Beyond the Mat

Beyond the Mat (1999) is a documentary about professional wrestling you can watch online on iFILM. Director Barry Blaustein takes his camera behind the curtain of an industry where the punches are scripted but the blood, the broken bones and the addictions are not. Its tagline says it plainly: the movie Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see.

Blaustein skips the in-ring spectacle and films everything around it. Mick Foley kisses his kids goodbye, then takes a dozen unprotected chair shots to the skull while they watch from the front row and sob. Terry Funk, past fifty with wrecked knees, keeps lacing up because he has no idea how to stop. Former headliner Jake "The Snake" Roberts talks about crack and a father he despises from a cheap motel between low-rent bookings. A young Dwayne Johnson turns up before the world knew his name.

It's an honest, often painful look at the price of a trade where the body is a consumable and the cheering fades long before the hurt does. Running just over an hour and a half, it became a cult favorite for anyone who wants wrestling without the gloss. Stream Beyond the Mat (1999) online on iFILM.