crowd of enthusiastic bartenders. With crude language and satirical monikers, the guys “beat” the pulp out of each other in a clumsy ballet, earning cheers from the crowd. That evening, the Seattle Semi-Pro Wrestlers were born.

With names like Ronald McFondle and Eddie Van Glam, the SSP represented an offbeat family of cabaret fighters who cherished their tight-knit assembly of renegades. But when newcomer Paul (nicknamed The Banana) joined the SSP the dynamic shifted in a way they had not foreseen. Paul’s broody and misanthropic demeanor clashed with the carefree brotherhood. And when the Banana felt he landed on the wrong end of a joke, he plotted his revenge. But the SSP was not going to be taken down that easily. Full of raucous humor, profanity, and heart, Bodyslam: Revenge of the Banana! follows the SSP wrestlers’ fight to keep the dream alive and get their family back.

—Genna Terranova

Directed by

Ryan Harvie and John Paul Horstmann