The Masked Saint(2016)

WWE superstar “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s last movie. He died shortly after filming was completed.

POOPER
Christopher “The Saint” Samuels wins the WFW championship when his opponent, The Reaper, is forced to quit after The Saint breaks his arm. Christopher then retires from wrestling and gives the championship belt back to The Reaper.

LONG VERSION
Based on true events, professional wrestler Christopher “The Saint” Samuels (Brett Granstaff), who wrestles for the WFW, is retiring from the ring to become a pastor. In his final match, he is slated to defeat a newcomer named The Reaper (James Preston Rogers) and retire as the champion. However, WFW’s crooked promoter Nicky Stone (Roddy Piper) changes his mind and orders The Saint to lose to The Reaper. During the match, attended by Christopher’s wife Michelle (Lara Jean Chorostecki) and daughter Carrie, The Reaper intentionally breaks The Saint’s ankle, humiliating him in his farewell match. Now sporting a cast on his leg, Christopher and his family load up their SUV and travel from Florida to a small crime-ridden town in Michigan. Upon arriving at his new church, Christopher learns that it’s in serious financial trouble, and his pay won’t be enough to cover all of their needs.

The church doesn’t have a lot of parishioners, so Christopher and Michelle are trying to get folks to come to the church, but due to the high crime in the area, few people are willing to go there. One night, while putting the family’s old clothes into a charity bin, Christopher witnesses a man beating up a woman. Christopher, who just happened to be carrying the wrestling mask he wore as The Saint, puts it on and proceeds to beat up the man. Christopher then realizes that the woman is a prostitute and the man is Jojo, her pimp and the local crime lord. He then tells the prostitute to go to the local shelter for help and then come to the church on Sunday. When she comes to the church, the other parishioners purposely move away from her. Christopher rebukes them, saying no-one is this church is without sin, and welcomes her to the church. After the service, she thanks him for standing up for her, and he accidentally reveals to her that he was the man under the mask. She then tells him that there are other girls in town like her and she would like to bring them to church next week. As the weeks go by, more people start attending the church, and not just former prostitutes. Also, Christopher’s leg is now fully healed.

One day, Ms. Edna (Diahann Carroll), the church’s oldest member, asks to see Christopher. He meets her, and she takes him out of town. She ends up taking him to a WFW house show. She and her late husband were huge wrestling fans, and she quickly recognized him as The Saint. At the show, Christopher sees his old wrestling friend Iceman is scheduled to face The Reaper for the championship. During the match, The Reaper is setting up Iceman to break his ankle the same way Christopher’s ankle was broken. Still carrying his mask, he puts it on and jumps into the ring to save Iceman from injury. Afterwards, Nicky approaches Christopher and says that he knew he couldn’t stay away and is willing to give him an new contract. After talking it over with Michelle, and knowing that both the church and their family are still hurting financially, Christopher signs the contract, agreeing to wrestle during the week and preach on Sundays.

One night after a show, Christopher goes to the town’s diner to get dinner, but the waitress refuses to serve him. He quickly figures out she is trying to get him to leave because they are being robbed. Christopher pretends to leave, puts on the mask, goes to the diner’s back door, and beats up the robbers and gives back the money they took. Detective Harper (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) is investigating the robbery and learns the same masked vigilante who beat up Jojo also beat up the robbers. He is sure that the pastor is the vigilante, but no-one is willing to identify him as the masked man. Detective Harper tells Christopher he won’t pursue him anymore as long as he never puts the mask on again. However, Jojo has also figured out the pastor is the vigilante, and he and his thugs vandalize the church. Knowing he is the reason for the attack on the church, Christopher comes clean to everyone that not only is he the vigilante, but also is wrestling for the WFW as The Saint. While some of the parishioners feel betrayed and want him to quit, the majority of them support Christopher and promise to keep his secret.

Some time later, both the church and his family are in good shape financially thanks to his wrestling salary, so Christopher wants to retire from the ring again. Nicky demands he face The Reaper again before he will allow him to break the contract, and Christopher agrees, but only on the condition that it’s for the WFW championship. On the night of the match, Christopher is in the locker room getting ready when Jojo shows up with a gun. All of his girls left him and joined the church, and Jojo wants Christopher to give them back, or he will kill him. But a neighbor of Christopher then shows up to wish him luck and knocks out Jojo. Detective Harper later shows up and arrests Jojo. Now in the ring, Christopher, wrestling without his mask, begins his match with The Reaper. The Reaper has the upper-hand for most of the match, but Christopher/The Saint is able to get him in an armbar. The move breaks The Reaper’s arm, and he is forced to quit, making The Saint the new champion. As the crowd is cheering, Christopher apologizes to The Reaper for breaking his arm and gives back the championship belt to him.

The movie ends with pictures of Chris Whaley, the actual pastor/wrestler who wrote the book this movie is based on. We see pictures of Chris as both a pastor and a wrestler, then we see that Chris had a cameo in the movie as a wrestling fan at The Saint’s final match.