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''Take Down'' is a 1979 sports comedy-drama directed by Kieth Merrill.
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning is wrestling--and with no other options, the new English teacher Ed Branish (Creator/EdwardHerrmann) is pressed into being their coach. It's up to Ed, a nerd with no experience with wrestling or much of anything besides Shakespeare, to somehow take this RagtagBunchOfMisfits and turn them into a winning team. The key to victory might be recruiting Nick Kilvitus (Creator/LorenzoLamas), the extremely talented but conflicted student currently failing Branish's class...
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning is wrestling--and with no other options, the new English teacher Ed Branish (Creator/EdwardHerrmann) is pressed into being their coach. It's up to Ed, a nerd with no experience with wrestling or much of anything besides Shakespeare, to somehow take this RagtagBunchOfMisfits and turn them into a winning team. The key to victory might be recruiting Nick Kilvitus (Creator/LorenzoLamas), the extremely talented but conflicted student currently failing Branish's class...
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''Take Down'' is a 1979 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Kieth Merrill.
Merrill, starring Creator/EdwardHerrmann, Creator/LorenzoLamas, Creator/KathleenLloyd, Creator/MaureenMcCormick, and Creator/StephenFurst.
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning iswrestling--and wrestling – and, with no other options, the new English teacher Ed Branish (Creator/EdwardHerrmann) (Herrmann) is pressed into being their coach. It's up to Ed, a nerd with no experience with wrestling or much of anything besides Shakespeare, to somehow take this RagtagBunchOfMisfits and turn them into a winning team. The key to victory might be recruiting Nick Kilvitus (Creator/LorenzoLamas), (Lamas), the extremely talented but conflicted student currently failing Branish's class...
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning is
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A BoxOfficeBomb, this film nevertheless was distributed (though not made) by Disney and thus has the distinction of technically being the first film the company released with a PG rating.
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A BoxOfficeBomb, this film nevertheless was distributed (though not made) by Disney Creator/{{Disney}} and thus has the distinction of technically being the first film the company released with a PG rating.
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* HeroicRROD: Bobby abruptly collapses during one of his matches despite wanting to continue--the first sign he's caught his SoapOperaDisease.
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* ThemeMusicPowerup: Invoked and exploited with a diegetic in-universe example: Palumbo is all but undefeatable when his special music is playing. Once the team figures this out, finding ways to play the song becomes their main objective for Palumbo's matches.
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* ThemeMusicPowerup: Invoked and exploited with a diegetic in-universe example: Palumbo is all but undefeatable when his special music is playing. Once the team figures this out, they spend the rest of the movie finding ways to play the song becomes their main objective for Palumbo's to make sure he wins his matches.
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* WhatTheHellHero: After learning he isn't going to graduate from high school, Nick gets mad at Brooke by telling her that, coming from a wealthy, intact home, she doesn't understand people like him. It's only when Nick talks to Bobby that Nick realizes that while he ''does'' face economic and academic difficulties, he also isn't ''dying'' like Bobby is, and needs to put aside his resentment and help the team.
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* MauveShirt: Kier, the quarterback of the Mingo Junction football team, is originally set up to be one of the main student characters alongside Yacabobich, but he mostly disappears after the first few scenes and we don't even see his final match (which it's implied he lost.)
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* MauveShirt: Kier, the quarterback of the Mingo Junction football team, is originally set up to be one of the main student characters alongside Yacabobich, but he mostly disappears after the first few scenes and we don't even see his final match (which it's implied he lost.)) The role of Yacabobich's [[TheLancer Lancer]] is instead filled by Washington.
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* BatmanGambit: When Washington tries to recruit Macgrudder for the team, Macgrudder at first refuses, saying he doesn't have the physique. Washington notices Macgrudder has eyes on one of the cute girls in the school and has her tell Macgrudder she loves wrestlers, knowing this will get him to join.
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* AgonyOfTheFeet: How No-Toe became No-Toe: he was riding his bike one day and his toe got caught in the sprocket and cut off. [[{{Squick}} And then his dog ate it.]]
