The event is so loud and colorful from start to finish, with cartoon superheroes at center stage, that you can't help but be sucked into the swirling energy of the arena. This contagious excitement is something that filmmaker Barry Blaustein knows well. He has been a fan of professional wrestling his entire life and with his documentary Beyond the Mat, has set out to explore this new national obsession. More personally, he seeks an answer to the question that often surfaces when he's plopped in front of the television catching the latest grudge match: "What sort of human being mashes another man's skull into a ring post for a living? Who are these guys?"
At first it seems they aren't so different from you and me. Blaustein follows several high profile wrestlers home, including aging legend Terry Funk, WWF superstar Mankind and washed up has-been Jake "The Snake" Roberts, trying to discover how they made their way to such a outrageous profession, and even more, why they stay there. Blaustein first introduces Funk, his own childhood hero, juxtaposing images of the wrestler in the ring at his prime with the worn-down 53-year old man emerging from his bed in the morning, all stiff joints and sagging muscles. We see Funk on his daughter's wedding day, as sweet and sentimental as any doting father, and it's hard to believe it's the same man we saw bloody and maniacal in the wrestling footage only seconds before.
Having made the point that Funk is far more than what is suggested by his wrestling persona, Blaustein quickly reminds us that the façade of normalcy only goes so far. Funk is still a wrestler and continues to perform, now for Extreme Championship Wrestling, an organization that prides itself on pushing the limits in terms of violence and taste. He may be a loving husband and father living in small-town Texas, but he's also a performer who continues to get a rush out of pummeling someone onstage, even as his family and doctor fear for his deteriorating health. Wrestling may be staged but the violent physicality is very real; serious injury is a constant threat and the wrestlers are heavily battle-scarred. Ironically, the people who know the wrestlers the best offstage are the only ones who realize just how real "fake" wrestling really is.
