Emily Bett Rickards plays the title role in “Queen of the Ring,” based on the true story of Mildred Burke, the pioneering wrestler who began her “not fixed, scripted” fights when women were still banned from wrestling in every state. She became a world champion and the first woman athlete to earn $1 million.

Mildred Burke put women’s wrestling on the map and became the first woman athlete to make a million. Yet she’s virtually unknown. With “Queen of the Ring,” a warts and all biopic in theaters