Beyond the Mat

Beyond the Mat is a 1999 documentary directed, written, produced and narrated by Barry W. Blaustein. The film focuses on the lives of professional wrestlers outside of the ring, primarily Mick Foley, Terry Funk, and Jake Roberts, as well as some aspiring wrestlers. It focuses on the World Wrestling Federation WWF, Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW during its rise in popularity, and many other independent wrestlers and organizations. The film was originally released in American theaters in March 2000 and later released on VHS and DVD.

Blaustein focuses on three famous wrestlers, one at the height of his career Mick Foley, aka Mankind, one contemplating retirement Terry Funk and one at a career low Jake The Snake Roberts. He begins by following Funk, a 53yearold man in need of knee surgery who appears unable to retire, despite the mounting toll wrestling is taking on his body. Blaustein follows him as he competes at hardcore wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestlings first payperview event Barely Legal.Funks sometime inring rival, Foley, is profiled next. He has been taking increasingly risky falls or bumps and blows to the head, and at one point is heard talking incoherently as the result of a fall from his Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at King of the Ring in 1998 which briefly rendered him unconscious. Clips of Foley with his wife and children are spliced with the clips of him risking his body for the sport. Later, in the films climax, his wife and young children particularly his daughter Noelle watch in horror from the front of the audience during Foleys I Quit match at the 1999 Royal Rumble, wherein he takes multiple unprotected shots to the head by Dwayne The Rock Johnson with a steel folding chair. ........

Source: Wikipedia