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* DareToBeBadass: The Mingo Junction principal gives Ed Branish the job of wrestling coach and refuses to let him give up when Ed tries to quit, telling him there's more to coaching than wrestling and expecting him to have a team ready to compete for their first match.
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* TheLancer: Chauncey Washington to Yacabobich. They are the two best wrestlers on the team when it's first formed and the most invested in keeping the team going. Washington, however, usually lets Yacabobich take the lead in motivating the others, and when Yacabobich doubts Branish's coaching credentials, Washington sticks up for Branish.
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Due to its limited release, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes finding a physical copy somewhere can be difficult]], though at the moment it is currently available on [[https://youtu.be/SqkBWkCdDUc Youtube]].
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/take_down_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
->''"I'm not saying we can... but at least give us a chance to try."''
-->-- '''Ted Yacabobich'''
''Take Down'' is a 1979 sports comedy-drama directed by Kieth Merrill.
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning is wrestling--and with no other options, the new English teacher Ed Branish (Creator/EdwardHerrmann) is pressed into being their coach. It's up to Ed, a nerd with no experience with wrestling or much of anything besides Shakespeare, to somehow take this RagtagBunchOfMisfits and turn them into a winning team. The key to victory might be recruiting Nick Kilvitus (Creator/LorenzoLamas), the extremely talented but conflicted student currently failing Branish's class...
A BoxOfficeBomb, this film nevertheless was distributed (though not made) by Disney and thus has the distinction of technically being the first film the company released with a PG rating.
----
!! This show provides examples of:
*TheAce: Leroy Baron. He is an "all-American super jock" good at both football and wrestling.
*AchillesInHisTent: A good chunk of the story is dedicated to convincing Nick to join and stay on the team. It takes a WhatTheHellHero from Bobby about how he ''wants'' to stay on the team but can't because of his SoapOperaDisease, while Nick can but ''won't'', to finally get him to commit for good.
*AdvertisedExtra: Brooke is featured prominently on most versions of the cover and given AndStarring billing, but ultimately has absolutely no bearing on the plot and is merely a SatelliteLoveInterest. (It's her brother Bobby, not her, that finally motivates Nick into rejoining the team.)
*AlcoholicParent: Nick's dad is frequently getting drunk and missing his shift, leading Nick to skip school to cover his shift at the steel mill.
*AnswerCut: Yacabobich wonders to himself who they can find to fill the 185-pound slot on the wrestling team to face Baron. The scene immediately cuts to Nick at the steel mill.
*ArtisticLicenseBiology: Let's just say that Nick losing 3.5 pounds in an hour and a half to make weight for his match by sweating and running around the school--and still having endurance enough to wrestle afterwards--is ''extremely unlikely.''
*ArtisticLicenseSports: Baron is clearly much too big to be in the 185 weight class, as easily seen by how he looms over his opponents.
*BathroomStallGraffiti: As read by Macgrudder, while awaiting his "cleansing bubble":
--> "If you're too good for other folks--all mighty, high, and haughty--remember you're just one of us while you're here on this potty."
*BigGame: The final wrestling meet against Rockville. It plays with the usual formula a bit: while Mingo Junction ''generally'' loses in the first half and makes up the gap in the second, they still win the very first match and their early losses are justified in that their best wrestlers are all in the heavier weight classes. Coach Branish also gives his rousing speech before the meet begins and doesn't give a second one later. Still, Yacabobich's match against Lardner ends with the standings such that Mingo Junction can only win if Nick gets a pin.
*BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: While he doesn't die, Yacabobich--the biggest member of the team and the originator of the whole plan to wrestle--is the only one of the major named team members to lose his final match, setting the stakes for the final between Nick and Baron.
*BookAndSwitch: A non-raunchy example: Jill gives Ed a present of a rare and valuable Shakespeare book... only for Ed to find out it's actually a wrestling manual whose dust-jacket she swapped out to disguise it.
*ButtMonkey: Randy doesn't win a single match and spends a good chunk of his screentime being tossed around by actual athletes.
*ChekhovsSkill: The headlock and throw that Ed practices on a patient Jill is later what Nick uses to turn the tables on Baron.
