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If you’re one of the few wrestling fans who can say they never bothered to watch “Beyond the Mat”…this is your retro review. I watched it years ago. I barely remember it but it’s probably one of the greatest pieces of research up and coming young wrestlers can use to make it in the business.

We start the movie with Barry Blaustein reminiscing about wrestling in his early childhood. Much like me and I’m sure most of us did, minus the fantasizing part. He does his best to explain what wrestling is to the audience as if he honestly expects non-wrestling fans to watch this. God bless him.

He travels directly to WWF headquarters in Stamford. He meets with Vince who brags about the upcoming WWF movies, which we all are the victims of now. We meet Vince Russo who isn’t introduced because obviously we didn’t recognize his pure booking SPAULDINGS back then. We learned bits and pieces of how the show is put together and it’s legions of staff members. We see Shane McMahon serving his daddy coffee and following him around the office like a pup.

Then, we meet Droz who immediately pukes on the spot for Vince. Vince is very happy about Droz’s super power and explains that it will be his gimmick and he’ll be called “Puke”. Then he forces him to vomit in a garbage can while saying “He’s gonna PUKE! He’s gonna PUKE!!!!”. Then he calls his “momma” to tell her the good news. Years later, this humiliating scene forces D’Lo to slam Droz on his neck and paralyze him for life. He still works for WWE to this day as a blogger for the website. Sad story there.

Then we meet Roland Alexander, promoter of APW- A man who calmly and in the most polite possible manner explains that you must be a total asshole if you’re going to be a promoter. He brags about being the highest paying Indy promoter and then we meet Mike Modest.

Modest is the star of APW, so he gets to live in the gym… with his litter of cats in a room he didn’t bother to clean for the movie…. Or maybe he did which just make me Droz in my mouth a little.

We cut back to Roland who tries to sell Modest to Jim Ross who was the head of talent at the time. Roland begins to cry when he talks about Mike not having a major league contract. What a f’n prick!

Jim Ross, Vince and a team of random jack offs, watch Roland’s boys work a dark match and Ross gives them some tips that all professional wrestling wanna-bes should take heed to.

1. They like original moves.
2. They want guys with upper body strength and muscular definition.
3. They let you put on your own match. It is an honest audition.

Then we meet Terry Funk. Who is actually on the box art so I guess he’s the star of this movie. We are filming him being waken up in his motel room in his underwear. Which is a little confusing being that he should have known ahead of time.

Then we cut to him giving his daughter away at a wedding. We learn the tender side and the brutal side. We learn that his knee is so badly damaged that he needs a replacement. Then we get to watch ECW’s first PPV. Paul. E shows off his cheerleading skills which is probably the reason behind ECW’s success. Taz doing squats is either the best reason to watch or the best reason to avoid this movie depending on your preference.

Moving on to Mick Foley, a clone of Funk who is also a good friend. Mick begs his mom or dad or someone to let him wrestle with the kids downstairs. Melzter makes a quick cameo to kiss a little ass and keep his position. We learn a little more about Mick’s family life and how nice he is. How wonderful!

Then we get to relive Mick’s two huge bumps that made him famous. The good part is we get to learn how severe those bumps actually were. TV did not quite capture how brutal those falls from that cage were. For the first time, Mick had people worried about his well being.

Jake Roberts is next. Famously, this shows us the most brilliant and self destructive wrestler in the business, period. He gives Mean Gene legit chills as he interviews him. We are looking at a man who could deliver a promo that could stop the show as everyone would be in awe. Unfortunately, Jake couldn’t control his “demons”. Good news is he’s reportedly taking advantage of WWE’s new policy of giving free rehab to their alumni.

Spending a little more time with Jake, we learn deeper secrets of his distant relationship with his father who was also a wrestler. His sister was murdered, his step dad killed and you almost feel sorry for the man and empathize with his self destructive behavior.

Ah, the good ol’ days when Chyna had a square jaw and was very attractive to Triple H. She’s a scholar of some kind and a member of the peace corp. Spike Dudley, Ko Ko Beware. Jessie Ventura- I almost forgot how long he’s been in politics.

Vince McMahon… the performer. I know this isn’t popular to say but Vince’s dedication puts EVERY wrestler to shame. His schedule, his physique, his passion all should be a testament to success. New Jack, who is probably the most ignorant (in the loose term) wrestler I’ve ever seen. They spend a little time with him as well.

Back to Terry Funk who calls Barry to announce his retirement. Terry’s putting on a retirement show. He’s begging the king of roaches to come to his last match. I’m not making that up. Terry vs. Bret Hart with Bret getting the win is how Terry chose to go out.

Can’t get rid of Jake- Who is actually going to his daughter’s graduation. However it does show that his brilliance is not a total loss. His daughter is getting her master’s degree. She’s of course a total wreck because her daddy is distant like his father was to him. She would be a total hottie if she wasn’t 300 pounds and 5’2.

Jake then squeals the dirty secret of being a big league performer. He tells the story of how you’re obligated to work “every day” by Vince and later he talks of his road schedule. He was totally against drugs but after catching 9 planes a week, taking pills to sleep and taking coke to wake up and taking pills for pain, Jake says it was basically necessary.

Foley and The Rock make another appearance and they show us how a match is basically put together. This is something I’ve witnessed myself when I worked as staff at a wrestling event. There are some things that are scripted, but mostly the wrestlers are responsible for putting the entire match together, even in the WWE. Mick’s kids were horrified as The Rock mangled his head open with some sick direct chair shots. Mick was shown the video of what happened later as was guilty and was horrified himself at what he was doing.

Barry wraps up everything at the end. Tells us the outcome of most of his meetings and how they ended up after three years. Droz did get paralyzed before the final edit went out.

That’s all folks!

It's probably important to note that Vince was reportedly attempting to block the release of this film even tho he happily volunteered himself and his show. I didn't personally see anything purposely misleading on Barry's part. He seems to have put the film together exactly how he filmed it.

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