WWF champs support Mickey Rourke's 'Wrestler'

Real-life World Wrestling Federation superstars Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake showed up for last night's premiere of "The Wrestler," starring Golden Globe nominees Mickey Rourke, Marissa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.

Just a few days earlier, director Darren Aronofsky talked to me about Rowdy's reaction to his Oscar-buzzed film about a washed-up former wrestling champ who can't hack it in the civilian life and risks his life for one last stand in the ring.

"We just had our first legend come to a screening the other night," said Aronofsky. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper showed up. We had never met him before and he had a really really emotional response to the film. He basically said, "It's not my story, but it is my story."  And he thanked us for telling it and for being honest. He's getting really behind it. He was thankful because their story had never been told.  That was great."

How much of the film's fraternity of wrestlers is true?

"It's all real," he insists. "There's a real fraternity.  And you know it's as much sport as it is theater, so they're working over their script and they're working over their athletics and what they're going to pull off and how they're going to turn the audience and how--that was really happening, I mean, the whole wrestling end of it was real, in the sense that we put on real wrestling events with real wrestlers, and we stuck Mickey smack in the middle of it."

With all the realism in the film, one thing struck me as odd. Although Randy suffers a heart attack early in the film and has to have open heart surgery, he's never is shown filling out any medical forms. And his character never receives a single medical bill for the treatment.

What kind of insurance policy did he have and where can I get some?

"That's a good question," Aronofsky said, with a sly smile. "I don't think the film goes long enough for him to deal with his medical bills."

Tell me about it.

But Randy getting just one ginormous medical bill for $200,000 --  and ripping it up -- would have made the movie feel more realistic than all the blood, barbed wire and staple guns in the world.

Photo: From left, Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, "Wrestler" star Mickey Rourke and Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake buddy around at the film's premiere.

Credit: WireImage.

W