*CringeComedy: Jill valiantly acts as the Mingo Junction team's lone cheerleader in their first ever wrestling meet. The result is embarrassingly hilarious.
*CurbstompBattle: Mingo Junction's first wrestling match ends with embarrassing losses for the majority of the team, besides Washington and presumably also Yacabobich.
*CurbstompCushion: Rockville's other champion athlete, the heavyweight Lardner, is similarly undefeated like Baron and has won each of his prior matches by pin. While he's still clearly better than Yacabobich and is an instant away from a pin by the time the match is called, Yacabobich puts up a good enough fight to hold him off.
*DecoyProtagonist: Yacabobich is the first major character introduced, leading out among the seniors in getting permission to form a wrestling team and getting more screentime than any of them. However, the protagonists of the story are ultimately Coach Branish and Nick, leading Yacabobich to end up a mix of TheBigGuy and TheHeart.
*DelayedReaction: Ed is so focused on the final competition against Rockville that he replies to Jill's news [[spoiler:that she's pregnant]] with a "Great. See you later", only realizing when he's halfway across the room.
*DespairEventHorizon: Nick hits this when he finds out he won't graduate. It causes him to first get himself disqualified from wrestling and then lash out at Brooke. He gets better after a talk with Bobby, though.
*DownToTheLastPlay: The score in the final meet is 26-32 for the final match between Nick and Baron, meaning Mingo Junction can only win if Nick pins Baron.
*EstablishingCharacterMoment:
**Nick Kilvitus' first scene is him covering his dad's shift at the local steel mill... and effortlessly picking up a heavy I-beam by himself.
**The first we see of Baron is him easily scoring a touchdown and celebrating about it.
*EvilIsBigger: Baron is noticeably larger and more muscular than Nick. Brings up some FridgeLogic of how ''he'' passes the weight requirements when Nick has to work to meet them.
*{{Fanservice}}: Lots of muscular young men in this movie, often going shirtless (or close to it.)
*FinalBossPreview: At a double wrestling meet, Nick gets to watch Baron demolish his hapless opponent in seconds.
*FishOutOfWater: Ed Branish, a stick-thin English-teaching nerd, is assigned to coach a wrestling team full of jocks. At first he is horrified and clueless as to what to do, but with a little help and encouragement from Jill, he starts to value his young men, takes to the task, and learns how to teach and motivate them--with a few Shakespeare quotes still dropped along the way.
*FlawlessToken: Washington comes close to playing it straight by winning each of his matches, but Macgrudder averts it, losing every match until his last.
*GentleGiant: Yacabobich is the largest member of the cast and one of the nicest, especially seen in how he takes care of Bobby.
*TheGhost: Radman the Mingo Junction football coach is curiously given a name despite never appearing.
*HockeyMaskAndChainsaw: Macgrudder's opponent on the Rockville team is wearing a [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason-esque]] mask over his face, though naturally he lacks a chainsaw. (Surprisingly, this film came out [[OlderThanTheyThink three years before]] Jason donned the mask.)
*HoistByTheirOwnPetard: It's implied Nick is able to beat Baron because Baron wears himself out using a lot of (frankly impressive) full-body lifts and slams against him.
*HoldTheLine: Yacabobich vs. Lardner. It's clear Yacabobich can't beat him, but if he can hold him off long enough for a time-out, Nick can still pull out a win against Baron.
*HonorBeforeReason: When Coach Branish learns Nick's graduation has been denied, he decides to tell Nick right before his match so that if Nick was only competing to get Branish's English lessons and graduate, he can sit his match out. This backfires spectacularly by making Nick mad and getting him disqualified from wrestling.
*JerkJock: Downplayed. The closest the film gets to one, Baron, seems arrogant but has no real villainous qualities or KickTheDog moments.
*TheLeader: While Nick is TheHero and gets the final match against Baron, he joins the team late and isn't present for many of their matches. It's Yacabobich who had the idea for the team and leads out most often in organizing and motivating them when Coach Branish isn't around.
*{{Leitmotif}}: Baron gets one, with menacing lower brass.
