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Dwayne Johnson brought the legacy of MMA fighter Mark Kerr to life on the big screen in The Smashing Machine, a biographical sports drama directed by Benny Safdie. The movie captures the fighter's raw exuberance in the ring and his emotionally volatile life outside of it as a rising star in the 90s. According to an interview with USA Today on October 6, 2025, Kerr and Safdie had "deep conversations" to nail the right story, tone, and message.
With a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, the A24 production has proven to be an accurate retelling of Kerr's life, his career challenges, and the physical toll it took on him, as well as his struggle with drug addiction. The impact of his lifestyle on his relationship with then-girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt) also underscores the movie's tense premise.
However, there are some details that The Smashing Machine excluded to create a cleaner, more linear narrative.
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Disclaimer: All opinions in this article belong to the writer. Spoilers ahead.
Kerr's struggle with addiction, his initial dreams, and other facts excluded from The Smashing Machine
1) The extent of Kerr's struggle with addiction
The Smashing Machine gets into Mark Kerr's struggles with steroids and painkillers. With the kind of physical pain he was in, the drugs gave him relief and a way to keep his passion alive. It is a heartbreaking story arc, knowing that his pursuit of greatness comes at a cost. However, his history with drug addiction came long before the events of the movie in the late 90s.
Kerr lost his athletic scholarship in college, years before he became the public figure everyone knows him as. He was caught stealing from a fellow student and was forced to take odd jobs as a stadium concert worker during his time away. This led him away from his disciplined life to a murkier one, and he experimented with cocaine and narcotics.
That struggle continued till he sought help, and he has been sober for seven years, according to an interview with TIME, published on September 5, 2025.
2) Kerr was almost an Olympic-level wrestler
When Mark Kerr engaged in sports, he did not expect to end up where he was in The Smashing Machine. Initially, the MMA pioneer took an interest in wrestling in his teenage years, and his growth spurt helped him. In 1986, he won the State Wrestling Championships as a junior in high school. He even went to college at Syracuse University on a wrestling scholarship, winning further in the big leagues.
Kerr's goal? The 1996 Olympics in the freestyle wrestling bracket. But after training with and losing his spot to Kurt Angle (Now a WWE Hall of Famer), he realized that wrestling wasn't where he could make it to the top. Enter the high-risk/reward UFC space. He used its barbaric nature to make more money, winning $20,000 in his first match, which is where the movie begins.
3) Dawn's reaction was different in real life
One of the most intense and gripping parts of The Smashing Machine was Mark Kerr's relationship with Dawn Staples. His violent career and worrying drug use took a toll on their relationship, while her emotional volatility destabilized any attraction they felt. One instance that stands out in the movie is when Dawn smashes a precious glass bowl with gold leaves that Kerr gifted her from Japan.
However, this is not how it went down in real life. The object in question was a fancy silk robe, and Dawn (Blunt) destroyed it during a fight. Mark Kerr told USA Today in an interview published on October 6, 2025:
"In reality, it was an expensive silk robe rather than a bowl. Safdie wanted “that violent explosion,” Kerr says, and it was “a lot easier to break” a bowl than to tear apart a robe, which is what actually happened. “For Dawn to hurt me, it was like, ‘Yeah, OK. You got this for me and (now) it's ripped up.’ ”- An excerpt from the interview about The Smashing Machine
4) Kerr was also a submission wrestler
One of the biggest things that The Smashing Machine omitted was Mark Kerr's side quests when he was also rising to the pinnacle of fame in the UFC. Around the same time as the events of the movie (1997-1999), Kerr was also performing in other avenues, particularly submission wrestling, which is a type of combat sport that mixes wrestling, judo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
In the late 90s, Kerr was a smashing success in the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships. He won the +99KG category in 1999, beating other champions like Sean Alvarez and Carlos Barreto. In 2000, he went back to win the +99KG category and the absolute division. This put him through to the Superfight Championship in 2001, which he won against Mario Sperry.
In 2022, Mark Kerr was one of the first inductees in the ADCC Hall of Fame.
5) The origin of Kerr's nickname
The very same night Mark Kerr won the $20,000 fight in the World Vale Tudo Championship in 1997, he earned his nickname, AKA: The Smashing Machine. Kerr's fight was violent, a no-holds-barred attack on his opponents, Paul Varelanz, Mestre Hulk, and Fabio Gurgel. In his final bout with Gurgel, he unleashed his lethal headbutting move, which broke the bones around Gurgel's eye socket.
His swashbuckling introduction into the bloody world of UFC earned him the nickname Maquine de Bater in a Brazilian magazine. This roughly translates to "A machine that smashes," becoming his brand, identity, and legacy for years to come, which Dwayne Johnson captures in The Smashing Machine.
“I straight up broke his orbital with headbutts. His eye was swelled up like this. So, I think the name of the magazine was called Otaname, it was a Brazilian fight magazine... On the cover of it, it says ‘Maquine de Bater’, the machine that smashes, and it’s a picture of me just mauling Fabio.”- Kerr in an interview with JAXXON Podcast released on June 13, 2025.
Catch The Smashing Machine in theaters worldwide.
