Event

BEYOND THE MAT

BEYOND THE MAT: Unrated Directors Cut
Dir. Barry Blaustein, 2004
USA. 108 min

The film that Vince McMahon didnt want you to see. Possibly the most notorious documentary about professional wrestling ever made, not only for its shocking content, but also the shockwaves it sent through the wrestling industry. Barry Blaustein (COMING TO AMERICA, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR) investigates his childhood love by getting unprecedented backstage access to an array of American wrestling promotions from the smallest independent outfits to the industry leading World Wrestling Federation, at the height of its Attitude Era. Filmed over three years on the road, Blaustein follows multiple wrestlers at various points in their careers, from the burgeoning talents in local promotions hoping for try-outs, to those at the ends of their careers wrestling retirement matches as they deal with injuries, chronic pain, family issues, and aging out of a young mans game. Showing that while in the ring they appear as violent mad men, outside the squared circle they are kind, friendly and at points surprisingly normal.

In this film you will see: Droz puke on command, Jake the Snake Roberts smoke crack in a hotel room, the ultra-violent New Jack audition at a Hollywood casting agent, Paul Heyman run an ECW pay-per-view from his mothers basement, and a gut wrenching scene showing Mick Foleys family scream in horror as he his repeatedly beaten over the head with a steel chair by a babyface (in terms of age, you smark) Dwayne The Rock Johnson with his hands cuffed behind his backFoley then rewatches the footage of his grieving wife and two young children and takes stock in what it means to be both a good entertainer and a good father, and much much more!