*LovableJock: As the story revolves around a wrestling team, a huge portion of the cast are these, though Yacabobich is probably the best example. They aren't afraid to use their status as seniors and athletes to influence other people in the school, but their intentions are good and they're mostly nice guys.
*ManBitesMan: [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Macgrudder!]]
*MauveShirt: Kier, the quarterback of the Mingo Junction football team, is originally set up to be one of the main student characters alongside Yacabobich, but he mostly disappears after the first few scenes and we don't even see his final match (which it's implied he lost.)
*MistakenForBadass: The team is so nonplussed by their English teacher being assigned as their wrestling coach that Washington concludes Mr. Branish ''must'' actually be a skilled wrestler or he'd never take the job. Yacabobich decides to test this theory, though fortunately Ed's practiced a few moves by this point on Jill and pulls off a takedown, forever silencing his team's doubts.
*MusclesAreMeaningful: Rockville's heavyweight wrestler Lardner is noticeably less trim than his teammate Baron, but he's clearly more muscular and in better shape than Yacabobich, which gives him an advantage over his fatter fellow heavyweight.
*TheOner: The beginning of the final match between Nick and Baron is a 45-second shot, giving the viewer ample time to see that yes, the actor for Leroy Baron really ''can'' throw around Lorenzo Lamas like that.
*OpposingSportsTeam: Rockville High, the school that's beaten Mingo Junction in every single sport ''for nine years''.
*PromotionToParent: Nick ends up taking his father's place as the main breadwinner of the family, and the way he carries his dad home and puts him to bed means the roles of father and son are reversed between them.
*ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Randy will be the first to tell you he's a musician, not an athlete, which means he's pretty much useless as Nick's replacement as the 185-pound wrestler on the team. However, [[spoiler:his musical skills help save the day when he plays Palumbo's song during the final meet]].
*RedshirtArmy: Mingo Junction's 105, 112, 119, and 126-weight wrestlers aren't named in-film, don't get any lines, and all lose their final matches against Rockville.
*ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** The Mingo Junction principal approves the students' idea for a wrestling team, decides Ed Brannish is more up to the task of being a coach than he thinks, and gives him some good advice about coaching.
** Coach Kawa of the Rockville wrestling team is a pretty chill guy, too, agreeing to let Nick compete despite his earlier disqualification and switching the 185 and heavyweight matches to buy Nick more time. It's clear his team is good as a result of his excellent coaching, not just because of Baron and Lardner's talent.
*RulesLawyer: The wrestling referee is naturally this; though willing to make a few exceptions due to Branish and the team's inexperience in their first match, he strictly enforces the rules later on. Branish later turns this on the ref to excuse bringing a boombox to a match to play Palumbo's ThemeMusicPowerup, saying he can't find anything about it in the rules.
*SatelliteLoveInterest: Brooke doesn't do much in the film besides be a love interest for Nick.
*SeventiesHair: Naturally, seeing this film was made in 1979, though Nick, Baron, and Lardner are the best examples.
*SilentAntagonist: Baron never talks (at least, not that the audience can hear), presumably to make him feel more like a force of nature to the audience.
*SoapOperaDisease: It's never specified what exactly Bobby's sick of, just that it keeps him from competing in the final match.
*ThemeMusicPowerup: Invoked and exploited with a diegetic in-universe example: Palumbo is all but undefeatable when his special music is playing. Once the team figures this out, finding ways to play the song becomes their main objective for Palumbo's matches.
*ThisIsGonnaSuck: Macgrudder's reaction to seeing his masked Rockville opponent is to turn around and mutter a silent ''"Why?"'' to the sky.
*TrainingMontage: Nick gets one in preparation for the final match.
*UnusualEuphemism: "Cleansing bubble" for taking a poo.
*UptightLovesWild: Ed Branish is bookish, introverted, and arrogant; his wife Jill is much more friendly and energetic and even a bit of a good-natured prankster at times. Still, their marriage is mostly a happy one, and only improves along with Ed's CharacterDevelopment.
*TheVoiceless: At no point does the audience ever hear Baron speak. We see him talking to Coach Kawa while watching Nick compete halfway through the film, but it's drowned out by the noise of the crowd.
