That’s What I Am

Earlier this month, World Wrestling Entertainment announced that it was rebranding itself as WWE, in order to better reflect its forays into film, TV, a planned network, and eventual world domination. So while certain expectations may form when that jagged “W” logo flashes across the screen—expectations that the movie will perhaps feature a veteran of the ring hurling someone through a bus windshield, or being put in charge of a group of children with hilarious but ultimately heartwarming results—That’s What I Am is indubitably a product of the new, expanded WWE. It’s a dogged family entertainment determined to teach lessons about tolerance and how it should be extended to everyone, even redheads, gay people, and kids with cooties. Though (spoiler alert!) no actual gay characters are featured in the movie. It hardly includes any wrestlers, either. Randy Orton only appears in a few scenes, and while he’s the closest the film comes to having a villain, his dastardly ways are confined to registering a complaint with a school principal; he doesn’t offer a single display of his signature Randy Orton Stomp.