CERT: TBC / VOD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Mixed martial-arts, or MMA, is big time, with the UFC doing gangbuster business on pay-per-view, and stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey passing over into the mainstream. Fite TV is a PPV platform for both MMA and professional wrestling, and Cagefighter: Worlds Collide is its first feature production, telling the story of a young British cagefighter at the top of his game, and the professional wrestler who wants to challenge him for his title.

Real-life mixed martial-artist Alex Montagnani stars as Reiss Gibbons, the light heavyweight champion for the fictional Legends organisation, and while he’s clearly not a professional actor he’s decent enough in the role of a man who has everything only to have ti taken away from him. Jonathan Good, better known as Dean Ambrose in WWE and Jon Moxley in AEW, is great, mainly because he’s playing the wrestling character he’s been perfecting for the last decade and more.

The movie is chock full of guest stars from both the MMA and wrestling worlds, supplemented by Gina Gershon as the head of the MMA promotion and Elijah Baker as Gibbons’s manager, Reggie. Escaping the usual rise and fall storyline by beginning with Gibbons already at the top of his game, Cagefighter takes some surprising turns but is ultimately just another sports movie, admittedly one with some brutal replicated fighting action.

Unlike professional wrestling, which saw The Wrestler earn an Oscar nomination for Mickey Rourke, MMA hasn’t had its own classic movie yet, and Cagefighter won’t change that. It is, however, a decent way to spend ninety minutes of your time, especially if you like Jon Moxley being Jon Moxley.