*YouCanBarelyStand: Nick is already exhausted and dehydrated from making weight before he goes up against Baron.
*YouSayTomato: In a brief moment of racial tension, Kier makes fun of how Macgrudder says "cotton" and Macgrudder tells him to back off.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
->''"I'm not saying we can... but at least give us a chance to try."''
-->-- '''Ted Yacabobich'''
''Take Down'' is a 1979 sports comedy-drama directed by Kieth Merrill.
Mingo Junction High School hasn't beaten their rival Rockville in any sport for nine years. After a humiliating defeat at football, the seniors decide the best shot they have at winning is wrestling--and with no other options, the new English teacher Ed Branish (Creator/EdwardHerrmann) is pressed into being their coach. It's up to Ed, a nerd with no experience with wrestling or much of anything besides Shakespeare, to somehow take this RagtagBunchOfMisfits and turn them into a winning team. The key to victory might be recruiting Nick Kilvitus (Creator/LorenzoLamas), the extremely talented but conflicted student currently failing Branish's class...
A BoxOfficeBomb, this film nevertheless was distributed (though not made) by Disney and thus has the distinction of technically being the first film the company released with a PG rating.
----
!! This show provides examples of:
*TheAce: Leroy Baron. He is an "all-American super jock" good at both football and wrestling.
*AchillesInHisTent: A good chunk of the story is dedicated to convincing Nick to join and stay on the team. It takes a WhatTheHellHero from Bobby about how he ''wants'' to stay on the team but can't because of his SoapOperaDisease, while Nick can but ''won't'', to finally get him to commit for good.
*AdvertisedExtra: Brooke is featured prominently on most versions of the cover and given AndStarring billing, but ultimately has absolutely no bearing on the plot and is merely a SatelliteLoveInterest. (It's her brother Bobby, not her, that finally motivates Nick into rejoining the team.)
*AlcoholicParent: Nick's dad is frequently getting drunk and missing his shift, leading Nick to skip school to cover his shift at the steel mill.
*AnswerCut: Yacabobich wonders to himself who they can find to fill the 185-pound slot on the wrestling team to face Baron. The scene immediately cuts to Nick at the steel mill.
*ArtisticLicenseBiology: Let's just say that Nick losing 3.5 pounds in an hour and a half to make weight for his match by sweating and running around the school--and still having endurance enough to wrestle afterwards--is ''extremely unlikely.''
*ArtisticLicenseSports: Baron is clearly much too big to be in the 185 weight class, as easily seen by how he looms over his opponents.
*BathroomStallGraffiti: As read by Macgrudder, while awaiting his "cleansing bubble":
--> "If you're too good for other folks--all mighty, high, and haughty--remember you're just one of us while you're here on this potty."
*BigGame: The final wrestling meet against Rockville. It plays with the usual formula a bit: while Mingo Junction ''generally'' loses in the first half and makes up the gap in the second, they still win the very first match and their early losses are justified in that their best wrestlers are all in the heavier weight classes. Coach Branish also gives his rousing speech before the meet begins and doesn't give a second one later. Still, Yacabobich's match against Lardner ends with the standings such that Mingo Junction can only win if Nick gets a pin.
*BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: While he doesn't die, Yacabobich--the biggest member of the team and the originator of the whole plan to wrestle--is the only one of the major named team members to lose his final match, setting the stakes for the final between Nick and Baron.
*BookAndSwitch: A non-raunchy example: Jill gives Ed a present of a rare and valuable Shakespeare book... only for Ed to find out it's actually a wrestling manual whose dust-jacket she swapped out to disguise it.
*ButtMonkey: Randy doesn't win a single match and spends a good chunk of his screentime being tossed around by actual athletes.
*ChekhovsSkill: The headlock and throw that Ed practices on a patient Jill is later what Nick uses to turn the tables on Baron.
*CringeComedy: Jill valiantly acts as the Mingo Junction team's lone cheerleader in their first ever wrestling meet. The result is embarrassingly hilarious.
*CurbstompBattle: Mingo Junction's first wrestling match ends with embarrassing losses for the majority of the team, besides Washington and presumably also Yacabobich.
