Nail In the Coffin tells the story of Vampiro, the wrestler, and Ian Hodgkinson, the man behind the face paint. We follow his life from his early days in the music industry, where working with Milli Vanilli exposed young Ian to being around things that aren’t quite what they seem, to the birth of Vampiro, a persona that only a man with Hodgkinson’s innate rock star charisma could pull off.
From there, Vampiro’s career takes him through a hugely successful stint with AAA in Mexico in the early ’90s, rough times in WCW (whose viewers – and, indeed, fellow wrestlers – didn’t quite get on board with the character) and, most recently, a life split between working in Mexico and raising a teenage daughter (Dasha, who also participates in the documentary) in Canada. Many stories are told about breaking into the business, using wrestling as an escape from reality and, thankfully not quite as depressing as it might sound, what can happen when your time in the spotlight is over.
Vamp’s home life is very much the main focus of the documentary, grounding the overall narrative with a story of a single father grappling with fame, notoriety and everything that entails. A vast amount of archive home video footage and more recent material from modern-era AAA and the criminally underappreciated Lucha Underground provide a wealth of fascinating insight for wrestling fans, and some familiar faces pop up here and there to provide some extra context. Engaging, thoughtful and heartfelt, Nail In The Coffin is a worthy examination of both a legendary figure in the wrestling world and the man behind it.
Nail In The Coffin is available on Blu-ray from Epic Pictures, and also on demand from most major streaming services.
