YMMV / Fighting with My Family

• Accidental Aesop: While the movie's goal with Saraya's interactions with her three contemporaries is to illustrate the classic "don't judge a book by its cover", it also shed light to a misogynistic attitude that many wrestling fans had towards certain women who weren't hired with much experience (WWE themselves are even guilty of Take Thats to the 'Diva Era' for the sake of a Cheap Pop).
• Adaptation Displacement: The film is actually based on a documentary. Parts of it are used for the Real-Person Epilogue.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Wrestling fans were predicting that the movie would be a disaster, considering WWE Studios' output before had been Direct to Video films that were pretty badly received - and with women's wrestling being a niche market. Needless to say the film's great critical reception was a shock, and grossed twice its budget within the first week of its release.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The film ends with Paige's triumphant debut. However, the next three years since then was turbulent for her as she was suspended twice for taking prohibited substances, her scandalous love and sex life being made public, and she suffered what many (including the woman herself) thought was a Career-Ending Injury (she wouldn't wrestle again until four years after this).
• Fanon: Since Thea Trinidad is playing A.J. Lee, many fans cast Trinidad's husband Aleister Black as Lee's husband CM Punk in their head-canon of the film. It helps that both pairs have the same physical characteristics as their counterparts (short stature female and male covered in tattoos who loves to Indian sit).
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Paige was still actively wrestling when the film was produced. However by the time of its release, she had to retire due to lingering injuries caused from starting at such a young age. This especially makes two scenes, Hutch explaining his Career-Ending Injury and Zak being very rough on her in an exhibition match, much more difficult to watch.
  • Paige is shown naming herself after the character played by Rose McGowan in Charmed (1998). The film was shot long before McGowan herself would expose numerous Hollywood moguls for their sexual abuse and Paige's own sex videos being leaked around the same time.
  • The film presenting the fictional character Hutch Morgan as a trainer who is tough but fair is very uncomfortable if you do the math and discover that Paige was training at NXT when Bill DeMott was head trainer - and he'd later resign amid accusations of abuse, misconduct and sexual harrassment. In fact Paige's friend Ivelisse Vélez was released due to speaking out against his treatment. This is presumably the reason they use Composite Characters for both DeMott and Velez.
  • Paige's initial antagonism towards her three would be friends and her belief that the three "do not deserve to have a spot in WWE" becomes this since the three's real life counterparts, Summer Rae, Sofia Cortez and Emma, were all gone from the WWE by the time of the film's release.^note Cortez was released since August 2012, long before Paige made her main roster debut. Summer Rae and Emma were released in October 2017, with Emma getting rehired in late 2022 only to be released barely a year later
  • Paige being initially dismissive of her female contemporaries becomes harder to watch after Tessa Blanchard - who was Florence Pugh's Stunt Double - faced numerous accusations of being a notorious backstage bully towards female wrestlers in January 2020.
  • The movie depicts the Knight parents as caring, supportive and lovable rogues. Of special note is a scene where Zak goes off script in a match to go harder on Saraya - making them fear for her safety. The wrestling school is also portrayed as a haven for troubled kids, as well as an inclusive place where a disabled boy can train. In 2020, amid the 'Speaking Out' movement exposing the hidden abuse in the wrestling industry, Saraya Knight came under fire for bullying, Gaslighting and manipulating her trainees.
  • The Rock nicknames Hutch 'Sex Tape' "because he makes everybody famous". Shortly after the film entered production, the real Paige was involved in a sex tape scandal.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Thea Trinidad portraying a former WWE female wrestler. She was not signed to WWE at the time but she eventually would be - as Zelina Vega.
  • The Sportster made an article back in 2017 on how Aleister Black could be "the new" CM Punk. In this film, Black's wife plays Punk's wife.
    • It's even more hilarious now since both Black and Punk are signed to All Elite Wrestling in 2021.
  • The real Sweet Saraya sounds more like Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey's Game of Thrones nemesis.
  • A.J. Lee's Finishing Move is called Black Widow. Shortly after the film's release, Florence Pugh was cast in Black Widow (2021) as the Black Widow Legacy Character.
  • Paige chooses her ring name after Rose McGowan's character in Charmed (1998). The real Paige (and indeed Florence Pugh) is a natural blonde who dyes her hair black. In the year the film was released, Rose would do the opposite; naturally dark-haired dyed blonde (she also dyed her hair blonde in Charmed's sixth season).
  • Seeing Florence Pugh playing the tomboyish Not Like Other Girls heroine is amusing if you see her in Little Women (2019) - where she's the Girly Girl in a rivalry (at first anyway) with a more tomboyish girl.
• Informed Wrongness: Hutch states that Zak is only ever destined to make his other opponents look good, and that he doesn't have what it takes to be a star. Except the main real-life issue surrounding Zak not being hired was his physique and an injury brought about by starting his training so young - the latter of which is never mentioned and the former doesn't quite match how good shape Jack Lowden is in. It seems the only reason this Zak wouldn't make it in WWE is because the guys at the top simply don't like him.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Paige's promo for the movie that aired on WWE television started with seconds of awkward silence and a weird grin◊ before she said "Paige here!" took on a life of its own in the wrestling fan community.
  • Due to Tamina Snuka being Adapted Out in the film (in which the actual event based for the climax had Tamina playing the enforcer for A.J. Lee), it has been joked that John Cena is the one playing her in this film (because as his catchphrase says "you can't see him").
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene where Zak goes off script in a match with Saraya and comes close to seriously injuring her. If the stories about rampant abuse in the wrestling industry are anything to go by, it's Truth in Television sadly.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The Rock of course! He's not in the movie that much beyond his three scenes - but they're some of the most memorable of the movie.
  • Thea Trinidad only shows up at the end as A.J. Lee - but she nails her tics and mannerisms so well it's astounding.
• Retroactive Recognition: This was released right before Midsommar and Little Women (2019) really put Florence Pugh on the map as a star.
• She Really Can Act: Many were impressed at how well Thea Trinidad portrayed A.J. Lee. The real AJ even joked "you were a better me than I ever was."
• Special Effect Failure: Tessa Blanchard is clearly visible in some shots during the superplex spot in the climactic scene.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • While fans generally appreciate Thea Trinidad playing A.J. Lee, the film's decision to omit AJ's actual wrestling gear or at least dress Trinidad in something similar is not well received, as Trinidad's rather revealing gear contradicts the essence of the real AJ's character. It doesn't help that Trinidad does have a similar gear to AJ's.
  • There are fans who wished that the film just showed Paige's actual contemporaries and friends (Summer Rae, Sofia Cortez, and Emma) instead of expies.^note It's entirely possible they couldn't due to legal reasons - obtaining consent from the real women to feature them as characters. It's also possible that since all of them are no longer employed by the company, WWE might not want to promote them.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: A lot of women's wrestling fans would have liked to see an ensemble story focusing on the NXT roster - namely Ivelisse Vélez, Summer Rae, Emma and Sasha Banks - who all worked hard to elevate the quality of ring work in the company rather than just Paige.

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