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Originally Written: Thursday, Tuesday, September 3, 2002

This review is of the DVD version of the documenary, "Beyond the Mat." This was directed and produced by Barry W. Blaustein and is the unrated director's cut. There a total of 20 chapters. Let's get right into the review...

The DVD

- F.B.I. Copyright Warning.

- The Main Menu: Choose from "Chapter List," "Bonus Materials," "Languages," and "Play." Let's click on "Chapter List," and then on "My Wrestling Addition," which is the DVD's first chapter.

Chapter #1: "My Wrestling Addiction"

- Universal Pictures animation: www.universalstudios.com.

- Imagine Entertainment animation

- Intro credits.

- The documentary's director and producer, Barry W. Blaustein, does voiceovers: "I don't know why I like it. I just always have. This is where I first became addicted to it." A shot of the house Blaustein lived in as a child is shown, and we then get a shot of a young kid (about eight years old), who's supposed to be a childhood Blaustein, sitting down in a room with his head glued to a television set with professional wrestling on. Blaustein: "I spent countless hours planted in front of the TV, mesmorized by these images of these strong guys taking matters into their own hands. Watching...fantasizing..."

We cut to a black and white clip of the young kid, sitting nearest to the aisleway next to who's supposed to be his father. He's at a pro wrestling wrestling show. "Over my mother's protest, my father took me to a match once." A big man who is supposed to be a wrestler walks past the kid. The kid sees the shadow of the guy and slowly looks up, eventually seeing the wrestler. The wrestler looks down at the kid as the kid stares up at him in awe. "I remember this huge goliath, walking down the aisle past me, walking at the light...as if we were the only two that existed." The guy then continues walking down the aisle, and the kid continues staring as if he's mesmorized. "I forget who won, but I do remember this..."

After the show, there's tons of rain pouring down as the kid and the father as they run out from the show's venue, without an umbrella, trying to make it to their car. Suddenly, the kid halted in place as his father continued running to the car. The kid looked at the wrestler that was shown before, and the guy was, like him, running out from the venue, trying not to get soaked as he ran to his car. A woman that I presume to be his girlfriend or wife is driving, and the guy kisses her on the cheek before she moves over and allows the man to toss some baggage into the back seat and then move into the driver's seat. He drives the car away, leaving the kid (who's getting soaked) watching. "This guy has a family? What kind of guy does this for a living?" The kid's father walks into camera range and nudges the kid to go to the car so that he doesn't get anymore soaked than he already is. The kid follows him to the car.

As Blaustein does voiceovers, we see highlights of an ECW exchange between Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam that are being shown on a TV that he's watching: Chris Jericho rams the head of Rob Van Dam, who's on the apron into the turnbuckle, and then slingshots (back springboards) off of the middle turnbuckle and dropkicks RVD out to ringside. "Thirty years later, I'm a screenwriter with a wife and two kids. I still watch wrestling. I just don't tell a lot of people about it. Can ya' blame me?" Blaustein's father, sitting at a kitchen table, is shown talking to someone out of camera range about Baulstein's fan passion for wrestling: "Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling?"

As Blaustein does more voiceovers, we see various clips of various stars. Blaustein's voiceover: "I don't care. [in reference to what his dad said (above)] I love the pageantry, the athletecism, even the incredibly cheesy acting. I look at wrestling as theater at it's most base, and guess what? So do most of the fans. We know what's goin' on. Is it sport? Is it entertainment? It's both. It's - ummm - wrestling. Now, let's get something straight - I know wrestling is a show, but it's not as fake as you think. Of course, the winners of the matches are predetermined, and the violence is choreographed. However, the result of the violence is very real."

Blaustein is shown watching the Jericho/RVD confrontation, and then clips of various other matches, a Jake Roberts match as he continues: "After all these years of watching wrestling, one thought still swirls in my mind - What sort of human being bashes the another man's skull into a ringpost for a living? Who are these guys?? With that, a "BEYOND THE MAT" graphic fades into the screen, and we then fade out and move on to the next chapter.

Chapter #2: "The WWF"

As Blaustein does voiceovers, cars driving on a highway, and then a dramatic shot of Titan Towers, the corporate headquarters of the WWF, is shown: "So, I got out of my chair and decided to find out. I decided, why not start at the top(?) - the World Wrestling Federation." We dramatically go back and forth between the secretary in the Titan Towers' lobby repeatedly taking phone calls ("World Wrestling Federation. One moment...") and clips of WWF moments: Mick Foley is thrown off of the top of the Hell in the Cell by The Undertaker and crashes through a ringside table; the pyros go off as RAW begins; fans in attendance at a show hold their signs, posters, etc. up high.

An elevator door opens and the camera walks out into a lobby with several TV's playing a Vince McMahon promo, and we then get a shot of Blaustein walking down the hallway of the WWF headquarters, making turns going through various corridors. The camera follows him the whole way. Blaustein's voiceovers: "The WWF is big. How big? They're worth close to a billion dollars. That's more than the New York Knicks, Rangers, and Mets combined. [we hear a few more rounds of the Titan Towers secreatry's continual greeting: "World Wrestling Federation. One moment..."] This empire has been ruled by one family for four generations - the McMahon family. It's current heffè(?) [I've never heard of that word either, but that's exactly what he says] - Vince McMahon." Blaustein eventually reaches a clear glass doorway, opens it, and walks through.