Review of Beyond the Mat (1999) by Brad M — 21 Nov 2009

My entire life I've been a professional wrestling fan so of course I had to see this documentary. I saw in in 1999 when it first came out and I've seen it about ten times since. It's purpose is to tell the stories of the real men behind the characters in professional wrestling. Designed to show that these are real people with real emotions, problems and families just like the rest of us. It was less than descriptive and I think a lot of important information was left out. Their main focus was on the biggest wrestling company, the WWE (then named World Wrestling Federation). My problem with this was there were big named wrestlers outside of the WWF that they could have also focused on, such as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

It portrayed everything needed except any real point. Yes it showed that these guys get beat up and injured but it never explains why they keep wrestling. Why they keep doing what they do for little to no money and a big doctor's bill. It never explained what the roar of the crowd meant to these guys and never told us much about the real business of wrestling. It could have been much, much better, especially because this film had two and a half hours to work with.

Beyond The Mat is a less than descriptive, okay documentary with little to no drama and no real main focus other than just "wrestling". Could have been 100%, but 60% just seems more logical.