Welcome To Wrexham: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney star in new doc

Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over the Wrexham Association Football club in Wales during the season premiere on Wednesday of the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham on FX.

The Hollywood stars, both age 45, were shown early in the premiere episode titled Dream on the pitch at Racecourse Ground after buying the third oldest professional association team in the world and the oldest club in Wales.

The second episode titled Reality saw the Wrexham club barely miss the playoffs followed by the quick dismissal of manager Dean Keates and his staff along with 11 players.

Ryan and Rob in the first episode were enthralled when they saw the Racecourse Ground for the first time.

‘I don’t think the goosebumps are ’cause it’s cold,’ Ryan said as they took in the world’s oldest international football stadium.

‘I’m just thinking about how many thousands of people have come to watch these games over the last 150 years. Pretty incredible,’ Rob said.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob noted there was real risk for them with their investment.

‘And there is a version of the story…where we are the villains,’ Rob said.

They both considered the worst case scenario of failing and having to sell the team.

‘F*** that,’ Ryan said.

‘F*** that,’ Rob echoed him.

‘It’s gonna work,’ Ryan said.

The premiere episode also introduced London native Humphrey Ker, 39, who has worked with Rob and introduced him to the game.

‘My mind was racing when I learned about the English system. The idea that you can get promoted into a league above you and demoted and kicked out of the league is incredible,’ Rob said in a confessional.

Humphrey with the help of some graphics explained the English professional football system and its pyramid of four tiers with the Premier League at the top as well as the relegation system.

He shared that Wrexham for the past 14 season have been playing in the National League, which is the lowest level of professional football in England.

Rob said he talked to Humphrey about buying a team in the lowest league and bringing them to the top.

‘But as I started to gather more and more information, I realized how expensive it was going to be. I have TV money, but as I started to look at how expensive it actually was to run a club, I realized that I needed something more than TV money. I needed… Movie-star money,’ Rob said.

Ryan was then shown in a clip from his 2002 film National Lampoon’s Van Wilder saying, ‘Sometimes you got to let your heart lead you, even if you know it’s someplace you know you’re not supposed to be.’

Rob then added that he need superhero movie star money followed by a clip of Ryan in Deadpool.

He then teased Ryan saying they would need ‘alcohol-baron money’ in reference to his Aviation American Gin brand and some mobile phone services money referencing Ryan’s investment in Mint Mobile.

‘What other companies does this b**** have?,’ Rob quipped.

Ryan in a confessional spoke of his late father James who he said ‘struggled in a number of different ways.’

‘My dad started as a cop, then became a food broker, which sounds like a cover for a CIA agent or something, but that was his actual job. The main place I got validation from my father, like, if I was good at sports, in my father’s eyes, I was doing all right. So I played sports long past the point where I was, like, really driven to play sports,’ Ryan said.

Ryan said the ‘unquenchable thirst for validation’ hasn’t gone away and acknowledged that his description made him seem like a ‘really hard-ass.’

‘He would have thought all of this was wild. Like, you know, he didn’t really see any of the stuff “Deadpool” forward, so I think he would have thought this was all pretty crazy,’ Ryan said.

The Dream episode showed Ryan and Rob trying to win the support of the Wrexham Supporters Trust to buy the club.

They needed at least 75 percent of the vote to acquire the club and gained 98 percent approval on the three resolutions giving them control.

Fans celebrated outside including one man in a homemade Deadpool costume as fireworks exploded.

The second  episode titled saw Shaun Harvey, 52, former chief executive of the English Football League stepping in to help Ryan and Rob until they hired a CEO.

He told a reporter that they would support the current manager and players to give them every incentive in order to get the club promoted to a higher league.

Viewers also met midfielder Paul, 33, who played soccer with his two boys and revealed that he and his wife were expecting another boy in June.

Shaun said that after the takeover it was decided that if the team had a realistic chance of making the playoffs there would be no change of manager.

‘But if we do not get to the playoffs, Dean Keates was going to have to be relieved of his duties,’ Shaun added.

The episode then showed the final match of the season between Wrexham and Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club with the playoffs on the line.

Rob got up at 4:20 am to watch the game with his 10-year-old son Axel.

The score was tied 0-0 at halftime and manager Dean put in midfielder Paul for the second half, but he quickly gained a red card and was tossed leaving Wrexham outmanned.

Dagenham & Redbridge then scored and Wrexham responded with a late goal, but ran out of time and missed the playoffs.

Paul cursed in the locker room after being ejected and shouted ‘F*** off!’ in a clear sign of frustration.

Ryan after losing the game told Rob over the phone that they had to rebuild.

An update showed that Dean and his staff were fired on May 30, 2021.

Paul was released the next day along with 10 of his teammates.

‘Our goal is to get the fuck out of this league. Like, that’s it. If you don’t get promoted… That’s our fault,’ Ryan said in a confessional.

Ryan said it was ‘really challenging’ to let players go.

‘When you’re in the fifth tier, it’s a lot of these players are playing for their lives. They don’t have these Premier League contracts that they can, you know, fall back on and go, “Oh, it’s, you know, could retire tomorrow”,’ Ryan said.

Welcome to Wrexham will return next week on FX.