the audience applauded

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A Sport Documentary with Attitude, Director Barry Blaustein focuses on the lives of pro-wrestlers both inside and outside of the ring, primarily Mick Foley, Terry Funk, and Jake the Roberts. These three will make up the bulk of the documentary time focus on them. Mick Foley aka Mankind, Catcus Jack, and Dude Love is a man on the top of his career, famous for taking increasingly risky bumps (Stunts) whom family is worry about his safety. In one famous scene, Mick Foley's family watching ring side is nearly put into tears after seeing their father and husband be beaten up by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson at a WWE PPV 'Royal Rumble'. Mick can't see that the abuse he takes on his body is hurting his family. Another wrestler focus on is Terry Funk whom can't find himself retiring even with him being 53 years old at the time of shooting and past his prime. Terry Funk represent the man who would die in the ring, rather than quit the business. A Randy 'The Ram' Robinson like personality whom just looking for the next big comeback. Lastly, the film focus on a wrestler who is at his rock bottom. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts whom popularity height reach in the 1980's is now in the late 1990's a crack cocaine addict that estranged from everybody he call family. His daughter wants no part of him, and his father doesn't want to speak to him. Yes, there will be short knit bits of other wrestlers in the film, such as short lived career puking Darren Drozdov, the movie star dreaming New Jack, and two wrestlers Tony Jones and Michael Modest trying to get a try out. The director spent three years endeavoring to understand the mindset of someone who would voluntarily choose to become a professional wrestler. Blaustein interviews a wide variety of wrestling personalities and ascertains their motivations. What the movie lacks is interviews with the big time wrestlers of the time, Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and The Rock. It would be nice to see what their take on the business is. Another problem with the film is while they were able to film both in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federeration, I felt that when World Championship Wrestling refused to participate in the film, it really made the film missing opinions of those wrestlers. The interview questions could have been more driven to talking about more serious key issues dealing with pro-wrestling such as steroids, wrestling union, and the sense of faking- violence. There are a couple of laughs in the movie, but the overall effect is much more depressing than it is humorous. The self-mutilations in the movie might be hard to watch for non-wrestling fans. For the wrestling fans, this is a must watch, so check it out.