*CurbstompCushion: Rockville's other champion athlete, the heavyweight Lardner, is similarly undefeated like Baron and has won each of his prior matches by pin. While he's still clearly better than Yacabobich and is an instant away from a pin by the time the match is called, Yacabobich puts up a good enough fight to hold him off.
*DecoyProtagonist: Yacabobich is the first major character introduced, leading out among the seniors in getting permission to form a wrestling team and getting more screentime than any of them. However, the protagonists of the story are ultimately Coach Branish and Nick, leading Yacabobich to end up a mix of TheBigGuy and TheHeart.
*DelayedReaction: Ed is so focused on the final competition against Rockville that he replies to Jill's news [[spoiler:that she's pregnant]] with a "Great. See you later", only realizing when he's halfway across the room.
*DespairEventHorizon: Nick hits this when he finds out he won't graduate. It causes him to first get himself disqualified from wrestling and then lash out at Brooke. He gets better after a talk with Bobby, though.
*DownToTheLastPlay: The score in the final meet is 26-32 for the final match between Nick and Baron, meaning Mingo Junction can only win if Nick pins Baron.
*EstablishingCharacterMoment:
**Nick Kilvitus' first scene is him covering his dad's shift at the local steel mill... and effortlessly picking up a heavy I-beam by himself.
**The first we see of Baron is him easily scoring a touchdown and celebrating about it.
*EvilIsBigger: Baron is noticeably larger and more muscular than Nick. Brings up some FridgeLogic of how ''he'' passes the weight requirements when Nick has to work to meet them.
*{{Fanservice}}: Lots of muscular young men in this movie, often going shirtless (or close to it.)
*FinalBossPreview: At a double wrestling meet, Nick gets to watch Baron demolish his hapless opponent in seconds.
*FishOutOfWater: Ed Branish, a stick-thin English-teaching nerd, is assigned to coach a wrestling team full of jocks. At first he is horrified and clueless as to what to do, but with a little help and encouragement from Jill, he starts to value his young men, takes to the task, and learns how to teach and motivate them--with a few Shakespeare quotes still dropped along the way.
*FlawlessToken: Washington comes close to playing it straight by winning each of his matches, but Macgrudder averts it, losing every match until his last.
*GentleGiant: Yacabobich is the largest member of the cast and one of the nicest, especially seen in how he takes care of Bobby.
*TheGhost: Radman the Mingo Junction football coach is curiously given a name despite never appearing.
*HockeyMaskAndChainsaw: Macgrudder's opponent on the Rockville team is wearing a [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason-esque]] mask over his face, though naturally he lacks a chainsaw. (Surprisingly, this film came out [[OlderThanTheyThink three years before]] Jason donned the mask.)
*HoistByTheirOwnPetard: It's implied Nick is able to beat Baron because Baron wears himself out using a lot of (frankly impressive) full-body lifts and slams against him.
*HoldTheLine: Yacabobich vs. Lardner. It's clear Yacabobich can't beat him, but if he can hold him off long enough for a time-out, Nick can still pull out a win against Baron.
*HonorBeforeReason: When Coach Branish learns Nick's graduation has been denied, he decides to tell Nick right before his match so that if Nick was only competing to get Branish's English lessons and graduate, he can sit his match out. This backfires spectacularly by making Nick mad and getting him disqualified from wrestling.
*JerkJock: Downplayed. The closest the film gets to one, Baron, seems arrogant but has no real villainous qualities or KickTheDog moments.
*TheLeader: While Nick is TheHero and gets the final match against Baron, he joins the team late and isn't present for many of their matches. It's Yacabobich who had the idea for the team and leads out most often in organizing and motivating them when Coach Branish isn't around.
*{{Leitmotif}}: Baron gets one, with menacing lower brass.
*LovableJock: As the story revolves around a wrestling team, a huge portion of the cast are these, though Yacabobich is probably the best example. They aren't afraid to use their status as seniors and athletes to influence other people in the school, but their intentions are good and they're mostly nice guys.
*ManBitesMan: [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast In a wrestling match, nobody bites like Macgrudder!]]
