Trivia / Over the Top

Tropes applying to the movie:

• Cast the Runner-Up: The Arm Wrestling champion at the time, Cleve Dean, was supposed to be Stallone’s final opponent in the movie, but because Cleve Dean was a monster of a man that was twice the size of Stallone◊ the producers thought it would be too unrealistic if Stallone beat him. His role was reduced to a cameo instead◊.
• Completely Different Title:
  • This flick is known in Mexico as Halcon, being that the literal translation of the protagonist's last name.
  • In Brazil, it's known as Falcão - O Campeão dos Campeões, which translates as "Hawk - the Champion of the Champions''.
  • In Portugal, it's known as The Lutador, which can be translated as either "The Fighter" or "The Wrestler".
• Contractual Obligation Project: Sylvester Stallone made the film purely to fill out his contract with The Cannon Group.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Sylvester Stallone was reportedly unhappy with the final film. In an interview with the Ain't It Cool News website, he said that if he had directed the film he would have made it with a darker tone - changing the setting to an urban environment, using scored music instead of rock songs, and making the Las Vegas finale more ominous.
  • Writer David Engelbach was appalled at the changes made to his script. He remarked that his original draft wasn't nearly as dumb as the final film and that it was more about truck driving and arm-wrestling than it should have been. He recalled having tears in his eyes upon seeing the film.
• The Merch: LewCo Toys released a toy line for the film endorsed by the International Arm-Wrestling Council; alongside a 16-inch Lincoln Hawk figure, there were six figures (film characters Lincoln Hawk, Bull Hurley, and John Grizzly along with actual arm wrestling champs John ‘Golden Boy’ Breznk, Johnny ‘Iceman’ Walker and Cleve ‘Armbender’ Dean), each with a knob on the back that allowed them to arm wrestle. There was a figure-sized table for them to wrestle with along with a kid-sized table and weight set. They can be seen here.
• Money, Dear Boy: Sylvester Stallone explained why he agreed to appear in this movie:
  "(Producer) Menahem Golan kept offering me more and more money, until I finally thought, 'What the hell - no one will see it!'"
• What Could Have Been:
  • Don Johnson was the second choice for the role of Lincoln Hawk.
  • Originally, one of the songs, "Winner Takes It All", was sung by John Wetton of the rock group Asia. However, Wetton rejected this recording, because he felt it wasn't "mean" enough. The song was ultimately given to Sammy Hagar. A portion of the original John Wetton version can be heard in the trailer.

Tropes applying to the TV series:

• Missing Episode: Several episodes weren't aired (see below as to why), but have since surfaced via foreign airings and press screener tapes, including the original pilot.
• Screwed by the Network: It was barely advertised at all, and only aired three episodes before it was taken off the schedule. It goes hand-in-hand with the series'...
• Troubled Production: Oh yeah, BIG TIME. The project began in 1996, and the first obstacle was that Annie Potts was busy with another shows called Dangerous Minds; it got canned, allowing her to work with Tim Curry again (he had been basing the characters' relationship on that of his own relationship with Potts). The unaired original pilot had Potts' character (here named Kate) running a bed-and-breakfast in upstate New York, with Natanya Ross as one of Kate's kids from another marriage, and Debra Jo Rupp as the maid. But in-between the pilot's filming and the show's intended premiere date, the ABC exec who had initially been in charge, Ted Harbert, was replaced by NBC veteran Jamie Tarses, who was dating the show's exec producer Robert Morton, leading to charges by critics that the show had only been picked up because of said relationship. Then they broke up, and the show was delayed to October (opposite the World Series!) and given a Retool to shift the setting to Manhattan, while Ross and Jo Rupp were replaced by Marla Sokoloff and Liz Torres, while an additional character was added for John O'Hurley, as the hotel's investor. It was speculated that the reasons for these changes was because of the failed Tares/Morton dalliance, and while the stars generally didn't acknowledge any of this in interviews and the like, ABC offered varying reasons for the retooling. In the end, thanks to the show receiving little promotion, airing after Soul Man (a very short-lived Spin-Off of Home Improvement with Dan Aykroyd as a motorcycle-driving widower reverend) and the numerous production issues, the show was taken off the air after only three episodes.