| Director | Darren Aronofsky |
|---|---|
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $46.6 million |
In the 1980's, professional wrestler Robin Ramzinski, better known by his ring name Randy "The Ram" Robinson, rises to prominence. In the 2000's, now past his prime, he wrestles on weekends for independent promotions in New Jersey, resides in a trailer park, and works part-time at a supermarket, with his manager Wayne repeatedly disparaging his background. A regular patron at a strip club named Cheeques, he befriends a stripper named Pam, better known by her stage name Cassidy. After winning a local match, he agrees to a proposed 20th-anniversary rematch with his most notable opponent, "The Ayatollah", viewing it as a potential return to stardom.
Randy intensifies his training, which includes anabolic steroid injections. After wrestling in a hardcore match, he suffers a heart attack backstage and undergoes coronary artery bypass surgery. Upon awakening, he is instructed by his doctor to refrain from further taking steroids and continuing his career, as his heart can no longer handle the exertion. Reluctantly, he decides to retire and begins working a full-time shift at the supermarket's deli counter.
Cassidy recommends that Randy attempt to rebuild his relationship with his estranged young-adult daughter Stephanie, whom he had abandoned when she was a child; he visits her residence, but she rebuffs him because he was unavailable to properly raise her. While accompanying him in purchasing a gift for Stephanie, Cassidy discloses that she has a 9-year-old son named Jameson, but she rejects his attempts to romance her because her occupation forbids romantic affairs with customers. Later, he re-encounters Stephanie, gives her the present he purchased and apologizes for forsaking her and her mother years earlier to focus on his own career. The two reconnect over a visit to a beachfront boardwalk, where he often took her when she was young, and agree to meet for dinner at a restaurant on the coming Saturday.
A few days later, Randy encounters Cassidy at Cheeques and compliments her for reconnecting him with Stephanie, but she declines his offer to purchase her a drink, resulting in a heated confrontation between the two. Upset, he attends a wrestling match and commiserates with his fellow wrestlers. While conversing with them at a nearby bar, he becomes massively inebriated, consumes heavy amounts of cocaine, partakes in sexual intercourse with a female follower in the women's restroom, and awakens in her bedroom the following morning. Exhausted, he sleeps the entire day away, awakening that night to discover that he has overlooked his appointment with Stephanie. He ventures to her residence in the middle of the night and apologizes to her for neglecting their date, but having tearfully reached her breaking point with him, she instead disowns him permanently and coldly ejects him from the house.
The next day, at the deli counter, a patron identifies Randy, though he persistently denies it. Agitated, he damages his own hand on the slicer, wipes the blood over himself and immediately quits his job on the spot, insulting Wayne and the nearby customers before departing. Spurred by the fan's recognition of him, he wholly recommits to wrestling and reschedules the rematch. He re-encounters Cassidy, who has just walked out on her job after learning of Randy returning to his career, and reconciles with her. She implores him to cancel the event and retire from wrestling permanently so as to give the outside world a second chance, but he respectfully declines; explaining that he belongs in the ring with his fellow wrestlers and devoted fans who, unlike the rest of society, have always accepted and respected him for who he is throughout his life.
During the match, the Ayatollah notices an increasingly-unsteady Randy developing excruciating chest pains, urging him to initiate the pin and conclude the match to salvage the remnants of his declining health. Randy courageously declines, however, and proceeds to steal one of the Ayatollah's signature moves before mounting the top rope. Surveying the crowd, he realizes that Cassidy has taken leave from the arena; too weak-willed to support him in what could possibly be his final moments. With his heart approaching myocardial rupture, he tearfully smiles upon hearing the sound of his fans cheering his name, and prepares to execute his signature finishing move, a diving headbutt termed the "Ram Jam". He leaps from the top rope and the screen fades to black.