STW - No Holds Barred Watch-Along [Show Notes] (Patreon)

The movie was produced by star Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon and distributed by New Line Cinema after completion.

It is owned by WWE under a "Shane Distribution Company" copyright and was released by New Line Cinema on June 2, 1989, as an attempt to boost Hogan's acting career seven years after his appearance in Rocky III.

Zeus

To promote the movie, Tom Lister Jr. was brought into the WWF as Zeus. Saying he was angry about losing in the movie and saying he could beat Hogan in real life. The problem was he was not a real wrestler. He wrestled only three matches, a tag match with Randy Savage vs. Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake at Summerslam, an eight-man tag where he was eliminated by DQ. Finally since Vince knew the movie was a bust and wouldn't sell on PPV by itself he sold the PPV No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie (1989) which included a steel cage match between Hogan & Beefcake vs. Savage & Zeus. Rumors say had No Holds Barred been a success, the main event for WrestleMania VI (1990) would have been Hulk Hogan vs. Zeus.

Not Peter Dinklage

A rumor was started that the short headbanger in a cage in the bar scene is a young Peter Dinklage. The role of "short headbanger" is actually played by Rick Allen.

Random Rumors:

The movie's title became the name of a specialty type in the WWF during the mid-1990s where there were no disqualifications or count outs; matches ended only for pinfall or submission. This replaced various other names used for this type: Anything Goes, No DQ/No Countouts. However, these matches were usually not in a steel cage (as the Hogan/Beefcake-Savage/Zeus match was) and was never in an octagon-shaped ring (as in the movie).

As this film was executive produced by wwf owner Vince McMahon and WWF Superstar Hulk Hogan many actual WWF wrestling personalities made appearances in this film. The opening match scene alone features ring announcer Howard Finkel, color commentator and former wrestler Jessie "The Body" Ventura, interviewer "Mean" Gene Okerlund, referee Joe Marella and Rip's opponent for the match Jake Bullet was portrayed by real life wrestler Bill Eadie, better known by his ring name Ax of the popular tag team Demolition.