*MauveShirt: Kier, the quarterback of the Mingo Junction football team, is originally set up to be one of the main student characters alongside Yacabobich, but he mostly disappears after the first few scenes and we don't even see his final match (which it's implied he lost.)
*MistakenForBadass: The team is so nonplussed by their English teacher being assigned as their wrestling coach that Washington concludes Mr. Branish ''must'' actually be a skilled wrestler or he'd never take the job. Yacabobich decides to test this theory, though fortunately Ed's practiced a few moves by this point on Jill and pulls off a takedown, forever silencing his team's doubts.
*MusclesAreMeaningful: Rockville's heavyweight wrestler Lardner is noticeably less trim than his teammate Baron, but he's clearly more muscular and in better shape than Yacabobich, which gives him an advantage over his fatter fellow heavyweight.
*TheOner: The beginning of the final match between Nick and Baron is a 45-second shot, giving the viewer ample time to see that yes, the actor for Leroy Baron really ''can'' throw around Lorenzo Lamas like that.
*OpposingSportsTeam: Rockville High, the school that's beaten Mingo Junction in every single sport ''for nine years''.
*PromotionToParent: Nick ends up taking his father's place as the main breadwinner of the family, and the way he carries his dad home and puts him to bed means the roles of father and son are reversed between them.
*ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Randy will be the first to tell you he's a musician, not an athlete, which means he's pretty much useless as Nick's replacement as the 185-pound wrestler on the team. However, [[spoiler:his musical skills help save the day when he plays Palumbo's song during the final meet]].
*RedshirtArmy: Mingo Junction's 105, 112, 119, and 126-weight wrestlers aren't named in-film, don't get any lines, and all lose their final matches against Rockville.
*ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** The Mingo Junction principal approves the students' idea for a wrestling team, decides Ed Brannish is more up to the task of being a coach than he thinks, and gives him some good advice about coaching.
** Coach Kawa of the Rockville wrestling team is a pretty chill guy, too, agreeing to let Nick compete despite his earlier disqualification and switching the 185 and heavyweight matches to buy Nick more time. It's clear his team is good as a result of his excellent coaching, not just because of Baron and Lardner's talent.
*RulesLawyer: The wrestling referee is naturally this; though willing to make a few exceptions due to Branish and the team's inexperience in their first match, he strictly enforces the rules later on. Branish later turns this on the ref to excuse bringing a boombox to a match to play Palumbo's ThemeMusicPowerup, saying he can't find anything about it in the rules.
*SatelliteLoveInterest: Brooke doesn't do much in the film besides be a love interest for Nick.
*SeventiesHair: Naturally, seeing this film was made in 1979, though Nick, Baron, and Lardner are the best examples.
*SilentAntagonist: Baron never talks (at least, not that the audience can hear), presumably to make him feel more like a force of nature to the audience.
*SoapOperaDisease: It's never specified what exactly Bobby's sick of, just that it keeps him from competing in the final match.
*ThemeMusicPowerup: Invoked and exploited with a diegetic in-universe example: Palumbo is all but undefeatable when his special music is playing. Once the team figures this out, finding ways to play the song becomes their main objective for Palumbo's matches.
*ThisIsGonnaSuck: Macgrudder's reaction to seeing his masked Rockville opponent is to turn around and mutter a silent ''"Why?"'' to the sky.
*TrainingMontage: Nick gets one in preparation for the final match.
*UnusualEuphemism: "Cleansing bubble" for taking a poo.
*UptightLovesWild: Ed Branish is bookish, introverted, and arrogant; his wife Jill is much more friendly and energetic and even a bit of a good-natured prankster at times. Still, their marriage is mostly a happy one, and only improves along with Ed's CharacterDevelopment.
*TheVoiceless: At no point does the audience ever hear Baron speak. We see him talking to Coach Kawa while watching Nick compete halfway through the film, but it's drowned out by the noise of the crowd.
*YouCanBarelyStand: Nick is already exhausted and dehydrated from making weight before he goes up against Baron.
*YouSayTomato: In a brief moment of racial tension, Kier makes fun of how Macgrudder says "cotton" and Macgrudder tells him to back off.
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