You've got to wonder about wrestlers. They're always on the road, they're always carrying knocks and injuries, they don't get paid much (except the few at the absolute top), they get no respect from the public at large, they don't actually compete in the legitimate sense of the word and the vast majority of them are quickly forgotten. Yet nearly all of the wrestlers in Beyond the Mat continue to seek the spotlight. Why? I guess Terry Funk sums it up best: "It's fun."However, it's a strange type of fun. After all, I'm not sure that most people would class being hit over the head with steel chairs as 'fun'. Nor would most people relish the thought of being thrown off a steel cage. But as the film points out, wrestlers are hardly normal. At the same time, though, they're still people. They have the same problems as all of us. It's just that they earn their living by running around in spandex and by beating the crap out of one another.Of all the different strands in Beyond the Mat, I like the Terry Funk section the most. It just shows how bizarre wrestling is. Here you have a man in his fifties who has degenerative arthritis and who wakes up in the morning, like many old men, in his y-fronts. Yet in the ring he's a bloodthirsty maniac. But at the same time he's a loving father who cries at his daughter's wedding and he has an excellent rapport with the man who he has his most brutal matches with. As dim-witted as wrestling is, nothing out of the ring is simple.And the Funk section illustrates the problem that most wrestler face: they can't give up the spotlight. I mean, just take one of Funk's friends, Dennis Stamp. He hasn't wrestled in years but he still trains (by jumping up and down on a trampoline in his underwear) in the vain hope of getting another match. And when he's finally made the referee in Funk's 'retirement' match, he's beside himself with excitement at the prospect of being part of the main event. It seems like when you don't get paid much, when you're forced to do lousy jobs and when no one really knows who you are, the only compensation for such a depressing existence is a few cheers.But although the film touches upon the dark side of wrestling, it's quite touching seeing Funk trying to persuade his friend Stamp to be part of his match. The man may be vicious in the ring, but outside it he's warm-hearted. And I like the way that when he persuades his friend to be part of his match, and when he walks away, he nearly trips over. Despite everything, he's just a lovable old guy. However, I also like the scene because Stamp is such a fool. He's so desperate to be someone and so desperate to be recognised, that he cuts a promo when he's explaining why he can't make the event ("I'm not booked!). It's as if reality and wrestling are blurred. He can't tell them apart.Another wrestler who's been messed up by the business is Jake Roberts. He doesn't get on with his daughter and he's forced to pay for his drug habit by wrestling in fourth-rate events in backwater towns. He's even filmed urinating into a bucket and then falling asleep backstage. It really does give a depressing picture of what it is to be a professional wrestler – your existence revolves around the road, run down hotels and small towns. No wonder so many of them are screwed up. But Roberts has even more reason to be screwed up than most. He's the product of a rape and his sister was kidnapped and murdered. And he has a terrible relationship with his father. They can barely look at one another. There's no connection there at all. And it's quite shocking hearing Roberts describe how he gave up his dreams just to shove wrestling down his father's throat (his dad was a wrestler and Robert's resolved to be better than him). Suddenly you can see why Robert's created such a compelling character. He was just drawing on his own life. Again reality and wrestling is blurred.Perhaps the only one in the film that has a decent handle on things is Mick Foley. He has a clear plan (he wants to retire by the age of 35) and he has a solid family to support him. Somehow you know that he's going to be fine. Not that there aren't a few bumps on the way. In one scene he's forced to watch footage of his wife and kids screaming when he's repeatedly hit over the head with a steel chair. It's a real wake-up call. I mean, as entertaining as it is for sadistic bastards like myself, you just can't make you family endure that time after time. But it's his family that will keep Foley on the straight and narrow. However, for the other wrestlers who don't have stable personal lives, they'll have to seek love in cheers and applause. It seems like wrestling is a drug that most wrestlers can't crack.Not that a few don't try. There's an amusing scene when a wrestler called New Jack, who has four justifiable homicides, auditions for a Hollywood casting agent. The people there are slimy beyond belief. They make the carnies in wrestling look honest in comparison.But why the film succeeds so emphatically is because everything is just presented as it is. No judgements are made and nobody is looked down upon. Yeah, wrestling may be something on the fringes of society, but the film shows that as weird as it is, the people aren't really that weird after all. They're just people with the same problems we all have.

Being a gigantic wrestling fan, I couldn't wait to see this movie when it came out and it didn't disappoint. It is a great movie for fans and people who have never seen wrestling before. It is more of a documentary of the families of the men in the film than it is about wrestling. It seems that wrestling takes a back seat to the respective men's family lives. Barry Blaustein does an incredible job of editing, especially the scene with Mick Foley at the Royal Rumble 1999 when the lights go out and that song (whose name escapes me now but goes "When the light has gone...") plays and you truly see that wrestlers are more than guys in tights. You see that they are actually men who have families that care about them very much. While Beyond the Mat is good, I would have to say that it is not the best wrestling movie ever made. I would have to give those honors to Hit-man Hart: Wrestling with Shadows. If you want a good wrestling movie, watch Beyond the Mat. If you want a better wrestling movie, watch Hit-man Hart.

I have been a Wrestling fan for years...but, have recently stopped watching. This was due in part to the fact that I like the "Old School" Wrestling style of the 1970's...and didn't really like the new crap they had been throwing at us since the mid-90's. I was a Wrestling Manager in several "Outlaw" shows in the mid-90's...so I knew some of the inside...tricks and such. But, this movie was so insightful. It was wonderful all around. The Terry Funk segment is great and The Jake Roberts section....will make you cry...and the Mick Foley segment will make you ask "why" over and over again. The flick was so great that I watched it twice in a matter of just a couple of days. The only thing that made it a 9 instead of a 10...was the fact...that in my assessment...it ran about 30 minutes too long....and "drug" in spots....but, all in all...you've got to see it.