Documentary Movie Reviews
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Beyond the Mat (1999)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
2/20
2/20:
What do these famous wrestlers have in common: Big Boss Man, Mr. Perfect, André the Giant, The British Bulldog,
Road Warrior Hawk, Bam Bam Bigelow, Crush, Owen Hart, and Yokozuna?
They all died in their 30's and 40's. So have many more such as The Ultimate Warrior, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Rowdy Roddy
Piper, and Jim Neidhart which happened when they were in their 50's and 60's. Early on, it used to be shocking because I
remember them being muscular and in top shape; they were also bigger than the American Gladiators. Now, it's a
common fact of the profession.
All of them did it daily to put on a show for years and years. That's a lot of wear and tear on their bodies. To null the
pain, they would partake of drugs and alcohol on top of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Eventually,
the heart gives out if the other organs first don't.
All of that is captured in Beyond the Mat with various wrestlers, most notably Terry Funk and Jake "The Snake"
Roberts. Oblivious of what they went through, I watched only WWF (which was later changed to WWE after losing the
lawsuit to World Wildlife Fund) from mid 80's to mid 90's, so I wasn't familiar with The Rock, Chyna (who died in 2016),
and Mankind (who retired the following year). The master of puking, Darren Drozdov is also featured, but he'll be paralyzed
a few weeks after the end of filming. (2024 Author Note: he died in 2023 at age 54.)
As revealing as the documentary is, it sadly doesn't cover more wrestlers which is understandable because of the
bad publicity just like the eye-opening book Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL. To
this day, nothing has changed: just different faces but same shit. The only way to remedy the situation is to boycott
the product; otherwise, they'll keep wrestling and dying young.
All in all, if The Wrestler felt untruthful, Beyond the Mat will make it a reality.