This weekend, I saw Beyond The Mat. Barry Blaustein's portrayal of life outside of the squared circle and away from the cameras. With incredible access to both the professional and personal lives of some of wrestling's most well known personalities, including Terry Funk, Mick Foley and Jake "The Snake" Roberts, the movie shifts from their in the ring battles with their opponents to their out of the ring encounters with members of their family. If Blaustein's goal was to try and convey to both the die hard and non wrestling fan the sacrifices and hardship associated with wrestling - he did a hell of job.

I had the pleasure of attending the World Wrestling Federation's 1996 Hall of Fame induction ceremony. As I sat there and watched some of wrestling's true greats get the recognition they deserved, I was most taken back by a statement made by Vince McMahon. Through tears, he asked the crowd to imagine being on the road at a wrestling show and finding out that your daughter learned how to ride a bike. That pretty much summed up the life of a wrestler in one sentence.

A wrestler who wrestles for the WWF is usually on the road 320 days a year traveling most of the time to a different city a night. A normal week for a wrestler can find them in New York on Monday, Chicago on Tuesday, Dallas on Wednesday, California on Thursday and Florida on Friday. Granted, today's wrestlers fly and use rental cars as opposed to the wrestlers of yesterday who drove to most matches - but either way - they're away from their families.

In the movie, we are introduced to three families. First, Terry Funk's family, who for years have been begging Terry to hank up his trunks - but with each retirement comes another offer and another reason to lace up the boots just one more time. Despite the fact that his doctor tells him that he will have chronic pain in one knee for life and have to have the other one replaced - he was still wrestling much to his wife's dismay. As the movie shows clips of his now famous match at ECW's first pay-per-view, Barely Legal, we also watch his family's anguish as he takes on two of the federation's top stars, Raven and the Sandman, and walks away the World Champion. In Terry's case, his family is very supportive - although they hope each retirement is really the last one.

We then meet the daughter of Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who never really forged a relationship with her famous father. This is the part of the movie that made me feel the worst. We witness a reunion between Jake and his estranged daughter which doesn't go well for either. Five minutes after the reunion, Jake turns in for the night - and winds up smoking crack after its over. At one point, Jake tells his daughter that he never had a relationship with his dad - something that is evident in the movie - and that he promised himself that he would never become that way towards his kids - and he went ahead and did the same thing. Being a fan of Jake's for a long time, I really hope he gets his act together, if not for himself - then for his daughter.

The family of Mick Foley was the next that we meet. Besides witnessing Mick being a kid with his kids, we meet his dad and his wife. The movie does with Mick's family what it did with Terry's - you watch them watch Mick fight the Rock in the now infamous Royal Rumble "I Quit" match. Unlike Terry's family who watched with concern as he fought his way through the three-way dance, Mick's wife and kids watch in horror as he takes chair shot after chair shot by a seemingly unforgiving Rock until they leave the arena unable to continue watching. After the match, we see them confront a beaten and bloody Foley as he assures them that daddy is ok.

Another interesting aspect of the movie is, in addition to meeting some of the top stars in the business, we meet some aspiring wrestlers who would love to make it to the big dance. We are taken to Roland Alexander's Wrestling School where young hopefuls are trained and taught the ropes, so to speak. In the movie, two of his top students, Tony Jones and Mike Modest are given a tryout with the WWF. We also witness the preliminary meeting between Vince McMahon and Droz as he is hired by the WWF.

All in all, the movie provides a shoot look at the life of a wrestler outside of the ring and pulls no punches when it comes to the physical and emotional hardships they face. Through the eyes of one fan, Beyond The Mat shows the viewer that in order to be the Game, or the People's Champ, or the Snake, the person behind the gimmick sacrifices a lot for the love of the sport - and for the roar of the fans.

If you haven't seen it yet, check it out - bravo Barry.